Joel Kovel, author of Overcoming Zionism, holds the Alger Hiss chair in social studies at Bard College and serves at the pleasure of the school's president. He has lately been informed that his contract will not be extended beyond July 1. Kovel says his views are to blame. In 2002, when he first spoke out against Zionism, Bard president Leon Botstein had a meeting with him and, while assuring him that it had nothing to do with his employment situation, said that his own views on Zionism were diametrically opposed.
Kovel says there have been several other indications that Bard was not pleased since. He was urged to retire from Bard after his second Zionism piece appeared; when University of Michigan initially buckled to pressure and stopped circulating his Zionism book 2 years back, no one in the Bard administration stood up for him; Botstein led an Israeli orchestra in the Israeli anthem at the school, etc. Marty Peretz is on the Bard board.
Drearily familiar litany. This is how the blacklist works: hardly anyone with heterodox views on this issue is supported. We are, by and large, marginalized and given the heretic treatment. It is why so many people who contribute information to this site do so anonymously.
(Phil Weiss)
Don't try to tell me that getting this blog closed down because of the obscene racist diatribes that fill its comments columns would "only hurt the Palestinians", Phil. You are of no use to them at all. You are worse than the late and fairly unlamented Harold Pinter, who couldn't be bothered to appear personally but sent an obscene 'protest poem' to be read out loud at a Muslim-organised and predominantly Muslim-attended protest meeting in Trafalgar Square last year. With friends like you, and your barely disguised 'liberal' imnperialist secular progressive flim-flam, the Palestinians will find little help.
Rowan, you're gettin' me all riled up. I'd whoop Phil's ass myself if you'd just give the order!
Follow the link to Joel Kovel's account of his ousting from Bard; Kovel gives links to Bard administrators so that readers may express our opinions.
Here we go AGAIN: the idea that any group or nation–let alone one founded on "discrimination" as a supposed antidote to "discrimination" –should be immune from critical inquiry is the height of bigotry. Irreproachability licenses all, even the atrocities of white phosphorus and DIME, in the name of "Never AGAIN."
That's too bad. But I hope it means Kovel will have more time to write. His books are important.
Kovel lasted 7 years after his forst incident and now claims he's being fired for it? I guess he'll be enlisting to serve in Phil's Phools any day now.
Dies Bard really have an "Alger Hiss chair in social studies"?
Harold Pinter was dying of oesophageal cancer, so saying that he could not be bothered to appear personally to speak, but send protest poem to be read is a tad harsh and unpleasantly misleading.
The "Alger Hiss Chair"? That's a Saturday Night Live routine, no?
But then, it's Bard, so maybe it's the real thing.
I sympathize with some of PW's views on Zionism, but this leftism thing sticks in the craw. "Objectifying women" a few posts back. Oh, spare me, spare me.
Thank God I'm a reactionary, not a lefty.
Thanks, Eva. ;)
Did you follow Phil's link?
STATEMENT OF JOEL KOVEL REGARDING HIS TERMINATION BY BARD COLLEGE
I can't help, but something deep inside of me gives me goosebumps reading this, not just this passage but the whole chain of events.
But I am also witnessing heightened alarm among US Jewish academics as a result of the ADL poll, I shouldn't but I'll cite someone anyway anonymously:
I suspect that xenophobia and racism are running rampant all over Europe. Are Jewish citizens of these various countries seen as "inside outsiders" or are they perceived as people with national identities, Spanish, Hungarian,Austrian, etc.? What we don't need now is a return to the Europe of the late 1920s and 1930s.
I've once criticized the ADL poll along similar empirical social research lines more privately off than on the list, but on list hyper-carefully too, but that was quite a few years ago and before I fell silent. But let me pass on to Ran HaCohen:
If somebody had told me, what I think and feel today only five years ago, I would have called him mad. But let me quote more:
Obviously, reports of steady or declining levels of anti-Semitism is not what Israelis want to hear: anti-Semitism should always be on the rise, to boost our national cohesion.
