After reporting on donor trouble at Brandeis, The Jewish Week’s Larry Cohler-Esses covers the latest dilemma: who gets to speak next?
Cohler-Esses reports that while Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz has supported inviting right-wing speaker Daniel Pipes, left-wing students’ preferred speaker - Norman Finkelstein, pictured above - got no statement of support.

In a personal letter to Pipes, Jehuda Reinharz disavowed a report that he and an aide had criticized Pipes. Indeed, Reinharz wrote, he and his aide, John Hose, looked forward to personally attending Pipes’ lecture and meeting with him afterward in his presidential office.
“I trust that the student groups who organize these events will manage your return visit in the spring with dispatch,” Reinharz wrote, “and you will be recognized by Brandeis as the scholar you are.”
Reinharz’s undated letter, posted on Pipes’ Web site on Feb. 17, marked the latest development in a debate about free debate at Brandeis following controversy over former President Jimmy Carter’s appearance there last month. Carter’s appearance drew heated opposition in some quarters due to his criticism of Israel for practicing “apartheid” policies toward Palestinians in the West Bank.
As a result of Carter’s visit, some donors threatened to stop contributing to the school, established in 1948 as a Jewish-sponsored, non-sectarian school. At the same time, inspired by Carter’s visit, separate right-leaning and left-leaning student groups initiated invitations to Pipes and Finkelstein, respectively.
But since Carter’s visit, the administration has set up a new vetting process for speakers invited to talk about the Middle East, and no firm date has been set for either man.
Pipes, however, said Monday of his prospective visit, “I believe it’s got a green light, on a certain condition.” He did not elaborate. Finkelstein, meanwhile, reported his invitation was at an “impasse” with a student-staff committee set up to consider speaker invitations as part of the new vetting process. He said he had received no communication from Reinharz or any other university official.
“He who pays the piper calls the tune,” Finkelstein charged, suggesting fear of donor reaction was playing a role in the would-be speakers’ seeming disparate treatment. “Pipes is powerful enough to hit back.”