NEW YORK (Press Release)– World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder on Thursday, Jan. 2, commended the 100 US universities that have publicly denounced the American Studies Association (ASA) boycott of Israel. “It is heartening that the leaders of so many great American universities have stepped forward to condemn the ASA’s discriminatory and pernicious assault on Israel and academic freedom,” Lauder said. “This resounding response shows that American society is united in rejecting the Orwellian anti-Semitism that underlies such unfair efforts to single out the Jewish state for opprobrium.”
Lauder also thanked the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations for its recent letter urging the university presidents to disassociate their schools from the ASA and to remove any funding designated for the association. Lauder is a former chairman of the Presidents Conference.
Under Lauder’s leadership, the WJC last summer launched its Global Campus Initiative (GCI) in order to counter Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaigns and other attempts to delegitmize Israel in university environments around the world. The GCI, a joint project with the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) and the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), held sessions in Jerusalem on December 30, at which 100 student activists heard speakers and shared knowledge about the best ways to counteract the campus campaigns to vilify the Jewish state.
As of 1 January, the presidents or chancellors of 100 American universities and colleges, including such prestigious campuses as Harvard, Columbia, Brown, MIT, University of Michigan, and Georgetown, have rejected the ASA boycott. Also opposing the boycott are the Association of American Universities, which represents 62 institutions in America and Canada, and the 48,000 member American Association of University Professors. The ASA, a 5,000-member association of academics who teach American studies, announced the passage of its anti-Israel boycott resolution on 16 December .
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The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, meanwhile, released the following statement:
“We are pleased that we have reached a major milestone with over 100 universities publicly claiming their opposition to the boycott of Israeli universities and academia adopted by the American Studies Association. We anticipate more signing on as offices reopen and presidents return from their holiday vacations. As significant as this is, we have to be vigilant regarding efforts at other such bodies, like the Modern Language Association that will be convening on January 9th in Chicago and will include a one-sided panel entitled ‘Academic Boycotts: A Conversation about Israel and Palestine’. We hope the clear messages issued by the presidents of the most prestigious universities in America against the boycott of Israeli institutions or academics will resonate with any who are contemplating a similar effort at the MLA,” said Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations leaders, Robert G. Sugarman, Chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, Executive Vice Chairman.
The following university presidents and chancellors have released statements rejecting the ASA boycott of Israeli academic institutions:
- American University (President Cornelius M. Kerwin)
- Amherst College (President Carolyn A. Martin)
- Barnard College (President Debora Spar)
- Birmingham Southern College (President Charles C. Krulak)
- Boston University (President Robert A. Brown)
- Bowdoin College (President Barry Mills)
- Brandeis University (President Frederick M. Lawrence)
- Brooklyn College, CUNY (President Karen Gould)
- Brown University (President Christina Hull Paxton)
- Carnegie-Mellon University (President Subra Suresh)
- Case Western Reserve University (President Barbara R. Snyder)
- Catholic University of America (President John H. Garvey)
- City University of New York (Interim Chancellor William P. Kelly)
- Clark University (President David P. Angel)
- Colby College (President William D. Adams)
- Colgate University (President Jeffrey Herbst)
- College of Charleston (President P. George Benson)
- Columbia University (President Lee C. Bollinger)
- Cornell University (President David Skorton)
- Dartmouth College (President Philip J. Hanlon)
- Dickinson College (President Nancy Roseman)
- Drexel University (President John A. Fry)
- Duke University (President Richard H. Brodhead)
- Emory University (President James Wagner)
- Florida Atlantic University (Interim President Dennis J. Crudele)
- Florida International University (President Mark B. Rosenberg)
- Fordham University (President Joseph M. McShane, S.J.)
