Ron Radosh

February 19th, 2009 1:54 pm

The dismissal of Joel Kovel: Sanity in Academia

Readers of this Web site know full well about the anti-Israeli animus afflicting so many of our campuses. There are scores of Web sites and bloggers reporting daily about its effect, and the constant attempts to single out Israel as the only perpetrator of human rights violations deserving condemnation in today’s world.

Thus, when Bard College announced that it was firing Professor Joel Kovel, his followers and supporters immediately tried to mount a campaign claiming that Kovel had been dismissed from his position because of his open and impassioned attack on Israel and his argument that Israel should be replaced by a unitary secular state made up of both former Israelis and Palestinians. Kovel himself wrote a statement about his termination in which he writes that, “If the world stands outraged at Israeli aggression in Gaza, it should also be outraged at institutions in the United States that grant Israel impunity.”

Kovel goes on to actually accuse Bard of firing him because he believes that it is the role of an educator to criticize the injustices in the world, and that Bard’s failure to not oppose Israel’s occupation and aggression makes it an accomplice in the perpetuation of Israel’s “state violence.” Since he implies that Bard defends both Zionism and Israel ( he points out that its President Leon Botstein is musical director of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, and that when it played at Bard the group performed both the Israeli and American national anthems) he argues that the worse Israel’s behavior, “the more strenuous must be the suppression of criticism.” His major point: Bard College “has suppressed critical engagement with Israel and Zionism, and therefore has enabled abuses such as have occurred and are occurring in Gaza.”

Already Cary Nelson, president of the American Association of University Professors, (AAUP) has joined the chorus attacking Bard, and noted that he is “concerned” because Kovel’s yearly contracts “would appear to grant him an expectation of continued employment.” But by Kovel’s own admission, he had held a Presidential appointment “outside the tenure system,” which means that it is the college’s prerogative to not renew a yearly appointment whenever it so chooses. Nelson acknowledges that “further investigation may be necessary,” but he argues that “there is also reason to be concerned that politics – namely his outspoken positions and publications about the Arab-Israeli conflict – may have played a role in this decision.” Thus Nelson takes at face value Kovel’s assertion that his firing is a “violation of academic freedom.”

Kovel was most well known for holding the first Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies in1988. His own letter at first makes it appear that he still holds this position now under a “half-time (one semester on, one off, with half salary and full benefits year-round.)” Later in the letter he mentions that the Chair was taken from him in 2002. Yet Kovel has succeeded in confusing many commentators, who assume he still held that chair. The reality is that a few years ago, Yale University Press editor in chief Jonathan Brent, creator of “the Annals of Communism” series, was appointed to that chair and has been teaching under its rubric to the present. Many have commented on the irony that Brent, who as much as anyone else knows full well that Hiss was a Soviet spy, holds the chair named after the Soviet agent. When he was appointed, I suggested that the chair be renamed “the Whittaker Chambers Chair,” which given Brent’s well known anti-Communism, would in fact be more appropriate.

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30 Comments

1. Pajamas Media » The Dismissal Of Joel Kovel: Sanity In Academia:

[...] the entire story here [...]

Feb 19, 2009 - 3:01 pm 2. Mongoose:

The Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies?

That is sort of like endowing the Joseph Goebbels Chair of Journalism.

Still, it is a win canning this guy.

Would be better if they just shut down Bard period.

Feb 19, 2009 - 3:52 pm 3. ricpic:

I see that for whatever reason Bard is terminating Kovel it is still doing its lefty bit to help the poor put-upon Palis.

Feb 19, 2009 - 3:54 pm 4. Bard College Fires Professor for Having an Opinion « Lunching Out:

[...] Ron Radosh trumpets Kovel’s firing as “a victory for sanity in academia” and accuses Kovel of shoddy scholarship. But Radosh and Kovel are on opposite sides of many [...]

Feb 19, 2009 - 4:22 pm 5. David Thomson:

“Kovel was most well known for holding the first Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies in1988.”

I learned about Joel Kovel around a year go. At first, I wondered if he was pulling our leg. Could anybody be that crazy? Alas, he turned out to be the real deal. The same also held true regarding the ludicrously named Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies. Where is Monty Python when you need him?

