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Shunned by the right, targeted by the left, Eva Illouz confronts antisemitism masquerading as academic freedom

Last month, the Dutch city of Rotterdam became the latest stage for antisemites parading as anti-Zionists. It occurred at the city’s Erasmus School of Social and Behavioral Sciences, named after Desiderius Erasmus, the great Dutch humanist best known, rather ironically, for the satirical work, In Praise of Folly. In this instance, however, the academic fools strutting as anti-Zionists made the mistake of targeting the wrong person, Eva Illouz.

A member of the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris, Illouz is a renowned sociologist who has published several influential books on the role played by emotions in politics and economics. No less important, Illouz is a prominent public intellectual in France, where she is a frequent contributor to Le Monde, and Israel, where her byline is often found in the pages of Haaretz.

Illouz also holds the dubious distinction of winning but not receiving the prestigious Israel Prize. Earlier this year, the prize committee chose her for the award — previously given to figures like Amoz Oz, Martin Buber, and Gershom Scholem — but their decision was nullified by Yoav Kisch, the minister of education. Outraged that Illouz signed a petition sent to the International Crime Tribunal in 2021 to investigate alleged Israeli war crimes in the West Bank, Kisch denounced her “anti-Israel ideology.”

This was not the last folly that would befall Illouz this year. Invited to give a talk, “Romantic Love and Capitalism,” at the Love Lab, a research department at the Erasmus School, Illouz was then abruptly disinvited. Last month, she learned from the lab’s director that “not all the members of the faculty were “comfortable with the initial invitation.” The reason, predictably, was Illouz’s former affiliation with Hebrew University, even though she no longer taught there. While the decision was not unanimous, the director added, it was nevertheless arrived at “democratically.”

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In the spirit of Erasmus, Illouz replied that she was “delighted to learn that a truly antisemitic decision was arrived at democratically” for which the “faculty members must feel all the more virtuous.” But Illouz also asked a lawyer to challenge the decision which, earlier this week, led the school’s rector to issue both an official apology and a new invitation to speak at the school.

While Illouz will not pursue her case, the significance of this affair remains pertinent.  I asked Illouz to sit for a Zoom interview on her thoughts about this affair and the lessons we might take from it. The following conversation, slightly edited for reasons of space and style, begins with Illouz’s response to my question about the disinvitation.

Eva Illouz: If you are disinvited it could mean one or two things. First, it can be your opinion, but then, you know, there is nothing in my opinions that really changed since the time I was invited. And usually, if it is an opinion, people care to let you know. They want to let you know it’s because you spoke badly of trans people or because you express an offensive view about the biology of men and women or the hierarchy between the sexes, whatever. If it’s not an opinion, and of course it was not, then it means that it’s something about you.

This is where I think it gets interesting. The journalist from Le Monde managed to get a hold of one of the persons at the Love Lab, and the person told her that I still had a connection to Israel, And the proof of it was my email address. This is getting, I mean, really bizarre. But in fact, it’s not so bizarre because I think modern antisemitism is this capacity to turn Jews into an essence. An essence is something you cannot change. In the Christian world Jews could convert. They were evil, but not an essence. Modern anti-Semitism makes Jews into an evil essence. And this has been simply transposed to Israelis and Israeliness via decolonial discourse. An essence is something you can never leave behind. It defines your being. Like an email address.

Robert Zaretsky: But the notion of being Israeli, as an essence, that’s simply a surrogate, is it not, for anti -Jewish sentiment, a form of anti-Judaism? 

Yes, absolutely. Israelis are Jews but because hating Jews is out of fashion, Zionism and Israel become code words, conceptual substitutes for Jews. And the effects, interestingly enough, are exactly the same as they were in the Middle Ages or later times, namely to ostracize and isolate. To create a real or symbolic ghetto. IA ghetto is a place to which Jews are assigned because they are not allowed to interact with others. BDS ostracism and exclusion are strangely and eerily reminiscent of the ghetto.

So then, in a way, what you’re suggesting is the BDS movement or what took place with the Love Lab at Rotterdam was the making of a virtual ghetto. 

Absolutely, yeah. By the way, I think it’s interesting to note that in the homepage, I believe, of the BDS, they mention only institutions and not individuals.

Exactly, but they made an exception in your case.

In my case and in many other cases. I am not sure BDS speaks in good faith, because it is very unclear who does or doesn’t represent institutions and when an individual starts and a representative ends. Unsurprisingly Israeli institutions have become Israeli individuals, Israeli individuals have become Zionists at large, and Zionists are, surprise, Jews. All of these categories are intricately connected to each other. But they can hide safely behind these thick layers of obfuscations which turn anti-Zionism into an opinion.

How odd that earlier this year you were awarded the Israel Price, which was then clawed back by Netanyahu’s government because, in their eyes, you advocate an “anti-Israel ideology.”

Exactly. And it shows that the left, the extreme left and the extreme right use the same tactics.

Extremes meet.

They meet, they use the same tactics, and they are basically the same kind of people. They are bullies. They simply are bullies. As Trump says. If you’re not 100 % with me, I’ll go after you. Each side is a Trumpist at heart. If you’re not 100 % with them, they go and they come after you.

Which makes him the most dubious of allies for American Jews who think that Donald Trump, in fact, will protect Israel which, in fact, this not Donald Trump’s motivation. It’s purely transactional. And for an older generation of American Jews, unlike my children’s generation, they see Trump as a shield. And I think they are profoundly mistaken.

I mean, look at what is happening now. All the neo-Nazis ghosts are coming out. i They are like a Frankenstein creature which you can no longer control.  Trump in power has unleashed the darkest forces in America. The darkness of these forces has perhaps no precedent in the history of your country and the Jews will be in the middle.

It’s created a permission structure for people who have always felt this way to finally speak out aloud about what they feel towards Jews, what they feel towards blacks, what they feel towards women. 

In my opinion, Nick Fuentes is the real scary stuff. Judith Butler and Masha Gessen and Pankaj Mishra are adversaries (people I disagree with) but not enemies.

At first glance, the Rotterdam affair seems to have a happy ending. The university issued a public apology for what took place and made it very clear that what they did should not have been done. And so, one is tempted to say all’s well that ends well, but is that true?

It’s a small battle, but I’ve won it and its important for many reasons. One is that I went and took a lawyer who decided to go to the European court of justice and say, this is a blatant case of discrimination, which on the basis of nationality is prohibited as much as race or gender. Each one of us needs to refuse and fight against any act of discrimination not only because we are Jews but because we believe in the constitutional values of our countries.

Do you believe really that it was just legal pressure or that the administration realized that it had committed a mistake?

I will never know. I mean, you and I can speculate about it, but we will not know empirically what made them change and do this. They disavowed their faculty member and they took a position that is today, you know, not easy to take, certainly in Holland, where the freedom of expression is extremely wide. I have to credit the rector;  it must not have been a very easy decision to make.

What does this suggest about the role of university administrators?

I think university presidents need to be empowered. They need to be given more power to be able to make these kinds of judgments. Academic freedom has been the cover to excuse many egregious actions. I think it needs to be much clearer that academic freedom is actually much more limited than freedom of expression. Academic freedom is a misnomer. It is only the freedom to decide the content of your research and of what you teach. The classroom context actually prohibits you from saying a great deal many things and it’s a very good thing too.

Don’t you worry this would be considered a form of censorship?

As a French woman, I take it for granted that we have to do balancing act between freedom and the collective good. This is why we French people prosecute hate speech. We have rules and limits to protect the integrity and dignity of people. Strangely enough this applies to every single minority except for the Jews. It doesn’t work for them. If I had been a black woman, I want to hope there would have been an immediate scandal inside the university. And I believe there would have been. At least, I want to hope so. But somehow being excluded as a Jew diminishes the seriousness of the offense.

The post Shunned by the right, targeted by the left, Eva Illouz confronts antisemitism masquerading as academic freedom appeared first on The Forward.

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Israel, Argentina Strengthen Ties as Milei Plans to Open Embassy in Jerusalem, Saar Leads Diplomatic Mission

Argentine President Javier Milei meets with Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar in Buenos Aires during Saar’s diplomatic and economic visit to strengthen ties between the two countries. Photo: Screenshot

Israel expects Argentine President Javier Milei to open his country’s embassy in Jerusalem next year, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday, as the two allies continue to strengthen their bilateral ties.

