Firing of a Jewish Anti-Zionist Professor – AAUP Takes a Fight with US College
AAUP sent the Pennsylvania liberal arts college a letter demanding an answer in the absence of any public clarification from the academic institution regarding the decision to fire Finkelstein.
The Association of American University Professors (AAUP) took this week the case of Jewish anti-Zionist professor Maura Finkelstein requesting clarification from Muhlenberg College on its decision to fire her for “bias-related conduct” after a post on social media criticizing Zionists.
“Do not cower to Zionists”, Finkelstein wrote on Instagram.
“Shame them. Do not welcome them in your spaces. Do not make them feel comfortable. Why should those genocide-loving fascists be treated any different than any other flat-out racist. Don’t normalize Zionism. Don’t normalize Zionists taking up space,” she added.
The decision to fire the anti-Zionist professor has reportedly come following months of activism, which triggered complaints from Jewish and faculty members alike, leading to a federal Title VI investigation, MEMO reported.
AAUP sent the Pennsylvania liberal arts college a letter demanding an answer in the absence of any public clarification from the academic institution regarding the decision to fire Finkelstein.
“The dismissal raises serious concerns about academic freedom at Muhlenberg,” the letter read.
“In addition to extramural speech, Professor Finkelstein’s case presents additional issues of potential interest to our members and to the academic community at large,” AAUP senior program director, Anita Levy wrote in the letter to Muhlenberg President, Kathleen Herring.
She revealed that AAUP would be investigating Finkelstein’s case in more detail tackling a number of pivotal questions.
“These include whether expressions of opposition to Zionism or the government of Israel can be tantamount to anti-Semitism, discrimination and harassment of students; how compliance with equal opportunity requirements on a campus intersects with institutional policies governing academic freedom, due process and faculty governance; and the extent to which controversy stemming from the war in Gaza can affect campus conditions for academic freedom and due process,” she stated.
AAUP accused the college of “not following due process in firing a tenured professor,” according to MEMO.
The association revealed in its letter that an internal investigation at Muhlenberg College was conducted last May recommending the dismissal of Finkelstein “for just cause”, notifying her that her employment will be terminated on May 31, and a recent appeal of the decision was rejected, MEMO reported.
“If I can be fired for criticizing a foreign government, calling attention to a genocide and using my academic expertise as an anthropologist to draw attention to how power operates, then no one is safe,” Finkelstein said in a statement emailed to Inside Higher Ed website.
The professor continued: “I wasn’t fired for anything I said in the classroom. I was fired because of a charge brought by a student I had never met, let alone taught, who had been surveying my social media account for months,” MEMO reported.
“This isn’t about student safety, this is about silencing dissent. We are witnessing a new McCarthyism and we should all be terrified of its implications,” Finkelstein added.
The Jewish professor caught attention last year following the Al-Aqsa Flood Operation on October 7 when she wrote on social media “Students raising money for genocide” in reference to students at Muhlenberg raising money for the Jewish state.
Following this, an online petition was created online by pro-Israeli Muhlenberg alumni requesting her dismissal.
The Change.org petition accused the professor of harassing pro-Israel students and alumni online, according to MEMO.
Finkelstein was suspended from Muhlenberg in January nearly at the same time the United States Department of Education launched a Title VI investigation into the college based on the online petition.
According to MEMO, the decision to dismiss the Jewish professor was based on her social media activity, particularly a post encouraging the “shaming of Zionists and rejecting the normalization of their views.”
A Muhlenberg panel found that Finkelstein’s behavior violated the school’s code of conduct and recommended her dismissal, MEMO said.
(MEMO, PC)