Spring Break
Reinharz deflects criticism from Pipes
by Joshua Adland
News | 3/6/07
Posted online at 11:34 PM EST on 3/5/07
/ Last updated at 11:04 AM EST on 3/5/07
Senior administrators said comments regarding controversial speakers that touched off a wave of criticism after they were reported last month were misinterpreted.
The comments, made during a faculty meeting Feb. 1, most notably included University President Jehuda Reinharz using the phrase "weapons of mass destruction." Exactly to what he was referring is now a matter of dispute, with administrators saying the comments were grossly misinterpreted.
But the inference made by some professors at the meeting, that he was referring to two controversial Middle East scholars who have been invited to speak on campus, was reported by the Justice the following week.
Those comments drew outrage from one of the two scholars, Daniel Pipes, a conservative analyst popular in some political circles on campus. In an op-ed article in the Justice on Feb. 13, Pipes critcized Reinharz for comparing him to the other invited speaker, Norman Finklestein, and encouraged donors to reconsider their support for the University so long as its current president is at the helm.
Reinharz vehemently denied that he was comparing Pipes to Finklestein or referring to either as a "weapon of mass destruction," both in interviews and in a letter to Pipes. Meanwhile, some professors at the meeting said it was obvious that Reinharz was specifically referring to Pipes and Finkelstein as explosive speakers, but still some have stood by the president, agreeing that he was taken out of context.
At the Feb. 1 faculty meeting, Reinharz expressed his dismay about the high costs incurred by the University during former president Jimmy Carter's visit to campus in January.
It was clear that the high-profile visits of Carter and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz had sparked student interest in bringing other controversial speakers to campus, and Reinharz was concerned about Middle East dialogue on campus.
"I have a fear that these people who are being invited are weapons of mass destruction," he said at the meeting. And though he has not denied making such a statement, he insists he was referring more generally to the process by which speakers are brought to campus, one he fears leads opposing groups to invite speakers for the mere purpose of ideological retaliation against one another.
The comments, made during a faculty meeting Feb. 1, most notably included University President Jehuda Reinharz using the phrase "weapons of mass destruction." Exactly to what he was referring is now a matter of dispute, with administrators saying the comments were grossly misinterpreted.
But the inference made by some professors at the meeting, that he was referring to two controversial Middle East scholars who have been invited to speak on campus, was reported by the Justice the following week.
Those comments drew outrage from one of the two scholars, Daniel Pipes, a conservative analyst popular in some political circles on campus. In an op-ed article in the Justice on Feb. 13, Pipes critcized Reinharz for comparing him to the other invited speaker, Norman Finklestein, and encouraged donors to reconsider their support for the University so long as its current president is at the helm.
Reinharz vehemently denied that he was comparing Pipes to Finklestein or referring to either as a "weapon of mass destruction," both in interviews and in a letter to Pipes. Meanwhile, some professors at the meeting said it was obvious that Reinharz was specifically referring to Pipes and Finkelstein as explosive speakers, but still some have stood by the president, agreeing that he was taken out of context.
At the Feb. 1 faculty meeting, Reinharz expressed his dismay about the high costs incurred by the University during former president Jimmy Carter's visit to campus in January.
It was clear that the high-profile visits of Carter and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz had sparked student interest in bringing other controversial speakers to campus, and Reinharz was concerned about Middle East dialogue on campus.
"I have a fear that these people who are being invited are weapons of mass destruction," he said at the meeting. And though he has not denied making such a statement, he insists he was referring more generally to the process by which speakers are brought to campus, one he fears leads opposing groups to invite speakers for the mere purpose of ideological retaliation against one another.
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