Campus rabbi: Yale anti-Semitism program to be relaunched

New York, NY, June 20, 2011 … The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today welcomed the creation of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism (YPSA), a new academic endeavor at Yale University devoted to “serious scholarly discourse and research” on anti-Semitism and its manifestations.

The new program, convened by Professor Maurice Samuels, replaces the Yale Interdisciplinary Initiative for the Study of Antisemitism (YIISA), which is being discontinued in response to a faculty review committee’s recommendation for closure.

Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, issued the following statement:

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We are satisfied that Yale University understood the critical importance of continuing an institute for the study and research of anti-Semitism. We believe the administration understands the importance of this subject, and its continued situation at Yale.

While we are disappointed that Professor Charles Small, the one who originally conceived the idea of an institute for the study of anti-Semitism, will not play a role in the new program, we are confident that the study program will continue to strengthen its status, importance and significance in combating global anti-Semitism.

We hope that the decision to close the Yale Interdisciplinary Initiative was only a blip, and that in the long run this reconfigured approach will help to stabilize and strengthen the study of anti-Semitism at Yale.

The new program was announced by Yale University Provost Peter Salovey in a letter to alumni, faculty and supporters. “I am hopeful,” wrote Dr. Salovey, “that this program will produce major scholarship on the vitally important subject of Antisemitism.”

The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.