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Last November, in response to rising anti-Jewish rhetoric and violence in the United States, the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate debated putting forth a referendum to define and condemn antisemitism under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition, but the referendum failed to gain sufficient support in the Senate and was not voted on. At a special meeting later that week, the USG voted to pass a resolution to “condemn and combat antisemitism.”
Now, in a letter signed by Princeton community members and delivered to the English department by Alexandra Orbuch ’25, authors called on the department to condemn its Feb. 8 Edward W. Said ’57 Memorial Lecture, which features writer Mohammed El-Kurd, due to allegations of antisemitism. The letter states that “El-Kurd has a demonstrated history of repeated anti-Jewish bias and remarks, including comparisons between those who support the Jewish State of Israel and Nazism.”
In response, Acting Chair of the English Department Jeff Dolven stated that the English department has “always granted great autonomy to faculty in making invitations … [and] departmental sponsorship is not an endorsement of what a speaker has said or might say” and emphasized the importance of “open dialogue” in a “safe space.”
Notably, the letter does not call on the English department to cancel the lecture or disclaim sponsorship. “In the name of free speech, we are not demanding that the Department of English retract its sponsorship,” the authors write. Instead, they asked “that the department condemn the event and pledge to work with Jewish partners on campus ... to host another speaker event.”
Invitations and protests of controversial speakers have played a prominent role in free speech debates, as noted by Associate Opinion Editor Eleanor Clemans-Cope in a recent column.
On Wednesday, February 8, the English department will continue with the lecture as planned, with El-Kurd as a speaker.
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Analysis by Olivia Chen
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