SOLD OUT AMERICA, SHILLING FOR ISRAEL
"President Emeritus Yudof is a renowned authority on constitutional law, freedom of expression and education law. A Philadelphia native, he earned both LL.B. and B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2013, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion awarded him an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, honors cause."
with Board Advisors including Larry Summers and Donna Shalala
AEN a Berkeley-based Anti-Free Speech Organization | Backed by the State of Israel | Led by Mark Yudof
Leader: Mark Yudof UC President (of all 10 Campuses) Emeritus, Professor of Law (Emeritus), UC Berkeley
Our Vision
We envision a world where American higher education welcomes, respects, and supports the expression of Jewish identity and robust discourse about Israel. [i.e. don’t critcize Israeli government policy of Apartheid or we will brand you as anti-semitic. Or as Shimon Peres said when writing to the South Africans
Our Mission
Founded in 2015, the Academic Engagement Network (AEN) is an independently run non-profit organization headquartered in Washington, D.C. which mobilizes networks of university faculty and administrators to
Counter antisemitism [Censorship, Cancel Culture, Victim]
Oppose the denigration of Jewish and Zionist identities [Stealing Arab Land is Kosher]
Promote academic freedom [i.e. NO BDS, NO criticism of Israel]
Advance education about Israel [why Bibi King of Jew Supremacy is Never Wrong]
In recent years, Israel’s detractors on campus — both faculty and students — have used increasingly aggressive tactics to delegitimize Israel and demoralize its supporters. [ding ding-3D IHRA definition]
These have included attempts to exclude Jewish and Zionist students [? Do you support racism robbing other human beings of their land?] from participation in progressive coalitions, efforts to withdraw their own universities from study abroad and exchange relationships with Israeli academic institutions, campaigns seeking to discredit major Jewish American organizations and initiatives, denials of funding and recognition to pro-Israel student organizations, and refusals to write letters of recommendation for students wishing to study at Israeli universities.
These currents result in a coarsened, hostile climate for Jewish and Zionist faculty and students and run contrary to the fundamental values of the academy.
AEN believes that faculty can play a critical role in countering these trends, including by using their institutional knowledge, authority, and academic expertise to speak, write, mentor students, host campus programs, work constructively with campus leaders and stakeholders, and more.
To support members in their efforts to further the organization’s goals, AEN provides micro-grants and Speakers Bureau grants to host campus programs; prepares guides and other educational resources; sponsors events for faculty; offers advice and guidance to faculty members who are facing issues on their campuses; and connects and mobilizes members in a growing national multidirectional network.
AEN offers its members several programs to support them in their work on campus. Learn about each program below:
AEN’s Regional Short Courses provide an opportunity for AEN members to learn more about contemporary Israel, develop strategies related to BDS on campus, and network with other interested faculty. The purpose of the Short Course is to bolster the knowledge and skill set of AEN members who we hope will be active as regional leaders in AEN’s efforts to respond to BDS and similar challenges on their campuses.
These 3-day courses will be residence-based, academically immersive, and interactive, will be limited to 15-20 participants per course, and will take place in regional hubs around the country. Reasonable travel and stay costs will be paid for by AEN.
Previous Short Courses have taken place in Atlanta, Cleveland, Boca Raton, Boston, Dallas, and Minneapolis.
Source: Leadership | Academic Engagement Network
Stanford University, Roger D. Kornberg
Roger Kornberg is the Mrs. George A. Winzer Professor in Medicine at Stanford University’s School of Medicine. In 2006, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discoveries related to how genetic information stored in DNA is processed by the cell’s internal machinery; the conversion, or transcription, of DNA into RNA underlies all aspects of cellular metabolism. His father Arthur Kornberg had received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1959.
