NEW HAVEN, Conn. – Yale University is starting another initiative to study anti-Semitism after a decision to cancel an earlier ground-breaking program sparked criticism.
The Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism was announced this week. The Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism was discontinued this month after a faculty review committee concluded it did not meet the university’s standards for research and teaching.
The earlier program, created in 2006, was hailed as the first university-based center in North America dedicated to the study of anti-Semitism.
Yale said when the earlier program was canceled that the university hoped to support scholarship and teaching on the topic and a group of faculty came forward to propose a program.
The Anti-Defamation League, which has criticized Yale for canceling the program, welcomed the new program. Its national director, Abraham Foxman, said the earlier decision “leaves the impression that the anti-Jewish forces in the world achieved a significant victory.”
Foxman said the ADL was disappointed that Charles Small, who founded the original program, will not play a role in the new initiative.
“We are satisfied that Yale University understood the critical importance of continuing an institute for the study and research of anti-Semitism,” Foxman said in a statement.
