The leaders of Jewish student organizations at Virginia Tech (VT) are urging university administrators to denounce a scheduled keynote speech by Steven Salaita, a former academic with a “long history of targeting the Jewish community with harmful antisemitic statements.”
The leaders said in a statement posted to Instagram that they are “extremely disappointed that the coordinators of the Virginia Tech Graduate and Professional Student Senate (GPSS) Research Symposium and Exposition have chosen to host a known antisemite, Steven Salaita, as the keynote speaker for their event on March 23, 2022.”
“Providing Steven Salaita with a platform to speak goes against Virginia Tech’s values and creates an environment in which Jewish students are likely to feel unwelcome and unsafe on campus,” they added.
Noting that Salaita “has a track record of making harmful, dangerous and antisemitic statements, ranging from antisemitic blood libels to defending Hamas’s actions of targeting civilians,” the statement – signed by GPSS Senator and Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emeritus Briana Schwar, GPSS Senator Amir Gazar, Hillel at Virginia Tech President Emma Josi, and Friends of Israel at Virginia Tech President Eitan Myers – asked that the public and Virginia Tech community sign a petition to “stand in solidarity against antisemitism and to urge Virginia Tech to condemn Salaita’s public antisemitic actions.”
“Salaita was denied a tenured position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign because of the antisemitic posts and comments and had to change careers because no university would hire him,” the leaders said.
The leaders called on the university to commit to ensuring that the campus is a safe place for Jewish students.
“Virginia Tech must take action to protect Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus that feel threatened by Salaita’s antisemitic actions. We ask that Virginia Tech leaders… reaffirm their opposition to giving known antisemites a platform, and condemn the GPSS Research Symposium and Exposition coordinator’s decision to bring Salaita as a keynote speaker due to his antisemitic statements.”