In the spring of 2002 as the Second Intifada was taking hold in the Middle East, prompted by the chilling email of Laurie Zoloth, then of SFSU ( and now of Northwestern University) describing the violence against Jewish students and just after my son was accepted for medical studies at Sackler Medical School at Tel Aviv University, I became quite concerned about the narrative of the Middle East situation on campus. I searched the internet and came across a website called Professors for Peace, which at the time had about 600 subscribers. I thought this is a good place for me to be and to work for peace in my community and in my classes where I teach ethics and psychology.
It became very clear to me that this was a listserv dominated by the most virilent of anti-Israel academic activists and that they were well-established and rolling along perpetuating propaganda as scholarship. As a moderated listserv, it was also clear that the editors were not interested in hearing from those of us trying to be professors for peace for Israel, as well as the region. Only a fraction of my posts would make it to the listserv and eventually none at all.
However one voice of reasons emerged in the voice of Judith Jacobson of Columbia University and so I contacted Judy offline. She shared with me her frustrations with the listserv as she was moderated quite extensively as well. So, we decided to form the Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Listserv at Yahoogroups.com. I spent hours on ended extending over 20,000 email invitations to colleagues at universities large and small developing a critical mass of about 350 subscribers, which they tell me the direct mail business is about average for any unqualified list mailing. Our goal was to try to fashion ourselves as the modern day reincarnation of the defunct American Professors for Peace in the Middle East.
Fast foward to winter term of 2oo4 and we are now a membership organization with a board of directors with about 700 members and looking to establish chapters. Jacobson, in addition to emerging as Vice President of SPME has offered to coordinate a Columbia Chapter which quickly attracts 400 faculty members at Columbia alone with an inhouse listserv.
Enter the documentary, “Columbia Unbecoming,” where the world finally learned what many of us knew for quite a while, that despite protestations to the contrary, Columbia was not a particularly friendly place for those who love Israel. In fact, it was downright hostile and the hostility was entrenched in the faculty of their Middle Eastern Studies department dominated by virilently arrogant anti-Israel faculty.
Motivated by events following “Columbia Unbecoming,” Judith was joined in chapter leadership by Awi Federgruen of the College of Business and Neil Shachter of the College of Medicine to discuss a more active presence for faculty on campus. They began preparing for the infamous, “The Middle East and Academic Freedom” teach-in in March, 2005 where they raised nearly $30,000 for a day long teach in attended where nearly 900 students, faculty, members of the community and the press registered for an event on a Sunday afternoon. Filling 5 auditoriums and webcasting around the world, the conference could only hold about 700 and many had to be turned away on a Sunday afternoon in NYC. Among the speakers either teleconferenced in or present were academic giants such as Alan Dershowitz, Martin Kramer and Efraim Karsh. Equally impressive presenters such as: Phyllis Chesler, Donna Robinson Divine, Laurie Zoloth, Charles Jacobs, Brigette Gabriel, Rachel Ehrenfeld and others brought home the message that Israel was under attack from hostile neighbors. Phyllis Chesler stirred the audience with her “Palestinianization of the Academy.” Major organizations were invited to particpated. Following the Presidential Report on the entire mess, a New York Times Editorial proclaimed, “That leaves the university to follow up on complaints about politicized courses and a lack of scholarly rigor as part of its effort to upgrade the department. ” (New York Times Editorial April 7, 2005).
