Jew hatred in colleges escalates

Peloni:  In the essay below Steve Kramer offers some important insights as to the education choices available to Jews in the Diaspora coming to Israel for their learning experiences.  Related to this, several years ago, Geoffrey Clarfield proposed the creation of a series of universities in the US by Bar Ilan so that Americans might gain insights from an education that they are otherwise unlikely to experience at a Zionist institution.  Notably, as Clarfield noted then, “Bar-Ilan University is the only Zionist university left in Israel” and that is probably more true today then it was then.  Another alternative already existing in America is that of Hillsdale College.  The Left has seized strings which control education in the West, and as the Left has taken on an altogether unhinged project imbuing Jew Hatred as normative and useful while also delegitimizing ever aspect of Western ideology and culture, parents have an important task in choosing the right environment for the molding of their children’s education.  Hence it is important that they consider available opportunities so as to provide the successive generations with the knowledge and identity which is predicated on Western values, which of course means Judeo-Christian values.  The choices are currently few, but with state financing to bring youths in America, Jews and Gentiles alike, or to bring a Zionist teaching to the broader West, we could easily increase the choices available in tutoring the future of the West towards a reasonable and responsible path.

by Steve Kramer

Photo by DrKenneth – Own work, CC BY 3.0, Link

Unsafe at MIT – A Chronicle of a Campus War on the Jews was written by Yossi Sheffi, professor of engineering at MIT, one of America’s most highly-ranked universities. After reading his account of MIT campus hostility towards Jewish students, especially after October 7, 2023 you will understand what college life is like today for many Jewish students. Sheffi groups his subjects as The Reckoning, The Fight, and The Fallout.

(https://www.amazon.com/Unsafe-MIT-Chronicle-Campus-Jews-ebook/dp/B0H4DSFMDT)

Sheffi states that the conflict engulfing Jewish students and many Jewish professors (those who aren’t woke) isn’t a debate over Middle East policy. Nor is it a disagreement between two student groups with competing narratives. It’s not an outbreak of spontaneous grief-driven protest and it’s not a symmetrical conflict between two equally situated communities. It is, “a coordinated campaign of delegitimization and intimidation, amplified by social media, shielded by institutional paralysis, and justified through a moral framework that denied Jews the protections routinely extended to other minorities.”

Sheffi describes in detail the heinous behavior on campus towards Jews at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has grown exponentially in recent decades, particularly after the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel. Many of the leaders of the protests there against Israel are professional agitators or professors; some are of Middle Eastern descent. The MIT administrators show a lack of compassion for Jewish students and professors bordering on indifference or worse.

Sally Kornbluth is the President of MIT. (She was one of the three female college presidents – “it depends on the context” – who were questioned by then-Representative Elise Stefanik a few years ago about antisemitism on their campuses.) Sheffi’s book describes, from the inside, her and her associates’ conduct towards the Jewish students and professors who were harshly mistreated by students and other professors and forced to run a gantlet through tent communities set up by Jew haters on campus to get to their classroom buildings and the library. Their complaints to the administrators were mostly ignored.

A few examples: Dana, an undergraduate, moved back to the dorms after on-line threats had made her off-campus home feel unsafe. She had left her sorority because of its pervasive anti-Israel bias. She avoided the library, minimized her classroom attendance, and took elaborate detours to avoid running the gauntlet of libelous posters and anti-Zionist flyers posted on campus paths. 

Will Sussman, a Ph.D. student in computer science, joined the board of MIT Grad Hillel. That led to him being targeted as he witnessed fellow students celebrate Hamas attacks, chant slogans calling for violence, occupy buildings, disrupt classes, and intimidate Jewish students. 

When Will objected to those accusations from radical professor Michel DeGraff, that Jewish student organizations were guilty of “Zionist ‘mind infection’”, DeGraff targeted him personally in public posts and mass emails. There was no comment from the administration. Students, staff, and others amplified the accusations against him, labeling Will a racist. The attacks against Will included flyers advocating “resistance” against Jews; DeGraff continued his attack while addressing his students in classes. 

Will filed a formal complaint with MIT’s discrimination office, which refused to even investigate the hate DeGraff espoused against him, claiming it reflected criticism of “settler-colonial Zionists propaganda,” not Jews. Not long after, Will left MIT, abandoning his Ph.D. and the academic career he had hoped to pursue. 

This book is an alarming and educational look at American colleges today, or at least those in the throes of woke discrimination against Jewish teachers and students. It is “must’ reading for parents whose high school children are thinking about college: where to go to school and even if it’s worthwhile in today’s America.

NOTE: I’m alarmed at the destructive direction many schools have taken. Would you send your child to MIT, Columbia, Harvard, or UPenn? Hillel (https://www.hillel.org/top-60-jewish-colleges/) can give parents the kind of information that they need to help their children choose a school where they will encounter a minimum of Jew-hatred. 

Alternatively, consideration should be given to sending high school grads to college in Israel, where there are many fine schools and colleges which have English language programs. A bonus is the fact that college tuition in Israel is a fraction of the cost of American schools. And, attending school in Israel opens up a whole new world for the younger generation. (https://www.findinguni.com/blog/top-universities-in-israel-for-international-students)