Leon Wieseltier Cancels Event Following Harassment Allegations
Image by Youtube
By Josh Nathan-Kazis October 26, 2017
Leon Wieseltier, the former culture editor of The New Republic, canceled a planned speaking engagement at a New York Jewish Week event in the wake of accusations that he had sexually harassed female colleagues.
The harassment allegations, which came to light this week after female former employees at TNR began to correspond over email, include charges that he “sloppily kissed [colleagues] on the mouth,” according to The New York Times. Wieseltier apologized in a statement. The publisher of a new magazine Wieseltier was set to lead has since canceled the project, and Institution, where Wieseltier was a senior fellow, suspended him without pay.
Wieseltier was scheduled to speak on the Syrian refugee crisis at a Jewish Week-sponsored event on November 6, co-sponsored by American Friends of Tel Aviv University and Temple Emanu-El’s Streiker Center. Gary Rosenblatt, Jewish Week’s editor and publisher, said that Wieseltier chose to cancel the speech “out of respect for the event.”
Wieseltier’s sister, Thea Wieseltier, is Jewish Week’s director of strategic projects.
Contact Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected] or on Twitter, @joshnathankazis
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Fast Forward Jewish Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky reportedly to retire after 26 years in office
Most Popular
- 1
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 2
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
- 3
Culture Did this Jewish literary titan have the right idea about Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling after all?
- 4
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history.
In Case You Missed It
-
Opinion Gaza and Trump have left the Jewish community at war with itself — and me with a bad case of alienation
-
Fast Forward Trump administration restores student visas, but impact on pro-Palestinian protesters is unclear
-
Fast Forward Deborah Lipstadt says Trump’s campus antisemitism crackdown has ‘gone way too far’
-
Fast Forward 5 Jewish senators accuse Trump of using antisemitism as ‘guise’ to attack universities
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.