Committee of Concerned Scientists

An international non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

An independent non-profit organization of scientists, physicians, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of our colleagues around the world.

MLA to Vote to Boycott Israeli Universities; CCS Opposes

The Modern Language Association (MLA) is set to vote on a boycott of Israeli academic institutions.  CCS strongly opposes any academic boycotts.  Such an action closes movement in the direction of tolerance,  investigative thought and the promotion of new ideas.  CCS urges the participants at the Delegate Assembly to oppose such an action and to vote against such a boycott, in Israel and anywhere else that such an idea would be considered.

January 5, 2017

Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah
President
Modern Language Association
85 Broad Street, Suite #500
New York, NY 10004

Dear President Appiah:

The Committee of Concerned Scientists (“CCS”) is an organization of scientists, engineers and scholars dedicated to protecting the human rights and scientific freedom of colleagues around the world.

CCS has learned that the Delegate Assembly of the Modern Language Association (“MLA”) is set to vote on the boycott of Israeli academic institutions.

CCS strongly opposes academic boycotts. Moreover, in the Middle East, a vast region marred by intolerance and human-rights violations, Israeli universities represent bastions of tolerance and liberal thought.

CCS appeals to the MLA’s membership to vote against a boycott that only does violence to the free flow of ideas.

Sincerely,

Joel L. Lebowitz, Paul H. Plotz, Walter Reich,
Eugene M. Chudnovsky, Alexander Greer

Co-Chairs, Committee of Concerned Scientists

Copy to:

Diana Taylor, President-Elect

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Who We Are

Co-chairs

Joel L. Lebowitz, Rutgers University

Walter Reich, George Washington University

Eugene Chudnovsky, Lehman College

Alexander Greer, Brooklyn College

Vice-chairs

Biology – Max E. Gottesman, Columbia University

Chemistry – Zafra Lerman, MIMSAD Inc.

Computer Science – Rachelle Heller, The George Washington University

Engineering – Philip Sarachik, NYU Polytechnic School of Engineering

Computer Science – Jack Minker, University of Maryland, College Park

Mathematics – Simon Levin, Princeton University

Honorary Board Members

Nancy Andrews, Duke University

Myles Axton, Chief Editor, Genetics and Genomics Next

David Baltimore, California Institute of Technology*

Alan J. Bard, University of Texas

David Gross, University of California, Santa Barbara*

James Langer, University of California, Santa Barbara

Peter Lax, New York University

Giorgio Parisi, Roma I University La Sapienza

John C. Polanyi, University of Toronto*

Stuart Rice, University of Chicago

Sir Richard J. Roberts, New England Biolabs*

Maxine Singer, Carnegie Institution of Washington

Alfred I. Tauber, Boston University

Myrna Weissman, Columbia University

Former Honorary Board Members

Jacob Bigeleisen (deceased), SUNY, Stony Brook

Raoul Bott (deseased) Harvard University

Owen Chamberlain (deceased), University of California, Berkeley

Stanley Deser (deceased), Brandeis University

Edward Gerjuoy (deceased), University of Pittsburgh

Pierre Hohenberg (deceased), New York University

Walter Kohn (deceased), University of California, Santa Barbara*

Louis Nirenberg (deceased), New York University

Marshall Nirenberg (deceased), National Institutes of Health*

Myriam Sarachick (deceased), City College of New York

Harold Scheraga (deceased), Cornell University

Sylvan Schweber (deceased), Brandeis University

Steven Weinberg (deceased), University of Texas, Austin*

Rosalyn S. Yalow (deceased), Mount Sinai School of Medicine*

* Nobel laureate

CONTACT

Edyta Greer
Executive Director
P.O. Box 112
New York, NY 10159
emgreer@concernedscientists.org