JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
A group of professors is suing the American Studies Association over its academic boycott of Israel. The lawsuit filed Wednesday in federal court in the District of Columbia charges the ASA with violating the District of Columbia law governing tax-exempt nonprofit organizations. The four plaintiffs, who are longtime members of the association, also charge that…
Several alert readers are unhappy with my post last week on the nasty BDS debate at Vassar College. Among other things, I referred readers to a post by the conservative legal scholar William Jacobson on his LegalInsurrection.com blog, providing extensive documentation on the background to the clash. Critics claim I wrongly soft-pedaled the behavior of…
The uproar in the Jewish community over the American Studies Association’s vote to boycott Israeli universities has largely overlooked one point: Are we, who oppose these sorts of boycotts, truly committed to academic freedom for people of all views on the Israel-Palestine conflict? Of course there are reasons, aside from academic freedom, to oppose the…
A bill introduced in the New York State Assembly would suspend funding to educational institutions which fund groups that boycott Israel. The legislation, introduced earlier this month by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and first reported by Mondoweiss, an anti-Zionist news site, would ban state funding to colleges which fund groups that boycott “in countries that…
The debate over Israel in academia has turned to the Modern Language Association, which hosts a controversial panel on academic boycotts of Israel at its annual convention in Chicago starting today. Jewish groups and some MLA members are mounting a response to the session, which will feature panelists largely sympathetic to the boycott, divestment and…
At least 55 American universities and colleges have rejected the American Studies Association membership vote in favor of an academic boycott of Israel. The number was tracked by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. “This remarkable response is a clear declaration that American academia will not be party to the efforts to…
Two more American institutions of higher learning officially withdrew their memberships from the American Studies Association after its membership voted in favor of an academic boycott of Israel. Kenyon College and Indiana University on Monday joined Brandeis University and Penn State Harrisburg in canceling their memberships in the association. Dozens of other universities also have…
A Brandeis University department withdrew its membership in the American Studies Association (ASA) yesterday, after the group’s controversial vote this week to boycott Israeli academic institutions. The Brandeis American Studies department’s decision followed a similar move at Penn State on Tuesday, as reported in the Times of Israel. “We view the recent vote by the…
