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April 17, 2015

Jewish Studies Scholar Cancels Univ. of Illinois Lecture over Salaita Dismissal 
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A leading Jewish studies scholar has cancelled a lecture at University
of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign over the ouster of professor Steven
Salaita. The university withdrew a job offer to Salaita last year after
he posted tweets harshly critical of the Israeli assault on Gaza. Todd
Samuel Presner, director of the Center for Jewish Studies at UCLA,
criticized university Chancellor Phyllis Wise's insistence on
"'civility' as the dubious touchstone for all academic discourse,"
citing examples of "uncivil speech acts" by prophets in the Hebrew Bible
who condemned injustice, nationalism and war.

 

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