Feb 19, 2009 - 4:44 pm 6. Sgt. Mom:

Gosh, gee, golly wilkins – it looks for all the world that Bard had their very own Ward Churchill.
And the Alger Hiss chair, too. The irony is so dense and hard that it may be capable of dropping through the earth’s core entirely and popping out the other side.

Feb 19, 2009 - 5:10 pm 7. misanthropicus:

Correction: we’re talking about the Alger Hiss National Defense Enhancement Studies Department.

Feb 19, 2009 - 5:19 pm 8. David S:

How can you endow an Alger Hiss chair, and not hire a communist to fill it?

Kovel admits he has no case for continued employment, but some of his ideas still bear scrutiny. Anticommunism was arguably adopted as a state religion, as during the 1950’s there was clearly a witch-hunt, as well as revisions to our pledge of allegiance invoking religion. The whole “godless communist” angle demanded that “God-fearing patriots [capitalists]” be the men in white hats. It is by far the nearest thing to a state religion that the USA has ever had.

Kovel’s views on Israel are unorthodox, but not beyond the pale at all. It is conceivable that a one-state solution could meet the needs of Israelis and Palestinians, although how this would work is not obvious.

Still, an anti-communist in the Alger Hiss chair? It’s a travesty…

Peace.

Feb 19, 2009 - 8:08 pm 9. Butters Dad:

Just what we need….another freaking victim!

Get a REAL job, asshole.

Feb 19, 2009 - 8:31 pm 10. Oscar the Grump:

David S
Your little dissertation on Kovel was the best joke I’ve read this week.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Please keep it up!

Feb 19, 2009 - 8:58 pm 11. Hanoi Paris Hilton:

Hey, I’m a Bard alum. Cut my alma mater some slack here, ehh!

Maybe we should be hearing some encouraging words soon from PJM’s Roger Kimball, who’s always taken great pleasure in whacking Bard and Botstein.

Feb 19, 2009 - 10:25 pm 12. steve plaut:

Overcoming Kovel!

Send him to the Norman Finkelstein lemonade stand!

Feb 20, 2009 - 12:37 am 13. Steveoh:

Yes David S. A one state solution is the answer. It’s called Israel. Gazans to Egypt and pal Arabs in Judea and Samaria were and always should be citizens of their homeland Jordan.

David now go pack your bong and waste some more of Mommy and daddy’s hard earned money.

Feb 20, 2009 - 5:24 am 14. trangbang68:

While they’re at it I hope they fire John Wayne Gacy from the Richard Starkweather Chair for the study of Mass Murder and Britney Spears from the Madonna Endowment for Public Sluttery. After all , these are hard times we’re in.

Feb 20, 2009 - 7:05 am 15. Louis Proyect:

Moreover, he digs in the scalpel by noting that Bard had instituted its own program to help improve Palestinian education in conjunction with Al Quds University, a program that Kovel himself never bothered to inquire about.

—

Actually, I discussed the Al Quds business with Joel the other night. He decided not to mention it in his open letter since it might have detracted from the main issue, which was Bard’s squelching of anti-Zionist ideas.

He agreed with me that it was just another instance of George Soros using his deep pockets to allow Bard to create a sphere of influence friendly to their particular liberal ideology. I should add that the President of Al Quds University is a notorious sell-out and thus a perfect candidate for being put on the Soros allowance.

Meanwhile, I have to chuckle about Radosh omitting any reference to a hardened Zionist on Joel’s evaluation committee. If, of course, Radosh had discovered such a biased individual on a committee in his own futile search for an academic job, we never would have heard the end of it on David Horowitz’s website. As past masters of the double-standard, this is what we should expect from neoconservatives, especially turncoats like Radosh.

