FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
Caleb Jungling, 651-296-5529
Caleb.Jungling@House.MN.gov
News Release
Legislators Send Letter Questioning the Recent Potential Hiring Decision for the Vacant Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies
St. Paul, MN – On June 13th, Rep. Marion Rarick (R) and Senator Ron Latz (D) were joined by 67 other legislators from both the House and the Senate in a letter to University of Minnesota President Ettinger and the Board of Regents questioning the potential decision to hire Professor Raz Segal as the Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. The hiring process was paused by the University after a massive outcry from the Jewish community. You can read the letter below.
Letter to University of Minnesota President Ettinger and the Board of Regents
Greetings President Ettinger and Regents,
It is with mixed feelings that we write to you today regarding the potential hiring of professor Raz Segal to be the next director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies at the U of M. While we are elated that President Ettinger has put a pause on the selection of the Director and will be deciding the next steps, we are extremely concerned that it took an outcry from the Jewish community to bring about this action. A better course of action to be taken in the future for this position and others like it with such external impact in the community would be to include Jewish community leaders, Jewish professors, staff, and students of the U of M in all matters of this magnitude. This is not a time to brush aside their voices, to ignore their concerns or to give in to the loud minority who wish them to be silent.
An equal concern, if not a greater one, is that this is not an isolated incident. There have been a number of concerning actions and events as of late including: the inflammatory posting on the CLA website housed within the U of M’s website to which 26 members of the House expressed our strong objections -- but the posting remains to this day; the anti-Israel encampments which lead to the administration negotiating with the activists and giving them a platform to demand the University follow BDS in its investment decisions; the Cultural Critique journal editors explicitly rejecting a submission by an author because of his affiliation with an Israeli academic institution; and just over the weekend, the vandalism of Hillel.
The University of Minnesota is a public, land grant institution and as such has the highest responsibility to all your students, staff, and faculty to the communities that surround your campuses, and to the citizens of Minnesota whose tax dollars fund your great institution. To that end, we urge you to consult with Jewish community leaders and Jewish members of your university in all matters regarding Jewish life on your campuses.
Sincerely,
   
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