Who Is Ari Kohen? Profile of the Nebraska Human Rights Scholar

Ari Kohen is a political science professor at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the director of the Forsythe Family Program on Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs. Over the last several years he has become one of the more visible academic voices commenting publicly on antisemitism, Jewish identity, and campus discourse — a role that puts him in regular conversation with the same institutional network that includes the JCPA and figures like Amy Spitalnick.

Academic background

Kohen earned his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University and joined the University of Nebraska–Lincoln faculty in 2007. His research and teaching sit at the intersection of political theory, human rights, and moral philosophy, with a particular focus on how ordinary people become moral actors in the face of atrocity. He is the author of In Defense of Human Rights: A Non-Religious Grounding in a Pluralistic World, a book that argues human rights can be defended without appealing to a specific theological tradition.

The Forsythe Family Program

As director of the Forsythe Family Program on Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs, Kohen oversees one of the flagship human-rights programs at a Big Ten public university. The program brings speakers, fellowships, and student research funding to Lincoln, and it has become a platform through which Kohen contributes to national conversations about genocide, antisemitism, and the ethics of witness.

Public voice on antisemitism and Jewish identity

Kohen is unusually active for a tenured professor on Twitter/X, Bluesky, and podcasts, where he discusses antisemitism, Israel, campus politics, and Jewish communal life. He has argued that antisemitism cuts across the political spectrum and that Jewish communal institutions have to be prepared to name it on the left as well as the right — a framing that overlaps with the Spitalnick-era JCPA position that antisemitism is fueled by the same authoritarian and conspiratorial politics that threaten American democracy more broadly.

Nebraska and the broader Jewish institutional landscape

Being based in Nebraska rather than New York, Washington, or the Bay Area gives Kohen a different vantage point on the American Jewish debate than the coastal federation network we have covered elsewhere. But the questions he engages — how Jewish organizations should respond to antisemitism, how universities should handle Israel/Palestine on campus, how progressives and Jews talk past each other — are the same ones that occupy the JCRC, JCPA, and federation-affiliated advocacy groups.

His willingness to argue in public, from a named academic post, is part of why his profile has grown well beyond Lincoln. For readers who want to understand how the fight over antisemitism looks from inside the academy rather than from inside the communal-relations bureaucracy, Kohen is one of the useful voices to follow.

The UNL Holocaust symposium records lawsuit

Kohen's public profile is also tied to a public-records dispute in Nebraska. A lawsuit filed by Jewish Legal News, Inc. against the University of Nebraska–Lincoln produced emails between Kohen and history professor Gerald J. Steinacher concerning the university's March 2023 Holocaust symposium, "Fascism: Then and Now." According to the records, scholars were identified in part by scrolling Kohen's Twitter/X following.

In one email, Steinacher wrote to Kohen: "I looked at your list of your contacts (Twitter) and there are some very, very interesting people among them, Federico Finchelstein (History of Fascist Lies), Casey Kelly (Trump Racism), Daniel Ziblatt (How Democracy dies), Sarah Kendzior (Trump, USA), ALTEMEYER (Extremists scale), Zack Beauchamp (Right wing populism, West). They all look great for our project."

The symposium program drew parallels between historical Nazism and contemporary movements, with presentations addressing Christian nationalism, white nationalism, the far right, and right-wing populism. Critics argued that selecting presenters from a single ideological lane — and sourcing them from a personal social-media following — turned a Holocaust education event into a vehicle for contemporary political argument. Kohen has frequently used Twitter/X to describe present-day political figures as "extremists" and "Nazis."

Read the pleadings and docket on our case page, including the verified petition and exhibit list. Read the underlying reporting: Nebraska Professors Handpick Holocaust Scholars From Twitter and Nebraska Professors Bypass Israel Studies Center in Israel Panel Discussion.

Student reception

Kohen's RateMyProfessors profile reflects a mixed student reception, with reviews ranging from strongly critical to cautiously positive. One student in his POLS 160 course rated him 1.0 for quality, complained that he "does not care about his students at all," and said "most students were lost" while Kohen "lectured us like we were his graduate students." Another student in POLS 386 gave him a 3.0 quality rating alongside a 5.0 difficulty rating, noting that "participation matters," students should "get ready to read," and the class is "graded by few things." That reviewer still answered "Would Take Again: Yes," suggesting that some students find the workload demanding but the course worthwhile.

Related coverage

• Ari Kohen and the UNL Holocaust Symposium: What the Public Records Show
• Who Is Amy Spitalnick? Profile of the JCPA CEO
• What Is the JCPA? The Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Explained
• Nebraska Professors Handpick Holocaust Scholars From Twitter
• Who Is Tye Gregory? Profile of the JCRC Bay Area CEO