‘MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE’: Brown trustee condemns school’s ‘appeasement’ of pro-Hamas protesters, steps down
‘I am concerned about what Brown’s willingness to hold such a vote suggests about the university’s attitude toward rising antisemitism on campus and a growing political movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel,’ he wrote.
‘I am unwilling to lend my name or give my time to a body that lacks basic moral judgment,’ he added.
A member of the Brown University Board of Trustees recently resigned from his position because of the university’s decision to vote on potentially divesting from Israel later this year.
“I am concerned about what Brown’s willingness to hold such a vote suggests about the university’s attitude toward rising antisemitism on campus and a growing political movement that seeks the destruction of the state of Israel,” Joseph Edelman wrote in the Wall Street Journal on Sept. 8.
On April 30, Brown negotiated with anti-Israel activists on campus to convince them to end a disruptive anti-Israel encampment that threw campus day-to-day life into disarray. The agreement with the protesters entailed, among other measures, a promise that Brown’s leadership would take a vote this October that could potentially cut off ties with the Jewish state.
Brown University demonstrators celebrated and hugged one another as they dismantled their encampment after striking a deal with university officials to bring their divestment demands to a vote in October pic.twitter.com/rTIWyOOCKL
— Middle East Eye (@MiddleEastEye) May 1, 2024
Edelman wrote that he found Brown’s decision to hold the vote “morally reprehensible,” especially considering it comes after Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre.
He also condemned what he claimed was a double standard applied only to Israel regarding self defense, writing: “It is revealing that of all the countries in the world, only Israel is expected to restrain itself because of the civilian lives that will tragically be lost in war.”
The former trustee characterized Brown’s action as an “appeasement” of anti-Semitic “pro-Hamas activists” who are being “rewarded” for “disrupting campus life, breaking school rules, and promoting violence and antisemitism at Brown.”
Attacking Brown’s legitimizing of “these antisemitic voices,” Edelman concluded: “I consider the willingness to hold this vote a stunning failure of moral leadership at Brown University. I am unwilling to lend my name or give my time to a body that lacks basic moral judgment. I hereby resign from the board of trustees.”
Edelman is the CEO of Perceptive Advisors, a healthcare investment company. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego with a psychology degree, and holds an MBA from New York University.
Edelman had been a member of Brown’s Board of Trustees since 2019. He has also provided financial support to Brown in the past, donating at least $1.65 million.
Twenty-four Republican state attorneys general wrote to Brown this August, warning the Ivy League school of the potential “immediate and profound legal consequences” if Brown divests from the Jewish state.
Campus Reform has contacted Brown University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
