The American Association of University Professors yesterday evening decided to postpone its widely criticized conference on academic boycotts after the three major New York-based foundations sponsoring it publicly stated their loss of confidence.

In a statement issued yesterday, the professors’ association said, “After careful deliberation and consultation, the AAUP has decided to postpone its conference on academic boycotts, originally scheduled for February 13 to 17 in Bellagio, Italy. The AAUP remains firmly committed to an open and constructive dialogue on this issue and we will carefully consider opportunities to further this conversation in the future.”

The New York Sun on Tuesday reported that eight of the 21 scholars invited to the conference publicly supported boycotting Israeli universities. Critics said this imbalance would wrongly legitimate support for academic boycotts and turn the conference into a forum for critics of Israel.

Later that day, the three organizations underwriting the conference, the Ford, Rockefeller, and Nathan Cummings foundations, called for its postponement after the professors’ association acknowledged it had circulated an anti-Semitic article by a Holocaust denier published in the Barnes Review, which has published speeches by Adolf Hitler, Hermann Goering, and Benito Mussolini. The association said the article’s distribution was an accident and it has publicly apologized.

In a joint statement on Tuesday, the president of the Ford Foundation, Susan Berresford, and the president of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Lance Lindlom, said the paper’s inclusion in the conference materials had “undermined the credibility of this conference as a forum for intellectually honest and rigorous exchange.” The Rockefeller Foundation, which was to house the conference free of charge at its historic villa on the banks of Lake Como in Bellagio, Italy, issued a separate statement on Tuesday that asked the association to delay use of its facilities. “The sponsors of the conference and subsequent publications have stated that the credibility of the conference has been undermined. … The Rockefeller Foundation shares these concerns,” it said.

The association’s decision to postpone the conference reverses a statement it issued earlier in the day yesterday, that said the conference would continue as planned. “We believe, rather, that the conference should be held now, with the same group of invitees, and with every intention of mounting an academically rigorous conference,” the earlier statement said. “It is our hope and our goal that this meeting will increase understanding among academics globally that academic boycotts are irreconcilable with the purposes of higher education.”

Before the association decided to reverse its position and postpone the conference, it came under substantial criticism.

“It’s an absolute scandal,” a Harvard law professor, Alan Dershowitz, told the Sun. “No legitimate funding source should be associated with this, and the AAUP should not be associated with this. If the AAUP wants to have a conference like this, then they ought to have nonpolemical experts who are neutral and not coming there with an agenda and a specific country in their sights, which is exactly what’s going on.”

He added that the conference would “turn into a debate about boycotting Israel. I wonder how many of the same people would come if this were a debate about boycotting China or Cuba. … They don’t favor boycotts, they favor boycotts against Israel.”

Mr. Dershowitz also questioned whether the circulation of the anti-Semitic article was an accident. “Accidents like that don’t happen unless you’re playing footsie with Holocaust deniers.”

The general-secretary of the professors’ association, Roger Bowen, told the Sun yesterday that the article’s inclusion in the conference material was probably the result of an errant Google search and lax oversight. He did not return messages requesting comment after the association announced it would postpone the conference.

An official at the American Jewish Congress, Rabbi Eugene Korn, told the Sun in an e-mail message that in light of the “‘loaded’ profile” of the participants, as well as the circulation of the anti-Semitic paper, “it is unwise for any reputable foundation – Ford, Cummings or Rockefeller – to back this conference. If any can pull out, they should. They are being duped by ideologues and their association with this event will surely reflect badly on their integrity.”

The chairwoman of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Marie Abrams, said in a statement yesterday, “The JCPA was extremely disappointed and angered” to hear of the article’s circulation. She said the council praised the three foundations for withdrawing their support and for their outrage. The Anti-Defamation League in a statement also urging the conference’s postponement and praising the foundations’ actions.

The Rockefeller Foundation in a statement yesterday said it agreed with the decision to postpone the conference. Representatives of the Ford and Nathan Cummings Foundations did not return requests for comment.