Universal love or particular self-hate?

Ensuring the place among haters

To be completely honest, I cannot really make sense of such behavior. In my view, it is nothing short of appalling. I'm trying to understand what the motivations of people like this might be. Are they trying to ensure that they are seen differently from the rest of the Jewish community? Are they advocating for universal love at the expense of their own people? How much do they know about their own heritage and history? Does it even matter to them? I do not know if I can find any answers to my questions—most likely not. But what exactly is her expertise? Inciting hate?

September 27, 2024

Tenured Jewish Professor Says She’s Been Fired for Pro-Palestinian Speech Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College may have become the first institution since Oct. 7 to oust a tenured faculty member for such statements, though the professor is appealing the decision and still receiving a salary.

Inside Higher Ed

By Ryan Quinn https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/academic-freedom/2024/09/27/tenured-jewishprof-says-shes-fired-pro-palestine

Maura Finkelstein said she was fired from Muhlenberg College, but she is appealing.

In January of this year, Maura Finkelstein, a tenured associate professor at Muhlenberg College, temporarily reposted on Instagram a statement from a Palestinian American poet. Months later, a faculty and staff committee recommended firing her over that post, she said.

“Do not cower to Zionists,” the post read, according to Finkelstein. “Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Do not make them feel comfortable. Why should those genocide-loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat-out racist. Don’t normalize Zionism. Don’t normalize Zionists taking up space.”

A week after that post, the college suspended Finkelstein from campus and teaching amid alleged student complaints about an Oct. 12 class discussion and the Instagram repost, according to Anita Levy, a senior program officer in the American Association of University Professors’ Department of Academic Freedom, Tenure and Governance, who’s advocating for Finkelstein.

Finkelstein’s Instagram post wasn’t her first statement on Israel that drew controversy. In October, a Change.org petition authored by “Muhlenberg College Alumni and Supporters” called for her removal. The Intercept, which first reported on her firing Thursday, said she “was the subject of a campaign of thousands of anonymous, bot-generated emails sent every minute for over 24 hours to the school’s administrators—as well as local news outlets and politicians.”

And it reported that shortly before Finkelstein’s Instagram post, the provost told Finkelstein there had been a complaint filed against the college with the U.S. Education Department, and it referenced her.

Faculty speech related to Israel and Palestine has faced heightened scrutiny since the Oct. 7 outbreak of war, with some faculty members being suspended and nontenured faculty losing their jobs. All the while, groups representing faculty and academic freedom advocates have sounded the alarm about how that crackdown and scrutiny threatens academic freedom.

A tenured professor losing their job would be an escalation. Finkelstein, who is Jewish, told Inside Higher Ed on Thursday that her case sets a “terrifying precedent” for academic freedom.

“If I can be fired for criticizing a foreign government, calling attention to a genocide and using my academic expertise as an anthropologist to draw attention to how power operates, then no one is safe,” she wrote in an email. “I wasn’t fired manager able to guess on our group flashes him for anything I said in the classroom. I was fired because of a charge brought by a student I had never met, let alone taught, who had been surveying my social media account for months. This isn’t about student safety, this is about the silencing dissent. We are witnessing a new McCarthyism and we should all be terrified of its implications.”

Muhlenberg fired Finkelstein in May, Finkelstein said, but she didn’t go public until the Intercept article, which called her the first tenured professor to lose her job over pro-Palestine speech. Major academic freedom advocacy groups say this is the first case they’ve heard of that shows a tenured faculty member being fired for pro-Palestine or pro-Israel statements. Like Finkelstein, those groups are worried about the precedent set by Muhlenberg’s decision.

But Finkelstein isn’t done fighting her dismissal. She’s appealed and is working with lawyers to explore her options. While she appeals the decision, Finkelstein is receiving salary and benefits but not teaching.

Still Awaiting a Hearing

It’s not supposed to be easy to fire a tenured professor. The AAUP’s recommended best practices call for due process, a system of appeals and faculty input on their peers’ conduct.

In Finkelstein’s case, a confidential panel of faculty and staff members received a lengthy investigative report, prepared by an outside party, and then recommended firing her, she said. Levy said the panel cited only Finkelstein’s Instagram repost in determining Finkelstein was responsible for bias-related conduct. Finkelstein added that there was a “308-page investigative report,” but the panel determined the “single Instagram repost on my personal social media account was ‘chronic and pervasive’ behavior.”