June 26, 2007 – New York, NY – The American Jewish Congress today released a statement by prominent Rhodes Scholars protesting the proposed boycott of Israeli academics and academic institutions by the British University and College Union.

AJCongress President Richard S. Gordon said, “We are pleased that prominent Americans have joined us in confronting the blatant anti-Israel bias of the British university lecturers union, on the grounds that academic boycotts violate fundamental academic values including freedom of speech and because singling out Israel results from an unfair double standard.”

In the statement, the Scholars call the proposed boycott “unjustified and an egregious violation of the basic rules of the academic community.”

The statement also criticizes the University and College Union on the grounds that “Singling out Israeli universities for censure…suggests an unjust double standard and unfair prejudice against the Jewish State.”

Statement by Rhodes Scholars on Proposed
UCU Boycott of Israeli Universities

The United Kingdom’s University and College Union has recently encouraged its members to consider abandoning all links to Israeli academic institutions. As Rhodes Scholars, we find this proposed boycott to be unjustified and an egregious violation of the basic rules of the academic community.

Freedom of speech and inclusion of all parties who are committed to pursuing truth are essential values in academic life. Encouraging boycotts of universities and their professors violates these fundamental values. Differences must be rationally discussed, not silenced through such exclusionary tactics.

Singling out Israeli universities for censure also suggests an unjust double standard and unfair prejudice against the Jewish State.

We urge the University and College Union to abandon this effort immediately.

Statement Signatories

James Eli Adams Associate Professor & Director of Graduate Studies Department of English CornellUniversity	Mark David Agrast SeniorFellow Centerfor American Progress Washington, D.C.
T.A. Barron, Author	Thomas C. Berg St. Ives Professor Universityof St. Thomas School of Law
James Braden, Attorney San Francisco, California	Fred Cohen Universityof Californiaat San Francisco
KalmanJ. Cohen, Professor Emeritus The FuquaSchoolof Business DukeUniversity	John V. Fleming Fairchild Professor Emeritus PrincetonUniversity
David S. Goldbloom, MD, FRCPC Professor of Psychiatry Universityof Toronto	Joel K. Goldstein Vincent C. Immel Professor of Law St. LouisUniversitySchoolof Law
Peter J. Kalis, Attorney	James H. Merrell Lucy Maynard Salmon Professor of History VassarCollege
Thomas W. Merrill Charles Keller Beekman Professor ColumbiaLawSchool	Joseph Nye, Former Dean KennedySchoolof Government HarvardUniversity
Betsy L. Roe CentralCollege	David H. Roe, President CentralCollege
Thomas D. Rowe, Jr. Elvin R. Latty Professor of Law DukeUniversity	Dr. Larry J. Sabato Director, Center for Politics Universityof Virginia
Andrew W. Savitz Author of The Triple Bottom Line	Kurt L. Schmoke, Dean HowardUniversitySchoolof Law and former Mayor of Baltimore, Maryland
David Vitter, United States Senator	R. James Woolsey Former Director of Central Intelligence
Edwin M. Yoder Jr. Author and Editor

For more information go to: www.ajcongress.org