Brandeis University, David Ellenson
Rabbi David Ellenson is currently Director of the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies at Brandeis University, where he is also Visiting Professor of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies. Before this, Ellenson served from 2001-2013 as the 8th president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), and is now chancellor emeritus. Holding a doctorate from Columbia University, he has been a Fellow and Lecturer at the Institute for Advanced Studies as a well as a Lady Davis Visiting Professor of the Humanities at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Smith College, Donna Robinson Divine
Donna Robinson Divine is the Morningstar Family Professor of Jewish Studies and Professor of Government emerita at Smith College, where she taught a variety of courses on Middle East politics. Able to draw on material in Hebrew, Arabic, and Turkish, her books include Women Living Change: Cross-Cultural Perspectives; Essays from the Smith College Research Project on Women and Social Change; Politics and Society in Ottoman Palestine: The Arab Struggle for Survival and Power; Postcolonial Theory and the Arab-Israeli Conflict; Exiled in the Homeland: Zionism and the Return to Mandate Palestine and Word Crimes: Reclaiming the Language of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
University of Miami, Donna Shalala
Donna E. Shalala is the Trustee Professor of Political Science and Health Policy at the University of Miami, having previously served as President from 2001-2015. She is a board member and former president and CEO of the Clinton Foundation, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She served as president of Hunter College of CUNY from 1980 to 1987, and as chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1987 to 1993. In 1993, President Clinton nominated Shalala as Secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS), where she served for eight years.
Harvard University, Gabriella Blum
Gabriella Blum is the Rita E. Hauser Professor of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law at Harvard Law School, specializing in public international law, international negotiations, the law of armed conflict, and counterterrorism. She is also the Faculty Director of the Program on International Law and Armed Conflict (PILAC) and a member of the Program on Negotiation Executive Board. Prior to joining the Harvard faculty in fall 2005, Blum served for seven years as a Senior Legal Advisor in the International Law Department of the Military Advocate General’s Corps in the Israel Defense Forces, and for another year, as a Strategy Advisor to the Israeli National Security Council.
Israel Action Network, Geri D. Palast
Geri D. Palast is the Executive Director of the Israel Action Network (IAN), an initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) in partnership with the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA), created to counter the assault on Israel’s legitimacy. She is a graduate of Stanford University and of New York University Law School, and has had a rich and diverse career, including extensive experience organizing and leading broad-based national grassroots and legislative issue campaigns. From 1993-2000, she served as the U.S. Assistant Secretary of Labor for Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs during the Clinton Administration. Previously, she was national Legislative and Political Director of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).
Howard University H. Patrick Swygert [racial diversity pick)
H. Patrick Swygert served as President of Howard University from 1995 to 2008. He is currently President Emeritus and professor of law at Howard, where he earned undergraduate and law degrees. Mr. Swygert also was president of the University at Albany-State University of New York from 1990-1995, Before that, he was a faculty member at Temple University Law School and subsequently held positions as executive vice president, vice president for university administration, and special counsel to the president.
McGill University, Irwin Cotler
The Honorable Irwin Cotler is Canada’s Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism, International Chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, an Emeritus Professor of Law at McGill University, former Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, longtime Member of the Canadian Parliament, and a a member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom.
University of Illinois, Jeffrey R. Brown
Jeff Brown is the Josef and Margot Lakonishok Professor in Business and Dean of the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois. As Dean, he launched the world’s first MOOC-based iMBA degree in partnership Coursera, secured a $150 million naming gift for the Gies College of Business, and repositioned the College as a leader in the teaching and practice of innovation. A member of the Illinois faculty since 2002, Brown previously served on the faculty at Harvard’s Kennedy School, as an economist on the President’s Commission to Strengthen Social Security, with the White House Council of Economic Advisers, and as a member of the Social Security Advisory Board.
Harvard Law School, Jesse Fried
Jesse Fried is the Dane Professor of Law at Harvard Law School. Before joining the Harvard faculty in 2009, Fried was a Professor of Law and Faculty Co-Director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy (BCLBE) at the University of California, Berkeley. Fried has also been a visiting professor at Columbia University Law School, Duisenberg School of Finance, Hebrew University, IDC Herzilya, and Tel Aviv University.
