University of Illinois Prof Retiring Early Due to Antisemitism on Campus

University of Illinois Prof Retiring Early Due to Antisemitism on Campus

For years now, the left has been saying that hate must not be tolerated on campus. Have you noticed that this doesn’t seem to apply to Jews and supporters of Israel all of a sudden?

The Times of Israel reports:

Retiring early due to antisemitism, a professor paints a dire picture of US academia

Prof. Barbara J. Risman never expected to retire early from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a place she’s called her “beloved academic home” for the past 17 years.

A College of Arts & Sciences distinguished professor of sociology, Risman was committed to the university’s social justice mission. But after the October 7 Hamas onslaught on southern Israel, both subtle and overt displays of anti-Israel and antisemitic behavior have gripped the campus to the point that Risman finds she no longer recognizes the institution.

“UIC prides itself on being progressive and engaged. It’s become a very alienating place to be right now. It’s shocking when you think you are a part of a community and you realize in many ways that you are not,” Risman said in a Zoom interview from her campus office.

Risman, who spent more than 10 years co-chairing the university-wide committee on faculty equity and once enjoyed a longstanding affiliation with the Department of Women and Gender Studies, recently penned an opinion piece for The Chicago Tribune about her experience.

“UIC is no longer an institution comfortable for me, as a Jew who believes Israel has a right to exist,” Risman said, adding that according to the American Jewish Committee, more than 80 percent of Jews in America share her belief. “When university departments and programs publish statements implying support for the destruction of the state where more than half of all Jews alive today live, they have crossed the line from simple micro-aggressions against Jewish students and faculty to outright institutional antisemitism,” Risman wrote in her op-ed.

And while an anti-Israel encampment hasn’t yet sprouted on UIC’s campus as many others have on campuses around the nation, there have been numerous concerning incidents since last October. In November 2023, posters of Israeli hostages held by Hamas were ripped down, and anti-Zionist rhetoric and shows of support for terrorism peppered several campus demonstrations.

Days after Hamas terrorists slaughtered some 1,200 people in southern Israel and kidnapped 252 to the Gaza Strip while burning, torturing, raping and dismembering civilians young and old — often while filming the violence — and well before Israel responded militarily, UIC faculty in the Women and Gender Studies and the Black Studies departments posted a joint statement on their websites to let Palestinian and Muslim students know that faculty members were concerned for their welfare.

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