I keep thinking about Clark University's decision to censor a lecture by Norman Finkelstein scheduled for later this month, an unfortunate decision on any number of levels.
1, Part of the Clark president''s reasoning is that the Finkelstein lecture would come just before a conference on the Holocaust and Genocide. Of course, Finkelstein is the son of Holocaust survivors. And here is the late Holocaust scholar Raul Hilberg praising Finkelstein's tenacious scholarship/insight re Swiss payments to Holocaust victims in his book The Holocaust Industry.
2, Finkelstein's talk has nothing to do with the Holocaust. It is titled, "The Gaza Massacre." Hillel objected. Hillel won. (How symptomatic of the larger absence of discussion of Gaza, whose many horrors continue to echo in many a Jewish bosom; believe me, I talk to people who are agonized by what they saw).
3, Writes a friend: "Freud lectured 100 years ago at Clark, which the Holocaust center, which is sponsoring the conference this month, proudly touts on its homepage:"
who famously escaped Nazi persecution, delivered five lectures at Clark
as part of a series that recognized the University's twentieth
anniversary of graduate education. The doctoral conference honors
Freud's visit as well as an important milestone for the Strassler
Center: our 10th anniversary of doctoral education.
Continues my friend: "Clark
had the foresight to be the only US school to invite Freud; 100 years
later it seems they want to be known for plugging their ears rather
than listen to challenging & difficult ideas."
