I was delighted to read your very sensible letter on postmodernism in teh Columbia alumni mag.

I am writing because I hope that you will write another such letter to the university, and a blog post, about a current issue at Columbia.

You may be aware of the controversy surrounding the tenure decision on Nadia Abu El Haj at Columbia / Barnard. El Haj has written one book in which she flatly denies the existence of the ancient Israelite kingdoms, the connection of contemporary Jews to any ancient Jewish people in the near east - however defined, and even states that Herodian Jerusalem was not Jewish.

Ms. El Haj is entitled to advocate the destruction of the State of Israel. She is not entitled to publish fiction, call it history, and expect to receive tenure.

I am writing to ask you to consider writing a letter to President Lee Bollinger (Bollinger@Columbia.edu) as hundreds of Barnard and Columbia alumni have already done.

There is a petition posted at: www.petitiononline.com/barnard/

A substantial literature on the El Haj book exists in cyberspace, much of it intemperate, of course.

You might start with these calm and rational articles:
phdiva.blogspot.com/2007/05/nadia-aby-el-haj-and-use-of-evidence.html
http://www.greycat.org/papers/archaeo.htm
http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/25976.html
http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archives/008510.shtml
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/20070814ElHajbarnard.html

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