Stanford University, Larry Diamond
Larry Diamond is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, where he directs the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law. Diamond is also the Peter E. Haas Faculty Co-Director of the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford. He is the founding co-editor of the Journal of Democracy and is Senior Consultant at the International Forum for Democratic Studies of the National Endowment for Democracy. He was consultant to the U.S. Agency for International Development and has also advised and lectured to the World Bank, the United Nations, the State Department, and other governmental and nongovernmental agencies.
Harvard University, Lawrence H. Summers
Lawrence H. Summers is the Charles W. Eliot University Professor and President Emeritus of Harvard University. A former Secretary of the Treasury of the U.S., he has served over the past two decades in a series of senior policy positions, including Vice President of Development Economics and Chief Economist of the World Bank, Undersecretary of the Treasury for Internal Affairs, and, from 2009–11, Director of the National Economic Council for the Obama Administration.
University of California Los Angeles, Rachel F. Moran 1/
Rachel F. Moran is the Dean Emerita and Michael J. Connell Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law. Prior to her appointment at UCLA, Professor Moran was the Robert D. and Leslie-Kay Raven Professor of Law at UC Berkeley School of Law, where she taught for twenty-five years and received the university’s Distinguished Teaching Award. Moran has also served at UC Berkeley as Chair of the Chicano/Latino Policy Project at its Institute for the Study of Social Change and as the Institute’s director. She was the first Latina dean of a top-ranked U.S. law school as well as UC Berkeley’s first Latina law professor. From July 2008 to June 2010, Moran served as a founding faculty member of the UC Irvine Law School. In 2009, Dean Moran was appointed as President of the Association of American Law Schools, and two years later was nominated by President Obama to the Permanent Committee for the Oliver Wendell Holmes Devise, which maintains the official history of the U.S. Supreme Court.
University of Texas at San Antonio, Ricardo Romo
Ricardo Romo served as the fifth president of the University of Texas at San Antonio from 1999 to 2017. Under his leadership, UTSA grew in student enrollment, academic programs, and research facilities, and been recognized as an emerging Tier One research institution. Romo has received numerous awards for his contributions to higher education and social justice: the San Antonio North Chamber Gov. Dolphin Briscoe Salute to Excellence Award (2010); the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE) Chief Executive Leadership Award (2011); the Colonel W.T. Bondurant Sr. Distinguished Humanitarian Award (2012); the Clark Kerr Award for Distinguished Leadership in Higher Education (2013); the Wheaton College Otis Social Justice Award (2013). In May 2011,
George Washington University, Stephen Joel Trachtenberg
Stephen Trachtenberg served as the 15th president of George Washington University from 1988 to 2007, and is now President Emeritus and University Professor of Public Service. Trachtenberg came to George Washington from the University of Hartford, where he served as president for eleven years. His views on issues pertaining to higher education are widely published internationally. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of the Arts and Sciences, the American Bar Foundation, and the National Academy of Public Administration. Trachtenberg has served in several government positions, including attorney with the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, legislative aide to former Indiana Congressman John Brademas, and special assistant to the U.S. Education Commissioner.
University of California-Berkeley, Steven Davidoff Solomon
Steven Davidoff Solomon is professor of law at UC-Berkeley and co-director of the Berkeley Center for Law, Business and the Economy. The National Association of Corporate Directors has three times named him as one of the 100 most influential people in the United States corporate boardroom community.
Harvard University, Steven Pinker
Steven Pinker is Johnstone Family Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His research on language and cognition has won prizes from the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the American Psychological Association, and the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. He has also received several teaching awards and many prizes for his ten books, including The Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate, and The Better Angels of Our Nature. He has been named Humanist of the Year, and has been listed among Foreign Policy magazine’s “The World’s Top 100 Public Intellectuals” and Time’s “The 100 Most Influential People in the World Today.” He is currently Chair of the Usage Panel of the American Heritage Dictionary, and writes frequently for The New York Times, Time, The New Republic, and other publications. His most recent book is The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century.
