I appeared on Tuesday evening, February 25, 2014, at Ithaca College for a talk on The Case for Israel and Academic Freedom.
The appearance was in response to the appearance at Ithaca College of Cornell Professor Eric Cheyfitz, a vocal supporter of the anti-Israel BDS movement and particlarly the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel.
When I learned that Cheyfitz was appearing to speak in favor of the academic boycott at the request of three Ithaca College academic units, I requested that I be allowed to appear with him so that students could hear both sides. In response, I was offered 5 minutes to rebut his arguments, which I declined, because that was not a meaningful time.
I was told that the sponsors wanted to build the event around Cheyfitz, and when I asked them to build an event around me to follow his talk, I was denied.
So I reached out to Ithaca College Hillel, which agreed to sponsor my talk. My talk took place right after Cheyfitz’s talk, directly across the hall.
We had a great attendance, both students and members of the community. In addition to the Ithaca College Hillel Student Board (see Featured Image), the were a number of the Alpha Epsilon Pi brothers on hand.
Here’s the video of my talk. Be sure to watch the question asked by a BDS supporter and my answer at the 54 minute mark)
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