At Least 50 CUNY Profs Resign from Union Following Anti-Israel Resolution

At least 50 professors at City University of New York (CUNY) have either resigned or have announced their intent to resign from the university’s professors union over an anti-Israel resolution that was passed in June.

The Professional Staff Congress (PSC)-CUNY voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution on June 10 condemning “the continued subjection of Palestinians to the state-supported displacement, occupation, and use of lethal force by Israel” as well as “racism in all forms, including anti-Semitism, and recognizes that criticisms of Israel, a diverse nation-state, are not inherently anti-Semitic.” The resolution also cited recent reports from Human Rights Watch and B’Tselem accusing Israel of apartheid and calls for discussions for the union to potentially endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

The New York Post reported on July 25 that CUNY Professor Yedidya Langsam, who chairs the Brooklyn College Computer and Information Science Department, wrote in a resignation letter to the PSC that the union has “chosen to support a terrorist organization, Hamas, whose goal (`From the River to the Sea’) is to destroy the state of Israel and kill all my relatives who live there.” He also criticized the PSC resolution for omitting “the over 4000 rockets fired from Gaza into residential areas” as well as “the apartheid behavior of the Palestinian government (not a single Jew is permitted to be in Gaza) while neglecting to mention that Palestinians are members of the Israeli Knesset and are now part of the ruling coalition” and Hamas’s use of civilians as human shields.

“You have made many Jewish faculty and students uncomfortable with being associated with Brooklyn College and CUNY to the point of fearing for our safety,” Langsam wrote. “Have you and your colleagues forgotten the exponential increase in anti-Semitic attacks against Jews in the NY City area?”

Langsam wrote that he had been part of the union for more than 40 years prior to the resolution’s passage and he is urging his other colleagues to resign from the union as well. “You do NOT represent us and I will not be a part of an organization that supports those who wish to destroy us.”

PSC President James Davis told the Post, “We are in active dialogue with members who have expressed concern over the resolution. Some have decided to remain, some to resign, and some to take time to think it over. Many members are absolutely sincere in their distress, but we also know that a pressure campaign has been launched by people who were not PSC members in the first place.” He also claimed that the campaign was being promulgated by “conservative forces.”

Some CUNY professors disputed Davis’s claim that there has been a “pressure campaign” urging members to resign from the union. “Virtually every CUNY prof who has resigned after @PSC_CUNY’s anti-Israel resolution has made clear they acted [because] of the resolution,” Brooklyn College and CUNY Graduate Center History Professor KC Johnson tweeted.

Virtually every CUNY prof who has resigned after @PSC_CUNY's anti-Israel resolution has made clear they acted b/c of the resolution.@PSC_CUNY president Davis instead cites "a pressure campaign has been launched by people who were not PSC members in the first place." pic.twitter.com/BfSkLVLknZ

— KC Johnson (@kcjohnson9) July 25, 2021

Dr. Erika Dreifus, Adjunct Associate Professor of English at Baruch College, also tweeted, “I can speak only for myself—no one (of any political inclination) had to ‘urge’ me to resign.”

It gets better! "Davis…also claimed that conservative forces are attempting to exploit the controversy and damage the group by urging people to resign."

I can speak only for myself—no one (of any political inclination) had to "urge" me to resign. @PSC_CUNY https://t.co/wi5lzSWo5l

— Erika Dreifus (@erikadreifus) July 25, 2021

On June 18, Jeffrey Lax, an Orthodox Jewish professor at the City University of New York’s (CUNY) Kingsborough Community College, announced that he was resigning from the PSC over the resolution. He wrote in a letter to the PSC, “The PSC cannot have it both ways. It cannot self-absolve itself of anti-Semitism by admitting that Israel is a diverse nation-state and then also call Israel ‘Apartheid.’ Doing so, again, reveals nothing more than an anti-Semitic tactic and trope, as defined by the State Department and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.” Lax also told the Journal that by arguing for the Biden administration to cease military aid to Israel, the union is essentially calling for divestment. “What do they think the ‘D’ [in BDS] stands for?”