University of Connecticut, Susan Herbst
Susan Herbst is University Professor of Political Science and President Emeritus at the University of Connecticut. She served for eight years as the 15th President of UCONN and returned to the faculty in 2019. Herbst is author of four books about American politics and public opinion, including most recently Rude Democracy: Civility and Incivility in American Politics. Before coming to UCONN, she was Professor and Chair of Political Science at Northwestern University, Dean of Liberal Arts at Temple University, and Chief Academic Officer for the University System of Georgia.
University of Virginia, Teresa Sullivan
Teresa Sullivan is President Emerita of the University of Virginia, having served as the institution’s eighth president from 2010-2018. A respected scholar in labor force demography, she is the author or coauthor of six books, including The Social Organization of Work and The Fragile Middle Class: Americans in Debt. and many scholarly articles. She is also a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Sullivan arrived at UVA from the University of Michigan, where she was provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.
University of Maryland, William E. (Brit) Kirwan
Brit Kirwan is Chancellor Emeritus of the University System of Maryland, serving as chancellor from 2002 to 2015. Prior to that position, he was the 12th president of the Ohio State University and 26th president of University of Maryland, College Park where he was also professor, provost and chair of the mathematics department. Brit is a nationally recognized authority on critical issues in higher education and speaks on a wide range of topics, including diversity, access and affordability, cost containment, economic impact, gender equity, financial aid and innovation.
Source: Leadership | Academic Engagement Network
SOURCE: INTERNET ARCHIVE 2017 , 2017, and 2021
Our slogan: Anti-Racist = Anti-Apartheid = Anti-Zionist =
AntiSemitism = Stop the Steal (of land & Your Rights)
AEN National Speakers Bureau 2017-18
Under the AEN Speakers Bureau program, the speakers listed below will be available in the 2017-18 academic year for individual subsidized visits to campuses through AEN member invitations. Each speaker will receive a $1000 honorarium from AEN for a public talk, followed by a participatory sessions with students and/or faculty in a class or a small group setting. We encourage you to draw on the expertise of these AEN members.
AEN members who seek to sponsor panels of speakers – that is, two or more speakers – should contact Ken Waltzer, Executive Director. AEN will sponsor a few such panels, contingent on considerations of costs and approval by the invited speakers.
In keeping with a grant the AEN has received from the Natan Fund through its “Confronting Antisemitism” initiative, one new emphasis this year is consideration of rising antisemitism on campus and in society as a whole. Several specialists on the list can address this concern.
Speakers:
Yael Aronoff, Michigan State University
Yaron Ayalon, Ball State University
Corinne Blackmer, Southern Connecticut State University
Alan Dowty, Notre Dame University
Miriam Elman, Syracuse University
Janet Freedman, Brandeis University
Chad Goldberg, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Ron Hassner, University of California-Berkeley
Jeffrey Herf, University of Maryland
Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
Neil Kressel, William Paterson College
Jonathan Marks, Ursinus College
Cary Nelson, University of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Elie Rekhess, Northwestern University
Alvin Rosenfeld, University of Indiana or Gunther Jikeli, University of Indiana
Jonathan Skolnik, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
Kenneth Waltzer, Michigan State University
Professor David Graizbord is a historian of early modern and modern Jews. In particular, Professor Graizbord’s writing approaches questions of religious, social, and political identity as these questions shaped the lives of Jews and of non-Jewish people of Jewish origin whom bigots perceive as “Jewish.” He’s written about Judeophobia and the culture of the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions; marginality and dissidence in Jewish and Catholic societies of seventeenth-century Iberia; ethnicity and religion among Sephardim from medieval times to the 1700s; and New Christian/Converso trading networks in the Atlantic basin. More recently, he has published research on Jewish ethnic identity and Zionism among American Jews. His book, The New Zionists: Young American Jews, Jewish National Identity, and Israel, was issued by Rowman & Littlefield in 2020. The study ad Lidresses the historical question of why American Jewish Millennials who call themselves “Zionists” and “anti-Zionists” approach their political and social identity as they do.
Speaking Topics:
Zionism and anti-Zionism among members of Generation Y (Millennials) in the U.S.
Jewish identity and the question of antisemitism in historical perspective: From the Hebrew Bible to Jon Stewart and Gal Gadot
Jewish Renegades and Denunciators as anti-Jewish polemicists in history: from Medieval Spain to JVP
The Spanish Inquisition and the Anti-Zionist Avalanche: Historical Continuities and Contrasts
Professor Ran Kivetz is a tenured professor at Columbia University Business School, where he holds the Philip H. Geier endowed chair. Professor Kivetz is a leading expert in the areas of behavioral economics, decision-making, marketing, customer behavior, incentives, and innovation. His experience in these fields includes over twenty years of research, management, consulting, and teaching. His latest research explores political science and political psychology through the lens of behavioral economics and decision research.
Yael Aronoff is the Michael and Elaine Serling Professor of Israel Studies and Director of Jewish Studies at Michigan State University. She is an award-winning political scientist, author of The Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers: When Hard-Liners Opt for Peace, and is at work on The Challenges of Asymmetric Conflict, which will include information about the U.S. and Israel.
Topics:
“Political Psychology of Israeli Prime Ministers: When Hard-Liners Opt for Peace”
“Prospects: Progress and Setbacks in Negotiating Israeli-Palestinian Peace”
“The Challenges of Asymmetric Conflict: Continuing Questions from Israeli Experience”
“Shifting Sands in the Middle East: Opportunities and Challenges for Israel”
Yaron Ayalon is Assistant Professor of History and Associate Director of the Jewish Studies Program at Ball State University in Indiana. He is a historian of the Middle East, Ottoman Empire, and Sephardi/Mizrahi Jews. He is the author of Natural Disasters in the Ottoman Empire: Plague, Famine, and Other Misfortunes (2014) and is completing another book on The Jews of the Ottoman Empire. He has taught the history and politics of the Middle East, Israel, and the Arab-Israeli conflict for more than a decade.
Topics:
“The Arab-Israeli Conflict and the BDS Movement”
“History and Politics of Israel”
“Sephardic Jews in the Diaspora and Israel”
Corinne Blackmer is Associate Professor of English and Judaic Studies at Southern Connecticut State University, where she also directs the Jewish Studies Program. She is currently preparing a manuscript, Queering Anti-Zionism: LGBT Academic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Activism.
Topics:
“Pinkwashing and Antisemitism in the LGBT Movement”
“Antisemitism and LGBT Intersectionality Theory”
“How the Jewish Queer Left Becomes Anti-Zionist: The Example of Judith Butler”
Updated for 2021 - Link
Pinkwashing
Personal experiences with antisemitic and homophobic hate crimes and their repercussions
Queer pro-BDS activists and their arguments
BDS on campus
Alan Dowty is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame, former President of the Israel Studies Association, and an expert on Israel, Arab-Israeli issues, and Middle East politics. He is the author of The Jewish State: A Century Later and Israel/Palestine, now in its third edition. He is in the process of finishing a new volume titled, The Origins of the Arab Israeli Conflict.
Topics:
“The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict”
“The Fourth Stage of the Arab Israel Conflict: Since the Turn of the Century”
“The Iran Nuclear Deal and Israel”
Miriam Elman is Associate Professor of Political Science and Research Director for the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. She is the author of Paths to Peace and Progress in International Relations Theory, and with Madelaine Adelman, has edited Jerusalem: Conflict and Cooperation in a Contested City.
Topics:
“Academic Freedom, Free Speech and BDS: Advancing Viewpoint Diversity on Campus”
“Antisemitism/Anti-Zionism: When Does Criticism of Israel Become Hate Speech?” [as soon as you open your mouth]
“Combatting the Anti-Israel BDS Movement”
“Dilemmas of Israeli-Palestinian Peacemaking”
“The Future of the U.S.-Israel Relationship”
“Jerusalem: Secular/Sacred Contestation”
Janet Freedman is a Resident Scholar at the Brandeis University Women’s Studies Research Center. She previously served as Dean of Library Services and Professor of Education and Women’s Studies at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, where she was also an active participant in and volunteer co-director of the Center for Jewish Culture.
