First Professor Fired for Antisemitism Gets New Role at the AAA
Maura Finkelstein is a supporter of “the complete dismantling of the Zionist entity”
The first tenured professor to be fired for antisemitism, as I first reported here, has now secured a comfortable new role at one of anthropology’s most prestigious academic journals.
Maura Finkelstein — the subject of eight antisemitic incident reports at Muhlenberg University — was accused by students of pushing anti-Israel bias in class, mocking her school’s Hillel on Instagram, and even saying she was “heartbroken” over the Jewish organization’s presence on campus.
Hillel, founded in the late 1920s, was established to support Jewish students at a time when being Jewish was a liability on campus and Jews were seen as a threat to “white” students’ academic opportunities.
Since her firing in 2024, Finkelstein pledged to appeal her termination, and Finkelstein is still appealing, she told me in a Friday email. Meanwhile, she has taken her anti-Zionist and anti-Israel sentiment to the American Anthropologist.
That’s the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), where she now serves as an Associate Editor, overseeing and editing the publication of academic research.
In an email to me, she noted she does not get paid.
“I don’t work for AA - associate editors are volunteer positions that most academics pick up from time to time (part time) throughout their careers. This is not a paid position nor is it a job. I work with a collective of other anthropologists,” she said.
In an interview with Electronic Intifada, she said this about her role at the AAA.
“I’m writing, I’m editing. I am working with students who are doing really important anti-Zionist work across the country, and it’s my honor to witness the work that they’re doing,” Finkelstein said.
Further, when asked about her calls for the “dismantling of the Zionist entity” Finkelstein said this by email Friday. “For clarity, I believe Palestine should be free, not an apartheid state. And since Israel is an apartheid state, peace is not possible in the region.”
The AAA is the largest single publisher of anthropological journal in the world through its partnership with Wiley Periodicals, according to their recent non-profit tax forms. Some AAA members’ academic research is funded by the U.S. government by way of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Finkelstein’s Controversial Views
In a recent post, Finkelstein urged fellow anthropologists to support the Palestinian cause, declaring that the AAA is taking the issue seriously.
“We anthropologists know a lot about power. We study it in the field, we read about it in our theory books, we encounter it in the institutions where we work. And we reckon with our own complicity in these institutions of power every few decades. Right now, anthropology is having a reckoning, and that reckoning is Palestine.”
“Right now, we owe Palestine our voice and our platform. What is our anthropology for, if not for this?”
Why Was Finkelstein Fired?
The Department of Education (DOE) intervened at Muhlenberg after eight students lodged formal complaints against Finkelstein, alleging anti-Israel bias and antisemitic behavior. She was reportedly seen photographing a fundraising table for Israel’s war effort inside the campus Hillel for unexplained reasons.
Finkelstein claims she was simply fired for retweeting a “poem,” but the complaints against her make the claims against her seem more grave.
One student detailed Finkelstein’s classroom rhetoric:
“I have her for [class]… when the news broke about the Hamas invasion of Israel, Maura Finkelstein sent out an email to her classes saying that American news is biased and to read/watch the news sources she sent to us in order to understand the conflict going on in Israel.”
“As a Zionist and American Jew planning to move to Israel and become a citizen, I felt beyond uncomfortable and was too anxious to even go to class. We spent almost the whole class discussing the topic and almost no time on class material.”
Another student report cited a disturbing Instagram post Finkelstein made:
“Students raising money for genocide. Grief won’t be extinguished by revenge—ceasefire now; stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, never again means never again for ANYONE!”
This post prompted additional complaints, with Jewish students stating that Finkelstein’s behavior made them feel unsafe on campus. Since she taught in the same building as the Hillel, tensions escalated, leaving many students feeling unwelcome in a space meant to provide community and support.
Student Complaints and DOE Investigation
Muhlenberg University faced increased scrutiny when the DOE became involved, launching an investigation into Finkelstein’s behavior. One student explained that “many of the students in Hillel were profoundly affected by the ongoing conflict and the professor’s post created the perception of a direct targeting of the Jewish community on campus.”
Despite Finkelstein being Jewish herself, Jewish students continued to file reports against her, claiming she was making them feel targeted and uncomfortable.
The fact that eight formal complaints were filed against her raises questions. While some might argue that this number isn’t large, it is highly unusual for students to formally report professors. Typically, students express dissatisfaction informally rather than taking official action.
And it raises the question of how many actual antisemitic or anti-Israel incidents were reported verses how many actually happened. If eight students had grievances with her, how many other Jewish or Christian students saw antisemitic posts or biased classroom materials who didn’t report on her?
At a time when criticism of Israel or calls to liberate Palestine is often seen as synonymous with antisemitism, Finkelstein seems to be the first tenured casualty of this new mode of thinking after October 7.
What’s Next for Finkelstein?
Finkelstein has not retreated from public discourse. Instead, she has become an example of the Streisand effect. After students and petitions tried to shut her down, she has only become more vocal it seems, appearing on podcasts, writing essays for the AAA, and posting in support of Palestinian resistance online.
Free Speech Debate
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) has expressed concern over Muhlenberg’s decision to fire Finkelstein, arguing it may have violated her contractual protections under tenure.
“Universities must not violate tenure lightly, especially when the incidents in question involve political speech made off-campus on a matter of public concern,” wrote Graham Piro of FIRE.
“Free speech principles dictate that political speech warrants the greatest level of protection. The burden is on Muhlenberg to publicly demonstrate exactly what Finkelstein did to warrant such an extreme measure. The college’s silence so far suggests it can’t meet this high standard.”
“Universities typically revoke tenure only in cases of egregious faculty wrongdoing. Harvard University, for example, moved toward revoking tenure for a professor at its business school who was accused of serious data fraud. This was an unprecedented move for the university: The Harvard Crimson does not identify another case of Harvard revoking a professor’s tenure since the 1940’s,” Piro added.
Finkelstein’s case raises broader questions about academic freedom, tenure protections, and whether universities should keep professors who promote rhetoric deemed terrorist, hateful or discriminatory by students and their parents.
This piece was brought to you by Toni Airaksinen, Senior Editor of Liberty Affair and a journalist based in Boca Raton, Florida. Follow her on Substack, on X @Toni_Airaksinen and Instagram @Toni_Airaksinen.
All these scholars that think they understand what’s going on in a region half a world away, a region they don’t speak the language or understand its mentality. Useful idiots.
This support will comeback and bite them in their ass.
I’ve no idea who she’s trying to impress, but : When the persecuted become the persecutors is the time we know that a moral conundrum & ethical dissonance has developed amongst Jews.
I find it chilling that some are unable to see how obscene & disrespectful their reaction & behaviour is to what happened on 7/10.
It beggars belief to see just how disassociated they are with the reality of what it means to be a Jew.
I think first & foremost Jews have to grasp the historical reality that it doesn’t matter what you think or believe who or what you are - antisemites will decide for you. They don’t care what you think or what you want to believe. For them a dead Jew is all that matters.
My friends wife’s father made it clear that he looked forward to the day he could shove her Jewish non practicing husband & her children into the ovens.
The sooner you understand that the better.
The history of the Sunshine Family lays it all out.