Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
News

Boycott Israel Backer Judith Butler Pulls Out of Jewish Museum Appearance

The Jewish Museum in New York has scrapped a talk that included a planned appearance by Israel critic Judith Butler after Butler pulled out of the event amid pressure from supporters of the Jewish state.

“I cancelled the event,” Butler told the Forward in an email.

Judith Butler

Butler was set to speak at an event about the late existentialist artist, Franz Kafka. But many supporters of Israel took issue with the museum’s decision to invite the controversial literary studies professor, given her strongly critical views on Israel and her support for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanction Movement.

“While her political views were not a factor in her participation, the debates about her politics have become a distraction making it impossible to present the conversation about Kafka as intended,” the museum said in a statement.

Butler is a professor of comparative literature and critical theory at the University of California, Berkeley and also holds positions at Columbia University and the European Graduate School.

She said in a statement that she regretted having to scrap the talk.

“I was very much looking forward to the discussion of Kafka in The Jewish Museum, and to affirm the value of Kafka’s literary work in that setting,” Butler said in a statement released by the museum.

A spokesperson from the museum has confirmed that the talk, which was set to also include the museum’s deputy director Jens Hoffmann, was cancelled.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.