Today, The Jewish Daily Forward published Kenneth L. Marcus's op-ed about a joint statement, which was written by Kenneth Stern, the American Jewish Committee's president, and Cary Nelson, the American Association of University Professors' president. As I describe on my blog, Marcus congratulates the AJC for retracting the statement. But the AAUP has not retracted it. The AAUP-AJC statement concerns three law suits alleging antisemitic and violent harassment at Berkeley, Rutgers and UC Santa Cruz. In it, Stern and Nelson claim that the suits are an attempt to silence criticism of Israel. But the suits allege physical violence against Jews in contexts that do not involve any sort of academic or public debate. For instance, Berkeley's Jessica Felber alleges that she was rammed by a shopping cart; Professor Mel Gordon alleges that he was beaten. In his op-ed Marcus writes approvingly of the AJC's apparent retraction of the joint statement. But the AAUP has not retracted it. Might I detect a whiff of antisemitism at the AAUP?
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- August 23, 2011
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