I am sorry to see you reproduce Doug Chandler’s article on the latest controversy at Brooklyn College. Mr. Chandler has misunderstood/misrepresented the situation. Brooklyn College has had a series of unpleasant events and confrontations in recent years and within this context, the appointment of a man with minimal credentials, whose thesis is not on the subject he has been chosen to teach, whose only claim to expertise in the field is his avowed support of Hammas and harsh critic of Israel, and whose course syllabus was totally void of any academic balance, was and remains most disturbing.

As someone who was involved in the recent Bayoumi Affair, I can say from personal experience that the college administration has exhibited a lack of sensitivity – to say the least – to the concerns many of us raised regarding the lack of balance and tendency towards indoctrination in the decision to grant Prof. Bayoumi exclusive access to all incoming students and to this more recent appointment of an outspoken advocate of the Palestinian cause to teach a graduate seminar. President Gould’s comment that “my husband is Jewish” during an earlier discussion was not only inappropriate, it was offensive.

Mr. Chandler would have better served his readers if he had, at least, cited the letter written by Professor Emerita Abigail Rosenthal to offer some balance to his rather skewed reportage.

Prof. Jonathan Helfand
Department of Judaic Studies
Brooklyn College – CUNY