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‘Disgrace’: Rutgers University President to Leave Office After Spring Term Amid Campus Antisemitism Complaints
Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway attends a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing on pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses, on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, May 23, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades
Rutgers University president Jonathan Holloway, passed over for a more prestigious position at Yale University and beset by the misconduct of pro-Hamas students on which he has struggled to impose his authority, will leave office at the end of this academic year.
“Serving as the university president has been an enormous privilege and responsibility,” Holloway said on Tuesday in a letter to the campus community which touted the accomplishments of his administration. “Throughout my tenure, I have been appreciative of the former and respectful of the latter. I welcomed the opportunity to join the Rutgers community in July 2020 because I found inspiration in the possibilities that this institution represented.”
Holloway said that he believes Rutgers University today is a stronger and more respected institution than it was before he was appointed president in 2020, citing some $970 million in research grants awarded to the school during his tenure. However, Holloway’s alleged inattention to the concerns of Jewish students about rising antisemitism on the New Brunswick campus, which The Algemeiner has covered in numerous reports, has been a negative mark on the record of his leadership.
Holloway first waffled on the issue in 2021, when his administration denounced antisemitism and then apologized for doing so three days later in a statement which said its earlier position “failed to communicate support for our Palestinian community members.” With the Jewish community outraged, Holloway assumed the reins of official communications, and on May 29, 2021, he issued a third statement, signed solely by himself, which said, “We have not, nor would we ever, apologize for standing against antisemitism.”
Over the next several years, Rutgers would see a succession of antisemitic hate crimes on its campus. For three straight years, someone egged the home of Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi), a Jewish fraternity. Jewish students reported being subject to verbal abuse and property destruction, including several cases of tire slashing. After Hamas’s massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter cheered the deaths of Jews, and one of its sympathizers on campus called for a murder of a Jewish AEPi member, imploring someone to “go kill him.” In 2022, a caravan of SJP members drove to drove to AEPi’s house, shouting antisemitic slurs and spitting in the direction of fraternity members.
Rutgers Hillel was a sharp critic of the administration’s alleged failures, noting at one point that it could not bring itself to include antisemitism in a symposium on ethnic and racial hatred that was held in 2021. “Jews don’t count,” Rutgers Hillel said, adding, “This repeated erasure of Jewish concerns and identity is painful and bewildering to every member of the Rutgers Jewish community.”
The non-Jewish community rated Holloway poorly too. In 2023, he lost a no confidence vote, 89-47, following a faculty strike, fraught contract negotiations, and the firing of the chancellor of the university’s Newark campus, according to a 2023 report in the Philadelphia Inquirer. Later, the Yale Daily News reported, Holloway was conspicuously absent at faculty senate meetings and, one professor said, responded to adversity by exuding the condescension of an Ivy League elitist.
“He has consistently shown contempt for and disdain for the people who do the work of the university,” Rutgers English professor Jim Brown told the Yale Daily News. “He has shown little interest in the working or learning conditions of students, staff, and faculty at all Rutgers campuses.”
Some believed Holloway was biding his time, waiting for the moment when Yale University, his alma mater, would anoint him as its first Black president. Said an anonymous faculty member to the News, “I think he would see Yale as the pinnacle of his personal achievements. So yeah, I don’t think he wants to stick around at this public university any longer than he has to.”
Holloway was reportedly on the short list to replace Peter Salovey as president following Salovey’s retirement in 2024, but Yale chose someone else, Maurie McInnis, a week after Holloway botched an appearance at a US congressional hearing on campus antisemitism which could have raised confidence in his leadership skills and demonstrated his resolve to oppose political extremism and hate. During the hearing, Holloway appeared to defend the pro-Hamas organizers of a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” comparing them to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who he said was unpopular in his time. At one point, Holloway refused to answer whether he believes Israel is a “genocidal” country, agreeing only to say that Israel has a right to defend itself. Later, he stated that he does not believe that Israel is genocidal.
Responding to the announcement of his resignation, US Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) said Holloway should not wait until summer to leave office.
“Jonathan Holloway must resign in disgrace immediately for allowing antisemitic mobs to repeatedly target and threaten the safety of Jewish students, surrendering to the pro-Hamas encampment on campus, and continuing to employ antisemitic and terror-supporting faculty and staff,” she said.
Holloway said on Tuesday that he has “plenty to do before I complete my term,” adding, “I remain focused on that work, especially that which is committed to the connections between Rutgers and civic preparedness and civil discourse. But whatever the topic, I remain steadfast in my belief that Rutgers is on the rise and is earning the respect it has long deserved. I look forward to seeing it flourish in the years ahead.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post ‘Disgrace’: Rutgers University President to Leave Office After Spring Term Amid Campus Antisemitism Complaints first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.