IU Chancellor David Reingold replaced Mark Roseman, former director of the Borns Jewish Studies program, in August. He tapped Günther Jikeli, a Germanic and Jewish Studies professor and Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism associate director, to fill the role as interim director.
The sudden change without faculty input was “unprecedented,” one professor told the Indiana Daily Student. Both Jikeli and Roseman said IU administration did not give them a reason for the change.
Graduate students received no announcement of the switch, multiple students in the program said.
Roseman was replaced after serving half his two-year term. He had previously served as director from 2013-20.
Other faculty and students are concerned by Jikeli’s actions, with some authoring a letter to administrators about the erosion of “academic freedom” in the department.
The IDS spoke with eight students and faculty to confirm the timeline of events in the replacement.
“What is most surprising and disturbing is that this important personnel decision about a College Program was not made by the Executive Dean of the College,” Religious Studies professor Constance Furey said in a text statement to the IDS. “It was made without any consultation with faculty. And the reasons for the decision were not shared with the Program’s faculty or with Mark Roseman.”
Roseman replaced
Roseman, whose term was set to end in summer next year, said he stepped down after learning via phone call from Jikeli, Aug. 4 that the chancellor had offered Jikeli his job.
“Once it was clear that I didn't have their support, I stepped down,” Roseman said. “So, that was it, but I did not understand why I was being replaced.”
In an email Aug. 11, Rick Van Kooten, executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, told Jewish Studies faculty Roseman was stepping down. About two hours after sending the initial announcement, Van Kooten sent a second email asking faculty members to nominate someone for the position by the end of the day Aug. 12.
One professor described this nomination process as only “symbolic,” since Roseman had been informed Jikeli already was offered the position.
But IU Executive Director of Media Relations Mark Bode said in a statement to the IDS that the faculty search process for the interim director began after Roseman stepped down in early August. The national search process for a permanent director is underway, he stated.
Roseman said Jikeli called him Aug. 4 when he heard the news that he would take over the position. Jikeli said the chancellor did not offer him an explanation for the change. Jikeli also said the position was not directly offered to him, and that he got it through the nomination process. Roseman disputes this.
According to sources familiar with the program, there was significant faculty support for Religious Studies Chair Sarah Imhoff. Van Kooten later determined Imhoff was ineligible due to her prior commitments as Religious Studies chair.
The College of Arts and Sciences policy on the removal and placement of unit chairs or directors, last updated in 2015, states appointments and reappointments are up to the dean. It also states that by tradition and practice, appointments are made after discussion with faculty.
The policy is in accordance with the Bloomington Faculty Council constitution, which affirms discussions with faculty before changes to program directors. However, a line in the 2025 Indiana state budget bill defined any faculty governance organization’s actions as “advisory only.”
Jikeli as interim director
Jikeli is the associate director of the Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and received tenure in July 2025. He also runs the ISCA's research lab on “Social Media and Hate.” The institute hosts a variety of webinars and speakers, including this year’s “Early Career Speaker Series.”
The week after over 50 protesters were arrested in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Dunn Meadow in late April 2024, Jikeli helped host a “Rally Against Hamas Propaganda" at Showalter Fountain. Jikeli said the protest was not against the encampment, but rather rhetoric he considered harmful.
Jikeli said he hopes to create opportunities and solutions to help the program at a time of uncertainty in higher education. He said he intends to support small language programs like Hebrew and Yiddish, taught under the Jewish Studies program, and find ways to make them attractive to students.
“So in these areas, we can try to find ways that make it attractive for students, and convince students why it makes sense to still learn Hebrew or Yiddish,” Jikeli said in an interview with the IDS.
But an incident on a Zoom call for a faculty-graduate book discussion Sept. 19, the first of the semester under Jikeli’s term as director, raised alarms for some graduate students and faculty.
Multiple attendees said Jikeli removed a student minutes into the event for having a profile picture of a drawing of a woman wearing a keffiyeh. In the drawing, the woman is in front of a Palestinian flag with the words “Free Palestine” above.
The student, Sabina Ali, is a doctoral candidate in Religious Studies with a minor in Jewish Studies. Imhoff is Ali’s advisor and was the scheduled guest of the event, discussing the book she co-wrote, “The Woman Question in Jewish Studies.”
Attendees told the IDS multiple faculty and graduate students objected to Jikeli removing Ali and said the event would not go on if he removed her.
Furey said once Jikeli removed Ali, 20 of the 24 in-person attendees left and hosted the event on their own in a separate Zoom meeting.
Following the meeting, Jikeli sent an email to Jewish Studies students and faculty describing the profile picture as a “Palestinian terrorist.”
“Political slogans or provocative images of any kind have no place in our academic settings, and we must discourage them so that we can focus on respectful exchange and learning,” Jikeli wrote in the email, obtained by the IDS.
In this email, he also offered to reschedule the event. Jikeli told the IDS he sent this email before learning the other attendees held the book discussion on their own.
An event invite for a separate Oct. 17 workshop — scheduled to take place almost a month after Ali was removed from the meeting — included a note for “Participation by Zoom” that appeared to reference the incident.
“To maintain a respectful and focused environment, participants should not join with profile or background images, slogans, or symbols,” the note read. “These can distract from scholarly discussion or make others feel unwelcome. If you do not wish your background to be visible, please use the blur function or turn off your video.”
