Thinkstock This year’s MLA was supposed to be discussing the crisis of affairs in the Humanities. Only a lucky few of the graduate students on the market with their freshly minted PhDs will find jobs in academia — ever. The increasing corporatization of higher education is driving the scholarly agenda, as funders begin to dictate…
For the second time in less than a month, Israel demanded clarifications from the Netherlands on Dutch firms’ divestment from Israel’s occupation. On Friday, Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the ambassador to Israel of the Netherlands, Caspar Veldkamp, to provide clarifications on the decision of PGGM, a large pensions administrator, to divest from five…
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…
(JTA) — Until recently, the rule of thumb in the pro-Israel community was that the bigger the academic group, the less likely it was to consider a boycott of Israeli colleagues. But with the 30,000-member Modern Language Association set to host a panel on BDS at its convention this week in Chicago, the rule may…
A while back, I wrote a column in which I urged people to boycott Ariel. An explanation is in order here: Ariel is a town of some 18,000 people that juts 16 kilometers (10 miles) beyond the Green Line. It is, in other words, rather deep within the West Bank. It is 25 miles from…
Another famous institution has jumped on the Israel academic boycott bandwagon. A little place known as Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry announced that it would “cancel summer student exchange programmes it has in place with several Israeli magical institutes, and withdraw from a Quidditch tournament arranged by the Israeli Tourism Ministry due to be…
It takes no special insight to predict some of the topics for conversation among Jews in this new year. The Mideast peace process, such as it is. Iran’s nuclear ambitions. The endless need to engage young people in meaningful Jewish life. The prohibitive cost of day school and summer camp. The unlikelihood of any Jew…
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…
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