Ira Stoll is spot-on in going "beyond the issue of Jews and antisemitism to broader issues of intellectual vitality on American college campuses and in classrooms".
Rabbi David Wolpe stressed the same point, broadening discussion about antisemitism at Harvard to focus on the the wider issue of intersectionality "ideology that works only along axes of oppression and oppressed": https://jewishjournal.com/cover_story/372630/my-year-at-harvard/
I've addressed these issues in 2 of my WSJ op-eds, which I've now made open access:
To try to solve the antisemitism problem by shoehorning Jews into identity-based approaches such as DEI is very short-sighted. What we need is identity-independent solutions.
Jewish collegians are afraid for two reasons: the sheer verbal violence hatred and intolerance of their enemies, and the deeper truth of their own ignorance and ambivalence re a Jewishness they don’t understand much less love and live.
College students also need to debunk nonsense spouted by the anti-Israel demonstrators. As an example, the Harvard Crimson today mentions without fact-checking the Palestine Solidarity Committee allegation that Harvard is "funding slaughter" in Gaza (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/10/9/garber-criticizes-psc-statement/).
I encountered the same delusion when I spoke to students in the Gaza encampment in April. The opponents of Israel believe that student tuition is a profit center used to fund investments in companies whose products are used by Israel. In fact, tuition is nowhere near the cost of covering costs; students are a loss center, not a profit center. I explained this to the campers, but they don't seem to have absorbed the reality.
Jewish collegians don't just need to advocate for Israel. They need to advocate for reality-based thinking.
The underlying problem is that many Jews have opposed tuition vouchers. The result has been that few Jewish kids have a Jewish education or experience the firming up of Jewish identity that occurs in Jewish high schools. In contrast, in Quebec, where there has been a tuition voucher program for 6 decades, the Jewish school system is strong and there is strong Jewish identity.
Am I too cynical if I say Kamala's and Biden's tough statements about Iran have to be seen in terms of the calendar -- one month to the election? If so, those remarks are an encouraging sign that they see how public opinion regarding Iran and Israel remains strongly pro-Israel. As to whether their remarks signal any real change in policy, I remain skeptical. It does seem to indicate that they know Israel is now going to act on its own behalf anyway.
Ira Stoll is spot-on in going "beyond the issue of Jews and antisemitism to broader issues of intellectual vitality on American college campuses and in classrooms".
Rabbi David Wolpe stressed the same point, broadening discussion about antisemitism at Harvard to focus on the the wider issue of intersectionality "ideology that works only along axes of oppression and oppressed": https://jewishjournal.com/cover_story/372630/my-year-at-harvard/
I've addressed these issues in 2 of my WSJ op-eds, which I've now made open access:
⦿ The wider issue of intersectionality: https://segal.org/gaza/woke/
⦿ The importance of wider approaches such as intellectual vitality: https://segal.org/gaza/harvardprotesters/
To try to solve the antisemitism problem by shoehorning Jews into identity-based approaches such as DEI is very short-sighted. What we need is identity-independent solutions.
Jewish collegians are afraid for two reasons: the sheer verbal violence hatred and intolerance of their enemies, and the deeper truth of their own ignorance and ambivalence re a Jewishness they don’t understand much less love and live.
College students also need to debunk nonsense spouted by the anti-Israel demonstrators. As an example, the Harvard Crimson today mentions without fact-checking the Palestine Solidarity Committee allegation that Harvard is "funding slaughter" in Gaza (https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2024/10/9/garber-criticizes-psc-statement/).
I encountered the same delusion when I spoke to students in the Gaza encampment in April. The opponents of Israel believe that student tuition is a profit center used to fund investments in companies whose products are used by Israel. In fact, tuition is nowhere near the cost of covering costs; students are a loss center, not a profit center. I explained this to the campers, but they don't seem to have absorbed the reality.
Jewish collegians don't just need to advocate for Israel. They need to advocate for reality-based thinking.
The underlying problem is that many Jews have opposed tuition vouchers. The result has been that few Jewish kids have a Jewish education or experience the firming up of Jewish identity that occurs in Jewish high schools. In contrast, in Quebec, where there has been a tuition voucher program for 6 decades, the Jewish school system is strong and there is strong Jewish identity.
Am I too cynical if I say Kamala's and Biden's tough statements about Iran have to be seen in terms of the calendar -- one month to the election? If so, those remarks are an encouraging sign that they see how public opinion regarding Iran and Israel remains strongly pro-Israel. As to whether their remarks signal any real change in policy, I remain skeptical. It does seem to indicate that they know Israel is now going to act on its own behalf anyway.