Therefore both Ha'aretz (Feb. 11, Hebrew) and YNet (Feb. 10, Hebrew) used the partial data of "31% of Europeans Blame the Jews for the Economic Crisis" as an ominous headline. Both focused on the absolute figures of 2009 and kept the inconvenient trend to a marginal penultimate paragraph. Even then, Ha'aretz journalist Natasha Mozgovaya went out of her way to translate the ADL's "marked decline" in British anti-Semitism as "a small decline" (not even bothering to mention what it was compared to), whereas YNet omitted the adjective and wrote just "a decline." And both followed the ADL summary and quickly "balanced" the overall positive trend by emphasizing the negative fraction of the findings.
****************************************************************************
Also interesting, from the ADL poll:
Using what? The only thing, I could think of in Germany would be a census from the early 1980's. But why not use scientific methods instead of modifying via a not so clearly defined "weighing". Well, maybe that's why, as Ran HaCohen observes:
US – Israel – GB
Kovel was born in 1936, so retirement/emeritus status sooner or later was on the cards. But the story here is still unacceptable.
Are you certain that Joel's interpretations are accurate?
Are you aware of the impact of colleges' financial difficulties?
I have a list of Kovel-related blog entries at Israel Advocacy Organizations Change Tactics.
@ Witty
Of course not Witty. We believe the statements of the Bard administration, same as we do those of the Hampshire Administration.
Tell me there is no Alger Hiss Chair at Bard. As the kids say I'm ROTFL.
Hasbaraman to the rescue, carrying water for Bard without even thinking:
Are you sure Joel Kovel wasn't fired because his hair was gray? Didn't his suit smell like mothballs? Wasn't his bowtie a little crooked? Maybe he was having an affair with the President's wife? Perhaps he was showing up to class completely drunk?
How can you be sure Zionism played a part in this? Since when did Martin Peretz ever let his rabid Zionism interfere with his good judgment?
First Finkelstein and now Kovel only 20,000 to go.
It took the dreaded israel lobby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! seven years to swing into action. Wow. And the Alger Hiss chair. You couldn't make that one up/
You have a little information, yet "believe".
I gotta disagree with the majority here, working as I do at a university and having been to a lot more meetings about this sort of thing lately than I'd like to. For the past 5-7 years, all of the better schools have been overspending their endowments – that is, drawing operating expenses out of endowment investments – which means now they have to cut costs, and fast. There are only so many staff positions you can cut, because the bulk of all university monies (50% or more) go to paying the salaries of tenured or tenure-track faculty members. That means that even bigger cuts to staff, operating expenses, etc., need to be made than you'd guess.
There is now enormous pressure on older faculty members to retire, and the more distinguished the position they hold, the greater the pressure. That's simply because they make too much money. I have no idea what the Alger Hiss chair pays, but my guess is $150-250,000/year. If this professor really is 70 or over, I'm sure they're trying hard to get rid of him and his peers. It would be tempting to cut tenure-track faculty members, who can still legally be fired/let go/call it what you will, but (1) they don't made all that much to begin with, probably a third to a fifth of what this one prof makes, and (2) it's a horrible long term strategy for any college to throw out the younger profs pre-tenure because good people will stop wanting to accept jobs there.
That isn't to say that this professor hasn't made himself a target because of his political views. Maybe he has; indeed, he probably has. But in this case R. Witty at least has a point in saying it's been 7 years that this prof. has had his cushy chair, and he didn't get booted out in the meantime.
My verdit: in this case, it's (probably) the economy, stupid.
John, Please don't confuse Phil's Phools with facts. It only annoys them.
Its very unlikely that Kovel gets 150,000/year. He probably makes in the 40's to 60's, if he's not tenured.
Its probably a combination of politics and money. He's considered expendible, same as I was.
Oh, Richard, you probably know more about it than I do. I don't know anything about Kovel, just about universities right now. If he's a lecturer, then he's really vulnerable. All bets are off for them – they're getting canned here, not even furloughed (though they're trying to, and if they were smart about it they'd organize…).
I very, very much doubt, however, the 40-60K salary for a guy with a named chair. It is of course possible, but my first salary as a visiting assistant prof at a fancy school was more than that 6 years ago. You've never heard of me. I've heard of Kovel. Hence he probably gets a lot more than that.
That said, if he really only does make that much, then I have to think that politics is playing a bigger role in his getting let go than I initially thought.
As Chris said – I rarely agree with him on other times – facts would be helpful.