Feb 20, 2009 - 8:53 am 16. WestWright:

David S (Peace), whenever I am blue & need a chuckle, I search the PJ post to read your drivel, you never fail to deliver a guffaw. I always think to myself, Ah the Delusion is strong in this one! Do you ever read any other POVs before commenting? What you wrote is unsupportable even with lefty logic & “”.
‘Kovel admits he has no case…but some of his ideas still bear scrutiny (why???)… Anticommunism was…adopted as a state religion whole “godless communist” angle demanded that “God-fearing patriots [capitalists]” be the men in white hats (U have documented sources???) Kovel’s views on Israel are unorthodox…it is conceivable that a one-state solution could meet the needs of Israelis and Palestinians…although how this would work is not obvious (hello genius, I would expect you would have a solution for living with homicidal deranged Muslim neighbors maintained on the dole precisely for that purpose).’

I look forward to your screes, but only when I need to remember what total idiotcy flowers within the moonbat lefty mind!

Feb 20, 2009 - 12:49 pm 17. LawhawkSF:

You lost me at “Alger Hiss Chair of Social Studies.” I was too busy having alternating laughing and crying fits. And of course, Bard wouldn’t ever allow the Whittaker Chambers Chair. So how about leaving it personality-neutral and re-naming it “The Venona Intercepts Chair of Social Studies?” As for the current chair, like the thirteenth strike of the clock, all that went before it is called into question. And I thought my alma mater (UC Berkeley) was nuts.

Feb 20, 2009 - 1:24 pm 18. trangbang68:

Bard produced Donald Fagan and Walter Becker. That’’s an accomplishment. Of course they’re never going back to their old school.

Feb 20, 2009 - 3:07 pm 19. ashok:

This is excellent news – thank you for posting about it.

I do worry, when serious academic reform gets underway (stop laughing. This might happen sooner than we think), that unpopular positions or scholarship that uses a different standard of thoroughness will be excluded. In my opinion, what brought the nutty 60’s radicals into academe wasn’t merely the passing on of the old guard. It was precisely the fact that Leftist radical opinion is a practical thing: Chomsky sells; it gets students who don’t want to know any better riled up; it makes the university the only true possessor of just opinions and therefore a place that can be excused giant corporate sponsorship and graduates that can barely read.

Still. My graduate school is very, very conservative and uses a much older style for the curriculum, and I see in some parts of it the tendencies that would create all sorts of problems all over again. Everything in America can become infected by cheap populism and an appeal to pragmatism: how do we keep the core of transcendent purpose alive?

Feb 20, 2009 - 5:08 pm 20. Hanoi Paris Hilton:

Actually, trangbang, Donald Fagan showed up at the Bard class of ‘68 reunion last May. He didn’t jam with the band, but his classmate Chevy Chase sure did. Shotgun…do the jerk, baby!

Louis, Proyect, who could easily, but probably inaccurately be called a curdled and relentless old Stalinist (his Marxist lineage is no doubt more obscurely sectarian than mainline CP) is also being a bit coy to not identify himself too as a Bard alum, I think class of ‘65..

Feb 20, 2009 - 8:12 pm 21. Hanoi Paris Hilton:

I forgot to mention that nowadays Chevy Chase is a separated-at-birth dead ringer for Dick Cheney.

Feb 20, 2009 - 9:20 pm 22. Milesdei:

David S wrote:
“Anticommunism was arguably adopted as a state religion, as during the 1950’s there was clearly a witch-hunt, as well as revisions to our pledge of allegiance invoking religion.”

Allow me to revise this for you: “during the 1950s there was clearly a THREAT”, as opposed to “witch-hunt,” a term used by apologists to suggest that Communist “witches” so “hunted” were harmless. The Rosenbergs were not VICTIMS, David. They were PERPETRATORS.

“The whole “godless communist” angle demanded that “God-fearing patriots [capitalists]” be the men in white hats.”

They were indeed men in white hats, because what they were fighting eventually killed 100,000,000 people in less than a century. Those “God-fearing patriot [capitalists] were morally superior than their adversaries in every way. And still are.

“It is by far the nearest thing to a state religion that the USA has ever had.”

Gimme that ol’ time religion, gimme that ol’ time religion, gimme that ol’ time religion, it’s good enough for me.

