JNS.org – Rev. Bruce M. Shipman, who recently came under fire for blaming the Israeli government for rising anti-Semitism in Europe, has resigned as priest-in-charge of the Episcopal Church at Yale University.

The Episcopal Church stated Sept. 4 that Shipman resigned “on his own initiative.” The Church did not directly mention the Israel-related controversy surrounding the chaplain.

“It is our belief that the dynamics between the Board of Governors and the Priest-in-Charge occasioned the resignation of the Rev. Shipman,” the Church said.

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In a letter to the editor in the New York Times last month, Shipman responded to an op-ed by Deborah E. Lipstadt, a Jewish history professor at Emory University, by writing that Lipstadt “makes far too little of the relationship between Israel’s policies in the West Bank and Gaza and growing anti-Semitism in Europe and beyond.”

“As hope for a two-state solution fades and Palestinian casualties continue to mount, the best antidote to anti-Semitism would be for Israel’s patrons abroad to press the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for final-status resolution to the Palestinian question,” wrote Shipman.

In the announcement of Shipman’s resignation, the Episcopal Church said its board of governors, the bishops of the Episcopal Church in Connecticut, and Shipman “are all committed to a civil dialogue on difficult issues that divide peoples of this world and pledge ourselves to the prayerful and humble work of reconciliation and peace in our hurting and divided world.”