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A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism

A Columbia genocide scholar says she may leave over university's new definition of antisemitism

Toronto Star25-07-2025
NEW YORK (AP) — For years, Marianne Hirsch, a prominent genocide scholar at Columbia University, has used Hannah Arendt's book about the trial of a Nazi war criminal, 'Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil,' to spark discussion among her students about the Holocaust and its lingering traumas.
But after Columbia's recent adoption of a new definition of antisemitism, which casts certain criticism of Israel as hate speech, Hirsch fears she may face official sanction for even mentioning the landmark text by Arendt, a philosopher who criticized Israel's founding.
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