Cornell prof denounces Jews, claims “Violence is all Zionism Can Offer the World”
Cornell prof denounces Jews, claims “Violence is all Zionism Can Offer the World”
"Jews poison water supplies" he argues
A professor at Cornell University plans to teach a class about the “plausible genocide” in Gaza, but the professor’s anti-Jew and anti-Israel rhetoric on Twitter makes it questionable as to whether the class will be rooted in truth or steeped in antisemitism.
Eric Cheyfitz — a longtime professor of American studies at Cornell — will teach “AIIS 3500: Gaza, Indigeneity, Resistance” next semester, according to the Cornell University Class Roster for Spring 2025.
Cheyfitz has long been an advocate of Students for Justice in Palestine, has supported the anti-Israel encampments that sprouted up on his campus last semester, has blamed Jewish people for the antisemitism they face, and has argued that Israel is negotiating in bad faith as means to continue their “genocide in Rafah” and elsewhere.
“It is Israel that is the terrorist organization,” Cheyfitz writes publicly on his Twitter.
“Israel is in its death throes. The symptoms: Violence, in its desperation, is all Zionism can offer the world” he continued.
He also claims that Jews are at-fault for the antisemitism they face.
Many Jews have balked at this accusation. Dr. Logan Levkoff, author and pro-Israel advocate, says this is a “painfully dangerous statement and we know what happens when Jews are on their receiving end of this.”
"Suggesting Israel doesn’t have the right to exist, demonization, double standards, and demonization is good ole antisemitism. And Zionism has one meaning: the self determination movement for Jews in their homeland,” Levkoff adds.
According to the class description, the “first half of the course will be devoted to situating Indigenous peoples, of which there are 350,000 globally.”
“The second half will present a specific case of this war: settler colonialism in Palestine/Israel with a particular emphasis on what the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has termed a ‘plausible genocide’ in Gaza” it adds.
Students who take this class will be instructed on what “genocide” allegedly means, and at the end of the course students will be asked to take what they’ve learned and apply it to the “history of Israel/Palestine with a focus on the history of Gaza and the current Gaza war.”
Nowhere does Cheyfitz note that Jewish people are indigenous to the land as well.
Cheyfitz has been a vocal advocate against Israel since at least 2014, as seen in one post that year arguing that “Jews” are running at least one “extermination camp.”
“The terrible ironies of history: Gaza has become an extermination camp, run by Jews.”
According to Canary Mission, which has chronicled Cheyfitz’s antisemitism for the past decade, Cheyfitz has consistently condemned Israel and Jews without recourse from the university, his remarks likely protected under federal free speech doctrine.
He traditionally teaches classes on Native American fiction and poetry, and it’s unclear why Cornell chose to have such a biased professor teach on such a controversial topic, especially considering his antisemitic remarks.
His influence at the university is not simply as a professor. According to his CV, he also is the faculty coordinator of the prestigious Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program, and the director of the Mellon Postdoctoral Diversity Seminar.
These programs support PhD students at Cornell who avow a commitment to social justice, according to the website for the program. Whether viewpoint discrimination or antisemitism flourishes in the program is unknown, as the school has not responded to a request for more information.
Recently, Cheyfitz can be found on Twitter calling for people to oppose the Antisemitism Awareness Act by writing to their senator. The act was passed with broad bipartisan support earlier this year.
Dr. Levkoff condemns this rhetoric as harmful.
"It takes a special kind of professor to tell his students to oppose the Antisemitism Awareness Act. It takes a special kind of professor to use his fringe perspective to send Jews into harm’s way.”
Cheyfitz also has not yet responded to requests for comment.
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Many, many years ago I took a class at Boston University from Howard Zinn. He was notorious in his day as a left-wing propagandist. In person, however, he was kind and accepting of my conservative orientation. I have to wonder how Dr. Cheyfitz treats students who don't subscribe to his tendentious viewpoints.
Wow, "makes it questionable as to whether the class will be rooted in truth or steeped in antisemitism." Gee, that's a tough one...NOT. It's obviously disgusting and dishonest antisemitism, straight up. Maybe he'll have Rashida Tlaib, Roger Waters, and Richard Spencer as guest speakers. Cornell = Disgrace.