Jewish Kansas Citians will have a chance to honor the late antiracist author, activist and researcher Leonard Zeskind (z”l) at two upcoming events.

For more than four decades in Kansas City and beyond, Zeskind was an internationally recognized expert researcher, author and lecturer on the threat to democracy posed by the antisemitic white-nationalist movement.

Obituaries in both the New York Times and Washington Post commented on Zeskind’s “prescient warnings” of the growing influence of white nationalism in American politics, noting that he “foresaw before almost anyone else that anti-immigrant ideologies would move to (the) mainstream.”

Teach-in on fighting white nationalism

The first event, titled “Conference & Teach-in: Time to Mobilize: Fight White Nationalism & Protect Democracy,” will be held from 1 to 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 8, at St. James United Methodist Church (5540 Wayne Ave., Kansas City, MO 64111).

The teach-in will feature a panel of Zeskind’s friends and movement colleagues who will discuss how to move forward in the struggle for human rights without Zeskind’s intellect.

The featured teach-in speakers include two men who each spent more than 30 years working with Zeskind: Devin Burghart and Chuck Tanner. They are the executive director and research director, respectively, of the group Zeskind founded in 1983, the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights (IREHR).

Another panelist will be Zeskind’s friend and IREHR board member Daniel Levitas. Levitas is the former executive director of the Center for Democratic Renewal, which was founded as the National Anti-Klan Network and for which Zeskind served as research director. Levitas is an attorney and author of “The Terrorist Next Door: The Militia Movement & the Radical Right.”

Registration for the teach-in is free and available at actionnetwork.org/events/time-to-mobilize-fight-white-nationalism-and-protect-democracy.

Celebration of life

The second event is a celebration of Zeskind’s life from 2 to 4 p.m. on Sunday, Nov. 9, at Congregation Beth Torah (6100 W. 127th St, Overland Park, KS 66209).

The Celebration of Life will center on Zeskind himself, as colleagues from Kansas City and across the country honor his legacy as a pursuer of justice with a call to action in the present.

Celebration of life registration is free and available at actionnetwork.org/events/leonard-zeskind-celebration-of-life.