Responding to vigorous campus support for Professor Cornel R. West â74 â who said last month Harvard declined to consider him for tenure in part due to his outspoken criticism of Israelâs treatment of Palestinians â Rabbi Jonah C. Steinberg, executive director of Harvard Hillel, criticized West for having âegged students onâ in âscapegoating and demonizingâ Jewish people.
In an email to Hillel affiliates Friday, Steinberg wrote he believes a student petition condemning Harvardâs alleged decision to not consider West for tenure is based on âan anti-Jewish conspiracy theory.â
The petition cites Westâs belief that he was denied tenure consideration due to his opposition to âthe settler colonial violence of Israelâs occupation of Palestineâ and references Zionism in a list of ideologies it says West has critiqued, alongside âwhite supremacy, racial capitalism,â and âthe military-industrial complex.â