The University of Minnesota has paused the search for a new director of its Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. It follows two board resignations after the position was offered to a controversial applicant.

Karen Painter, a now former advisory board member of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, quit just two hours after learning an offer for the center’s director role extended to Stockton University associate professor Raz Segal. 

“We can’t have somebody who’s espousing these extreme positions, again, directing a center,” said Painter. “Raz Segal is an extremist, anti-Israel. … It would be devastating for the Jewish community for the community at large.”

Painter refers to an article Segal published just six days after Hamas’ attack on Israel. The article argues that by fighting back, Israel was guilty of committing genocide against Gazans. Segal called it a “textbook case of genocide.”

Painter says the center’s director is selected by interim Dean Ann Waltner. Waltner’s office declined to comment. 

Rebecca Feinstein is the daughter of the late Stephen Feinstein, who founded the center.

“My first thought is my father would not be happy with the way that this process is taking place,” Feinstein said. “The political climate right now with the encampments with, with all that going on, it’s not the right time to do this search.”

In the face of public outrage, interim University of Minnesota President Jeff Ettinger announced this week that the search of a director will now be paused.

The University of Minnesota sent this statement: 

“In the past several days, additional members of the University community have come forward to express their interest in providing perspective on the hiring of the position of Director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Because of the community-facing and leadership role the Director holds, it is important that these voices are heard. Our focus is on the mission of the Center. Accordingly, the Interim President has paused the Director selection process to allow an opportunity to determine next steps.”

University of Minnesota

“It’s a key time, I think, for the community to rally behind the university in moving forward in a neutral supportive way for students,” Painter said.

Painter says she wrote to the interim director of the center hoping to rejoin the advisory board. 

5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reached out to Segal and did not immediately hear back. 

In part, a statement by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas reads:

“As the University determines its next steps, we expect that the consensus perspective of Minnesota’s Jewish community, as well as that of mainstream Holocaust and genocide scholars, will be honored.   

“The work of the Center, which has been a close ally of the JCRC and our Jewish community for decades in preserving the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and honoring its survivors and their families, is too important to be led by an extremist. The next Center Director must be a unifying and not divisive figure.”

Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas