Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Cal. State LA Dean of Ethnic Studies Julianne Malveaux (images via Wikimedia Commons)

Rabbi Marvin Hier called it “unbelievable” that “a dean of an American educational institution in the heart of California is a supporter of the most notorious anti-Semite in America, Louis Farrakhan.”

Dr. Julianne Malveaux, a defender of Louis Farrakhan, was appointed dean of ethnic studies at California State University Los Angeles. Education Next, an education journal unearthed a number of quotes calling her appointment into question.

In addition to being a Holocaust denier, Farrakhan consistently blames Jews for the world’s ills, referring to Jews as the “synagogue of Satan.”

“The Malveaux appointment is likely to fuel criticism of ethnic studies as overly political and tainted with anti-Semitism,” Education Next wrote. Indeed, in March, California adopted ethnic studies curriculum that Jewish groups described as “flawed”

Responding to Farrakhan’s Jewish critics, she told the Nation of Islam’s newspaper, The Final Call, “Until these Jewish people who are running around asking Black people to buck dance, until they ask White people to buck dance, I ain’t having it! I’m just not having it!”

At the time, Farrakhan had stoked controversy by referring to Jews as “termites.”

In a 2018 Birmingham Times op-ed, she wrote, “White people’s hatred for Minister Farrakhan is irrational and, might I say, racist.”

More recently, in May, Malveaux claimed in a Richmond Free-Press op-ed that “Israel has a lock on U.S. foreign policy.”

And as far back as 1994, Malveaux said she looked forward to the death of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, saying on TV, “I hope his wife feeds him lots of eggs and butter and he dies early, like many black men do, of heart disease.”

In 2018, Malveaux was a guest on YouTube show “Roland Martin Unfiltered,” where she claimed “Jewish people certainly have a right to live, to survive, and to thrive, but at the expense of other people who they’ve run off their land?” Campus Reform reported.

According to Campus Reform, Malveaux continued, “And if you take it in terms of historical context, remember that Israel was created out of Palestinian land. Guess where they were gonna put it first? Uganda. The initial plan was to put Israel — they wanted to snatch some Black people land, but you know those Maasai were not having that. But that was the initial plan, was to create a Jewish homeland on the African continent.”

In reality, there was no official plan by Jews to settle in Uganda, StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein told Education Next.

In a 1995 Washington Post op-ed, Malveaux expressed misgivings about Farrakhan, noting, “Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam offer an array of positives and negatives to black America. On the plus side, there is his focus on economic development and discipline. On the minus side, there is the anti-Semitic rhetoric and the traditionalism in gender relations.” But instead of questioning Farrakhan’s hatred, the new dean of ethnic studies embraced it.

Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced Malveaux’s appointment, saying in a statement, “To have a situation where a dean of an American educational institution in the heart of California is a supporter of the most notorious anti-Semite in America, Louis Farrakhan, is unbelievable.”

Hier insisted that Farrakhan “remains a notorious anti-Semite, and America has to correct that.”