“We hope to have the president in April or May to open Argentina’s embassy in Jerusalem, DC — David’s Capital,” the top Israeli diplomat said during a speech at the Israel-Argentina Business Forum in Buenos Aires. 

Earlier this year, the Argentine leader announced during his visit to Israel that his country plans to open its embassy in Jerusalem in 2026.

As part of his diplomatic trip this week, Saar traveled to Paraguay and Argentina, leading a business and economic delegation that included senior government officials, company representatives, and key economic leaders to promote expanded cooperation between the countries.

“The president of Argentina [Milei] is one of the world’s boldest and most impressive leaders. It was a true honor to meet him in Buenos Aires and discuss our extraordinary bilateral relations,” the Israeli diplomat said in a social media post on X. 

“The economic delegation accompanying me today is an expression of our belief in the president’s bold economic reforms and Argentina’s economy under his leadership,” he continued.

During his visit, Saar announced that Israel will open an Economic Attaché Office in Buenos Aires next year, emphasizing the country’s goal to “dramatically increase” investments in its partner nation.

“I thanked the president for standing consistently by Israel on the international stage,” Saar said. “Argentina, under President Milei’s leadership, is one of Israel’s best friends in the world. We’ll continue strengthening these extraordinary relations!”

He also met with Argentina’s Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno, who is scheduled to visit Israel in February, and with Defense Minister Luis Petri to discuss ways to strengthen both security and economic ties between the two countries.

“We appreciate the minister’s friendship and crucial role in Argentina’s designation of Hamas and Hezbollah as terror organizations,” Saar wrote in a post on X. 

“Argentina, under President Milei’s leadership, is clearly on the right path!” he added. 

Israel’s top diplomat was scheduled to attend memorial events honoring the victims of the 1992 Israeli Embassy bombing and the 1994 attack on the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires — two of the deadliest terrorist attacks in the country, which claimed 29 and 85 lives, respectively.

Saar will also address the 90th anniversary celebration of the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the umbrella organization representing Jewish institutions in Argentina.

Earlier this week, Saar kicked off his diplomatic trip in Paraguay, signing a security cooperation memorandum and meeting with President Santiago Peña, whom he praised as “one of the most impressive leaders on the international stage today.”

“Paraguay is developing major defense capabilities. Israel’s defense industry has experience and capabilities that we want to share with you,” the Israeli official said during a press conference with Paraguay’s Foreign Minister Rubén Ramírez Lezcano.

Saar also praised Peña for moving the country’s embassy to Jerusalem, honoring his predecessor’s promise from 2018, and for formally designating Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as well as the political wings of Hamas and Hezbollah, as terrorist organizations. Paraguay had previously proscribed just the military wings of the two Iran-backed Islamist groups, both of which have been internationally designated as terrorist organizations.

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Harvard Law Professor Takes Plea Deal for Shooting Incident Near Synagogue

April 20, 2025, Cambridge, MA, USA: Harvard University and Harvard Square scenes with students and pedestrians. Photo: Kenneth Martin/ZUMA Press Wire via Reuters Connect.

A Harvard Law School visiting professor has accepted a plea agreement which absolves him of a slew of criminal charges he incurred for firing a pellet gun near a synagogue in Greater Boston on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, last month.

Carlos Portugal Gouvea, 43, has insisted he was “hunting rats” when his pumping two shots of non-lethal ammunition through a car window and across the property of Temple Beth Zion in the town of Brookline while worshippers attended service inside forced the synagogue into lockdown. According to multiple reports, the institution’s private security team found Gouvea behind a tree while searching the area for the source of the disturbance.

Upon being approached by the men, Gouvea voluntarily disarmed, putting his gun down, but he then reportedly used force to prevent being detained and thereafter absconded from the scene. Law enforcement officers later arrested him at home.

Since the incident, Gouvea, whose wife and children are Jewish, has maintained that antisemitism did not motivate his conduct, a contention that is believed by Temple Beth Zion and local Jewish leaders. He was charged in the Brookline District Court with one felony — vandalizing property — and three misdemeanors: disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and illegally firing a pellet gun.

