Judea Pearl: A Letter to SPME Faculty: A Gesture that Counts.

Dear Colleague,

This week, Israel will be celebrating its 62nd birthday and, chances are, there will be some commemoration of this event on your campus, either this week or the next.

I would like to urge you to take part in the event, show your presence, say a few words from the stage if possible, and let students know that, contrary to much amplified anti-Israel rhetoric from the radical Left, thoughtful faculty do understand what Israel stands for.

The presence of even one faculty member on the stage will go a long way toward diffusing our students sense of besiegement and abandonment.

For a student, you represent the soul of the university; not the Hillel director, not the Rabbi, not even the Israeli Consul, and surely not the musicians who sit on the stage ready to entertain the crowd. It is you, with your lab coat, your statoscope, a library book under your arm, or a bunch of graded homework that mediates to students the norms of ordinary responsible society. It will mean a lot to them.

The idea worked miracles at my university (UCLA). Since 2006, a faculty member has been invited to speak from the stage (3-5 minutes) and represent the faculty at large, In 2008, attending faculty members were recognized from the stage: e.g., Prof. XYZ from Engineering, Prof. ZYX from the Law School. etc etc.

In 2009, someone objected to “roll calling” and faculty were recognized by Departments: e.g., We have here faculty representatives from the school of Engineering, from the Law School. etc etc. Students confided with me that this simple gesture gave them more support, strength and pride than the speeches, the music and the Falaphel.

My advice, contact the organizers and urge them to personally invite their faculty list to attend the event. And even if the organizers do not resonate with the idea, dont wait for official invitation; Just be there, hop on the stage and say: “I am a professor of XYZ in this esteemed university, and I felt like being here, with you at this celebration, and to tell you what Israel means to me……”

It is dignified, personal and honest, something that even our left-feathered colleagues would view with respect.

Thanks for being there!

Judea Pearl
Computer Science, UCLA

AUTHOR

Judea Pearl

Judea Pearl was born in Tel Aviv and is a graduate of the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. He came to the United States for postgraduate work in 1960, and the following year he received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Newark College of Engineering, now New Jersey Institute of Technology. In 1965, he simultaneously received a master’s degree in physics from Rutgers University and a PhD from the Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, now Polytechnic Institute of New York University. Until 1969, he held research positions at RCA David Sarnoff Research Laboratories in Princeton, New Jersey and Electronic Memories, Inc. Hawthorne, California.

Pearl joined the faculty of UCLA in 1969, where he is currently a professor of computer science and statistics and director of the Cognitive Systems Laboratory. He is known internationally for his contributions to artificial intelligence, human reasoning, and philosophy of science. He is the author of more than 350 scientific papers and three landmark books in his fields of interest: Heuristics (1984), Probabilistic Reasoning (1988), and Causality (2000; 2009).

A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a founding Fellow of the American Association for Artificial Intelligence, Pearl is the recipient of numerous scientific prizes, including three awarded in 2011: the Association for Computing Machinery A.M. Turing Award for his fundamental contributions to artificial intelligence through the development of a calculus for probabilistic and causal reasoning; the David E. Rumelhart Prize for Contributions to the Theoretical Foundations of Human Cognition, and the Harvey Prize in Science and Technology from Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. Other honors include the 2001 London School of Economics Lakatos Award in Philosophy of Science for the best book in the philosophy of science, the 2003 ACM Allen Newell Award for “seminal contributions that extend to philosophy, psychology, medicine, statistics, econometrics, epidemiology and social science”, and the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal for Computer and Cognitive Science from the Franklin Institute.

Pearl is the father of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl and president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, which he co-founded with his family in February 2002 “to continue Daniel’s life-work of dialogue and understanding and to address the root causes of his tragedy.” The Daniel Pearl Foundation sponsors journalism fellowships aimed at promoting honest reporting and East-West understanding, organizes worldwide concerts that promote inter-cultural respect, and sponsors public dialogues between Jews and Muslims to explore common ground and air grievances. The Foundation received Search for Common Ground’s Award For Promoting Cross-Cultural Understanding in 2002 and the 2003 Roger E. Joseph Prize for its “distinctive contribution to humanity.”

Judea Pearl and his wife Ruth Pearl are co-editors of the book “I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl,” winner of the 2004 National Jewish Book Award for Anthologies, which provides a panoramic view of how Jews define themselves in the post 9/11 era.

Professors Pearl and Akbar Ahmed (American University), the founders of the Daniel Pearl Dialogue for Muslim-Jewish Understanding, were co-winners in 2006 of the Civic Ventures’ inaugural Purpose Prize, which honors individuals 60 or older who have demonstrated uncommon vision in addressing community and national problems.

Pearl lectures throughout the United States on topics including:

1. I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl

2. Being Western, American and Jewish in the Post 9/11 Era

3. Creating Dialogue between Muslims and Jews

4. The Ideological War on Terror

5. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: The Case for Co-Existence

He has written commentaries about these topics for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The International Herald Tribune, The Daily Star (Beirut), The Saudi Gazette (Jeddah), and the Jerusalem Post. He writes a monthly column for the Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and is frequently interviewed on major TV and radio stations.

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