Professor Richard Painter and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Oren Gross Testified before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee

Professor Richard Painter, S. Walter Richey Professor of Corporate Law, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Oren Gross, Irving Younger Professor of Law, testified this week before the Minnesota Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, chaired by Senator Ron Latz. The hearing was convened to “ask questions, gather information, and take testimony on the pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents at the University of Minnesota and the University administration’s handling of these incidents, including issues relating to the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the state’s anti-BDS statute, First Amendment freedom of speech protections, academic freedom, public safety, and security of Jewish students and faculty, as they have arisen since October 7, 2023.”

Professor Painter emphasized the need to fight Islamophobia, racism, and antisemitism in the face of a rising tide of hateful rhetoric in American politics and on college campuses.  He called upon the Board of Regents and Minnesota legislature to clarify that state laws prohibiting boycotts of Israel apply to the University, that University websites should not be used to excuse terrorist attacks on Israel, and that faculty must have the academic freedom to challenge revisionist history of both the Holocaust era and of the conflict in the Middle East.

Professor Gross addressed specific recent examples of antisemitic acts and expressions on campus and suggested that those amounted to violations of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and of Minnesota’s Human Rights Act and rejected claims that those did not constitute “genuine” antisemitism. He urged the Minnesota legislature to continue its moral leadership, call out antisemitism, and join the 34 other states that advanced proclamations adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism.