University of Minnesota rescinds offer to academic who alleged Israel was committing ‘genocide’
A professor who wrote days after the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks that Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza was “a textbook case of genocide” has had his offer to head University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies revoked after two members of the center’s advisory board resigned in protest last Friday and several Jewish leaders voiced their concerns.
Jeff Ettinger, the interim president of the University of Minnesota, said during a Friday morning Board of Regents meeting that Joe Eggers, the interim director of the center, would remain in the position as a new director search is conducted. Ettinger noted that the search process may extend until 2025 or 2026.
The official withdrawal of Raz Segal’s job offer came after a pause was announced on Monday amid increased scrutiny of Segal’s comments on Israel, Jewish Insider was first to learn.
“The assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and genocide studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in the Jewish Currents on Oct. 13, days after Hamas launched a terror attack in Israel that killed more than 1,200 people. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians,” he wrote.
Segal co-authored an Al-Jazeera article in January in which he called Israel a “settler-colonial” power. Last month, Segal downplayed the anti-Israel encampments that appeared on campuses nationwide — some of which have turned violent — telling NJ Spotlight News that claims of antisemitism were “baseless.”
Nine people were arrested at the encampment at the University of Minnesota.
In 2022, Segal wrote about “the reality of the system of Israeli apartheid,” stating that “just as the Israeli apartheid system denies Palestinians’ past, it also seeks to deny their future through an assault against Palestinian children.”
Segal did not respond to multiple requests for comment from JI.
The selection of Segal — which also would have given him a faculty position in the history department — prompted University of Minnesota professors Karen Painter and Bruno Chaouat to resign from the center’s advisory board.
The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas also pushed for the revocation of Segal’s appointment. In a statement on Monday, the group called on “members of the community to continue voicing their opposition to the appointment of Professor Raz Segal to be the next Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.”
“The work of the center, which has been a close ally of the JCRC and our Jewish community for decades in preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and honoring its survivors and their families, is too important to be led by an extremist,” the JCRC statement said. “The next Center Director must be a unifying and not divisive figure.”
Rebecca Feinstein, the daughter of Stephen Feinstein, who founded and directed the center, said the Feinstein family “wholly supports the decision made by Interim President Ettinger to delay the search for the Stephen C. Feinstein Chair in Holocaust and Genocide Studies until the 2025-2026 academic year. We are grateful for the President’s highlighting that the position to direct the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies entails a community facing, leadership role of deep importance to the Jewish and Zionist community.”
Her father, Feinstein added, “would have been appalled and outraged if the University of Minnesota had hired someone like Raz Segal, who, according to Segal’s statements, appears to not believe in the existence of the democratic Jewish State of Israel and does not support the values of the mainstream Jews.”
Feinstein called on the university to “continue to engage their multiple community stakeholders in the hiring process, particularly from the mainstream Jewish and Zionist community.”
On Monday, a spokesperson for the University of Minnesota told JI that the director selection process was put on hold “to allow an opportunity to determine next steps.”
“Members of the university community have come forward to express their interest in providing perspective on the hiring of the position of Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,” the spokesperson said. “Because of the community-facing and leadership role the director holds, it is important that these voices are heard.”
University of Minnesota pauses hiring of professor who called Israel’s war against Hamas ‘a textbook case of genocide’
The University of Minnesota paused the hiring of a professor who wrote that Israel’s military operation against Hamas in Gaza after Oct. 7 was “a textbook case of genocide” to head the school’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies (CHGS), Jewish Insider has learned.
The pause, which has not yet been publicly announced by the university, came on Monday evening after two members of the center’s advisory board resigned in protest on Friday.
“The assault on Gaza can also be understood in other terms: as a textbook case of genocide unfolding in front of our eyes,” Raz Segal, an Israeli associate professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Stockton University in New Jersey, wrote in the Jewish Currents on Oct. 13. “I say this as a scholar of genocide, who has spent many years writing about Israeli mass violence against Palestinians,” he wrote.
A spokesperson for the University of Minnesota told JI that the director selection process was put on hold “to allow an opportunity to determine next steps.”
“Members of the university community have come forward to express their interest in providing perspective on the hiring of the position of Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies,” the spokesperson said. “Because of the community-facing and leadership role the director holds, it is important that these voices are heard.”
Segal, who was selected as the center’s new director by Ann Waltner, the interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts at University of Minnesota, also co-authored an Al-Jazeera article in January, in which he called Israel a “settler-colonial” power. Last month, Segal downplayed the illegal anti-Israel encampments that have engulfed campuses nationwide— many of which have turned violent (nine people were arrested at University of Minnesota’s encampment) — telling NJ Spotlight News that claims of antisemitism were “baseless.”
In 2022, he wrote about “the reality of the system of Israeli apartheid,” stating that “just as the Israeli apartheid system denies Palestinians’ past, it also seeks to deny their future through an assault against Palestinian children.”
The selection of Segal— which also includes a faculty position in the history department— prompted University of Minnesota professors Karen Painter and Bruno Chaouat to resign from the center’s advisory board.
In a letter to Waltner, Provost Rachel Croson and Interim President Jeff Ettinger, a copy of which was obtained by Jewish Insider, Chaouat wrote, “My understanding is that the core mission of the center is to educate locally and internationally on the specific history of the Holocaust and of genocides in order to raise awareness and prevent further dehumanization and violence. Professor Segal, by justifying Hamas’ atrocities five days after they occurred (via a perverse allegation that Israel was committing a genocide), cannot fulfill the mission of the center.”
Chaouat, a professor of French and Jewish studies who previously served as interim director of the center, continued in his letter, “[Segal] has failed to recognize the genocidal intent of Hamas. He does not understand that a movement like Hamas is inherently fascist and represents precisely what CHGS stands against…While I have nothing to say about appointing Professor Segal as a colleague in the History department, my experience as interim director and collaborator of the center for many years, as well as my experience as a scholar of the Holocaust and antisemitism, give me some authority to assertively deem him unfit for that position.”
Segal did not immediately respond to a request for comment from JI.
Mark Rotenberg, vice president and general counsel of Hillel International who was general counsel and a faculty member at University of Minnesota for 20 years before coming to Hillel, said that the announced appointment of Segal “severely degraded the academic integrity of the department.”
He continued, “It’s terribly distressing to see the Department of Holocaust and Genocide Studes led by an anti-Israel propaganist rather than a top scholar in the history of the eradication of European Jewry.”
Rotenberg said that the announced appointment could “cause long term damage” to the relationship between University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Jewish community. “The Jewish community there has profoundly benefited from, and enhanced, the quality of the university over many decades,” he said. “I fear that the relationship is under deep strain right now.”
Amid rising antisemitism on University of Minnesota’s campus— most recently the vandalism of the school’s Hillel building on Friday morning— Chaouat told JI that it is particularly concerning for the head of a Holocaust and genocide center to downplay antisemitism and accuse the Jewish state of genocide.
“We are witnessing a ‘tokenization’ of Jews and now Israelis,” he said. “Imagine a center for the study of racism appointing a marginal voice in the African American community who opposes Black Lives Matter and who considers that the Minneapolis police not guilty of the murder of George Floyd.”
Jewish leaders worry that university presidents are appeasing anti-Israel protesters — at any cost
As universities around the country strike various deals with anti-Israel protesters to quell the turmoil on college campuses — including giving protesters a seat at the table regarding investment decisions — Jewish leaders fear that even these largely symbolic concessions could further poison the atmosphere for Jewish students.
Negotiating with protesters sets up a climate in which “Jewish students — who are not violating rules —- are being ignored, bullied and intimidated,” Mark Rotenberg, vice president and general counsel of Hillel International, told Jewish Insider. “People who violate university rules should not be rewarded with financial benefits and rewards for the violation of university rules,” he continued.
Shira Goodman, senior director of advocacy at the Anti-Defamation League, echoed that the series of deals struck all “ignore the needs of Jewish students increasingly at risk of harassment and intimidation, or worse, on campus.”
“It is critical to acknowledge the facts on the ground,” Goodman said. “For days and in some cases weeks, anti-Zionist protesters have openly violated school policies and codes of conduct by erecting encampments that have provided cover for students to fan the flames of antisemitism and wreak havoc on the entire campus community… The protesters’ aim and impact on many campuses has been to intimidate and alienate Jewish students for whom Zionism and a connection to Israel is a component of their Jewish identity. They must be held to account, not rewarded for their conduct.”
The nationwide “Gaza solidarity encampments” began on April 17 at Columbia University. On April 29, Northwestern University set the precedent for conceding to some of the protesters’ demands when its president, Michael Schill, reached an agreement with the activists to end their anti-Israel encampment, in which protesters camped out and engulfed campuses for weeks.
The protesters — most, but not all, of whom were students — took over buildings, blocked access to throughways, vandalized school property and chanted intimidating, antisemitic slogans while calling for an end to Israel’s war with Hamas and demanding that institutions cut ties with the Jewish state.
The deal at Northwestern complied with several of the students’ demands. These include allowing students to protest until the end of classes on June 1 so long as tents are removed, and to encourage employers not to rescind job offers for student protesters. The school will also allow students to weigh in on university investments — a major concession for students who have been demanding the university to divest from Israeli corporations.
The Anti-Defamation League, StandWithUs and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law joined together to slam the strategy and call for Schill’s resignation after the agreement was announced. But a handful of schools, including University of Minnesota, Brown University, Rutgers University and University of California, Riverside followed suit — giving into the demands of encampment protesters in an effort to shut them down.
While all of the agreements center around divesting from Israel, resolutions at each school look different. At Rutgers, a proposed deal reached last Thursday includes divesting from corporations participating in or benefiting from Israel; terminating Rutgers’ partnership with Tel Aviv University; accepting at least 10 displaced students from Gaza; and displaying Palestinian flags alongside other existing international flags on campus. Eight out of the 10 demands were met, while Rutgers students, faculty and alumni continue to push for the two not yet agreed to — an official call for divestment as well as cutting ties with Tel Aviv University.
At Minnesota, meanwhile, protesters packed their tents after a 90-minute meeting with Jeff Ettinger, the school’s interim president. A tentative deal was reached, which could include divestment from companies such as Honeywell and General Dynamics, academic divestment from Israeli universities, transparency about university investments, a statement in support of Palestinian students, a statement in support of Palestinians’ right to self-determination and amnesty for students arrested while protesting (nine people were arrested on campus on April 22).
In a statement to students and faculty, Ettinger wrote that coalition representatives will be given the opportunity to address the board of regents at its May 10 meeting to discuss divestment from certain companies. Public disclosure of university investments would be made available by May 7. Ettinger also said that the administration has asked university police not to arrest or charge anyone for participating in encampment activities in the past few days, and will not pursue disciplinary action against students or employees for protesting.
Rotenberg, who was general counsel of University of Minnesota for 20 years before coming to Hillel, told JI that he is working on a statement objecting to the settlements, which will be addressed to the school’s board of regents.
“I am hopeful that this is not a trend,” Rotenberg said. “No university can exist if rules violators are rewarded with financial incentives, while students who do abide by the rules are not similarly rewarded,” he continued. “That’s an upside-down world and it cannot be acceptable for individuals who violate university regulations to be given the benefits while our students’ voices are not heard.”
Rotenberg expressed ire over universities’ lack of consulting with Jewish faculty or students ahead of making the agreements. At Northwestern, seven Jewish members of the university’s antisemitism advisory committee stepped down from the body last Wednesday, citing Schill’s failure to combat antisemitism while quickly accepting the demands of anti-Israel protesters on campus.
“Any meeting with the board of regents at University of Minnesota that relates to these issues, must include Jewish voices — voices of the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community who identify with and support Israel,” Rotenberg said.
“There are many ways to enforce university time, place and manner regulation that do not involve rewarding violators,” he continued, applauding the University of Connecticut, University of Florida and Columbia University for shutting down encampments while “eliminating the dangers of disruption and violence, without rewarding the violators.” At Columbia, for example, officers in riot gear removed demonstrators who had seized Hamilton Hall and suspended students who refused to dismantle their encampment.
Not all efforts to strike deals have been successful. At University of Chicago, for instance, negotiations to remove encampment tents from the campus central quad were suspended on Sunday, after protesters reached a stalemate with the university president, Paul Alivisatos.
“The Jewish community is right to be outraged,” Miriam Elman, executive director of the Academic Engagement Network, told JI. “You don’t capitulate to groups that are in violation of reasonable restrictions by giving into demands. That is not moral leadership… the right statements are not negotiations with rule violators, but rather say that free expression is a core value but you have to abide by university policy in doing that,” she continued, noting that she has observed a “trend with private universities being more able to weather the storm, as well as just doing better than some of the public universities.”
Like Rotenberg, Elman singled out Minnesota for its “disheartening” snub of Jews.
“Their statement [on encampments] had nothing to say to the Jewish community,” Elman said. “Nothing condemning the rank antisemitism on display, in rhetoric and calls for violence against Israeli citizens. How can you not even in one paragraph of your statement condemn how antisemitism has infused these protests?”
In a statement to JI, Jacob Baime, CEO of the Israel on Campus Coalition, called on university administrators to “clear the encampments, equally enforce existing policies, and protect Jewish students and their friends and allies,” without capitulating to “supporters of Hamas.”
