Conservative British pro-Israel commentator Douglas Murray joins Yeshiva University
Murray has become one of the most prominent non-Jewish pro-Israel voices since Oct. 7
British author and conservative political commentator Douglas Murray gestures as he speaks on stage during an evening against the rise of antisemitism in Europe, organized by the “Regle du Jeu” magazine, the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and other French institutions, at the Theatre Antoine, in Paris on June 3, 2024. (GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT / AFP)
(JTA) — Yeshiva University has announced that prominent British conservative author and pro-Israel commentator Douglas Murray will teach a class at the school this spring.
Murray, who is not Jewish, was appointed as the school’s inaugural President’s Professor of Practice, a role the flagship modern Orthodox university in New York City billed as bringing “a leading public intellectual into the academic setting.”
“Douglas Murray will join a generations-long conversation about great works from the Jewish canon and the broader humanistic tradition that is alive and impassioned on our campuses, and we look forward to him sharing his insights and perspectives,” said Rebecca Cypess, Y.U.’s dean of the undergraduate faculty of arts and sciences and vice provost for undergraduate education.
At Y.U., Murray is set to teach an honors poetry course titled “The Values of Verse: Sacred and Secular Perspectives.”
“Great poetry is not an ornament of civilization,” Murray said in a statement distributed by Y.U. “It is one of the ways civilizations think, remember and endure. In an age of noise and distraction, returning to verse is a way of recovering seriousness—about life, love, loss and responsibility. I’m honored to join Yeshiva University in a setting where those questions are taken seriously and explored with intellectual rigor.”
Murray, who has an undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Oxford, is not the first non-Jewish public figure to be honored by the university. At the school’s last two commencement ceremonies, it gave its highest award to pro-Israel lawmakers including Pennsylvania Democratic Sen. John Fetterman and New York Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik. (Dozens of Y.U. faculty members opposed Stefanik’s selection for the award.)
In recent years, Murray, an associate editor of The Spectator and columnist for the New York Post, has risen to be one of the most prominent non-Jewish pro-Israel voices for his frequent defense of the Jewish state and harsh criticism of the pro-Palestinian movement.
Praise for Murray’s appointment quickly flooded the comments of the Facebook announcement from the school. One user wrote, “He’s a great defender of Israel 🇮🇱!” while another wrote that Murray is a “beacon of moral clarity!”
But elsewhere on social media some were less impressed by the appointment.
“It is difficult to take this appointment seriously,” wrote Ram ben Ze’ev, the executive director of the Hebrew Synagogue in Scotland . “A non-Jew, who openly lives in contradiction to Torah values, being elevated to a Professor of Practice at Yeshiva University is not ‘diversity’ or ‘engagement’ — it is a confusion of mission.”
Murray is the author of several books including “The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race and Identity” in 2019 and “The War on the West” in 2022.
Murray’s latest book published last year, “On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel, Hamas and the Future of the West,” which describes Oct. 7 and critiques the rise of pro-Palestinian activism across the globe in its wake, earned widespread praise from Jewish critics.
In the book, Murray argues that “the Muslim world is the one place where the virus of Nazi anti-Semitism did not just continue unchallenged after 1945, but actually flourished,” according to a review of the book from the Jewish Book Council.
The conservative commentator has not been immune from controversy in pro-Israel circles.
In May 2023, Murray drew criticism from British Jewish leaders after he appeared to downplay German nationalism during World War II at a conference for right-wing conservatives.
“I see no reason why every other country in the world should be prevented from feeling pride in itself because the Germans mucked up twice in a century,” said Murray during his address.