Thanks, Richard. "A combination of politics and money" is a lot more honest and realistic than what you previously suggested above, by questioning Kovel's assertion that it was political and highlighting only the financial consideration.
Why would anyone of sound mind be surprised when today's Zionists do their best to sabotage the careers of Jews and others critical of Israel when their predecessors sacrificed Jewish lives for land's sake?
"Nathan Schwalb served as the representative of the Jewish Agency, exercising authority upon matters of rescue of the European Jews during the holocaust.When he was approached by the rescue committee of Czech Jewry for a sum of money to halt the transports to Auschwitz, he answered:
'Since we have the opportunity of this courier, we are writing to the group that they must always remember that matter which is most important, which is the main issue that must always be before our eyes. After all, the allies will be victorius. After the victory they will once again divide up the world between the nations as they did at the end of the first war. Then they opened the way for us for the first step and now, as the war ends, we must do everything so that Eretz Yisroel should become a Jewish state. ….we must be aware that all the nations of the Allies are spilling much blood and if we do not bring sacrifices, with what will we achieve the right to sit at the table when they make the distribution of nations and territories after the way?'
…the shedding of Jewish blood in the Diaspora is necessary in order for us to demand the establishment of a 'Jewish' state before the peace commission…Czech Jewry must resign itself to annihilation in the Auschwitz crematoria.'"
…Holocaust Victims Accuse, pp 26-28. (True Torah Jews 2.19.09)
Just when the ocean was safe, some antisemite spills more blood in the water. It seems that Phil's Phools waste no time.
Your "verdict" is appreciated, John, "It's the economy stupid". But why the strange ritual then? Why all these interviews and reviews?
I am only familiar with German rules We simply couldn't have such a debate, since legally a prof here is a civil servant. He would retire automatically at a certain age. The special honor of emeritus has been abolished, more or less. I think they introduced a law that only somebody that had his professorship already in 1975 could still become emeritus:
So all these peculiar procedures simply wouldn't be possible over here. No chance to interfere. Regular legal procedures. …
My favorite prof still took exams and supervised doctorates when he officially was already retired. They had abolished (?) his chair after retirement. Many, many studying in economics and/or law and less and less humanities. I think he did it mainly to help his former colleagues. Obviously he had his state pension at the time.
Good points, Richard. I have no idea what is happening at Bard, but a combination of politics and money sounds very plausible.
And on the "Alger Hiss" chair, I'm fairly far to the left, but that is ridiculous. Hiss, it turns out, was guilty, and he was also a snob, so he's not exactly the lefty poster boy I'd choose to name a chair after.
the 40-60K salary for a guy with a named chair.
You didn't read his statement? He was lost his chair, was downgraded to half-time job and finally lost his job. What would a part-time prof without chair get? Would that make a difference?
To trust or not to trust – that is the question:
A brief chronology
• 2002. This was the first year I spoke out nationally about Zionism. In October, my article, "Zionism's Bad Conscience," appeared in Tikkun. Three or four weeks later, I was called into President Leon Botstein's office, to be told my Hiss Chair was being taken away. Botstein said that he had nothing to do with the decision, then gratuitously added that it had not been made because of what I had just published about Zionism, and hastened to tell me that his views were diametrically opposed to mine.
• 2003. In January I published a second article in Tikkun, "'Left-Anti-Semitism' and the Special Status of Israel," which argued for a One-State solution to the dilemmas posed by Zionism. A few weeks later, I received a phone call at home from Dean Dominy, who suggested, on behalf of Executive Vice-President Dimitri Papadimitriou, that perhaps it was time for me to retire from Bard. I declined. The result of this was an evaluation of my work and the inception, in 2004, of the current half-time contract as "Distinguished Professor."
• 2006. I finished a draft of Overcoming Zionism. In January, while I was on a Fellowship in South Africa, President Botstein conducted a concert on campus of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, which he has directed since 2003. In a stunning departure from traditional concert practice, this began with the playing of the national anthems of the United States and Israel, after each of which the audience rose. Except for a handful of protestors, the event went unnoticed. I regarded it, however, as paradigmatic of the "special relationship" between the United States and Israel, one that has conduced to war in Iraq and massive human rights violations in Israel/Palestine. In December, I organized a public lecture at Bard (with Mazin Qumsiyeh) to call attention to this problem. Only one faculty person attended; the rest were students and community people; and the issue was never taken up on campus.
