Late last week, the Modern Language Association, which has 30,000 members from hundreds of colleges and universities, met in Chicago and provided a forum for speakers who harshly criticized Israel in a panel titled “Academic Boycotts: A Conversation about Israel…
read moreThere’s an old joke, which I’m sure most if not all are familiar with. So you don’t have to laugh when I retell it in a few minutes, after I sketch my argument’s three main points. But I have to…
read moreCharacterized by the same paroxysms of self-righteousness as were evident in the much-maligned and tendentious academic boycott by the American Studies Association (ASA) last month, members of the Modern Language Association (MLA) head to Chicago during the first week of…
read moreSome political forces in Israel urge annexation of all or a major part of the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) as was previously done by Israel in 1981 with east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights. For example, Naftali Bennett’s Jewish…
read moreSix days after its membership voted to implement an academic boycott against Israeli universities, the American Studies Association’s Caucus on Academic and Community Activism hurriedly issued a defensive appeal for support bemoaning, in the wake of a tsunami of backlash,…
read moreIn the summer of 2013 an unusual gathering of students took place in an undisclosed location in upstate New York. Sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) along with Jewish Voice for Peace, the “We Divest Campaign Student Leadership…
read moreSeeming to give credence to Orwell’s wry observation that “there are some ideas so absurd that only an intellectual could believe them,” the fatuous members of the American Studies Association (ASA) passed a December 15th resolution to institute an academic boycott…
read moreLast year, Brooklyn College’s political science department voted to officially affiliate itself with a talk by two advocates of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel. In other words, these professors openly endorsed boycotting (among other groups) fellow academics based solely…
read moreReview of Antisemitism and the American Far Left (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013), by Stephen H. Norwood By Edward Alexander If you’ve ever wondered why “do-gooder” is a pejorative label, Stephen Norwood’s book on “Antisemitism and the American Far…
read moreChartered in 1951, The American Studies Association (ASA) still describes itself as “the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history.” We will see if there is anything left of the organization’s mission…
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