NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ: On Tuesday, October 17, nearly 200 Rutgers professors published this open letter to Rutgers President Jonathan Holloway, where they accused him of making “one-sided statements that only mentioned Israeli victims in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.” This was reported by a portal, patch.com.
Last Monday, October 9, Holloway had released this public letter to the Rutgers community, entitled “Responding to the Violence in Israel and Gaza.” In the days immediately following Hamas’ attacks, he also attended a student vigil organized by a wide range of Rutgers student Jewish groups.
Then on Oct. 11, the Rutgers president posted this, a second letter, where he wrote “That does not diminish my concern for members of the university community with family and friends in Gaza. I fervently hope for the sparing of innocent lives, the release of hostages, and a peaceful and just resolution to these terrible events as soon as possible.”
The Rutgers professors say he did show enough sympathy to the victims of war in Gaza.
“President Holloway’s message to the entire Rutgers community on Oct. 11, 2023 clearly excluded the pain and suffering of our Palestinian, Arab and Muslim students arising from the atrocities taking place in Gaza and Israel,” said Rutgers Law Professor Sahar Aziz. “That Rutgers University has some 7,000 Muslim and Arab students across three campuses makes this omission particularly harmful.”
The letter was sent to Holloway Monday, and can be found here: Faculty Letter to President Holloway Supporting our Palestinian, Arab, & Muslim Students at Rutgers.
The professors who signed the letter said Holloway’s statements “failed to even acknowledge Palestine, Palestinians, or the death of Gazans who are suffering an unprecedented bombardment by Israeli forces.
At the time of, over 1,000 Palestinian children have been killed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza … President Holloway demonstrated a clear lack of temperament unbefitting a university leader by issuing a statement that offered consolation to only one group of civilian victims.”
Here is the letter the professors sent to Holloway, and all the nearly 200 professors who signed it:
October 16, 2023
Dear President Holloway –
We, the undersigned, are faculty who teach and do research in a myriad of fields across all three Rutgers University campuses. One of the great privileges of our jobs here at Rutgers is the ability to work with our amazingly diverse student body, which includes over 7,000 Muslim and Arab students, in a state with some of the largest Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim communities in the country.
These students and communities are integral to our beloved community here at Rutgers. For their sake, we are compelled to express our shock, dismay, and disappointment at your October 11, 2023, message regarding the current situation in Israel and Palestine. Like you, we mourn the loss of all human lives, and we welcome efforts to invite empathy and denounce violence against all civilians. However, your deeply one-sided message was a gut punch to the many Rutgers students who have family and friends in Gaza and Palestine. It also failed to acknowledge the ongoing hate and racism directed at our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students, who have never known a world where they are not vilified as terrorists for simply being brown, Muslim, or Arab.
As their teachers, we want you to know that your failure to express concern for our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim student population–who are also suffering pain, anguish, and fear–made a large portion of our student body feel devalued and demoralized. It did not go unnoticed that you did not even name Palestinian students in your message. Your mention of the campus and NJ State Police–after not even acknowledging that our Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students are also vulnerable to violence during this time–conveyed to them that they would be the ones targeted, not protected. Many of these students have written to us saying they are frightened to come to campus and unable to complete their work due to their exhaustion and fear.
To be blunt: your message further inflamed campus tensions and exacerbated divisions in our RU community. While we cannot know your intentions, it conveyed to our students that you had clearly chosen a “side,” whereas, as educators, we must support all of our students.
We call upon you, President Holloway, in keeping with the ethical and moral values we seek collectively to uphold at Rutgers University, to make a statement of concern for Palestinian civilians under assault and the members of our community who have loved ones there and close ties to Palestine. We also call upon you to acknowledge that Palestinian, Arab, and Muslim students are vulnerable at this time and are terrified by the public support for unfolding crimes against humanity in Gaza. We call on you to pledge your support for their safety, protection, and overall well-being.