• 2007. Overcoming Zionism was now on the market, arguing for a One-State solution (and sharply criticizing, among others, Martin Peretz for a scurrilous op-ed piece against Rachel Corrie in the Los Angeles Times. Peretz is an official in AIPAC's foreign policy think-tank, and at the time a Bard Trustee—though this latter fact was not pointed out in the book). In August, Overcoming Zionism was attacked by a watchdog Zionist group, StandWithUs/Michigan, which succeeded in pressuring the book's United States distributor, the University of Michigan Press, to remove it from circulation. An extraordinary outpouring of support (650 letters to U of M) succeeded in reversing this frank episode of book-burning. I was disturbed, however, by the fact that, with the exception of two non-tenure track faculty, there was no support from Bard in response to this egregious violation of the speech rights of a professor. When I asked President Botstein in an email why this was so, he replied that he felt I was doing quite well at taking care of myself. This was irrelevant to the obligation of a college to protect its faculty from violation of their rights of free expression—all the more so, a college such as Bard with a carefully honed reputation as a bastion of academic freedom, and which indeed defines such freedom in its Faculty Handbook as a "right . . . to search for truth and understanding without interference and to disseminate his [sic] findings without intimidation."
• 2008. Despite some reservations by the faculty, I was able to teach a course on Zionism. In my view, and that of most of the students, it was carried off successfully. Concurrently with this, another evaluation of my work at Bard was underway. Unlike previous evaluations, in 1996 and 2003, this was unenthusiastic. It was cited by Dean Dominy as instrumental in the decision to let me go.
Irregularities in the Evaluation Process
The evaluation committee included Professor Bruce Chilton, along with Professors Mark Lambert and Kyle Gann. Professor Chilton is a member of the Social Studies division, a distinguished theologian, and the campus' Protestant chaplain. He is also active in Zionist circles, as chair of the Episcopal–Jewish Relations Committee in the Episcopal Diocese of New York, and a member of the Executive Committee of Christians for Fair Witness on the Middle East. In this capacity he campaigns vigorously against Protestant efforts to promote divestment and sanctions against the State of Israel. Professor Chilton is particularly antagonistic to the Palestinian liberation theology movement, Sabeel, and its leader, Rev. Naim Ateek, also an Episcopal. This places him on the other side of the divide from myself, who attended a Sabeel Conference in Birmingham, MI, in October, 2008, as an invited speaker, where I met Rev. Ateek, and expressed admiration for his position. It should also be observed that Professor Chilton was active this past January in supporting Israeli aggression in Gaza. He may be heard on a national radio program on WABC, "Religion on the Line," (January 11, 2009) arguing from the Doctrine of Just War and claiming that it is anti-Semitic to criticize Israel for human rights violations—this despite the fact that large numbers of Jews have been in the forefront of protesting Israeli crimes in Gaza.
Of course, Professor Chilton has the right to his opinion as an academic and a citizen. Nonetheless, the presence of such a voice on the committee whose conclusion was instrumental in the decision to remove me from the Bard faculty is highly dubious. Most definitely, Professor Chilton should have recused himself from this position. His failure to do so, combined with the fact that the decision as a whole was made in context of adversity between myself and the Bard administration, renders the process of my termination invalid as an instance of what the College's Faculty Handbook calls a procedure "designed to evaluate each faculty member fairly and in good faith."
I still strove to make my future at Bard the subject of reasonable negotiation. However, my efforts in this direction were rudely denied by Dean Dominy's curt and dismissive letter (at the urging, according to her, of Vice-President Papadimitriou), which plainly asserted that there was nothing to talk over and that I was being handed a fait accompli. In view of this I considered myself left with no other option than the release of this document.
He was of course not lost but lost his chair.
In light of all this, I have to reverse my earlier statements. This guy has been hounded out.
"Botstein led an Israeli orchestra in the Israeli anthem at the school"
I hope he made Kovel stand and take his toupee off while it was being played.
Ha Ha, toupee! Ha Ha Ha!
Whew.
