Anti-Semitism is truly now more a phenomenon of the Left rather than the Right, but leave it to the present day academy to entertain the extreme right when it can be counted on to condemn Israel and the Jews. A group called The Pacifica Forum sponsors talks at the University of Oregon, and one of their featured speakers this year is a man who describes himself as a white separatist and racialist, and who is also anti-Israel, anti-Semitic, and a Holocaust denier who finds “a lot of truth in Mein Kampf.” (registration may be required)

Other Pacifica Forum events at the university were talks on Holocaust denier David Irving, and a program that featured a videotape on William Luther Pierce, founder of the National Alliance white separatist group.

Programs described as “less controversial” this year have included lectures and videos with such titles as “Israeli-American Militarism,” “Kosher Apartheid” and “Washington, D.C.: Israeli-Occupied Territory.” Last year’s offerings included programs that blamed the Jews for Kristallnacht.

Although the Pacifica Forum may sound leftish in some of its aspects–its founder describes himself as a lifelong pacifist–clearly it is in the camp of the most extreme, utterly discredited, loony right, and yet it has a perch at the University of Oregon because the founder is a former professor. The university does not intend to take any action and defends the forum’s programs on the grounds of free speech. OK, as far as that goes, but a university also has an obligation to the truth, no?