AddressHate’s Early Investment Catalyzes Nearly $500,000 in Funding for Baruch College’s Antisemitism Studies Lab

AddressHate's Early Investment Catalyzes Nearly $500,000 in Funding for Baruch College's Antisemitism Studies Lab

January 14, 2026

Baruch College today announced a new $75,000 gift from AddressHate, a vanguard not-for-profit that uses new, technological methodologies to disrupt the spread of online hate, to support The Antisemitism Studies Laboratory housed within Baruch's Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center.

This new commitment from the AddressHate initiative will deepen Baruch's capacity to study and confront the escalating urgency of contemporary antisemitism-particularly as it spreads through social media and other digital platforms. Crucially, the grant enables The Antisemitism Studies Lab to expand its public programming, translating technical findings into public knowledge for students and the broader community alike.

AddressHate was launched by Joshua Laterman, a director of the Laterman Family Foundation, in response to the sharp rise in online antisemitism and extremism. The initiative combats digital hate by identifying how harmful narratives evolve, mutate, and spread across digital ecosystems while making these findings accessible to and actionable for civil society. By partnering with pathbreaking technologists, researchers, and policymakers, AddressHate works to close critical gaps in the detection, disruption, and accountability of digital hate.

"The environment for Jewish students and communities-in New York and around the world-has changed dramatically in the digital age," said Joshua Laterman, founder of AddressHate. "Baruch College has been a leader in taking this reality seriously, not only by studying antisemitism as a historical and social phenomenon, but by examining its dynamic in this fast-evolving era of new media. Our investment in The Antisemitism Studies Lab and the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center is part of our effort to break the code of hate before it breaks us."

The Antisemitism Studies Lab, directed by Professor Sarah Valente of the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center, was launched in the spring of 2025 with an initial $150,000 founding gift from the Laterman Family Foundation. That gift was subsequently matched by a $150,000 commitment from the Simons Foundation. Even more support -including a $50,000 gift from Baruch College Fund trustee Eric Kirsh and contributions from other Baruch College Fund board members-has quickly generated a sense of momentum and a pool of growing resources for The Lab's work. In total, philanthropic commitments for The Lab now amount to nearly half a million dollars.

"At a time when antisemitism and other forms of hate are amplified online with terrifying speed, institutions like Baruch have a responsibility to respond with clarity and action," said Baruch College Fund trustee Dov Schlein, who also serves on the board of the Laterman Family Foundation. "The fact that foundations, alumni, and trustees are, at this moment, joining together to support The Antisemitism Studies Lab sends a powerful message: not only that we stand with our Jewish students and colleagues, but that we are committed to understanding and disrupting the anatomy of hate itself."

The City University of New York Chancellor Félix V. Matos Rodríguez too underscored the significance of the new AddressHate investment and Baruch's expanding role in confronting antisemitism across the University system. "We are grateful for AddressHate's investment in The Antisemitism Studies Lab at Baruch College, a powerful expression of CUNY's commitment to combating all forms of hate and promoting safety, inclusion, and dialogue. At a time of rising online hate, this partnership is essential to preparing students for thoughtful, critical engagement in digital spaces."

"Baruch College is deeply grateful to AddressHate and the Laterman family for their continued confidence in our mission and their leadership in this urgent work," said Baruch College President S. David Wu. "This gift will help our faculty and students analyze the dynamics and effects of digital hate with rigor, and, equally important, translate that scholarship into practical ways to strengthen campus safety, intellectual discourse, and cross-community understanding. That's what an education at Baruch College is all about."

Professor Sarah Valente, interim director of the Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center and leader of The Antisemitism Studies Lab emphasized the kind of critical thinking and open dialogue-in the classroom and beyond-that this latest gift will help foster.

"This new support from AddressHate enables us to meaningfully connect rigorous research on contemporary antisemitism with highly visible, campus-wide programming," Dr. Valente said. "Our goal is to provide students with a deeper understanding of the historical roots of antisemitism while equipping them to critically examine how hate proliferates through modern communication systems, particularly social media. With these additional funds, we can bring academic expertise into the public sphere through a continuous series of lectures, visiting fellows, and collaborative events that foster sustained, constructive dialogue across our diverse student body, including all marginalized student communities."

Laterman stressed that with this investment, AddressHate is just getting started. "Since the work that needs to be done to effectively oppose digital forms of hate is wide-ranging and complex, the right entry point into this emerging field is of great importance. As one of the most diverse colleges in the nation, Baruch is a particularly meaningful place to study hate; it is our hope that the college becomes a model for other institutions on how it can be done."

Laterman added, "We are proud to continue and deepen our partnership with the Wasserman Jewish Studies Center and The Antisemitism Studies Lab as we work toward a future in which digital spaces are safe, civil, and free from algorithmically amplified hate and ensure that the knowledge to defy it is accessible to students, educators, and the public."

About AddressHate

AddressHate is an interdisciplinary think tank that uses technology to identify how hate evolves, mutates, and spreads across digital ecosystems and makes these findings accessible to and actionable for civil society. Founded by the Laterman Family Foundation in response to escalating online antisemitism and extremism, AddressHate partners with leading technologists, researchers, and policymakers to close critical gaps in detection, disruption, and accountability. In 2025, AddressHate scaled its impact through more than $1 million in investment for new data systems, academic collaborations, and strategic grants to those on the front lines of the fight.

About the Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center at Baruch College

The Sandra Kahn Wasserman Jewish Studies Center in the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences at Baruch College reflects the legacy and heritage of Baruch College: its tradition of educating New York immigrants, its diverse population, and its special relationship to and place within Manhattan. With generous support from donors, the WJSC offers a rich array of programming that inspires critical inquiry and deepens understanding about the history and experiences of global Jewry. Through courses ranging from Sephardic Jewish history and Holocaust literature to Yiddish theatre and Latin American Jewish experiences, lectures by renowned scholars and authors, conferences, film series, and community partnerships, the Center engages Baruch's diverse student body and the broader public in critical conversations, from a range of disciplines and lenses, and addresses some of the biggest issues and challenges facing today's American and world Jewish community - Jewish history, Jewish philanthropy, Jewish business ethics, Jewish politics, Jewish identity and continuity, and the changing face of American Jewry. The Center is home to The Antisemitism Studies Laboratory, the first of its kind within CUNY, which supports faculty and student-driven research on historical and contemporary antisemitism from a variety of disciplines ranging from cognitive science to marketing to law, to literature, to social media. The Lab holds as its mission the need to educate, create understanding, support research, and address the pressing challenges of antisemitism locally, nationally, and globally. It is a hub of innovation and proactive scholarship for leading interdisciplinary research about antisemitism studies at Baruch College.

About Baruch College

Ranked among the top public institutions in the nation, Baruch College of The City University of New York provides a high-quality, affordable education to a diverse community of over 20,000 students. Located in the heart of New York City, Baruch offers rigorous undergraduate and graduate programs through the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs, the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences, and the Zicklin School of Business. Baruch's mission is to empower students to transform their lives and their communities through academic excellence, experiential learning, and a deep commitment to equity and inclusion.

# # #