Experts said that it’s too early to know whether or not the concessions offered are merely symbolic — Brown, for example, plans to wait until October for its corporate board to vote on a proposal to divest from Israeli interests, as per its negotiation with protesters. But already, according to the ADL’s Goodman, administrations that have made deals “[incentivized] further rules violations and disruption and normalized antisemitism on campus.”
Goodman cautioned that as universities try to restore order during finals and graduations, more may strike similar deals. “Administrators may see this as an acceptable solution to resolve the current situation on their own campus… It will also be interesting to see how they determine whether protestors who committed no further code of conduct violations comply and what happens if they do not comply.”
Rotenberg warned, “The Jewish community has ample reason to fear when people take the law into their own hands and who, after being warned, decide to violate the norms of their community and then get rewarded for doing so.” Going down that path, he said, is “marching down the road to authoritarianism.”
University of Minnesota professor who denied Hamas atrocities on Oct. 7 a candidate for school’s top DEI job
A University of Minnesota professor who denied Hamas terrorists committed rape and sexual violence against Israeli women on Oct. 7 is being considered for a top administrative position in the college’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department.
Sima Shakhsari is an associate professor in the department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies, and has been seen on campus attending pro-Palestinian rallies chanting “Globalize the Intifada.” Shakhsari, who uses they/he/she pronouns, also has a long history of aligning with radical groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
Shakhsari’s denial that Israeli women were raped by Hamas came during the professor’s testimony last Thursday to the university review panel, part of the application process in being considered for the associate dean of the DEI office in the College of Liberal Arts position.
“I cannot be silenced in the face of this genocide, and I’m not gonna argue whether it’s a genocide or not,” Shakhsari said in a one-hour speech, which almost entirely focused on Israel and Gaza.
In the speech, she volunteered she hadn’t seen any evidence of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israelis — which has been well-documented by testimony from victims, video footage and forensic evidence. “Of course, any person who has been raped, I am a rape crisis counselor, I believe the survivors. I am yet to see Israeli rape survivors of Hamas come and speak,” Shakhsari said.
Shakhsari went on to say that it’s racist to say that Hamas committed rape. “Part of our work and part of my experience… was how men of color in the U.S. have been demonized and have been falsely accused of rape. Exactly because of racism. We know the history of lynching, of black man, lynching, of indigenous man lynching Latinos in this country… because of accusations and they’re kind of violating the innocence of white women, right? And I think that is also this force that is repeated in the context of Israel and Palestine, because Arab men have been demonized and have been marked as monstrous people who are rapists and for violence.”
Bruno Chaouat, a professor of French and Jewish studies at University of Minnesota who attended Shakhsari’s job application speech, told Jewish Insider that he “[doesn’t] understand why [Shakhsari’s] talk focused on Gaza. It’s a job for a campus in Minnesota. You’re supposed to talk about how to include people from diverse backgrounds and races, so it seemed completely off topic.”
Benji Kaplan, executive director of University of Minnesota Hillel, said in a statement to JI, “I have faith that those running the search will take into account the qualifications and deficiencies of the remaining candidates and that they will hire a new Associate Dean for DEI that is supportive of all students.” Kaplan added that he would share further thoughts on Shakhsari if the professor is selected for the position.
The University of Minnesota declined to elaborate whether Shakhsari is being considered for the position. “Privacy laws generally prevent us from commenting on personnel matters,” a university spokesperson wrote in an email to JI.
According to an automatic reply email, Shakhshari is on leave for the duration of the fall semester and is not teaching any classes next semester. The automated email response from Shakhshari’s university email address is signed, “I stand with the people of Palestine in their struggle for freedom and justice, and condemn the Israeli state’s settler colonial violence and genocide in Gaza.”
A professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in the study of antisemitism within DEI frameworks and requested to remain anonymous said she is “very confused about how Shakhsari was even nominated for this position.”
“[Shakhsari] is antagonistic to people she recognizes as Jewish faculty or Jewish students,” the professor said.
In 2019, Shakhsari moderated a panel discussion at the National SJP conference. The gathering, held at the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, was themed “Beyond Struggle: From Roots to Branches Towards Liberation.” While a professor at Wellesley College in 2015, Shaksari was affiliated with the local SJP chapter.
In a Facebook post in Sep. 2020, Shakhsari cited support of Leila Khaled, a leading member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine who participated in the hijacking of planes in 1969 and 1970. Khaled has said that the Second Intifada, during which over 1,000 Israelis were killed, mainly in suicide bombings, failed because it was not violent enough.
