Cartoon courtesy of The Dry Bones Blog
Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) to be closed down in July!
Does Middle Eastern money or pressure have anything to do with the decision to close the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) ?
YIISA had been created for "... the scholarly research of the origins and manifestations associated with antisemitism globally, as well as other forms of prejudice, including racisms, as it relates to policy. Through the examination of antisemitism and policy, YIISA disseminates scholarly material so to promote further understanding and contribute to aspects of policy analysis..." (Yale)
These are heady and lofty goals but not particularly mainstream in either the Arab world or in some of the higher reaches of U.S. academia.
While Yale attributes the closing of YIISA to the fact that the program did not meet the "academic expectations" that had been set for it, others view the closing as pandering to Middle Eastern money that is unhappy with the fact that YIISA addressed the Arab and Muslim connection to anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish sentiment and actions.
Money and fear makes the world go 'round
“By focusing attention on Islamic anti-Jewish hatred and on the genocidal agenda of Iran, YIISA clearly angered some faculty and administrators on campus who orchestrated this attack,” Scholars for Peace in the Middle East said of the anti-Semitism initiative. “Iran’s placing of Yale on their list of institutions to hate last year was looked at not as a badge of honor but as a problem. Some members of the Yale Corporation Board, the administration and the faculty seem to have forgotten that Iran is being embargoed by the United States.” (Jewish Journal)
While the fact that studies exploring anti-Semitism and anti-Jewish sentiment would not be popular in the Arab world is obvious, less obvious is the money that flows into Yale's coffers from this source and the fact that YIISA may have compromised this income stream.
Academic double-standard?
When asked (or more to the point received demands) not to publish a book about the controversy surrounding a cartoon of Muhammad, Yale caved to the pressure. Was this move by the school, beyond the obvious, also meant to preserve a source of funds and to maintain the access of the schools scholars to that region of the world?
By the same token, was the same reasoning behind Yale's decision to shut YIISA down? Or was the decision, as the school claims, based on the programs academic failings?
So would an institution of higher learning sell itself to the highest bidder? Would an institution be willing to turn its back on studies of anti-Jewish and anti-Semitic thoughts and actions around the world for reasons of money?
The fact that the Yale endowment that had reached $22 billion or so at its peak and is now well below that point tells part of the story. The fact that for whatever reason the school would bow to Muslim and Arab pressure to shut YIISA down (if that is what has happened) tells the rest of the story.
We are in an age in America where the pressures and potential ramifications from the Muslim and Middle Eastern constituencies far outweigh the written and verbal protest from Jewish ones.
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