Though the peregrinations of Borat, the pseudonymous alter ego of Sacha Baron Cohen, may have revealed that some Americans are prepared to echo the anti-Semitic promptings of a strange foreign visitor, and though there may be other signs that traditional anti-Semitism can still be found in the U.S. as well, by and large I believe it can be fairly suggested that America is probably as free of institutional and popular hostility toward Jews as virtually any nation in the world. That said, however, even in the self-labeled land of the free and home of the brave vigilance remains necessary, attention must be paid, and a disquieting surfacing of a new anti-Semitism cannot be ignored. While it is important not to exaggerate the dimensions of this problem at this time and to avoid over-generalizing, I believe it is safe to say that in no venue outside of sites in the hinterlands or on the Internet where old-fashioned extremists may hang out can signs of today’s anti-Semitism be seen more than on the nation’s university campuses.
I would posit that in a number of ways the campuses are the “soft underbelly” of America, where the situation is more like that in Europe than any place else in the U.S. As in many circles in Europe, there is a proudly held self-image touting freedom of inquiry, freedom of thought and expression, and overall tolerance — attitudes which, however, are often accompanied by an insensitivity to, or denial of, the existence of anti-Semitism as it rears its ugly head. As in intellectual circles in Europe, post-Modernist trends are fashionable, bringing together a post-Nationalistic, post-Colonial, anti-Globalist ideology that embraces anti-Zionist thinking, along with a subjectivist, narrative-based victim-idolizing view of the truth and a moral relativism and romantic celebration (or at least exoneration) of violence that can create a sympathetic embrace of the Palestinian cause.
Alongside of these trends, and also as in Europe, one is liable to find on a number of campuses a sizeable Muslim population, many of whose members are radicalized, and an availability for “outside” community activists to organize and hold rallies and programs. Added to the mix are a mass of students, most of whom come without knowledge and understanding of — and in most cases without interest in — either the Israel-Arab conflict or the history of anti-Semitism. When some of these students find their way into editorial and decision-making positions on campus newspapers, they occasionally will allow cartoon and column space to project anti-Semitic images and views in ways that those newspapers’ commercial counterparts would usually reject as irresponsible and objectionable.
To illustrate what I am talking about I will briefly cite a number of examples of developments that have occurred recently on university campuses that the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago relates to. While this may not represent what a typical community faces, neither, I believe, is ours the worst spot in the country. Indeed, I would suggest that what I am about to summarize provides a microcosm of sorts of what is going on nationally.
Consider the following:
- On one campus, things are generally tame regarding the subjects under consideration — except that the faculty of Electrical Engineering includes a tenured professor who a number of years ago emerged as one of America’s preeminent proponents of Holocaust denial. While he is quiet for the most part, he surfaces publicly from time to time, always causing a considerable stir, as he did last year when he enthusiastically greeted the emergence of the first head of state to share his perspective.
- Another campus this past year attracted particular attention when one of its distinguished faculty members emerged as the co-author of a report — to be published in book form next year — in which he and a Harvard University colleague compromise their academic standing, one might say, by positing the presence of an “Israel lobby” that influences American policy to serve the interests of Israel and not the U.S. — a view that at the very least skirts awfully close to traditional anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and surely gives aid and comfort to those who hold them.
- Somewhat distant from Chicago but heavily populated with Chicago-raised students and still within our orbit is a third school, whose student newspaper carried egregiously anti-Semitic material just a couple of years ago, with an problematic response ensuing from the administration until a new chancellor came into office. After the summer of 2000 this campus was also the site of vociferous anti-Israel demonstrations that advanced the Zionism/Nazism analogy, and its law faculty includes an emeritus professor who, decades ago, was an early (perhaps the earliest) advocate for boycotting Israel.
- A Chicago-based university which lacks the stature of the previous three campuses but boasts having the largest enrollment of any Catholic university in America includes a faculty member who has achieved notoriety for polemic and inflammatory (and not very scholarly) publications that portray the Jewish community’s concerns regarding the Holocaust and anti-Semitism as a subterfuge used to inculcate what he sees as unjustifiable sympathy and support for Israel — and who buttresses such conclusions with heavily-charged conspiracy theories. This campus is also home to some of the most active radical Muslim and Arab student groups in our area, whose activities often implicitly or explicitly delegitimize Israel’s very right to exist, and it is especially hospitable to similar groups (and their ideological supporters) from off-campus.
- Still another troubling local campus is a small Evangelical Lutheran school that has brought in as director of its Middle East Studies center a Presbyterian minister who has for years played various roles in the Chicago area’s pro-Palestinian/anti-Israel circles. He regularly brings in hostile speakers and himself is strongly engaged in attacking Christian Zionists and other supporters of Israel in a fashion that brings a reborn theological anti-Semitism into the debate — echoing the sort of rhetoric being used these days by Naim Ateek and others at the Sabeel Center for Liberation Theology in Jerusalem. Ateek himself has been directly embraced here and by at least some faculty members at other of our area’s numerous Christian seminaries that present a concern of their own.
Other schools in the Chicago area could be talked about as well regarding problems that have surfaced there. Though our immediate region has been spared any attempt by the Palestine Solidarity Movement to hold one of its nationwide summits here, there was talk of their doing so at a nearby out-of-state school where our JCRC Hillel Advocacy Initiative conducts programming.
