The demonization and delegitimization of Israel and bigotry directed toward Jewish faculty, staff, and students is increasing at dramatic rates on university and college campuses.
In these supposedly intellectual spaces, virulently anti-Israel “scholars” and student-activists connected to, and supportive of, the global BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement regularly:
Brian Leiter’s Law School Reports website, run by U. Chicago law professor Brian Leiter, isn’t a high traffic site, but it does have a following among people interested in the law professor profession.
So it is not surprising that some Legal Insurrection readers also read Leiter’s website. Several of those readers contacted...
I appeared recently on The Dangerous Thinkers Podcast with Teri O’Brien.
We covered a number of topics, but the launching point was my October 12, 2017, 9th Anniversary post, Legal Insurrection is 9 years old, and filled with dread:
An excellent Open Letter to the President of the Vassar College from a Vassar alumnus, published in the student newspaper, is a must read as to what happened when I spoke at Vassar on “hate speech” and free speech. President Elizabeth Bradley’s response is here.
That letter exchange was the subject of...
My appearance at Vassar College on October 25 to lecture on “hate speech” and free speech continues to reverberate.
For background, see my USA Today Op-Ed: My pro-free speech views made me a target at Vassar College, as well as these posts at Legal Insurrection:
Here at LI, we’ve covered the increasing, alarming, and widespread leftist intolerance for free speech in this country. The radical left has decided and worked diligently to spread the dangerous notion that any ideas they deem offensive or objectionable should not be expressed, and if they are, there is the growing...
I have an Op-Ed today at USA Today on the campaign by student activists at Vassar College to shut down my lecture on “hate speech” and free speech, based on fabricated claims that my appearance posed a danger to student safety.
You can read these two posts for background:
Healing to Action is the Vassar College student group which organized the incitement against me by making false claims that the campus was in danger by my lecture on “hate speech” and free speech.
The fabricated claims included that I was posting event information on multiple White Nationalist websites in order to...
On Tuesday night, October 31, 2017, I appeared on the Lars Larson radio show to talk about my experience at Vassar College. See these posts for the details:
Here are some of my comments during...
I appeared on Monday evening, October 30, 2017, on the Mark Levin Show to talk about my recent experiences at Vassar College, as previously documented in these posts:
I’m still trying to get my mind around the Vassar College campus reaction to my planned lecture on “hate speech” and free speech, which I wrote about in Safe Spaces and Safety Teams at Vassar College for My Lecture on Free Speech.
Hundreds of students, faculty and staff were whipped into a frenzy...
On October 25, 2017, I gave a speech at Vassar College on “An Examination of Hate Speech and Free Speech on College Campuses.” The main sponsor was the Vassar Conservative Libertarian Union, which also sponsored my 2014 speech at Vassar. Other sponsors were Students for Liberty and the Leadership Institute.
The lecture originally...
We frequently cover issues related to free speech on campus, including shut-downs, shout-downs, disruptions, threats and violence.
There is a long history to this problem, and it first showed itself in attacks on Israeli, pro-Israel and Jewish speakers, as I documented in
If you didn’t read Legal Insurrection, you might think that liberal arts Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, just north of New York City, is an island of tolerance, understanding and freedom of thought. That’s what its website says.
But since you read Legal Insurrection, you know that for the past several years...
We’ve seen some *impressive* student reactions to the election of Donald Trump.
But the reaction of students at Vassar College appears to be our first “primal scream.”
The student newspaper reported:
By the end of election night, Vassar campus was filled with faces of somber disbelief. Social media outlets were flooded with indignant outcries...
Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY, has had an abysmal few years when it comes to anti-Israel and sometimes antisemitic activity. You can scroll through our Vassar Tag for dozens of posts.
Here are a few of those posts that provide an overview:
Late last month, Vassar College students narrowly rejected a proposed Israel-boycott.
Legal Insurrection led the way in exposing anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity at Vassar over the past two years. Key parts of the problem were vocal faculty who were hostile to Israel and favorable towards the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement....
