Lecture: “The Antisemetic Exception? Hate Speech and the First Amendment”

Legal historian James Loeffler (Johns Hopkins University) will introduce his new book, Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America, in conversation with Fordham Law professor Ethan Leib and historian Magda Teter.

James Loeffler is the Felix Posen Professor of Jewish History and Director of the Stulman Program in Jewish Studies at Johns Hopkins University. His books include Rooted Cosmopolitans: Jews and Human Rights in the Twentieth Century, winner of multiple awards, and The Law of Strangers: Jewish Lawyers and International Law in the Twentieth Century. A regular contributor to The Atlantic, he received the 2025 Rockower Press Award for Excellence in Writing about Antisemitism. His latest book, Exceptional Hatred: Antisemitism and the Fight Over Free Speech in Modern America, was published in August 2026 by Metropolitan/Henry Holt.