New York — For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent researcher in the genocide at Columbia University, used the Hana Arndt book on the trial of a criminal in the Nazi War, “Aykmanan in Jerusalem: a report on the banality of evil”, to raise a discussion among her students about SAM SAV and its full shocks.
But after Colombia adopted the last of A new definition of anti -SemitismWho casts some criticism of Israel as a hate speech, Hirsch fears that she will face an official penalty even to mention the historical text by Arndt, the philosopher who criticized the founding of Israel.
For the first time since she started teaching five decades ago, Hirsch, the daughter of two survivors of the Holocaust, is now thinking about leaving the semester completely.
“The university treats Israel’s criticism as anti -Semitic and threatens sanctions for those who do not disobey is no longer a place for open investigation,” she told Associated Press. “I don’t see how I can teach about genocide in that environment.”
Hirsch is not alone. In universities throughout the country, academics have sparked a warning about the increasing efforts to determine anti -Semitism on conditions paid by the Trump administration, and they are often under the threat of federal financing discounts.
Related by the International Holocaust Anniversary Alliance, identification 11 examples of anti -Semitic behavior, such as the application of “dual standards” to Israel, comparing the country’s policies to Nazism or describing its existence as a “racist endeavor”.
Before a A settlement of $ 220 million With the Trump administration’s announcement on Wednesday, Colombia agreed to merge the definition of IHRA and its examples in its disciplinary process. He was supported in some form by Harvard Weyel and dozens of other universities.
While supporters say that the semantic transformation is necessary to combat advanced forms of Jewish hat Really under attack By President Donald Trump.
For Hirsch, the restrictions imposed on compartments with the Holocaust and interrogation in the founding amount of Israel to “clear censorship”, which are afraid to move away from discussions in the classroom and open them and other faculty members to lawsuits.
“We are learning by making analogy,” said Hirsch. “Now the university says this is unlimited. How can you get a university course where there are no ideas for discussion or interpretation?”
A spokesman for Colombia did not respond to an email request for comment.
When IHRA definition for the first time he drafted the anti -Semitism two decades ago, Kenneth Stern said that he “never imagined that he would one day work as a symbol of hatred.”
At the time, Stern was working as a major expert against the Semitic of the American Jewish Committee. He said that the definition and its examples were supposed to serve as a broad framework to help European countries to track bias against the Jews.
In recent years, Stern spoke strongly against what he considered his “weapon” against the supporters of the Palestinians, including the Jews hostile to the Zion.
He said: “People who believe that they hold hatred are seduced by simple solutions to complex issues.” “But when using it in this context, it really harms our ability to think about anti -Semitism.”
Stern said that he threw this warning to Colombia’s leaders last fall after inviting him to address him by Claire Shibman, then a co -chair of the Board of Trustees and the current interim president of the university.
Stern said the conversation looked fruitful. But in March, shortly after the Trump administration said it would work Block 400 million dollars In Colombia’s federal funding on concerns about anti -Semitism, the university announced It will adopt IHRA definition for “training and education”.
Then last week, days before the announcement of an agreement with the Trump administration to restore this funding, Sheepman said that the university will expand IHRA definition of disciplinary purposes, and publish its examples when assessing “discriminatory intention”.
“The integration of this definition will enhance our response and our society’s understanding of anti -modern hostility,” Shaibman wrote.
Stern, who is now the director of a cold center for the study of hate, called on this “horrific” step, which would stimulate a new wave of litigation against the university while increasing the reduction in the support of the Palestinians.
Indeed, the university’s disciplinary body faced a violent reaction to the investigation of the students who Israel criticized the introduction And other places, often at the request of the pro -Israel groups.
He said: “With this new decree on IHRA, you will have more external groups looking for what the professors study, what is in the curriculum, submit complaints and apply general pressure to shoot people.” “This will undoubtedly harm the university.”
In addition to adopting the IHRA definition, Colombia also agreed to develop the Department of Studies in the Middle East under new supervision, fix its bases for protests and coordinate anti -Semitic training courses with groups such as the Anti -Defammering Association.
Earlier this week, the university Comment or expelling approximately 80 students Those who participated in the pro -Palestinian demonstrations.
Kenneth Marcus, head of the Lewis Center, said. Brandis Human Rights under law, Colombia’s actions were a late step to protect Jewish students from harassment.
He rejected the fears of faculty members about the definition of IHRA, which he said “provides clarity, transparency and monotheism” of the university’s efforts to clarify anti -Semitism.
Marcus said: “There are undoubtedly some of the professors of Colombia who will feel that they cannot continue teaching under the new system.” “To the extent that they end, it may be sad for them personally, but it may not be very bad for students at Columbia University.”
But Hirsch, Professor of Colombia, said that she was committed to continuing her studies for a long time for genocide and beyond.
She said that part of this work will include speaking to students about “continuous ethnic cleansing and genocide” in Gaza, where more than 58,000 Palestinians died, more than half of them are women and children, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza.
“With this surrender to Trump, it may be impossible now to do this inside Colombia,” Hirsch said. “If this is the case, I will continue my work outside the gates of the university.”