A description of a course beginning this week at Oberlin College, my alma mater, reads: “Popular conceptions of the relationship between Jews and power tend either to adopt (in the case of sympathetic accounts) a view of Jews as perennial victims or (in the case of hostile/antisemitic accounts) a view...
At Oberlin, Jewish Studies Professors Are Part of the Problem
Oberlin College has a long-standing antisemitism and anti-Zionism problem that has been previously documented on CAMERA’s In Focus blog, and elsewhere as well. The school’s President, Carmen Twillie Ambar, has long sought to hide the school’s problem behind its Jewish Studies program and kosher dining facilities. In 2018, after an...
To Avoid Future Scandals Like Karega, Oberlin Should Adopt the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Photo: Wikimedia Commons At the end of January it was reported that Oberlin College Vice President and Dean of Students Meredith Raimondo would be stepping down from that role at the end of the semester, and last Friday it was announced that she had left her post six weeks ahead...
Oberlin Cementing its Reputation as a School Gone-off-the-Rails with Two Antisemitic Speakers
Oberlin College of late has had a raft of bad publicity over a multi-million dollar verdict against it for defamation, as well as over its hiring, and then after outside pressure, firing, a professor who posted antisemitic conspiracy theories on Facebook. One might think at this point that the school...
What Does the Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College Case Have to do With Antisemitism? Plenty.
“The appearance of antisemitism in a culture is the first symptom of a disease, the early warning sign of collective breakdown,” according to Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks. More evidence to prove his theory came last Friday in the form of a jury verdict of $11M against Oberlin College in Gibson’s Bakery...
In the Wake of Pittsburgh Tragedy, Oberlin Continues Demonization of Israel
Last Friday, Oberlin held a vigil for the eleven Jews that were murdered in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue, as well as for two African Americans who were murdered in Kentucky while shopping for groceries. Among the sponsors of the vigil were Oberlin Jewish Voice for Peace and...
Oberlin After Joy Karega
In February of 2016, Oberlin professor Joy Karega made headlines for the antisemitic conspiracy theories she posted on Facebook. Nearly nine months later, after much hand-wringing about free speech, she was fired. But Oberlin’s problem with antisemitism neither started nor ended with Joy Karega. Karega was only a symptom of...
Why Did Oberlin Professors Go to Bat for an Anti-Semitic Colleague?
After a long investigation held largely behind locked doors, Oberlin College has finally fired Joy Karega, an Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition who moonlighted on social media as a hardcore anti-Semite. The Board of Trustees accused Karega inter aliaof “failing to meet the academic standards that Oberlin requires of its...
