The Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale University.

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.

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.”