Professor to speak at Beth Sholom on academic freedom

Professor Richard Landes will speak about “Threats to Academic Freedom and the Jewish Community in the Early 21st Century: Case Study of Connecticut College, Spring 2015” on Nov. 12 at Providence’s Congregation Beth Sholom.

As reported in a series of articles by David Bernstein of “The Washington Post,” Dr. Andrew Pessin, professor of philosophy at Connecticut College, was accused in the spring of 2015 of expressing racist or genocidal ideas toward Palestinians. The stress of the concerted campaign against Pessin drove him off campus and, as of now, has put an end to his teaching there.

“Campus activists circulated a Facebook post he wrote in which he denounced Hamas … cut off the comment section to the post where he removed any ambiguity that he was referring to Hamas and not Palestinians in general, and, with the complicity of the school newspaper, made Pessin the subject of a campus-wide and ultimately national campaign of vilification,” Bernstein explained. “This included various academic departments in the university and even the university president denouncing Pessin’s alleged ‘hateful’ rhetoric, and a campus-wide forum in which Pessin’s few defenders were heckled.” 

Congregation Beth Sholom will host Landes in an effort to better understand the context in which the Pessin affair occurred, the campus trends it exemplifies and their ramifications for academic freedom as well as what can be done to counter them. Pessin, a member of the R.I. Jewish community, lives in Providence.  

Landes taught medieval history at Boston University and has researched messianic and millennial movements, honor-shame culture and communications revolutions. His works include “The Paranoid Apocalypse: The Protocols of the Elders of Zion One Hundred Years Later” (NYU Press, 2011). He has compiled an archive of material related to Pessin’s case and made it available at his website, “The Augean Stables,” and in July published an article on the case in “The American Interest,” called “Salem on the Thames.”

“The events of last spring semester at Connecticut College raise key issues surrounding the issue of academic freedom in the early 21st century,” Landes argues. “The campaign waged against Andrew Pessin for his Facebook post of the summer of 2014, which effectively drove him from campus and bullied anyone who might defend him into silence for fear of being called a racist, embody one of the most dangerous trends imperiling academic freedom in the United States today.”

According to Landes, “An examination of what happened at Connecticut College last semester suggests ways to both identify the dynamics of this attack on academic freedom and how to deal with such attacks in the future.” In his talk, he hopes to draw attention to the difficulties involved for Jews on campus during the Pessin affair, and to how Jews off campus can contribute in the future.

The program is free and open to the public. It will take place in the social hall of Congregation Beth Sholom, 275 Camp St., Providence, 401-621-9393, from 8-9:30 p.m. For more information, contact Office@BethSholom-RI.org.