In Flames: Who owns the American Historical Association? - Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism

Who Owns the American Historical Association? Israel, the war lobby, and the fight for Palestine

In this episode, host Barry Trachtenberg speaks with Adam Rzepka, professor of literature at Montclair State University, about his Chronicle of Higher Education report on the American Historical Association’s decision to veto member-passed resolutions condemning scholasticide in Palestine and academic repression. Rzepka’s reporting reveals that AHA leadership spent at least $170,000 on Thorn Run Partners, a Washington lobbying firm whose clients have included suppliers to the Israeli military and a West Bank settlement builder, and that a lobbyist from the firm attended the January 2026 Council meeting, warned of advocacy-related risks, and departed shortly before the Council vetoed the resolutions. The ep. covers what was publicly known about the 2025 and 2026 votes against what was happening behind the scenes and what the Council’s new willingness to use its veto, retain a lobbyist, and intervene in its own elections means for how the association might handle future member action on other matters.

Adam Rzepka is Associate Professor English College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Montclair State University and author of “A Scholarly Association’s Secretive Washington Playbook,” published in the Chronicle of Higher Education. (Instagram Post) | Non-paywalled

Barry Trachtenberg holds the Rubin Presidential Chair in Jewish History at Wake Forest University in North Carolina and is on the Advisory Board of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.

Links & Resources