Head of Columbia Jewish Studies Program Resigns
Professors at Columbia University have been mum over the abrupt resignation last month of Michael Stanislawski as director of the school’s Institute for Israel and Jewish Studies, an umbrella for scholars anchored in other departments.
Stanislawski declined to comment on his change in status at the institute, which was established in 2005 in part to act as a foil for the university’s department of Middle Eastern and Asian Languages and Cultures, popularly known as MEALAC, a program that many consider hostile to Israel. Stanislawski remains a part of the institute as a professor of Jewish history and literature.
Other professors at the institute, as well as the Columbia administration, declined to comment or said only that Stanislawski had resigned for personal reasons.
The confusion increased when The New York Sun erroneously reported, on February 28, that Yinon Cohen, a sociology professor in the department, would take the institute’s reins. Misinformed by a Sun reporter that Cohen, who leans leftward on Israeli politics, was slated to become director, some faculty and students expressed discomfort.
As the Sun subsequently reported, Jeremy Dauber, a professor of Yiddish, has been appointed interim director.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
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 the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
