25 Years of Asking Questions: Can We Stop Hate?

Antisemitism, racism, and political violence raise difficult questions about how individuals and communities respond to hate. What are the conditions that allow hate to take hold? How can communities resist it without amplifying it? And what can history teach us about confronting mass harm?

This program explores the social and cultural roots of hate, the choices individuals make in the face of violence and injustice, and the ways communities can respond. Drawing on the history of the Nuremberg Trials and Robert H. Jackson’s work pursuing accountability after the Holocaust, the conversation considers what the past can teach us about resisting hate and protecting the values of a democratic society today.

About the Speaker

Aliza Luft is an Associate Professor of Sociology at UCLA whose research examines how ordinary people make decisions during war and genocide and mass violence., why some participate in violence, why others resist, and why many look away. Her work explores how identity, social relationships, cultural classifications, and moral decision-making shape behavior under extreme conditions.

Luft is the author of Sacred Betrayal: How the French Catholic Church Broke Its Pledge to Protect Jews during the Holocaust (Harvard University Press, 2026), which examines how French Catholic bishops shifted from condemning Nazism to offering Jewish communities assurances of protection they ultimately failed to provide. Her research has appeared in leading academic journals and in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Los Angeles Times. She serves as Interim Director of UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute and has previously worked with organizations including USAID, the United Nations, and Facing History & Ourselves.