Topics:
“Feminism and Zionism: Incompatible? Says Who?
“Talking About Israel: The Words to Say It, The Ways to Do It”
Chad Alan Goldberg is Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the author of Modernity and the Jews in Western Social Thought. Reflecting on the centrality of Jews and Judaism in Western European and American social thought in the early 20th century, Goldberg suggests a rethinking of previous scholarship on Orientalism and Occidentalism, and reflects on the continued centrality of the Jews, and now the Jewish state, 21st century social thought.
Topics:
“Marginal Man Revisited: Jews and Modernity in the Chicago School of Sociology”
“Capitalism and the Jews in German Social Thought”
“New Jews and Old in the 21st Century” (Are Muslims the “new Jews”?)
Ron Hassner is Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of California at Berkeley, and a scholar of religion and international conflict. He is a distinguished teacher, recognized by UC-Berkeley, the American Political Science Association, and students for teaching excellence. Hassner is the author of War on Sacred Grounds and Religion on the Battlefield, and, with Isaac Svenson, edited the four-volume collection Religion and International Relations.
Topics:
“History of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount”
“Antisemitism: Roots and Current Trends”
“Religion and War” [Bibi’s favorite topic]
Jeffrey Herf is Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Maryland and author of Reactionary Modernism: Technology, Culture, and Politics in Weimar and the Third Reich; Divided Memory: The Nazi Past in the Two Germanys; The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocaust; Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World; and Undeclared Wars with Israel: East Germany and the West German Far Left, 1967-1989. His work has won the Charles Frankel award, the AHA George Luis Beer Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, and many other honors. Herf focuses on the multiple linkages between Cold War Soviet bloc politics and contemporary anti-Zionism, as well as Nazi influences in Middle East thought. In Fall 2017, he will be teaching a course on antisemitism in historical perspective.
Topics: [Demonizing the Left]
“Countering BDS Efforts on Campus and in Professional Organizations: Historical Arguments and Practical Experiences”
“The Soviet Bloc and Anti-Zionism during the Cold War”
“”Varieties of Anti-Zionism: Nazism, Communism, Islamism, and the Western Far Left”
Susannah.Heschel@dartmouth.edu
Susannah Heschel is Professor and Director of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College and the author of Abraham Geiger and the Jewish Jesus, which won a National Jewish Book Award, and of The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany. She has also edited a collection of writings on Judaism and feminism called On Being a Jewish Feminist, as well as the essays of Abraham Joshua Heschel in a collection titled Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity. Together with David Biale and Michael Galchinsky, she co-edited the provocative Insider/Outsider: American Jews and Multiculturalism.
Topics:
“What is Zionism?”
“Judaism in Israel: Spiritual Inspirations and Religious Conflicts”
“Zionism and Feminism”
Neil J. Kressel, a social psychologist, has spent more than three decades studying antisemitism, religious extremism, and political psychology. He heads the Honors Program in the Social Sciences at William Paterson University. Kressel’s published books include The Sons of Pigs and Apes: Muslim Antisemitism and the Conspiracy of Silence, and Mass Hate: The Global Rise of Genocide and Terror.
Topics:
“Why Well-Intentioned Westerners Fail to Grasp the Dangers Associated with Muslim Antisemitism”
“The Failure of the Anti-Racist Community: The Neglect of Antisemitism in Courses, Textbooks, and Research”
“What do Empirical Studies Tell Us about Contemporary Jew Hatred around the Globe”
Jonathan Marks is Professor of Political Philosophy in the Department of Politics at Ursinus College, where he is a leading scholar on the thought of Jean Jacques Rousseau. He writes regularly on BDS on campus and in academic associations for Commentary magazine.
Topics:
“Socrates at the Center: Liberal Education Confronts BDS” (What means can one deploy in dealing with BDS and related phenomena consistent with the missions of colleges and universities devoted to liberal education?)
“A Torrent of Angry and Malignant Passions Will Be Let Loose: Political Controversy in the Academy” (The tension between the needs of activists and needs of teachers and students).
Cary Nelson is the Jubilee Professor Emeritus of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. Active in opposing BDS since 2007, he is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including No University is an Island: Saving Academic Freedom; The Case Against Academic Boycotts of Israel (with Gabriel Brahm); and Dreams Deferred: A Concise Guide to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Movement to Boycott Israel. He is the former president of the American Association of University Professors and an authority on academic freedom.
Topics:
“Is there Still Hope for a Two-State Solution?”
“How Does the BDS Movement Undermine the Search for Peace?”
“The BDS Threat to Academic Freedom, Civility, and Peace”
“Poetry and the Development of Antisemitism”
e-rekhess@northwestern.edu
Elie Rekhess is the Crown Visiting Chair in Middle East Studies in the Department of History, and in the Crown Family Jewish Studies Center at Northwestern University. He is a leading authority on Arabs in Israel. His books includeArabs in Israel: Between Communism and Arab Nationalism, and (forthcoming) The Islamic Movement in Israel. His article “Arab Minority in Israel: Reconsidering the 1948 Paradigm” will soon appear in Israel Studies. Rekhess had earlier served as advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak.
Topics: DEMONIZING, DELEGITIMIZING, DOUBLE-STANDARD
“Israel’s Arab Minority”
“Israel’s Arab Christian Community”
“Political Islam: Hamas and Islamic Jihad”
rosenfel@indiana.edu/ gjikeli@indiana.edu
Alvin Rosenfeld occupies the Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies and is Director of the Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Indiana University. He was the founding director of the Borns Jewish Studies Program at Indiana University. A prolific writer on the Holocaust and Holocaust literature and, in recent years, on antisemitism in international perspective, Rosenfeld has published or recently edited The End of the Holocaust; Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives; and Deciphering the New Antisemitism. His edited volume, Anti-Zionism and Antisemitism, will appear next year.
Gunther Jikeli is Associate Professor and the Justin Druck Family Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Antisemitism at Indiana University. He is the author of European Muslim Antisemitism.
Alvin Rosenfeld is on sabbatical for part of 2017-18; Gunther Jikeli will be available throughout the year.
Topics: (Alvin Rosenfeld)
“The Longest Hatred Renewed: Reflections on Today’s Antisemitism”
“What Is the ‘New’ Antisemitism, and What Can We Do About It?”
Topics: (Gunther Jikeli)
“Muslim Antisemitism”
“Muslim Antisemitism in Europe”
Jonathan Skolnik is Associate Professor of German at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst; a member of the faculty in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, History, and Film Studies; and interim Director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies. He is a scholar of German Jewish writings and in Jewish Pasts, German Fictions, argued that Jews embraced German culture as a reinvention of Jewish identity and historical memory. Skolnick also teaches about Zionism and Modern Nationalism and works on Terrorism Narratives. He will speak about teaching Jewish Studies in the era of BDS, and about dealing with support for BDS in graduate student unions.
Topics:
“Teaching Jewish Studies in the Era of BDS”
“Faculty Organizing against BDS: Responses to BDS in Unions”
Kenneth Waltzer is Professor Emeritus of History at Michigan State University, where he helped build the university’s highly reputed James Madison College in public affairs, and led the growth of the Jewish Studies program. His work on the rescue of children at Buchenwald is well-known and is the basis for an award-winning film, “Kinderblock 66: Return to Buchenwald.” Waltzer will speak based on his experience leading the Academic Engagement Network, and on four decades of teaching about antisemitism, the Holocaust, and modern ethnic and racial group relations.
Topics:
“BDS on Campus: Enlisting Faculty and University Leaders”
“Two Antisemitisms: Comprehending Antisemitisms on Left and Right”
“When is Anti-Zionism Antisemitic?”
Mark G. Yudof, Chair of the Advisory Board
Mark G. Yudof, who served as the 19th president of the University of California from 2008 through 2013, is an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Yudof previously served as chancellor of the University of Texas System and as president of the four-campus University of Minnesota. Before that, he served as dean of the law school at the University of Texas at Austin from 1984 to 1994, and as the University’s executive vice president and provost from 1994 to 1997.