Feb 21, 2009 - 1:12 pm 23. Hanoi Paris Hilton:

The superbly fraught Bard-Kovel flap has just crossed the Atlantic, coming up this morning over in Harry’s Place:

http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/02/21/academic-politics/#comments

If the link didn’t come up, just Google “hurryupharry”.

Feb 21, 2009 - 1:27 pm 24. jerryofva:

Dave S:

Let’s imagine an alternative universe where an S Evad wrote a poet about anti-Nazism was an American Religion but was little more then a witchhunt. In the universe a lot of S Evads would be defending the Nazis and even denying the holocaust. What would we say about such a place? We say that universe was either historically illiterate or in delusional denial. So why do we treat you, a denier of the history of communist GULAGS with their 100, 000, 000 dead, like a normal rational human being?

You can shove your peace.

Feb 22, 2009 - 11:39 am 25. David S:

@24. jerryofva:

Let’s imagine an alternative universe where an S Evad wrote a poet[sic] about anti-Nazism was an American Religion but was little more then a witchhunt.

Yippee, I love thought experiments!

In the universe a lot of S Evads would be defending the Nazis and even denying the holocaust.

Not at all. You’ve already lost your metaphor. I was talking about the threat of Communism in the USA, which as we all know was never all that great. And you will not hear me denying any holocaust, rather perpetrated by Stalin, Mao, Hitler or the Great Khan. So the valid comparison would be the domestic Nazi threat – also never all that great.

What would we say about such a place?

I would say “It’s a strawman argument”. You would probably say this:

We say that universe was either historically illiterate or in delusional denial. So why do we treat you, a denier of the history of communist GULAGS with their 100, 000, 000 dead, like a normal rational human being?

I’m voting for “delusional denial” here, although not on my own part. By trotting your strawman out a second time, you prove it is sturdy, but it’s not “me”.

You can shove your peace.

Oh I will – so get comfortable.

Peace.

Feb 22, 2009 - 9:38 pm 26. jerryofva:

Dave S.

No domestic communist threat? Ever hear of Venona?

https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/venona.htm

You are uninformed or delusional.

Feb 23, 2009 - 6:04 am 27. Max Segal:

“As for Kovel’s record at Bard, I have learned from sources that among other things, he used only his own books in the courses he taught.”

Check your sources, this is wrong. I took Kovel’s “Zionism and its Discontents” course last semester at Bard. We read several books other than his own, including the works of Benny Morris, Ilan Pappe, and Arthur Hertzberg, to name a few. We read countless news-articles and editorials, attended lectures by guest speakers, and watched a number of documentaries as well.

I have very, very mixed feelings about Joel. But to his credit, the guy always stressed the importance of getting the facts right.

Feb 23, 2009 - 1:45 pm 28. TNC:

Excellent post Mr. Radosh. Glad to hear he got canned.

“I was talking about the threat of Communism in the USA, which as we all know was never all that great.”

The CPUSA never had that many members and the appeal of communism in the USA was never all that great. But global communism was a threat to the U.S. and the entire democratic world.

When you have high-level State Department officials like Alger Hiss passing on classified info. to the Soviets, that is a big problem. Have you heard of the Ware Group?

I’m sure you know about the Cuban Missile Crisis. For people who lived through the event, it was a major threat to their security. The communist threat was not some boogieman cooked up by conservatives. Liberals were conscious of it as well.

Feb 23, 2009 - 4:36 pm 29. International Zionist Conspiracy Terminates Joel Kovel « The New Centrist:

[...] Radosh has an excellent post regarding Kovel. Here is a [...]

Feb 24, 2009 - 11:16 am 30. The Punchline Writes Itself:

[...] UPDATE: Ron Radosh corrects me. Kovel was removed from the Alger Hiss chair at Bard many years ago. Since then, his position at Bard was an adjunct one. Better punchline: Bard’s Alger Hiss chair is now filled by Jonathan Brent, editor of Yale University Press’s distinguished Annals of Communism series. At his hiring interview, Radosh tells me, Brent said: “There is something you need to know. I think Alger Hiss was a Soviet spy.” More details on Ron’s blog, here. [...]

May 26, 2009 - 7:27 am