Norman Finkelstein is up for tenure at DePaul university, and some of my colleagues are trying to stop him from getting tenure. No matter what I think about Finkelstein, the attempt to interfere in the internal tenure process at another university makes me profoundly uncomfortable.
More beneath the fold.
Finkelstein is a controversial writer, reportedly the son of Holocaust survivors, who has written that current Israel policies have been underwritten by a "Holocaust industry" and that American Jews conflate anti-Semitism with opposition to Israel policy. I've read Finkelstein's work. I didn't like it. I fond it to be more polemical than scholarly, and I'm a strong believer in convincing through the power of ideas rather than name-calling. But I'm also not sure that I agree with some of the allegations that have been levelled at Finkelstein. He does not seem to be a Holocaust denier, for example. Our collective nerve about the Holocaust is VERY sensitive and it doesn't take much to irritate it.
Perhaps as testimony that others with tenure have found Finkelstein's scholarship to be just as liminal as I have, he's been something of a gypsy scholar, and this is the first time that he is up for tenure--at Catholic DePaul university. I'm skeptical about DePaul as a university, because supposedly during the tenure process there, outside letters evaluating the research of scholars are NOT solicited--I've never heard of a university going that route. But it's not as though the administration at DePaul are not familiar with the controversy surrounding Finkelstein; they don't live in a cave.
Surasky has diaried here, about Alan Dershowitz's personal crusade to stop DePaul from considering Finkelstein for tenure:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I was surprised to receive a email from a campus group called Stand With Us, encouraging me to get involved in Finkelstein's tenure process by signing a petition against his tenure. The group has brought some controversial speakers to the campus, including Daniel Pipes. Shorter Daniel Pipes: Israel should come down on the Palestinians like a ton of bricks, squashing any hope of a future; and then, when Israel wins, THEN Israel and the Palestinians can talk. As a mainstream Jewish person I have to say Pipes's views, expressed at that talk, made me very uncomfortable. I don't think any nation can be given a military blank check like that. But when I have shared my own view (which was that Israel was out of line in its choice of military tactic during the war in Lebanon in the summer) I was soundly berated by members of my congregation. "Don't you support Israel?" they demanded. I didn't think my support of Israel had to include any crazy military policy its leaders might adopt, but oh well.
The "Stand With Us" email invited me to sign the petition by noting:
Instead of engaging in reasonable and respectful debate, Dr. Finkelstein defames and demonizes scholars and others who disagree with him. In our opinion, Finkelstein's association with DePaul University will damage DePaul's reputation. DePaul will be seen as a school that fosters irresponsible scholarship, extremism and childish, hateful debate.
But I think that's a willful misstatement of the reasons for the opposition to Finkelstein. LOTS of scholars are personally quite crochety and some can be very intolerant of others. If there are collegiality issues involved, they come out quite early in the annual review process.
I wrote back to Stand With Us, noting that I thought it was disingenuous to argue that this was about DePaul's reputation. I got an email back (I'm omitting the name here), saying:
Last month I attended an anti-semitic seminar at UCSC in which Norman Finkelstein was praised and emulated. He is no scholar and has no business teaching anywhere, except for the University of Tehran. He encourges hatred of Jews and justifies suicide bombings and murder of civilians. He is a supported of Hizbollah. I also don't care about DePaul, but I do care about Israel and the Jewish people. To allow this individual to receive tenure as a result of his anti-semitic diatribes without objection is absurd. You may disagree. I think that DePaul should hear from others as to what Finkelstein does for the university.
What do you think? Is it ever justified for outsiders to intervene in the tenure process of a university? I may be idealistic, but I like to think that if Finkelstein is such a bad guy, the process will work itself out internally; and that, even if not, being an Associate Professor at DePaul (versus an assistant) is not going to increase his credibility.