Michael Chikindas #racist everydayantisemitism.com

Michael Chikindas, a Microbiology Professor at Rutgers University, has made a myriad of shamelessly antisemitic claims in a series of Facebook posts. Chikindas peddled several antisemitic conspiracy theories, referencing “international fat Jewish pockets” and blaming Jews for everything from 9/11 to cancer.

He described “orthodox judaism” and Zionism as “the best of two forms of racism”, calling Judaism the “most racist religion in the world. Disgracefully, he claimed that the Armenian Genocide, a Genocide so awful that many scholars compare it to the Holocaust, was “orchestrated by the Turkish Jews who pretended to be the Turks”.

He also said that Israel was aiming at the “extermination” of the Palestinians, bizarrely attributing its failure to do so to Israel’s thriving LGBT+ population, saying that it is “because of the number of the Jews of ‘alternative’ sexual orientation (25% of the Tel Aviv inhabitants are gay/lesbians and Israel has more of these than the Netherlands)”. Chikindas, apparently fixated on LGBT+ Jews, had previously posted that “Israel, the country of the Jews and for the Jews, has one of the highest percentage of gays in the world”.

Chikindas also shared a series of antisemitic conspiracy theories on his profile. One used the “happy merchant”, an antisemitic caricature of a Jew which is commonly used online by antisemites, and blames Jews for everything from “Hollywood” to the “cancer industry”. Another showed a caricature of a Jew being carried by America whilst saying “I am God’s chosen people, you filthy goyim”.

Sharing an article about a “global elite”, he wrote “These jewish motherf*****s do not control me. They can go and f**k each other in their fat a***s — you see, I really do not have anything to loose (sic), hence nothing to be controlled”. Despite his Facebook profile providing a dozens of examples of blatant antisemitism, when interviewed by the Algemeiner, Chikindas predictably denied being antisemitic, claiming to have previously been married to a Jewish woman. Attempting to justify his claims of Jewish racism, he pointed to the Talmud. Antisemites frequently cite fabricated, mistranslated or otherwise misleadingly presented passages from the Talmud to attempt to portray Jews as inherently elitist to support Antisemitic conspiracy theories.

When pressed for comment, Rutgers University’s Neal Buccino stated that “Professor Michael Chikindas’ comments and posts on social media are antithetical to our university’s principles and values of respect for people of all backgrounds, including, among other groups, our large and vibrant Jewish community. Such comments do not represent the position of the University”, and whilst the University respects free speech, it aims for an “an environment free from discrimination, as articulated in our policy prohibiting discrimination”.

With respect to Chikindas’ future at the University, Buccino added “the university is reviewing this matter to determine if actions taken in the context of his role as a faculty member at Rutgers may have violated that policy”. We will be watching the progression of this investigation with keen interest. Any outcome that does not remove Chikandas from contact with students would be to allow an antisemite a respected position from which he could influence students with his virulent antisemitic views.

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So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!

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