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I Am a Professor at Rutgers — There Is Antisemitism on Our Campus
When he testified before the Congressional Committee on Education & the Workforce on May 23, Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway admitted that there is a problem with antisemitism at Rutgers and that his administration had been too slow to implement necessary changes in response to it.
Yet, in an opinion article in NJ.com on May 22, Rutgers Professor Todd R. Clear wrote, “Rampant antisemitism at Rutgers? In a word, no.”
Professor Clear’s opinion is diametrically opposed to that of many Jews at Rutgers and members of the investigating Committee, which is focusing on antisemitism on campuses including Rutgers.
The recent disruptive tent encampment by pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters on the Rutgers-New Brunswick campus was clearly antisemitic in nature. This opinion was expressed by many members of the Congressional committee, and by the testimony of President Holloway at the hearings.
To avoid violent conflict with students, like what occurred at UCLA and elsewhere, the Rutgers administration negotiated with students to have them withdraw, but not before finals on the New Brunswick campus were cancelled for thousands of Rutgers students.
An agreement, which may be discriminatory and violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, was reached behind closed doors, thus avoiding objections from other campus stakeholders including JFAS (Jewish Faculty, Administrators, and Staff), Hillel, Chabad, and the Chancellor’s own advisory committee on antisemitism.
Given that encampments at other universities had turned violent and destructive, it is no wonder that Rutgers administration chose to capitulate to avoid violence. But that’s exactly what they did — capitulate, and give in to the demands of antisemitic and anti-Israel bullies.
Professor Clear wrote that he and over 50 Jewish faculty members at Rutgers urged President Holloway last week “to hold his course — to resist the chorus of voices accusing Rutgers of antisemitism.”
Yet, on May 21, Rutgers JFAS submitted an open letter to President Holloway with 211 signatories, including myself, noting that “since the Hamas massacres of October 7, 2023, campus antisemitism reached historic levels and affected many of us deeply.”
More than 160 Rutgers students signed their own letter to President Holloway with the same message.
The pro-Palestinian protesters against the war in Gaza, which was precipitated by the vicious, dehumanizing Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, chant “Free, Free Palestine,” “From the River to the Sea,” “Divest,” and “Intifada!”
Professor Clear posits that “each of these chants says something about Israel — they say nothing about Jews.”
I and many other Jewish professors at Rutgers strongly disagree.
Let’s take the most egregious of these chants, “From the River to the Sea,” which is explained succinctly in an article entitled “Why ‘Free Palestine from the River to the Sea’ Means Genocide against Jews” published soon after the massacre.
In a video played at the Congressional hearing, students mindlessly repeated this chant, but upon questioning, they admitted they did not know which river and which sea they were talking about.
The area in question includes all of Israel, and the slogan implies that forming a Palestinian state would “eliminate” more than 7 million Jews. Like many other Jews, I find this chant terrorizing — especially since my brother lives in Israel and he would be subject, at least, to expulsion, if not worse, if this chant were realized.
Professor Clear states that such slogans constitute activism, not antisemitism. The participants at the Congressional hearings could not disagree more. The Committee chair, in her closing remarks, chided three university presidents for not doing enough to fight antisemitism on their campuses, not providing sufficient education, and not suspending and expelling offending students in contradiction to their own university policies to protect students and faculty. The university presidents’ permissive stance toward antisemitism likely contributes to increased attacks on Jews and vandalism against Jewish institutions across the US, including at universities like Rutgers.
I suggest that Professor Clear’s view is not representative of the wider Jewish community, including the dwindling numbers of Holocaust survivors, who feel threatened again by the October 7 massacre and rising antisemitism. And, as a reminder, if Hamas retains power in Gaza (which would happen in a ceasefire), Hamas has promised to repeat the October 7 massacre “over and over.”
It’s unfortunate that it may take criticism from Congress to provide for the rights of Jewish students and faculty at public universities. I hope these university presidents take the ongoing Congressional scrutiny seriously, and make their universities safer places where unbiased learning can thrive and truth be spoken without infringing on individual rights. Only then can we have productive dialogue to understand each other better in the university setting and beyond.
Martin Grumet is a Professor of Cell Biology & Neuroscience, Rutgers University, Piscataway NJ.
The post I Am a Professor at Rutgers — There Is Antisemitism on Our Campus first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says
Atomic symbol and USA and Iranian flags are seen in this illustration taken, September 8, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo
Iran and the United States agreed on Saturday to task experts to start drawing up a framework for a potential nuclear deal, Iran’s foreign minister said, after a second round of talks following President Donald Trump’s threat of military action.
At their second indirect meeting in a week, Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi negotiated for almost four hours in Rome with Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, through an Omani official who shuttled messages between them.
Trump, who abandoned a 2015 nuclear pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.
Iran, which says its nuclear program is peaceful, says it is willing to discuss limited curbs to its atomic work in return for lifting international sanctions.
Speaking on state TV after the talks, Araqchi described them as useful and conducted in a constructive atmosphere.
“We were able to make some progress on a number of principles and goals, and ultimately reached a better understanding,” he said.
“It was agreed that negotiations will continue and move into the next phase, in which expert-level meetings will begin on Wednesday in Oman. The experts will have the opportunity to start designing a framework for an agreement.”
The top negotiators would meet again in Oman next Saturday to “review the experts’ work and assess how closely it aligns with the principles of a potential agreement,” he added.
Echoing cautious comments last week from Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he added: “We cannot say for certain that we are optimistic. We are acting very cautiously. There is no reason either to be overly pessimistic.”
There was no immediate comment from the US side following the talks. Trump told reporters on Friday: “I’m for stopping Iran, very simply, from having a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. I want Iran to be great and prosperous and terrific.”
Washington’s ally Israel, which opposed the 2015 agreement with Iran that Trump abandoned in 2018, has not ruled out an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities in the coming months, according to an Israeli official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Since 2019, Iran has breached and far surpassed the 2015 deal’s limits on its uranium enrichment, producing stocks far above what the West says is necessary for a civilian energy program.
A senior Iranian official, who described Iran’s negotiating position on condition of anonymity on Friday, listed its red lines as never agreeing to dismantle its uranium enriching centrifuges, halt enrichment altogether or reduce its enriched uranium stockpile below levels agreed in the 2015 deal.
The post Iran, US Task Experts to Design Framework for a Nuclear Deal, Tehran Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Hamas Says Fate of US-Israeli Hostage Unknown After Guard Killed in Israel Strike
Varda Ben Baruch, the grandmother of Edan Alexander, 19, an Israeli army volunteer kidnapped by Hamas, attends a special Kabbalat Shabbat ceremony with families of other hostages, in Herzliya, Israel October 27, 2023 REUTERS/Kuba Stezycki
Hamas said on Saturday the fate of an Israeli dual national soldier believed to be the last US citizen held alive in Gaza was unknown, after the body of one of the guards who had been holding him was found killed by an Israeli strike.
A month after Israel abandoned the ceasefire with the resumption of intensive strikes across the breadth of Gaza, Israel was intensifying its attacks.
President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said in March that freeing Edan Alexander, a 21-year-old New Jersey native who was serving in the Israeli army when he was captured during the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks that precipitated the war, was a “top priority.” His release was at the center of talks held between Hamas leaders and US negotiator Adam Boehler last month.
Hamas had said on Tuesday that it had lost contact with the militants holding Alexander after their location was hit in an Israeli attack. On Saturday it said the body of one of the guards had been recovered.
“The fate of the prisoner and the rest of the captors remains unknown,” said Hamas armed wing Al-Qassam Brigades’ spokesperson Abu Ubaida.
“We are trying to protect all the hostages and preserve their lives … but their lives are in danger because of the criminal bombings by the enemy’s army,” Abu Ubaida said.
The Israeli military did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Hamas released 38 hostages under the ceasefire that began on January 19. Fifty-nine are still believed to be held in Gaza, fewer than half of them still alive.
Israel put Gaza under a total blockade in March and restarted its assault on March 18 after talks failed to extend the ceasefire. Hamas says it will free remaining hostages only under an agreement that permanently ends the war; Israel says it will agree only to a temporary pause.
On Friday, the Israeli military said it hit about 40 targets across the enclave over the past day. The military on Saturday announced that a 35-year-old soldier had died in combat in Gaza.
NETANYAHU STATEMENT
Late on Thursday Khalil Al-Hayya, Hamas’ Gaza chief, said the movement was willing to swap all remaining 59 hostages for Palestinians jailed in Israel in return for an end to the war and reconstruction of Gaza.
He dismissed an Israeli offer, which includes a demand that Hamas lay down its arms, as imposing “impossible conditions.”
Israel has not responded formally to Al-Hayya’s comments, but ministers have said repeatedly that Hamas must be disarmed completely and can play no role in the future governance of Gaza. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to give a statement later on Saturday.
Hamas on Saturday also released an undated and edited video of Israeli hostage Elkana Bohbot. Hamas has released several videos over the course of the war of hostages begging to be released. Israeli officials have dismissed past videos as propaganda.
After the video was released, Bohbot’s family said in a statement that they were “deeply shocked and devastated,” and expressed concern for his mental and physical condition.
“How much longer will he be expected to wait and ‘stay strong’?” the family asked, urging for all of the 59 hostages who are still held in Gaza to be brought home.
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Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks
FILE PHOTO: Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said gives a speech after being sworn in before the royal family council in Muscat, Oman January 11, 2020. Photo: REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani/File Photo
Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said is set to visit Moscow on Monday, days after the start of a round of Muscat-mediated nuclear talks between the US and Iran.
The sultan will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.
Iran and the US started a new round of nuclear talks in Rome on Saturday to resolve their decades-long standoff over Tehran’s atomic aims, under the shadow of President Donald Trump’s threat to unleash military action if diplomacy fails.
Ahead of Saturday’s talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Moscow. Following the meeting, Lavrov said Russia was “ready to assist, mediate and play any role that will be beneficial to Iran and the USA.”
Moscow has played a role in Iran’s nuclear negotiations in the past as a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member and signatory to an earlier deal that Trump abandoned during his first term in 2018.
The sultan’s meetings in Moscow visit will focus on cooperation on regional and global issues, the Omani state news agency and the Kremlin said, without providing further detail.
The two leaders are also expected to discuss trade and economic ties, the Kremlin added.
The post Oman’s Sultan to Meet Putin in Moscow After Iran-US Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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