May 28, 2021

Dear Chancellor Rodriguez,

I have recently learned about the following anti-Israel letter that is being circulated to CUNY faculty and students and asking for signatures, presumably with the intention of ultimate publication:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vRcqjm5NzY51_0ZxIVMiUbbyidluPEExC1cMNfsXcPg5MkQsGjSXrktxilCGcLJ-w4ADvxeDX0CxfgQ/pub

The content is demonstrably false, as well as racist, but individuals have the right to spew hate, even faculty members at our university. What is not permissible, however, is for academic units of the university to add their support, and I trust that you will take immediate steps to instruct these units to remove their names from the list of Organizational Endorsements and to desist from such actions in the future. I would hope that you would go further and publicly disassociate CUNY from this hateful text.

Yours truly,

Morton M. Denn

Albert Einstein Professor of Science and Engineering Emeritus
Benjamin Levich Institute
1-M Steinman Hall
City College of New York, CUNY