After a tumultuous five-year tenure marked by a pandemic, demonstrations and encampments by pro-Palestinian demonstrators, being called to testify before a congressional committee and a faculty strike, Rutgers President Dr. Jonathan Holloway has resigned.   

Holloway announced he will leave at the end of the current academic year and will take a sabbatical the following year to take up long-standing research projects. He will return to Rutgers after that as a full-time faculty member.

“Serving as the university president has been an enormous privilege and responsibility,” said Holloway in a statement. “Throughout my tenure, I have been appreciative of the former and respectful of the latter. I welcomed the opportunity to join the Rutgers community in July 2020 because I found inspiration in the possibilities that this institution represented: a belief that cutting-edge research could thrive in a university that was committed to making education as accessible as possible to a profoundly diverse student population. The reality behind this inspiration has been reaffirmed time and again during my tenure.”

The first Black president has had a mixed relationship with the Jewish community, one of the largest at any campus in the country. He has been honored by both Rutgers Hillel and Chabad. During the 2021 dinner, Chabad executive director Rabbi Yosef Carlebach described him as a “mensch” for his interest in supporting the work of Chabad and other campus institutions benefiting students.

In presenting the award to Holloway, Israel’s then Deputy Consul General Israel Nitzan, who is now acting consul general, cited “the very good relationship” with Holloway as well as the president’s leadership skills in steering the university through the pandemic.

Rabbi Carlebach recalled he first met Holloway during a crisis shortly after he took over as president after communications upsetting to the Jewish community had been sent out in Rutgers’ name without the president’s knowledge.

“He came to Chabad and he shut down the communication and took over responsibility for it,” he said. “Ever since I have found him to have an open line and ear whenever I presented things.” 

However, Rabbi Carlebach believes Holloway could not have been prepared for the unbridled antisemitism that took hold on campus last year, noting, “We do feel he is a friend who got pushed into a bad situation.”

“I believe he was trying to deal with [the protesters] in a normal human way and I don’t know if it’s possible to use normal ways of communication and understanding with these kinds of antihuman, antisemitic rabblerousers,” he said. “He was playing ball with a very bad group of people.”

Rabbi Carlebach said he thought Holloway began to feel “more like a warden of a prison,” but ultimately it was the security of himself and his family that motivated the decision to resign.

“I  think the security issue most affected him,” he said. “He and his family now have to have 24-hour police protection from these rabblerousers.”    

He praised the new university initiatives to counter antisemitism and observed that “so far we’ve had an excellent year, a banner year.”

Under Hollway’s leadership the university moved this year to establish beefed up rules to its code of conduct and Rutgers Police have prevented disruptions.

“We, at Hillel, have great appreciation for President Holloway and his administration’s work to clarify and concretize rules and codes of conduct at Rutgers University,” said Rutgers Hillel CEO Lisa Harris Glass. “ We wish him all the best in his next endeavor.”

She also added, “We hope that his successor will maintain and further the efforts that are already underway to improve the climate on campus.”

Holloway signed a memorandum of understanding with Tel Aviv University to bring it in as part of the state’s Innovation and Technology Hub under construction in New Brunswick. 

Last spring when Holloway sent a message to the campus community rejecting BDS and reiterating plans to move forward with the collaboration with Tel Aviv University it caused an uproar on campus. 

Yet the relationship somewhat soured as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and supporters set up an encampment on the New Brunswick campus while Jewish students faced harassment in classes and on campus. It led to a Rutgers student being asked to be one of nine who testified before by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and told the committee  “some members of the school’s administration and faculty are complicit in allowing and even encouraging this hate to grow.”

In May, Holloway was called before the same committee to explain why he chose to negotiate with those who had set up the encampment. He testified that violence on other campuses prompted the decision after it became clear that the encampment, led by SJP on the Voorhees Mall, would become disruptive, forcing Rutgers to postpone some finals.

SJP had already been on probation after being suspended for a month in December for disruptions of classes, a program, meals, students studying and vandalism occurring at the Rutgers Business School while an organization event was taking place. The exam postponement led to its suspension for the remainder of this academic year for violations of the university’s code of conduct.  

Other incidents that have concerned the Jewish community include: a Jewish undergraduate student who filed suit against the university, charging “a hostile school environment and discrimination” on campus; and an Orthodox law student, who has since transferred to another law school, is suing the Newark-based law school for discrimination, retaliation and a permitted a hostile school environment. 

The Center for Security, Race, and Rights on the Newark campus has been criticized for allowing antisemitic programming. Its director Sahar Aziz, who is also a distinguished professor of law and Chancellor’s Social Justice Scholar at Rutgers Law School, has also come under fire from legislators and the Jewish community for her statements. Holloway has said he would not close the center.  

During Holloway’s presidency, Rutgers enrolled more than 67,000 students, broke records in undergraduate admissions, climbed significantly in national rankings, and exceeded its fundraising goals, the university said in a statement. 

Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.