Note to Richard Witty: in light of what LeaNder posted above, do you still think that you and Joel Kovel were terminated under similar circumstances? Really?
Well I think academic bodies everywhere owe themselves and the public an accounting of how they have subjugated knowledge and the pursuit of truth to political thought police, Zionist litmus tests, and a code of silence. Let them understand that their immortal souls – or academic standing in history – are in the block, and they must now stand up and be counted.
@ WITTY
"You have a little information, yet "believe".
YOU have a lot of information, yet choose to cherry pick it, tossing out the bulk of it, ripe and ready as they are, so you can believe–like any upper middle class German in the late 1930's, you love your
life style, oh pious yet exceedingly comfortable one, even as your country of birth hurdles toward oblivion.
You are every bit as much a romantic as any good German shop keeper, back in the day. Charming, warm,
having your sense of community and eating it too–same. Just substitute Saturday for Sunday. Or not, it's the same in result. And Richard Witty went out on the weekend, and quite a gentleman was he,
and all doffed their cap to him, for he was quite a sight to behold, a pillar of the community, a sage,
a good citizen–who secretly knew in his own mind that his people were chosen by god to be a nation of priests, and the others? They were those to be shepherded like a good shepherd. Those were the assigned roles by the chief real estate agent and pope, G-D itself….
Is there an assumption here that progressive thought is correct thought?
Alice, you sound like you're in a beer garden and yelling at the fat German shopkeepers to look around them and see how the Jews are destroying Germany.
Give Rowan a call. he's on the dole and would love your company.
There are many connections among Chilton, Ruth Lautt, Charles Jacobs, other Newton Jew extremist Zionists, and the corrupt Jewish Zionist professional social networks of New York. See Pious Warriors.
There are many connection among IHR, Zundel, Stormfront, Irving, and Martillo.
So what?
As a former student of Joel Kovel's at Bard, I can testify to his problems over the past few years since he ventured to criticize Israel. He has a long personal relationship with the President of the college and was not immediately fired but rather first demoted from his Chair and then hired on a semester-by-semester contract. I would say that the decision to terminate him has much to do with President Botstein's relationship to Israel, his role as cultural adviser to the Israeli government (he is the director of the Jerusalem Symphonic Orchestra and one of only a handful of non-Israelis who are employed by the Israeli government.) Plus, Bard's endowment is not the issue; the issue is that some of the people who fund Bard don't want Kovel there anymore and that's where money comes in.
Kovel was an invaluable asset to the college. He was beloved by students, his courses packed full every semester. He taught literature, ecology and politics classes; he's basically the only Marxist on campus. Bard has been leaning further and further to the right in recent years– hiring West Point instructors and the likes to create a diversity of opinion, but now firing the only left-wing radical and Jewish (or gentile, for that matter) professor who is vocally critical of Israel.
Thankfully, some retired professors (one of them a concentration camp survivor) are speaking up against Kovel's termination. Please write to Bard if you are outraged.
Not "just the economy". . .
Zionists are crowing, for example (with other links):
http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2009/02/joel-kovel-flushed/index.shtml
Life would be so much more simple if we would just believe and embrace the statements made by college administrators [like those which were made last year by DePaul administrators when they fought (the clearly deserved) tenure for Finkelstein or those now being made by Hampshire administrators as they try to distance themselves from the obvious] . . .
So much attention is being paid to the political and intellectual dimensions of Professor Kovel's work, but we can let the matter drop now because Bard administrators have explained that the decision was made "simply . . . for reasons of fiscal prudence" and because of "fiscal constraints"! I sent in a letter yesterday to Bard decrying the decision to drop Kovel.* Here is the reply from the President of Bard, Leon Botstein, and following the first reply is a reply from Bard's Executive Vice-President Dimitri Papadimitriou to a letter written yesterday by a friend of mine – a letter which also strongly condemned Bard's actions.
Dear Professor Levin,
Thank you for writing. Professor Kovel did not lose his job. After
fifteen years of serving as the full-time occupant of the Alger Hiss
Chair, he voluntarily assumed part-time status in 2004. At that time he
received a five-year contract, with the understanding that after those
five years the college reserved the right to renew his position on a
year-to-year basis. He knew it was possible that his position might not
be renewed after the 2008–2009 academic year. In consultation with
faculty, Bard elected not to renew Professor Kovel’s contract because,
like all colleges, it faces severe fiscal constraints and is doing
everything it can to preserve the employment of its full-time faculty.