- Franklin & Marshall College (President Daniel R. Porterfield)
- George Washington University (President Steven Knapp)
- Georgetown University (President John J. DeGioia)
- Goucher College (President Sanford J. Ungar)
- Hamilton College (President Joan Hinde Stewart)
- Harvard University (President Drew Gilpin Faust)
- Haverford College (President Daniel Weiss)
- Hunter College (President Jennifer J. Raab)
- Indiana University (President Michael McRobbie)
- Johns Hopkins University (President Ronald Joel Daniels)
- Kenyon College (President Sean M. Decatur)
- Lafayette College (President Alison Byerly)
- Lehigh University (President Alice P. Gast)
- Loyola University Maryland (President Rev. Brian F. Linnane, S.J.)
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (President L. Rafael Reif)
- Michigan State University (President Lou Anna K. Simon)
- Middlebury College (President Ron Liebowitz)
- New York University (President John Sexton)
- Northeastern University (President Joseph E. Aoun)
- Northwestern University (President Morton O. Schapiro)
- Ohio State University (President Joseph A. Alutto)
- Pennsylvania State University (President Rodney Erickson)
- Pomona College (President David Oxtoby)
- Princeton University (President Christopher L. Eisgruber)
- Purdue University (President Mitch Daniels)
- Ramapo College (President Peter Philip Mercer)
- Rhode Island College (President Nancy Carriuolo)
- Rice University (President David W. Leebron)
- Rider University (President Mordechai Rozanski)
- Rutgers University (President Robert Barchi)
- Smith College (President Kathleen McCartney)
- Stanford University (President John L. Hennessy)
- State University of New York (Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher)
- Swarthmore College (President Rebecca Chopp)
- Touro College and University System (President and CEO Alan Kadish)
- Trinity College (President James F. Jones, Jr.)
- Tufts University (President Anthony P. Monaco)
- Tulane University (President Scott S. Cowen)
- University of Alabama (Chancellor Robert E. Witt)
- University of California System (President Janet Napolitano)
- University of California, Berkeley (Chancellor Nicholas Dirks)
- University of California, Davis (Chancellor Linda P. B. Katehi)
- University of California, Irvine (Chancellor Michael V. Drake)
- University of California, San Diego (Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla)
- University of California, San Francisco (Chancellor Sue Desmond-Hellmann)
- University of Chicago (President Robert J. Zimmer)
- University of Cincinnati (President Santa J. Ono)
- University of Connecticut (President Susan Herbst)
- University of Delaware (President Patrick T. Harker)
- University of Florida (President J. Bernard Machen)
- University of Illinois System (President Robert A. Easter)
- University of Illinois at Chicago (Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares)
- University of Illinois at Springfield (Chancellor Susan J. Koch)
- University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Chancellor Phyllis Wise)
- University of Kansas (Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little)
- University of La Verne (President Devorah Lieberman)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore County (President Freeman Hrabowski)
- University of Maryland, College Park (President Wallace D. Loh)
- University of Miami (President Donna E. Shalala)
- University of Michigan (President Mary Sue Coleman)
- University of Minnesota (President Eric Kaler)
- University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Chancellor Carol L. Folt)
- University of Pennsylvania (President Amy Gutmann)
- University of Pittsburgh (Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg)
- University of Rochester (President Joel Seligman)
- University of Southern California (President C. L. Max Nikias)
- University of Texas, Austin (President William C. Powers)
- University of Vermont (President Tom Sullivan)
- Vanderbilt University (Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos)
- Washington University in St. Louis (Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton)
- Wesleyan University (President Michael S. Roth)
- Willamette University (President Stephen Thorsett)
- Yale University (President Peter Salovey)
- Yeshiva University (President Richard M. Joel)
In addition, the following institutions’ American Studies programs have withdrawn their membership in the American Studies Association (ASA) following last month’s boycott vote:
Furthermore, the following institutions have flatly denied being institutional members of the ASA, though the organization lists them as such:
- Brown University
- Carnegie-Mellon University
- Hamilton College
- Northwestern University
- Temple University
- Trinity College
- Tufts University
- University of Alabama
- University of Mississippi
- University of Southern California
- Willamette University
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Preceding provided by the World Jewish Congress and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations