David Hirsh

David Hirsh is a professor of sociology at Goldsmiths, University of London and academic director and chief executive of the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism. He has taught in Goldsmiths’ sociology department since 2003.

According to a profile of Hirsh in The Guardian:

David is the editor of the Engage website, which was set up to intervene in the campaign for a cultural and academic boycott of Israel. He is also on the Editorial board of Democratiya and the Academic Committee of ISGAP, the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and policy, based at Yale University.

Education and academic work

Hirsh studied sociology at City, University of London, took an MA in philosophy and social theory at the University of Warwick, and completed a PhD there on crimes against humanity and international law. The thesis was published as Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials (GlassHouse / Cavendish, 2003). Goldsmiths lists his research interests as contemporary antisemitism, crimes against humanity, totalitarianism, populism, and democracy.

Engage, Euston Manifesto and Democratiya

In 2005 Hirsh co-founded Engage (EngageOnline) with colleagues including Jon Pike and Jane Ashworth to oppose proposed academic and cultural boycotts of Israel in British universities, first in the Association of University Teachers and then in the University and College Union. Engage’s principals overlapped with the 2006 Euston Manifesto group and with Democratiya, edited by Alan Johnson. Hirsh was listed as editor of Engage on the Euston signatory list.

Livingstone Formulation and books

Hirsh coined the term Livingstone Formulation for a response that treats an accusation of antisemitism as made in bad faith to silence criticism of Israel or to smear the left. It is set out in Contemporary Left Antisemitism (Routledge, 2017). He edited The Rebirth of Antisemitism in the 21st Century: From the Academic Boycott Campaign into the Mainstream (Routledge, 2023). With Daniel Allington he developed the AzAs (Antizionist Antisemitism) scale.

London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

Hirsh launched the LCSCA to create an academic base for work on contemporary antisemitism: seminars, a Routledge book series, graduate training, and the Robert Fine Memorial Lecture, named for his late colleague Robert Fine. The centre hosted a conference at JW3 in London in March–April 2025 with the Comper Center at the University of Haifa.

Goldsmiths campus conflict and UCU

In March 2022 Goldsmiths Students’ Union president Sara Bafo tweeted that Hirsh was a “far right white supremacist” after he said official “decolonise education” campaigns had an antisemitic edge. Goldsmiths asked the union to investigate; the local UCU branch expressed solidarity with Bafo. An independent inquiry chaired by Mohinderpal Sethi KC later reported a culture of antisemitism on campus; the vice-chancellor apologised.

After 7 October 2023 Hirsh said a Goldsmiths UCU statement on Israel and Gaza carried “the stench of murderous antisemitism”. In July 2025 he resigned from UCU, calling it “by far the most toxic, bullying, antisemitic space I have ever been in.”

Israel government conference, 2025

In March 2025 Hirsh withdrew from the International Conference on Combating Antisemitism organised by Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs under Amichai Chikli, citing far-right speakers including figures from France’s National Rally, Hungary’s Fidesz, Eduardo Bolsonaro and Patriots for Europe. He wrote that Israel as the Jewish state is an appropriate host for work against antisemitism, but that anti-democratic politics is fertile ground for it.

Al Mayadeen / David Miller profile (2022)

In August 2022 David Miller published “David Hirsh: An asset of the Zionist regime” on Al Mayadeen English. Hirsh linked the piece and called it antisemitic propaganda written by a presenter on Iranian state Press TV.

Alliance for Workers’ Liberty and self-description

Miller says Hirsh is a former member of the Alliance for Workers' Liberty and quotes him as having “no objection to being recognized as a Jew or as a Zionist,” while placing himself in a “democratic left tradition.”

Engage funding allegation

Miller writes that it “has been claimed” the Board of Deputies of British Jews and Jewish Leadership Council funnelled £50,000 to Engage, and that Hirsh later denied this.

Yad Hanadiv (2007)

Miller says Hirsh received funds in 2007 from the Rothschild family charity Yad Hanadiv to study antizionism and antisemitism.

Israeli Foreign Ministry Global Forum, 2008–09

Miller says Hirsh attended the Global Forum for Combating Antisemitism in Jerusalem, hosted by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2008 and 2009, and that a 2008 speech predicted conspiracy theory as the main near-future form of antisemitism.

ISGAP Oxford seminars and Concert funding

Miller states Hirsh spoke at ISGAP’s Oxford seminars in 2018 and 2019; that previously secret Ministry of Strategic Affairs papers showed ISGAP received $445,000 in 2018 (about 80% of that year’s reported revenue), earmarked for the Oxford seminar; and that ISGAP did not disclose a ministry subvention in those years. The Guardian later reported the same 2018 ISGAP/Concert figure independently. Miller adds that Hirsh’s publications carry no conflict-of-interest note for Israeli government or movement money, expenses or hospitality.

Sheffield Hallam, Shahd Abusalama, Lesley Klaff

Miller accuses Hirsh of “harassing” the UCU branch at Sheffield Hallam University and “bullying” Palestinian lecturer Shahd Abusalama; of supporting Lesley Klaff (also UK Lawyers for Israel); of publishing with Klaff and interviewing her in Hirsh’s Labour antisemitism film Whitewashed; and of not stating that the then president of Sheffield Hallam Jewish Society, Dora Hirsh, is his daughter.

Goldsmiths SU and Prevent guest

Miller’s account of the 2022 Goldsmiths row matches other reporting (Hirsh’s “antisemitic edge” tweet on decolonise campaigns; Sara Bafo calling him a “far-right white supremacist” and later a Zionist with an “explicit racist history”; Goldsmiths asking the SU to look at the tweets). He adds that then NUS president Larissa Kennedy called Hirsh’s campaign “concerted suppression,” and that SU chief executive Ed Nedjari treated Bafo’s words as protected speech.

Miller further claims an anonymous Goldsmiths student told his programme Palestine Declassified that Hirsh invited William Baldet, a Prevent strategy coordinator, into a class and called him a “very close family friend.”

Euston Manifesto framing

Miller presents the 2006 Euston Manifesto as concerned with countering opposition to the Iraq war and as gathering people linked to the Board of Deputies, JLC, Labour Friends of Israel and Harry's Place. The published manifesto text is a broader “renewal of progressive politics” statement; overlap of some signatories with those organisations is a separate, checkable point.

Affiliations

• Engage | Euston Manifesto | Democratiya | Z-word contributor | European Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, advisory board | Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy | International Advisory Board for Academic Freedom, conference participant
• London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism — academic director and CEO
• Fathom — advisory editor
• University and College Union — founder member; resigned July 2025

Selected publications

• Law against Genocide: Cosmopolitan Trials (GlassHouse / Cavendish, 2003)
• Contemporary Left Antisemitism (Routledge, 2017)
• (ed.) The Rebirth of Antisemitism in the 21st Century (Routledge, 2023)

See also

• Engage
• Euston Manifesto
• British Jewish charities investigated by the Charity Commission