Who Is Emmaia Gelman?

Emmaia Gelman

Recently,  I posted an article on the efforts of academic activists in California to impose critical race studies course material on California secondary students as a requirement for admission to the University of California. This would include teaching points on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict which follow the pro-Palestinian narrative. One of the principal members of the California Ethnic Studies Board is Christine Hong, a professor at UC Santa Cruz (America's Wackiest University). Another person mentioned in the article is Emmaia Gelman, a professor at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Both are founding members of the recently-founded Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.  

Perusing the list of members of this outfit, I found names that I am familiar with in the "academic field" of Israel-bashing; Rabab Abdulhadi (SFSU), David Lloyd (UC Riverside) Robin Kelley (UCLA), and Judith Butler (UC Berkeley). 

In addition, more recently, I posted an article on the on-going problems of anti-Semitism at New York University (NYU). In making the point that anti-Semitism at NYU has been going on for several years, I cross-posted a number of past news articles and postings surrounding the issue at NYU. Lo and behold, I had in my own archives a 2014 posting describing an anti-Israel event held at NYU that year. On the announcement was the name of one of the scheduled presenters, Emmaia Gelman of NYU. (I don't know if she was a graduate student or professor at that time.)

Gelman, safe to say, is an anti-Israel activist and critic of the Anti-Defamation League (as am I but for different reasons.) All of that is her right. 

But here is my point: How can the University of California and the State of California, for that matter, in good conscience impose course material on our secondary school students literally drawn up and approved by activists like Gelman-or any of these people? We are talking about teaching points that paint Jews as oppressors of Palestinians. It is this very issue, which is open to debate, that has resulted in so much anti-Semitism in the last several years, largely centered on our university campuses.