Rather than trying to be exhaustive, this survey is intended to briefly provide a sense of both the nature and the range of issues that have surfaced in recent years, sometimes dramatically, sometimes subtly, bringing forth versions of anti-Semitism that can trouble, and in some instances alarm, students, faculty members, and members of the community alike. Dealing with these issues on behalf of the community is a priority for our Federation. With basic principles directing us, we use a number of tactics for doing so that I hope will be seen as instructive more generally as well.
While national organizations and entities play a valuable role in dealing with issues that have national scope, and while they can become especially relevant in assisting smaller communities or in dealing with remote campuses where there is little possibility of local involvement, I believe it is accurate to say that a multi-faceted community-based organization such as a Federation like ours, with a Jewish Community Relations affiliate, is particularly well placed to spearhead and coordinate the local response to prevailing anti-Semitism on individual campuses. For one thing, it is close enough to analyze and make distinctions between the various manifestations of the problems as they reveal themselves on different campuses, seeing them in their full context and with their prevailing nuances. For another thing, officials of these locally-based organizations are able to establish and build on longstanding relationships on each campus. Furthermore, in asserting their interests on behalf of the community, these organizations have both standing and credibility as they approach university administrators, a particularly significant group with which ongoing relationships should be maintained.
As the issues unfold, it is extremely important to help administration officials understand the nature and seriousness of today’s anti-Semitic manifestations and the need to address them, letting them know that the community is both available to help and will watch how they handle these situations. We have done that through ongoing contacts and by convening colloquia where numbers of administrators from our region have been brought together.
While confronting anti-Semitism on university campuses, the organized community should recognize that its primary constituents are Jewish students, who properly regard themselves as being on the frontlines and often feel isolated and vulnerable. Their perspective should be understood, and their goals and preferred tactics should be respected. At the same time, organizations involved in this work have an educational role to play. On the one hand, they can help Jewish students recognize the importance of standing up for their interests and for the dignity of the Jewish people and of not allowing themselves to be intimidated by prevailing circumstances. On the other hand, they often need to help these students to understand what is, and what is not, legitimately to be considered anti-Semitic rhetoric and behavior. (In working with students on campus, the Hillel structure in place there is of course the natural immediate partner with whom outreach should be coordinated.)
Especially important, and in some ways least developed, is the role of faculty. Here too, a community-based organization like a Federation can play a meaningful part in stimulating and coordinating that activity. While in many cases it is ideology-driven faculty who create the atmosphere in which anti-Israel-based anti-Semitism can take root, and who in some cases themselves generate or give cover to such manifestations, there also are some faculty members — usually but not always Jewish — who understand what is at stake, who are prepared to speak out verbally or in writing, and, especially important, who can become mentors and role models for students. Furthermore, however weak the anti-Israel argument may be in its control of facts and development of argument, and no matter how many unjustified and inflammatory charges of apartheid and racism it may make, when that case comes with the veneer of scholarship and the imprimatur of a mainstream university the most credible counterarguments for a campus audience come not from Jewish organizational spokesmen but from other faculty members. It is they, for example, who are best positioned to expose and counter the “Israel lobby” charges of Mearsheimer, Walt, and their ilk. Jewish communal organizations, in addition to being prepared to act and speak out themselves as appropriate, can play an important role in identifying and bringing together those faculty members who are prepared and equipped to play their own role.
This is something we have done in Chicago in establishing a Federation Faculty Advisory Committee. We have organized an advocacy-focused trip to Israel for members of this group, and they themselves have formed a network via which they regularly communicate with one another, reinforce one another in their efforts, and counsels the Federation itself in its efforts. Last July we brought this group together in what turned out to be an extremely revealing colloquium to review the subject of Anti-Israel Bias in Academic Discourse. The fields that were reviewed included Political Theory, Political Science, Literature, Biblical Studies, and Religious Ethics — and the talks delivered on these topics made clear that the breadth and depth of the problem and its anti-Semitic dimension create a significant challenge.
Another role that the community can play and that the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago does play involves directly countering the troubling fashion in which Israel is taught in many university classrooms and filling a vacuum on those campuses where it is hardly taught at all. This we have done by establishing an Israel Studies Project which for the past two years has been bringing Israeli scholars and writers to two of the main campuses in the state, and which as of next year will be adding two more major universities to that roster. Some of these faculty members offer a different view of the Israel-Palestinian conflict from what their counterparts on the scene may provide; others, in tune with the “Brand Israel” efforts underway on other fronts, bring views of Israeli culture and life “beyond the conflict.” In teaching such matters and in simply being a presence on campus, these scholars directly and indirectly counter the rhetoric and activities of those faculty members and agitators whose anti-Israel activities often cross the line into the world of anti-Semitica or who create a climate where that poison can fester.
These, then, are some of the strategies and approaches that one North American Jewish Federation has made a priority in its work on behalf of the community. While situations may differ from community to community as well as from campus to campus, in general we believe that the approaches I have laid out can be taken as offering a template upon which other communities might model themselves. At the same time, through the Israel Advocacy Initiative of the United Jewish Communities and the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, administered through the JCPA, and more generally through the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), the organized community has structures in place for advancing its strategies on a national basis. While more areas of activity can be added and some of these approaches can be further refined, matters can be thought of as well underway in forging a localized response to anti-Semitism in academia that is appropriate for that setting and that can be integrated into the comprehensive strategic plan that the Global Forum is working on.
Prepared for the Working Group on Anti-Semitism in the Academy
International Conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Israel
February 11-12, 2007
