Art Curator Accuses Princeton University of 'Anti-Intellectual Surrender to Cancel Culture'An exhibit featuring 19th-century Jewish American artwork was axed after the university objected to two artists who supported the Confederacy.
ROBBY SOAVE
4.5.2022
Last December, Princeton University was slated to host an exhibition of 19th-century Jewish American artwork provided by Leonard Milberg, a Princeton alum and patron of the arts. Milberg pulled out, however, due to disagreements with the university.
In statements to The Daily Princetonian, a university spokesperson made it sound like Milberg was ultimately responsible for the exhibition not taking place. But both Milberg and the curator, art historian Samantha Baskind of Cleveland State University, tell a very different story: Princeton officials had objected to the inclusion of artwork by two 19th-century Jewish Americans who had served as soldiers in the Confederate army during the Civil War.
"Princeton forced the cancelation by canceling the two most important artists," Baskind tells Reason. "It would be impossible to have an accurate show about nineteenth-century Jewish American art without its most outstanding figure: Moses Jacob Ezekiel."
Indeed, a well-known piece by Ezekiel was intended to serve as the centerpiece. That work is "Faith," a 64-inch marble statue completed by Ezekiel in 1876. It was commissioned by a Jewish fraternal organization to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence; a replica currently stands outside Philadelphia's National Museum of American Jewish History.
Ezekiel is a complicated historical figure who fought for the Confederacy and supported the Lost Cause, the idea that the Civil War was about the southern states defending themselves from northern aggression. A second artist whose work would have been part of the exhibition, Theodore Moise, also served in the Confederate Army. But of course, history is filled with flawed people who nevertheless made important contributions to literature, art, science, and philosophy. Besides, the works in question had nothing to do with the Confederacy, and would have been displayed alongside labels that contextualized the artists and acknowledged their unsavory ties.
"History doesn't come with neat, sanitized figures," says Baskind. "Princeton canceled exactly the type of a show that a university should tackle."
Problems arose last October, during the planning stages of the exhibition. That's when the university's vice provost for institutional equity and diversity became involved, according to Religion News Service. The administrator wanted Ezekiel and Moise dropped.
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Source:
https://reason.com/2022/04/05/princeton-university-jewish-art-cancel-culture-confederacy/