Respectfully,
Sahar Aziz, Distinguished Professor of Law, Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar, Rutgers Law
School (Newark)
Sylvia Chan-Malik, Associate Professor, American Studies & WGSS (NB)
Sadia Abbas, Associate Professor, English, Center for European Studies (Newark/NB)
Zahra Ali, Assistant Professor, Sociology (Newark)
Maya Mikdashi, Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Associate Professor, WGSS (NB)
Noura Erakat, Associate Professor, Africana Studies and the Program in Criminal Justice (NB)
Omar Dewachi, Associate Professor, Anthropology (NB)
Zakia Salime, Associate Professor, WGSS & Sociology (NB)
Allan Punzalan Isaac, Professor, American Studies/English (NB)
Genese Sodikoff, Associate ProfessorSociology and Anthropology (Newark)
Ethel Brooks, Associate Professor, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Sociology, Chair
of WGSS (NB)
Alex Zamalin, Professor, Africana Studies and Political Science (NB)
Radhika Balakrishnan, Professor, WGSS (NB)
Martin F. Manalansan IV, Professor, Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (NB)
Dr. Alison Powell, Associate Teaching Professor English and Creative Writing (NB)
Carter Mathes, Associate Professor, Department of English (NB)
Suzy Kim, Professor of Korean History, Asian Languages and Cultures (NB)
Kaiser Aslam, Muslim Chaplain, Center for Islamic Life (NB)
Charles Haberl, Professor, African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures
(NB)
Amir Moosavi, Assistant Professor, English (Newark_
Ousseina Alidou, Distinguished Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Antonio Y. Vazquez-Arroyo, Associate Professor, Political Science (Newark)
Alamin Mazrui, Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Wendell Marsh, Assistant Professor, Africana (Newark)
Alison Howell, Associate Professor, Political Science (Newark
Catherine Fihpatrick, Director, WGSS (Newark)
Adnan Zulfiqar, Associate Professor, Law School (Camden)
Audrey Truschke, Professor, History (Newark)
Brian Murphy, Associate Professor, History (Newark)
Jamilah Malika Abu-Bakare, Instructor of Professional Practice Africana Studies, Express
Newark (Newark)
Hanan Kashou, Asscociate Teaching Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Dr. Lyra D. Monteiro, Assistant Professor, History, American Studies, Africana Studies
(Newark)
Mayte Green-Mercado, Associate Professor, Federated Department of History (Newark_
Asli Zengin, Assistant Professor, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department (NB)
Kayo Denda, Librarian for Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, NB Libraries (NB)
Beryl Saker, Professor, Department of History (Newark)
Jehan Mohamed, Lecturer, AMESALL (NB)
Melissa Valle, Mellon Assistant Professor of Global Racial Justice, Sociology and Anthropology/
Department of Africana Studies (Newark)
Jawid Mojaddedim Professor, Department of Religion (NB)
Mary Rizzo, Associate Professor, History (Newark)
Feri Paydar, Lecturer, AMESALL (NB)
Whitney Strub, Associate Professor, History (Newark)
Donna Murch, Professor, History (NB)
Melissa De Fino, Librarian, Rutgers University Libraries (NB)
Leslie M. Alexander, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Professor of History. History, SAS (NB)
Evie Shockley, Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English, English (NB)
Karishma Desai, Assistant Professor Education, Culture & Society Program, Rutgers GSE (NB)
Chrystin Ondersma, Professor of Law (Newark)
James Jones, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies (Newark)
Kate Cairns, Associate Professor, Childhood Studies (Camden)
Tim Raphael, Professor of Arts, Culture and Media, Director, Center for Migration and the
Global City (Newark)
Steven Brechin, Professor, Sociology (NB)
Joanna Kempner, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology (NB)
Charles I. Auffant, Clinical Professor of Law, Law school (Newark)
