Senator Julia Coleman (R-Waconia) released the following statement on a controversial hiring at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies:

“I’m incredibly upset at the direction my alma mater has taken with this hiring. After campus protestors who chanted antisemitic slogans and carried antisemitic signs were catered to by Interim Dean Ettinger and statements from other departments that called into question the veracity of the brutal October 7th attacks on Israel, this is yet another action that makes Jewish students and alumni wonder whether they are truly welcome at the University of Minnesota.

“Mr. Segal’s views are hostile towards Israel’s rights to self-defense and existence; they are not the kind of representation the Center or the Jewish community deserves. It’s a disgrace to the important work of the Center that a hiring search committee gave their ‘enthusiastic’ support for Mr. Segal. I’m calling on the Interim Dean for the College of Liberal Arts to reconsider accepting this recommendation and ask a new search committee that includes Jewish representation to make a final decision on hiring for the Center.”

According to reporting in TC Jewfolk, two of the Center’s board members have already resigned after learning about Mr. Segal’s hiring. The report also states that no one from the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas was consulted in this hiring. Segal did not respond to the publication’s requests for comment.