Professor David Feldman has been appointed director of Britain's first academic institute dealing solely with antisemitism.

Prof Feldman, 53, lectures in the School of Social Sciences at Birkbeck College, where the Pears Institute for the Study of Antisemitism, set up with a £1.5 million grant from the Pears Foundation, will be based.

Prof Feldman, a Londoner, joined Birkbeck in 1993 as a history lecturer and became a reader in 2000. He has also taught at the University of Michigan, Christ's College, Cambridge and at Bristol University.

Professor Feldman said: "By placing antisemitism in this broad context the Pears Institute will promote historical understanding and contribute to contemporary discussion and policy on racism in societies which are becoming more, not less, diverse."

The Wiener Library, Britain's largest Holocaust archive, is also to move to another part of Birkbeck, and will work in partnership with the Institute.

Prof Feldman said: "This is a unique opportunity to tie in with the Wiener Library. The only other comparable organisations are in America and Israel and we want to co-operate with the best of them."