Sean T. Mitchell, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Sociology and Anthropology
(Newark)
Todd Wolfson, Associate Professor, Journalism and Media Studies (NB)
Arlene Stein, Professor, Sociology (NB)
Seema Saifee, Assistant Professor of Law, Rutgers Law School (Camden)
Colm Atkins, Research Associate, Cell Biology and Neuroscience (NB)
Khadijah Costley White, Associate Professor, Journalism and Media Studies (NB)
Gabriela Kueking, Professor, Political Science (Newark)
Andrea Marston, Assistant Professor, Department of Geography (NB)
Sarada Balagopalan, Associate Professor, Childhood Studies (Camden)
Samah Selim, Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Meredeth Turshen, Professor Emerita, Bloustein School (NB)
Laura Lomas, Professor, English (Newark)
Brikney Cooper, Professor, WGSS/Africana Studies (NB)
Andrew Urban, Associate Professor, American Studies (NB)
Diane Shane Fruchtman, Associate Professor, Religion (NB)
Stéphane Robolin, Associate Professor, Dept. of English/Center for African Studies/AMESALL
(NB)
Jaime Shearn Coan, Postdoctoral Associate, ISGRJ/WGSS (NB)
Meheli Sen, Associate Professor, AMESALL/Cinema Studies (NB)
Dr. Leslie Kay Jones, Assistant Professor, Sociology (NB)
Andrés Morera, Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry (NB)
Norah MacKendrick, Associate Professor, Department of Sociology (NB)
Carolyne J White, Professor, Dept of Urban Education (Newark)
Emily Marker, Associate Professor, History (Camden)
Simeon Marsalis, Assistant Professor, English (Newark)
Teona Williams, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, Geography (NB)
Michal Raucher, Associate Professor, Department of Jewish Studies (NB)
David M. Hughes, Professor of Anthropology, Anthropology (NB)
Jamal Ali. Assistant Teaching Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Christien Tompkins, Assistant Professor, Anthropology (NB)
John Keene, Distinguished Professor, English/Africana Studies (Newark)
Susan Martin-Marquez, Professor, Department of Spanish & Portuguese (NB)
Catherine Lee Associate, Professor, Sociology (NB)
Yasmine Khayyat, Associate Professor of Arabic Literature, AMESALL (NB)
Lauren Silver, Associate Professor, Childhood Studies (Camden)
Sandy Russell Jones, Associate Teaching Professor, History/Religion (NB)
Frank Edwards, Assistant Professor, School of Criminal Justice (Newark)
James J. Brown, Jr., Associate Professor, English and Digital Studies (Camden)
John Kuo Wei Tchen, Professor, History Department (Newark)
Todd Clear, University Distinguished Professor, Law and Criminal Justice (Newark)
Keith Green, Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies, English and Africana
(Camden)
Salam Al Kuntar, Assistant Lecturer Professor, Classics (NB)
Manar Habbal, Lecturer, AMESALL (NB)
Timothy Stewart-Winter, Associate Professor, History (Newark)
Mukti Mangharam, Associate Professor, English (NB)
Ulla D. Berg, Associate Professor, Anthropology /Latino and Caribbean Studies (NB)
Janice Gallagher, Associate Professor, Political Science (Newark)
Louisa Schein, Associate Professor, Anthropology/WGSS (NB)
Uchechi Okereke-Beshel, Core Faculty, Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South
Asian Languages and Literatures (NB)
H. Surowih, Assistant Professor, Religion (NB)
Kyle Riismandel, Associate Teaching Prof. of History and Director of the Graduate Program in
American Studies, History/American Studies (Newark)
Hana Shepherd, Associate Professor, Sociology (NB)
Rebecca Kunkel, Librarian, Law Library (Newark)
Mark Krasovic, Associate Professor, History / SASN (Newark)
Dr. Rina Bliss, Associate Professor, Sociology (NB)
Deepa Kumar, Professor, Journalism and Media Studies (NB)
Ben Sifuentes-Jauregui, Professor, American Studies (NB)
Emily Coyle, Adjunct, English (Newark)
David Winters, Adjunct, SCI (NB)
Dana Luciano, Associate Professor, English and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies (NB)
Atiya Aftab, Esq., Adjunct Professor, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Political Science
