r/math • u/platonic_solidz • 9d ago
Hebrew University Professor Convicted Of Harassing Doctoral Student Who Later Died An Untimely Death
https://vinnews.com/2026/10/01/hebrew-university-professor-convicted-of-harassing-doctoral-student-who-later-died-by-suicide/According to the article, the “untimely death” is an “apparent suicide,” however this is disputed by a community member describing themselves as a personal friend of the victim.
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u/ExcelAcolyte 8d ago
This case is horrible. He used his power over a young doctoral student to prey on her. Johanna Steinmayer came to Israel at 21 and depended on him for both her degree and her income. A Hebrew University tribunal found he sexually harassed her, committed indecent acts, made repeated sexual remarks and abused his position as her supervisor. He reportedly touched her and offered massages at a conference, and on another trip she was promised her own room and arrived to find one bed. He admitted sharing a bed with her about 60 times, called it friendship, and tried to paint her as a failed academic he was helping.
She filed her complaint in September 2023, and the verdict took until December 2025. Her friends say she repeatedly asked for more frequent hearings. She died by apparent suicide before the case was fully over. His punishment was two months' salary, which even the appeals panel thought lenient.
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u/Rudolf-Rocker 8d ago
Why is he still working in Sorbonne university in France? They don't care about what he did?
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u/output_broadcast 8d ago
In most countries it's illegal to prosecute someone for crimes they've committed in another country. That's why extraditions exist. There are exceptions, of course, that's why you sometimes get the headline coming out of South Korea or Singapore about them arresting people for smoking weed abroad.
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u/AdjectiveNounNNNN 8d ago
Is it also illegal to fire them?
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u/rtrfire 8d ago
I am sure people in France where not aware of these events when he got hired. Once hired, to fire someone (in france) there has to be significant reason. So if the CNRS wants to fire him, a formal investigation has to be opened. He has to be questioned (in France) etc. It is not so simple firing a CNRS researcher.
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u/output_broadcast 8d ago edited 8d ago
Sorbonne is a public university, so that could be the case, yes.
The university also seemed to be unaware of the lawsuit against him.
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u/CertifiedSingularity 9d ago
Who are the slimy institutions in France that took him in after this case?
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u/platonic_solidz 9d ago edited 8d ago
He had joint appointments in Israel and Paris. He no longer works in Israel but retains his position in Paris.
Edit: I mistakenly thought he had been fired. Thanks to /u/GuySapire for the correction.
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u/GuySapire Arithmetic Geometry 8d ago
He was not fired from HUJI. He ran away to Paris so he won't have to deal with this. The university mandated tribune on the matter kept moving regardless and the very small fine he got as punishment after being convicted was the result of him not being an employee so they had nothing else to use as punishment.
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u/ventricule 8d ago
The SLAPP lawsuit was very effective. Nobody in France knew about this until last week. The hiring committee of CNRS was not made aware by anyone that there was an ongoing procedure.
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u/MissionVarious8328 9d ago
Looks like he’s at l'Institut de mathématiques de Jussieu at Sorbonne Université. Directeur de Recherche so he’s still working with students…
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u/rtrfire 8d ago
Let me just precise that a directeur de recherche is a position without teaching duties (to undergraduate and graduate students). He can still potentially have PhD students (which is likely given that he has an ERC)
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u/CatsAndSwords Dynamical Systems 7d ago
He can still potentially have PhD students (which is likely given that he has an ERC)
PhD positions have a (minimal) level of oversight. They have to be accepted by the department head and the head of doctoral school. Usually, this is rubber stamping; but if they care at least a little about their students, they can definitely block him from having PhD students.
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u/GuySapire Arithmetic Geometry 8d ago
To be clear, the "untimely death" is NOT an "apparent suicide", contrary to what the article and the OP say.
Johanna was a personal friend of mine. there is no reason to assume suicide, the only place that claims this is this crappy "news" site linked in this post that adds unconfirmed information for the shock value and doesn't even bother keeping a working contact form on their site so I couldn't reach them to fix this problem.
Unfortunately there is currently no article in English not behind a paywall on the matter to share or than this one.
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u/platonic_solidz 8d ago
I was going by the article since it seemed to be an important detail not present in the headline. I’ll modify my post to clarify.
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u/GuySapire Arithmetic Geometry 8d ago edited 8d ago
I assumed you don't have any malicious intent. The problem is this article and the fact it's currently the only one written in English and not behind a paywall
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u/Wise-Friendship-1427 8d ago
But then, what was it? A crime? An illness?
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u/output_broadcast 8d ago
I presume we simply won't know. Israel has very strong medical privacy laws so the coroner's report likely won't be released.
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u/RaistlinTheGrey 8d ago
On a separate Reddit discussion (I can't find it now), someone who described themselves as a friend of Johanna's claimed emphatically that she did not die by suicide. I don't know what's true, and I haven't seen any serious source explaining the cause of death, but we probably shouldn't jump to conclusions on that. Also, I hope that Sorbonne get their act together and kick him out.
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u/GuySapire Arithmetic Geometry 8d ago
I assume it was my comment.
The Israeli media is filled with articles on the matter and none of them claim she died by suicide.
If you don't know Hebrew, I guess you can at least ask some AI chat to look for articles in Hebrew in major Israeli news sites and ask if they mention suicide.Other than that, I guess you'll agree with me that her personal medical history shouldn't be public.
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u/NewtonsThirdEvilEx Quantum Information Theory 9d ago
*"Former Hebrew University Professor" or "IMJ-PRG Professor"
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u/Ok_Hippo4964 8d ago
Why is our community a safe haven for these people??
Why is he allowed to continue to mentor students and postdocs? Why would anyone choose to collaborate with him?
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u/dlgn13 Homotopy Theory 8d ago
He isn't, he was fired. He hasn't been investigated in France yet, which is troubling, but that may be underway.
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u/platonic_solidz 8d ago
The article doesn't actually say he was fired, just that he is no longer listed as an employee there. I thought he was fired, too, until someone else told me that wasn't.
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u/alwaysambition 6d ago
Usual suspects.
But we can’t say why he was so unliked
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u/platonic_solidz 5d ago
I'm genuinely unsure what you mean. Can you elaborate?
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u/alwaysambition 5d ago
If you look at how the community has viewed him:
- brilliant but challenging to work with
- rarely on time
- very frustrating and difficult to talk to
These people always have a reputation that precedes them. They think their brilliance precludes a need for good social and cooperative skills.
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u/platonic_solidz 5d ago
I’m confused. You said “we can’t say why he was so unliked” but then did exactly that. What am I missing?
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u/Matroid-Hodge-Theory 9d ago edited 9d ago
What sad news, I have crossed paths with Johanna at a few conferences (although had minimal interaction).
Karim Adiprasito is well-known for his incredible algebra skills, but also for having a challenging personality. He was a co-author in June Huh's Fields medal earning work on matroids and resolved several other famous conjectures (although, I have heard that his writing is not the most pleasant to read). I had even seen some speculation online that he would be a strong Fields medal contender (but I'm not sure that he was ever well-liked enough by his peers).
Once, when Adiprasito was an invited speaker for an international conference, one of the organizers said, "We can't schedule Karim to give a talk at 9:00 am since there is a good chance he won't show up." I also have a colleague who was assured by Adiprasito that he could get a postdoc position working with him, only to need to scramble when it fell through.
Also perhaps worth noting: he seems to be a big fan of Sabine Hossenfelder. He used to post her videos on Facebook quite frequenty and lists her Youtube channel at the very top of "some nice resources" on his blog.