Anti-Israel professor nearly put in charge of Holocaust studies at U of Minnesota
June 13, 2024
Antisemitism has infiltrated campuses across the country, as AIM has shown again and again — but this time, it’s a center for the study of the Holocaust blaming Jews and Israel.
The University of Minnesota paused the hiring of a professor who wrote that Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza after Oct. 7 was “a textbook case of genocide” to head the school’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS)
It’s not genocide, it’s obviously not genocide but someone whose comparison – supposed area of expertise – is the Holocaust is prepared to call it one.
On Oct. 13, just six days after Hamas terrorists infiltrated the Jewish state and slaughtered more than 1,000 Israelis, Stockton University professor Raz Segal penned an op-ed accusing Israel of genocide. Months later, the University of Minnesota tapped Segal to lead its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, prompting resignations from members of the center’s advisory board.
The op-ed is here and he says:
But the assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes. I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians.
The views themselves are strange and vile enough, but how can we explain that this person was to be appointed to run a Holocaust study center at an American college?
The lesson of this for us is that we’ve got to be vigilant – paranoid even – about how is being hired to run what in our society. Even to the point that Holocaust Studies becomes a matter of berating Jews and Israel rather than documenting the gross evils done to them.
“Reports of antisemitic incidents have reached record highs, and I have seen this proliferation of hate occur in real time,” said AIM President Adam Guillette. “Universities are again and again letting opportunities to stop antisemitism on campus slip through their fingers — and this was far too close of a call for a major state university.”