A Black professor at Oberlin College who used her social media accounts to air conspiracy theories about Jews, including the alleged involvement of Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies in terror attacks, has been placed on paid leave while the institution decides her fate.
Oberlin faculty member Dr. Joy Karega (Facebook Photo)
“For the past several months, Oberlin College has been considering carefully the grave issues surrounding the anti-Semitic postings on social media by Oberlin faculty member Dr. Joy Karega,” school spokesman Scott Wargo said in a statement e-mailed to the AFRO.
“The College initiated its faculty governance process to review Dr. Karega’s professional fitness in light of these postings,” he added. “Until that process is complete, Dr. Karega has been placed on paid leave and will not teach at Oberlin.”
Karega’s statements came to light in February when news site The Tower published several of her social media posts—many of them from 2015.
Among other theories, the assistant professor of rhetoric and composition wrote in a November post that ISIS was not really Islamic, but rather “a CIA and Mossad (Israeli intelligence agency) operation, and there’s too much information out here for the general public not to know this.”
She also seems to endorse the belief that Jews were behind the 9/11 terror attacks in New York and Washington, D.C., and has a particular fixation on the Rothschild family, a Jewish banking dynasty that she paints as the puppet masters behind the scenes of American politics, world wars and the global economy.
At first, the private liberal arts school seemed to defend Karega’s right to voice her opinions. In March, however, school Trustee Clyde McGregor released a statement on behalf of the board denouncing Karega’s statements as “anti-Semitic and abhorrent” and calling on the institution to review “these grave matters expeditiously.”
According to The Tower, Karega’s online remarks were part of a rising tide of anti-Semitic sentiment on the Ohio campus, which precipitated the formation of the group Oberlin Alumni and Students Against Anti-Semitism.
In late July the school announced the appointment of a new Jewish campus life affiliate, who is responsible for “consistently promoting a welcoming and lively pluralistic Jewish community” on the campus, among other duties.
