Campus rabbi: Yale anti-Semitism program to be relaunched

WASHINGTON ““ Yale University is expected to unveil a revamped program for the study of anti-Semitism, the campus rabbi said.

The Yale Daily News reported last Friday that Rabbi James Ponet sent an e-mail to undisclosed recipients saying he expected the university to announce the new program soon.

The program would replace the The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of anti-Semitism. The shuttering of YIISA earlier this month drew protests from a number of Jewish groups.

“I think that within a few days Yale will announce that a reconceived YIISA, under new faculty leadership, has been established,” Ponet wrote. “I believe this new structure, now emerging, will serve Yale and the study of anti-Semitism well.”

Several prominent groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, came out against the decision to end the program when it was announced earlier this month.

Donald Green, the head of Yale’s Institution for Social and Policy Studies, which oversees the anti-Semitism initiative, told JTA in a statement that the institution failed to deliver an “outstanding” performance in the promotion of “interdisciplinary research and instruction at Yale.”

Ponet said faculty members had expressed interest in leading the new institution, an apparent reference to reports that the outsider status of YIISA’s director, Charles Small, had exacerbated tensions between YIISA and the university.

“As we all know, there was a loud outpouring of reaction on the part of students, faculty and alumni around the world,” he said. “Among those protesting the University’s decision were a number of tenured professors who have now stepped forward and indicated their willingness to take on a leadership role in a reformulated program that will continue the scholarly study of anti-Semitism [sic] at Yale.”

JTA Wire Service

World

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