Department (NB)
David Kurnick, Professor, English (NB)
Haydee Herrera, Associate Professor, Math (Camden)
Tamara Sears, Associate Professor, Art History (NB)
Lauren Kelly, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education (NB)
Maurice Wallace, Professor, English (NB)
Ed Cohen, Professor, Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies (NB)
Manar Habbal, Lecturer, AMESALL (NB)
Malcolm Kiniry, Associate Professor, English Department (Newark)
Frank Garcia, Assistant Professor, Department of English (Newark)
Kevin L. Clay, Assistant Professor, Black Studies in Education, Graduate School of Education
(NB)
Nicole J. Auffant, Lecturer, Political Science, SASN (Newark)
Colin Jager, Professor, English (NB)
Karen Elizabeth Bishop, Associate Professor, Spanish & Comparative Literature (NB)
Evelyn Saavedra Autry, Presidential Postdoctoral Fellow, WGSS (NB)
Brendan Kibbee, Postdoctoral Fellow, African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and
Literatures (NB)
Luis M. Rivera, Professor, Psychology (Newark)
Jason Bird, Associate Professor and Chair, Social Work / SASN (Newark)
Krystal Strong, Assistant Professor, Black Studies in Education, Graduate School of Education
(NB)
Elizabeth Surles, Archivist, Institute of Jazz Studies (Newark)
Arthur B. Powell, Professor, Department of Urban Education (Newark)
Jackie Wakers, Teaching Assistant, Earth and Planetary Science (NB)
Derek J. Demeri, Esq., Akorney/Adjunct, Law School (Camden_
Rachel Barber, Adjunct, Rutgers, Writing Program (Camden)
Sean Silver, Associate Professor, English (NB)
Sakae Kikuchi, Teaching Assistant, English (Camden)
Lynn Festa, Professor, English (NB)
Howie Swerdloff, Secretary, Rutgers Adjunct Union, English Writing Program (NB_
Katie Elson Anderson, Reference and Instruction Librarian, Rutgers University Libraries
(Camden)
Marcy Schwarh, Professor, Dept. of Spanish and Portuguese (NB)
Daniel Sidorick, Lecturer, Labor Studies and Employment Relations (NB)
Kyla Schuller, Associate Professor, WGSS (NB)
David Letwin, Lecturer, Rutgers Arts Online (NB)
Elena Gambino, Assistant Professor, Political Science (NB)
Naima Chowdhury, Assistant Director, Asian American Cultural Center (NB)
Gaiutra Bahadur, Associate Professor of Arts, Culture and Media, Department of Arts, Culture
and Media (Newark)
Alison Lemovih, Associate Professor, Federated History (Newark)
Nuria Sagarra, Professor, Spanish and Portuguese (NB)
Gary Farney, Associate Professor, History/Global Affairs (Newark)
Elin Diamond, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, English (NB)
Andrew Goldstone, Associate Professor, Department of English (NB)
Kornel Chang, Associate Professor, History (Newark)
Sandy Placido. Asst. Professor, History (Newark)
Ileana Nachescu, Assistant Teaching Professor, WGSS (NB)
Kathryn Sabbeth, Professor of Law, Law School (Newark)
Lauren Shallish, Associate Chair, Department of Urban Education (Newark)
Anjali Nerlekar, Associate Professor, AMESALL (NB)
Akissi Brikon, Assistant Professor, Africana Studies (NB)
Keish Kim, Presidential Postdoc, English (Newark)
Travis DuBose, Director, Writing Program (Camden)
Paru Shah, Professor, Political Science (NB)
Sofie Wise, Instructor, English Dept (Camden)
Zeynep Devrim Gürsel, Associate Professor, Anthropology (NB)
Ann E Freedman, Associate Professor of Law, Law School (Camden)
Shaheen Parveen, Assistant Professor (Teaching), AMESALL(NB)
Walton R Johnson, Professor, Africana Studies (NB)
Paul O’Keefe, Assistant Teaching Professor, Geography (NB)
Dámaris M.Otero-Torres , Associate Professor, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (NB)
Leyla Amzi, Professor, History (Newark)
Dennis C. Prieto, Associate Professor and Reference Librarian, Rutgers Law School
(Newark)
Beth Stephens, Distinguished Professor, Law School (Newark)
James Gray Pope, Distinguished Professor of Law, Emeritus, Law (Newark)
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