An associate professor at the University of Tennessee has been accused of making antisemitic comments by nonprofit StopAntisemitism — a New York-based watchdog organization.

Liora Rez — the granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor — leads StopAntisemitism initiatives by calling out individuals who engage in antisemitic acts and provoke incitement of those in the Jewish faith.

Rez and the organization are seen as experts on antisemitism by major news outlets including Fox, CNN, LA Times and the New York Post.

Raja Swamy, a tenured professor in the anthropology department, made five posts between December 2023 through April 2024 which StopAntisemitism alleges are antisemitic.

Swamy’s posts mostly concern the ongoing conflict between Israel and Palestine. Swamy’s comments cover a variety of different sentiments, such as one post where he equates the views of Israeli sympathizers to the views of Nazis.

In one post, he used the term “kapo” — a term considered by many in the Jewish faith to be a slur.

In another post, Swamy equates “Hitler and his gang” winning an election before WWII to “Zionist democracy.”

Both Swamy and UT declined to comment for this story.

The controversy highlights potential issues of discrimination, but UT has to balance those with Swamy’s right to academic freedom. The policy on academic freedom at UT states that “each faculty member should conduct himself … professionally … should exercise appropriate restraint … should show respect for the opinions of others.”

Paul Oliver, a freshman majoring in biomedical engineering, was one of few students willing to comment on the topic, quickly forming opinions after reading Swamy’s tweets.

“I think that tweeting antisemitic views should not be done by anybody, let alone a professor who has such a high standing,” Oliver said. “Students who take Swamy’s classes may learn of these tweets and feel unwelcomed in his classroom.”

Mattie Foutch, a junior and student in the anthropology department in which Swamy teaches, agreed.

“I think the comment was wildly inappropriate,” Foutch said. “It’s really concerning to see a professor teaching about humanity and culture to be hateful like this so publicly.”

Foutch and Oliver have mixed feelings about what the consequences should be.

“They should either give him an unpaid suspension or let him go entirely,” Oliver said.

“I believe the choice is totally up to the university,” Foutch said. “However, I think the university should first conduct a thorough investigation to unveil if there has been any kind of racial or political bias in his teachings of anthropology here.”

UT began the Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Program in Judaic Studies in 1993, and the program has recently created new efforts to help educate students on the topic of antisemitism. The program offers public lectures from experts and a study abroad program to Israel.

The resurfacing of these tweets comes after the student-led pro-Palestine movement on college campuses nationwide. UT students first got involved in the movement on May 1, 2024 when Students for Justice in Palestine gathered on campus with demands for the university — including dissolving the Israeli study abroad program.

After the initial protests, the People’s School for Gaza — a group of students and community members — led a series of on-campus demonstrations in support of Palestine in May.

The university vowed to work closely with the organization to come to a compromise.

“This was not the result any of us wanted,” Chancellor Donde Plowman said in the email to students in May 2024. “We will continue to engage with all our students to provide support, and we will also continue to enforce the law and university policy for the benefit and protection of everyone in our community.”

This story was written in conjunction with Melanie Faizer’s JMED 230 class – Multimedia Reporting.

Editor-in-Chief Bella Hughes also contributed to reporting. 

Editor’s note: The university didn’t respond to our request for comment at the time of publication. After publication the university provided a link to the free speech website found here.