Roseman and sources familiar with the Jewish Studies department said faculty had previously discussed the profile picture with the program’s faculty, the Dean of Students and the Office of Student Conduct last year while Roseman was director. They had determined the “specific avatar didn’t rise to the level of a threat.”
Weeks after the Zoom meeting, on Oct. 3, Jikeli overruled the Jewish Studies faculty committee’s unanimous vote to fund travel for Ali to go to the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting from Nov. 22-25 in Boston. According to the Jewish Studies program funding application site, the funds are provided “on a competitive basis to help graduate students who specialize in Jewish Studies present their research at major association meetings and conferences.” Students apply for conference funding annually.
Jikeli personally emailed Ali to inform her of the denial of her application for funding. The AAR accepted Ali’s application March 28, and she was set to present her paper, “Weaponizing Indigeneity: Zionist Public Discourses on Possessing Palestine,” at the conference.
The email provided no reason for the cancelation and spells Ali’s first name incorrectly as “Sabine.”
Ali said if students are presenting at conferences, they are almost always approved. She also said Jikeli is not on the committee that determines travel funding.
“Your request was discussed at our recent faculty meeting,” Jikeli’s email read. “Unfortunately, the Borns Jewish Studies Program cannot support your application at this stage.”
Jikeli did not respond to a follow-up email asking about the denial of Ali’s travel funds.
“The Jewish Studies program, despite people's very varied political affiliations, they've never made me feel like my funding is at stake, or I need to be worried about, you know, my research, or anything like that,” Ali said. “But now I'm not sure, you know, because he's (Jikeli) kind of unilaterally making decisions like an autocrat, you know. And that's dangerous. That's very dangerous.”
Doctoral student Claire Richters, former program director Mark Roseman and a program professor told the IDS they’ve never heard of conference funding being denied before Ali’s.
Student and faculty reactions
Constance Furey, the Religious Studies professor, who attended the book discussion, wrote an email Sept. 23 to Van Kooten and Associate Dean for Graduate Education Elizabeth Dunn describing Jikeli’s actions at the faculty-graduate workshop as “autocratic” and said Jikeli’s email misrepresented the meeting where he removed Ali.
“This characterization of the image suggests either a willful disinterest in accurate description, or the prejudicial assumption that any image of a Palestinian-identified person associated with a call for Palestinian freedom is de facto a terrorist,” Furey said in her email.
She ended the message with a request to discuss the incident.
As of Tuesday, the administration had not responded to Furey’s email, she said.
Two other professors described to the IDS the difficulties of being a Jewish Studies professor after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on Israel and the start of the Israel-Hamas war. They discussed struggles with upholding the integrity of academic and intellectual freedom of the IU Jewish Studies program despite the faculty’s differing views and opinions. They both felt these traits of the program are declining.
Graduate students fear specific research funding will be pulled, the professors said. One professor questioned Jikeli’s qualifications, pointing out Jikeli is not a Jewish Studies professor but rather focuses on the study of antisemitism.
Ali filed a formal complaint about the incident with the Office of Civil Rights Compliance and has had back-and-forth communication with Van Kooten and Dunn, with the latest email from Van Kooten coming Oct. 10. Van Kooten apologized for the delays in communication and offered to meet in person to discuss the issues further. He extended an invitation for the conversation to Program on Political and Civic Engagement Director Lisa-Marie Napoli.
As of Wednesday, they have not met yet, Ali said.
Letter from concerned graduate students
On Monday, three members of the Jewish Studies Graduate Association Executive Committee sent a letter to the following: Jikeli, all Jewish Studies faculty, master’s and doctoral students and Van Kooten, Dunn and Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences John Hanson. The letter is titled “Concerns from Jewish Studies GSA Executive Committee.” Richters and doctoral candidate Brian Quinn wrote the letter. Doctoral student Daniel Reischer signed it.
“We are writing to you as graduate students in the Borns Jewish Studies program who are deeply concerned about the erosion of shared governance and violations of academic freedom that have taken place within the program over the past several months,” the letter said.
The letter mentions Jikeli removing Ali and denying her funding, Roseman’s replacement without faculty consultation, Jikeli’s alleged mischaracterization of Ali’s profile picture and their concerns with the future of the program.
“We presently fear that access to institutional support will be contingent on our political alignment rather than on the integrity of our scholarship, and that those who express dissenting views may be vulnerable to retaliation,” the letter states before offering to discuss the concerns with Jikeli.
The letter ends with four requests of Jikeli to show his commitment to the program’s academic integrity.
The first asks Jikeli to not exclude or remove students based on “constitutionally protected speech or expression including political, cultural, or symbolic expression.” The policy would discourage attendees from having profile pictures with political slogans or “provocative images.”
The second asks him not to revoke or deny funding to graduate students based on their political views, affiliations or expressions.
The third asks for a respect of shared governance and democratic decision making, and the last request asks for support for graduate student autonomy at the 14th Annual Jewish Studies Graduate Student Conference in February. The email says that graduate students on the JSGSA Executive Committee historically organize the conference and design panels. The letter ends with a request to respect the graduate student’s autonomy for the event.
Jikeli responded to the letter in an email that same day.
“Thank you for your letter raising these important concerns about governance, academic freedom, and program policies,” He wrote. “I take these matters seriously and want to respond thoughtfully.” He also said he has a meeting with administration later in the week to discuss their concerns.
As of Friday, there has been no further communication between students and Jikeli since the initial exchange about the letter.