Under the plea deal, three of the charges were dismissed, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. For the remaining charge, illegally discharging a pellet gun, The Harvard Crimson reported that Gouvea must pay $386.59 in restitution to the individual whose car window he broke with a pellet. He also agreed to six months of pre-trial probation.

To this day, the professor has neither been accused of nor charged with committing a hate and maintains that he was not even aware that he had entered the grounds of a synagogue when he fired the shots which have upended his life.

“This man is married to a Jewish woman and has Jewish children, and it’s absolutely nothing to do with targeting the Jewish community,” Harvard Chabad Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi proclaimed during an Oct. 7 vigil held at Harvard earlier this year. “If it adds a measure of comfort and reassurance to our community, I thought it’s appropriate to just share that, so we can all take a sigh of relief.”

However, Harvard University placed Gouvea on administrative leave pending the outcome of criminal proceedings, a decision made amid widespread concern from prominent donors, Jewish leaders, and the federal government that the school’s attitude toward antisemitism on campus has been cavalier. Harvard is currently fighting a lawsuit which alleges that it declined to punish two students who led an anti-Israel mob which surrounded a Jewish classmate and screamed “Shame!” at him to protest Israel.

It is not clear when Gouvea will return to campus.

Harvard’s relationship with the Jewish community became a staple of American news coverage ever since some of its students cheered Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, in which Palestinian terrorists indiscriminately murdered Israelis while sexually assaulting both women and men. Later, students stormed academic buildings chanting “globalize the intifada”; a faculty group posted an antisemitic cartoon on its social media page; and the Harvard Law School student government passed a resolution that falsely accused Israel of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

Since US President Donald Trump’s election in November 2024, Harvard has attempted to turn over a new leaf, settling lawsuits which stipulate its adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) widely used definition of antisemitism and even shuttering far-left initiatives which were adjacent to extreme anti-Zionist viewpoints.

In July, the university announced new partnerships with Israeli academic institutions, saying it will establish a new study abroad program, in partnership with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, for undergraduate students and a postdoctoral fellowship in which Harvard Medical School faculty will mentor and train newly credentialed Israeli scientists in biomedical research as preparation for the next stages of their careers.

Speaking to The Harvard Crimson — which has endorsed boycotting Israel — Harvard vice provost for international affairs Mark Elliot trumpeted the announcement as a positive development and, notably, as a continuation, not a beginning, of Harvard’s “engagement with institutions of higher education across Israel.” Elliot added that Harvard is planning “increased academic collaboration across the region in the coming years.”

Meanwhile, Harvard continues to see outbursts of antisemitic activity — most recently from its far-right students.

In September, a conservative student magazine, The Harvard Salient, at Harvard University published an article which echoed the words of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Written by David F.X. Army, the article chillingly echoed a January 1939 Reichstag speech in which Hitler portended mass killings of Jews as the outcome of Germany’s inexorable march toward war with France and Great Britain. Whereas Hitler said, “France to the French, England to the English, America to the Americans, and Germany to the Germans,” Army wrote, “Germany belongs to the Germans, France to the French, Britain to the British, America to the Americans.”

Army also called for the adoption of notions of “blood, soil, language, and love of one’s own” in response to concerns over large-scale migration of Muslims into Europe.

In Nazi ideology, “blood and soil,” or Blut und Boden, encapsulated the party’s belief in eugenics and racial purity; the German “Aryans’” right to expand into Eastern Europe to amass new Lebensraum, or “living space”; and the transformation of the German peasantry into an agricultural class which stood in contrasts to Jews, many of whom lived in cities.

Last month, the magazine’s board announced that the publication would temporarily halt its operations pending an investigation.

The Salient said that Army has not consumed Nazi literature and that no one who reviewed his contribution recognized its Nazi tropes. Denouncing scrutiny of the Salient as a political conspiracy on a campus in which students say promoting conservative viewpoints is a social crime, magazine editor Richard Y. Rodgers said The Harvard Crimson, the main campus newspaper, converted the “resemblance” into a “headline.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

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Tidbits: The first female Orthodox Jewish mayor in the U.S

Tidbits is a Forverts feature of easy news briefs in Yiddish that you can listen to or read, or both! If you read the article and don’t know a word, just click on it and the translation appears. You’ll also find the link to the article in English after each news brief.


צום ערשטן מאָל אין דער אַמעריקאַנער געשיכטע האָט אַ פֿרומע ייִדישע פֿרוי דערגרייכט דעם אַמט פֿון בירגער־מײַסטער.

מישעל ווײַס, אַ רעפּובליקאַנערין וואָס האָט במשך פֿון די פֿאַרגאַנגענע 15 יאָר געדינט ווי אַ מיטגליד פֿונעם שטאָטראַט פֿון יוניווערסיטי הײַטס, אָהײַאָ — אַ פֿאָרשטאָט פֿון קליוולאַנד — האָט געוווּנען די וואַלן, נישט געקוקט אויף דעם וואָס די שטאָט איז טיף דעמאָקראַטיש־געשטימט.

דערצו האָט זי געוווּנען דעם פֿאַרמעסט מיט אַ ממשותדיקער מערהייט — מער ווי 56%. איר קאָנקורענט, דזשיי טשאָנסי האָטאָן, פֿון דער דעמאָקראַטישער פּאַרטיי, האָט באַקומען 37%. אַ דריטער קאַנדידאַט, פֿיליפּ אַטקין, וואָס געהערט נישט צו קיין פּאַרטיי, האָט באַקומען 6%.

אין יוניווערסיטי הײַטס וווינען בערך 13,000 מענטשן.

ווײַס, אַ מאַמע און אַ באָבע וואָס וווינט אין דער שטאָט שוין 29 יאָר, האָט אָנגעהויבן איר פּאָליטישע טעטיקייט ווי אַ וואָלונטיר און האָט זיך אַרויפֿגעאַרבעט צו וויצע־בירגערמײַסטערין. במשך פֿון די יאָרן איז איר שם געוואַקסן אַ דאַנק איר פֿינאַנץ־דיסציפּלין, איר שטיצע פֿאַר אָפּהיטן די סבֿיבֿה און איר פֿאָקוס אויף פֿאַרבעסערן די אינפֿראַסטרוקטור.

ווײַס האָט געזאָגט אַז איר ערשטע פּריאָריטעט וועט זײַן צו היילן די פּאָליטישע שפּאַלטונג אין דער שטאָט־רעגירונג. זי האָט קריטיקירט די פֿריִערדיקע אַדמיניסטראַציע פֿאַרן שאַפֿן אַ שפּאַנונג צווישן דעמאָקראַטן און רעפּובליקאַנער און האָט געזאָגט, אַז זי האָפֿט אויפֿצוריכטן אַ געפֿיל פֿון צוזאַמענאַרבעט, בעת זי נעמט זיך אונטער עטלעכע גרויסע אינפֿראַסטרוקטור־פּראָיעקטן.

אין אַ צײַט פֿון שטײַגנדיקן אַנטיסעמיטיזם אין די פֿאַראייניקטע שטאַטן, האָט ווײַס באַטאָנט אַז מע מוז פֿאַרבעסערן די קאָאָפּעראַציע צווישן דער פּאָליציי און דער זיכערהייט־דינסט בײַ קליוולאַנדס ייִדישער פֿעדעראַציע. זי האָט אויך געזאָגט אַז ס׳איז וויכטיק צו באַשיצן די פֿאַרשידנאַרטיקייט פֿון דער שטאָט־באַפֿעלקערונג. אין איין ראַיאָן פֿון צוויי קוואַדראַט־מײַל געפֿינען זיך נישט ווייניקער ווי 17 עטנישע גרופּעס.

ווײַס האָפֿט אַז איר דערוויילט ווערן וועט אינספּירירן אַנדערע פֿרומע ייִדישע פֿרויען צו קאַנדידירן אויף אַ פּאָליטישן אַמט. „איר קענט ווײַטער לעבן לויט אײַערע ווערטן בשעת איר דינט די רעגירונג,“ האָט זי געזאָגט.

כּדי צו לייענען דעם אַרטיקל אויף ענגליש גיט אַ קוועטש דאָ.

In order to read this article in English, click here.

The post Tidbits: The first female Orthodox Jewish mayor in the U.S appeared first on The Forward.

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