Yudof is a recognized authority on constitutional law, freedom of expression and education law. He is the author of When Government Speaks and co-author of five editions of Educational Policy and the Law. A Philadelphia native, he earned both LL.B. and B.A. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. In 2013, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion awarded him an honorary degree, Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa. He is a member of the governing boards of Hebrew University and the University of Haifa, and also serves on the boards of the Lumina Foundation, the Opportunity Institute (Berkeley), and the Blum Center for Developing Economies. In addition to chairing the advisory board of the Academic Engagement Network, he is currently a senior consultant to the Schusterman Family Foundation. His spouse Judy is the former president of United Synagogue for Conservative Judaism.
Miriam Elman, Executive Director
Dr. Miriam F. Elman has served as Executive Director of AEN since 2019. From 2009-2022, she was an Associate Professor of Political Science at Syracuse University, where she held the title of Robert D. McClure Professor of Teaching Excellence at the Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs. An award-winning scholar and teacher, Dr. Elman has edited and co-edited six books and a number of special issues for academic journals, including Israel Studies. She is the author of over 70 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on topics related to contemporary antisemitism, academic freedom and campus free expression, peace and conflict resolution, religion and politics in Israel, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Dr. Elman received her B.A. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her M.Phil. and Ph.D. from Columbia University
Joshua Suchoff, Managing Director
Joshua Suchoff joined AEN as its Managing Director in August 2021. Josh’s career thus far has focused primarily on institutional advancement in the non-profit space, including the creation and implementation of strategies that increase engagement, promote program visibility, and bolster charitable giving. Prior to joining AEN, Josh was the Chief Development Officer at MILTON, a pluralistic Jewish day school in Washington, DC. Josh also worked in the Federal, State, and Tribal Programs Branch at the Environmental Protection Agency where he administered hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for the agency’s Hazardous Waste Management Grant Program, and for Capital Segway and Segway International as a manager and grant writer helping the company grow its touring business and secure lucrative government grants. Josh received a bachelor’s degree in Political Communications from the George Washington University, and he has completed his coursework for a master’s degree in Nonprofit Management from Gratz College.
Raeefa Shams, Director of Communications and Programming
Raeefa Shams is the Director of Communications and Programming at the Academic Engagement Network, having joined the organization in September 2016 as its Senior Associate for Communications. In her role, Raeefa is responsible for communications with AEN members, media outlets, and AEN’s partner organizations and stakeholders; developing select AEN programs and initiatives; and contributing to the development of AEN’s overall organizational strategy. Raeefa earned her B.A. in History from Wellesley College and her M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago.
Naomi Greenspan, Director, Improving the Campus Climate Initiative
Naomi Greenspan is Director of the Academic Engagement Network’s Improving the Campus Climate Initiative. In this role, Naomi partners with universities to establish and implement antisemitism awareness education and training programs in order to help create a healthier campus environment. Prior to joining AEN, Naomi designed and developed educational programs and resources on antisemitism, its intersection with racism, and the relationship between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. She has extensive experience facilitating workshops to address bias and bigotry and promote interfaith dialogue and understanding on college campuses, in schools and communities. Naomi earned her B.A. from Washington University in St. Louis where she studied Psychology and Jewish, Islamic and Near Eastern Studies, and an M.A. from Teachers College at Columbia University in International Educational Development and Peace Education.
Spencer Kent, Senior Associate for Membership
Spencer Kent has been AEN’s Senior Associate for Membership since January 2020. Spencer earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan and holds Master’s degrees in International Politics and Religion and the Social Sciences, from the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University, respectively.
Christopher Vasquez, Membership Associate
Christopher Vasquez is AEN’s Member Associate. He formulates strategies for member outreach and diversifying AEN’s network. He drives member involvement and partners with AEN’s academics to facilitate activities with administrators and students. Chris has served as a campus organizer within the pro-Israel space and taken up advocacy projects in Israel
Kenneth Waltzer, Executive Director Emeritus