Professor Kovel enjoyed a fine and productive career at Bard for more
than twenty years. We are sorry for and astonished at his allegations,
which have no basis in fact.
Cordially,
Leon Botstein
A friend of mine sent in a letter yesterday to Bard's Executive Vice-President Dimitri Papadimitriou:
Dear []
Thank you for your e-mail about Joel Kovel. Professor Kovel did not lose his job. Five years ago, he voluntarily assumed part-time status after fifteen years of being the full-time occupant of the Alger Hiss Chair. He received a five-year contract as a part-time faculty member, and this year was the last year of that appointment. With his agreement, the college reserved the right to renew him on a year-to-year basis. The college elected not to exercise our option to renew. Bard College is not immune to the current economic crisis and faces severe fiscal constraints. It is striving to preserve the employment of its full-time faculty.
Joel Kovel enjoyed a productive career at Bard over twenty years. In his last year, he has made a series of unfortunate allegations about his colleagues and the College which are without basis in fact. I believe, they are an embarrassment to him. Until this time, no one at Bard has had anything but good things to say about Professor Kovel. The College simply chose for reasons of fiscal prudence not to exercise its option to renew him on a year-to-year basis. I am sorry that he will not be continuing here, but many others at Bard, administrative employees and part-time faculty, have lost their employment whose contributions were supplemental to the academic program.
Cordially,
Dimitri Papadimitriou
___
* I wrote this to Bard's Human Rights Program, and cc'd the administrators — ML
Dear Faculty of the Human Rights Program,
It is with dismay that I read that Bard has decided to drop Professor Joel Kovel. My grandmother would call it a "shonda" — a shame in the deepest sense of the word. If
"The program encourages students to treat Human Rights as an intellectual question, and through their explorations of it to understand what is at stake in what they think and do. Being serious about human rights means challenging the new human rights
orthodoxy, thinking critically about human rights as a profession rather than merely training for it, and resisting a post-Cold War triumphalism."
means anything except empty rhetoric, it is my sincere hope that members of the faculty of the human rights program at Bard will loudly, clearly, and insistently object to the decision to let Joel Kovel go.
The new intellectual McCarthyism, championed by the administration of DePaul University [Chicago] has gained another locus — Bard College. It is a shonda.
Michael Levin, Ph.D.
Dr. Levin – I very much enjoyed and appreciated your comments and the material you shared. I agree entirely. All the best.
LT
~
Dr. Levin, do you know which other faculty (of experience and credentials similar to Joel Kovel's) were also let go this year, owing to fiscal constraints?
chris berel
no, it's Israel who is on the dole. US taxpayers are being raped for jewish lebensraum. Anyone can check out the matrix of special deals Israel has with Uncle Sam. The first international trade agreement, giving the usa less jobs and a net trade deficit, was with Israel, the only oil guarantees the USA has, is to
give Israel oil at the expense of the USA needs, the war industry memos with Israel, put Israel first, and, last but not least, the USA's annual welfare dole to Israel (and to Egypt & Jordan, e.g.,) takes the most gigantic chunk from USA foreign aid–more than USA foreign aid to whole continents, although Israel
is the size of a postage stamp, relatively speaking.
RE: "In light of all this, I have to reverse my earlier statements. This guy has been hounded out.
Posted by: John"
chris berel? Cat got your tongue? We are waiting to hear. YOu were all for John's original POV, but once
he got the facts, he changed his mind. Nothing to say? Didn't think so.
Alice, you are still in your beer garden. Based on Kovel's statement, he has an opinion. Based on Kovel's opinion, John reversed himself.
Me? I need the facts, Kovel hasn't supplied them.
chris berel, come up for air in your watery chicken soup & have a tasteless tribal cracker–you wouldn't recognize a fact if it hit you in the face–you choose not to, obviously. You favor X if what X says favors
Israeli /zionist actions done; when X gets more data and reverses his opinion, you no longer favor X. Anyone can
can see your mind work this way by looking through the above thread.
You need to go back to hasbara school. You are way too obvious to help hasbara goals.