Yale Celebrates Anti-Semitism?

By Ophelia Garrett

In Brief:

Yale University has been accused over the years of being anti-semitic. And now, there is no denying it. During what is considered the holiest week for those of the Jewish faith and tradition, Yale had a renowned and vocal anti-semitic come speak during the week of Passover. 

The Background: 

Houria Bouteldja, a vocal anti-semitic and jihadist sympathizer was invited to Yale University for their Decolonizing Europe Lecture Series, organized by Fatima El-Tayeb, Yale’s professor of ethnicity, race and migration, and women’s gender and sexuality studies – who described attempts to question Bouteldja on her record as “a waste of time.”

Bouteldja, an Algerian-French citizen, has been criticized for aligning herself and her beliefs with the likes of  Mohamed Merah, a jihadist who murdered a French Rabbi and three young children before also murdering two police officers. Her book “Whites, Jews and Us,” which has a foreword by former Harvard and Princeton professor Cornel West, claims that the existence of Israel is a plot by white Europeans to uphold white supremacy.

She also has written that Jews “tolerated Nazism before it was inflicted on them. … They absolved it, shut their eyes to it, [and] legitimized it, because until then, it had been applied only to non-European peoples. … They have cultivated that Nazism … [and hence] are responsible for it.”

Many of Jewish students were understandably confused.

“Often, on this campus, I feel like my voice and perspective as a Jewish person is ignored, or not taken seriously,” Emily Zenner told the Yale Daily News. “By scheduling such a controversial guest, and one especially worrying to many Jewish people, during a Jewish holiday, it feels to me as if Yale, once again, completely ignored us.” 

“It feels underhanded, like there’s a sinister agenda at work,” actor Noah Platt stated. “I certainly empathize with the students who feel they were not being taken care of or seen or heard by their university.”

This isn’t the first time Yale has come under fire for their choice of who they align themselves with. 

Back in 2021 they had a lecture by Dr. Aruna Khilanani, in which she stated: “I took some actions. I systematically white-ghosted most of my white friends, and I got rid of the couple white BIPOCs that snuck in my crew, too.”  She added, “I had fantasies of unloading a revolver into the head of any white person that got in my way, burying their body and wiping my bloody hands as I walked away relatively guiltless with a bounce in my step. Like I did the world a f**king favor.” 

Notable Quotes: 

“You cannot have free and open debate if you’re purposefully or ignorantly planning this discussion for a time when the other side of this supposed free and open debate is very obviously not able to attend. That’s a mistake.” – Jonah Platt