Today, only one question remains: is there a Jewish future in the Ivies? Does the crisis have a solution or are the hallowed gates that generations of American Jews once viewed as the pathway to success irrevocably closing?
There are some great US universities that are standing up to anti-semitism on campus. I have a daughter at one of them -Washington Univ. in St. Louis (WashU). As a parent of a Jewish college student, and a graduate myself of two Ivies, I am so so and relieved happy she is there. Chancellor has excelled in this hard time. School literally opened up a mid-year transfer program in December to welcome students who were no longer comfortable on their campus. An amazing place and leadership. Kudos to WashU
I will never forgive the wider Jewish leaders for not seeing this coming. Israel Apartheid week has been prevalent for over 2 decades in most campuses. Students for Justice in Palestine has been harassing Jewish students without any issue for just as long throughout the country. Most tenured professors embraced antisemitic Soviet style communism. The legacy Jewish organizations did nothing and in fact most embraced the DEI and progressive movements ignoring its threat to Jews. They parroted the mantra of freedom of speech without any thought to protecting Jewish students. That was left to a handful of grassroots student led groups.
The question isnt is there a Jewish future in the ivies. The question is why should Jews waste their time, energy, and money on these irredeemable useless academies. The ivies are only important because the elite in society prop them up. Maybe it's time to reevaluate who we consider elite and what we consider a good education.
When I received a letter from Hillel Int't asking for donations....and not a single reference to Israel or Zionism I wrote back that I wouldn't, couldn't because of this absence of Israel content.....Your points are excellent. The administrations are craven...when not actively supporting anti Zionism and Jew Hate weeks. Legacy Jewish organizations are still of the Sanders , Raiskin, and J Street ilk. Must show evenhandedness so called...even when there is absolute hate from the other side.
In defense of Hillel: Attachment to Israel is at the core of the organization's goals and you can see it at the campus chapters, including trips to Israel, and including coming to do farm wrk during the current war. See https://www.hillel.org/israel-guidelines/
that's very encouraging...as I did that directly after the YK War....now I read about "Open Hillel" so that anti Zionism can be normalized as an acceptable Jewish position....One can be Jewish and anti Zionist on one's own time...not in a Jewish organization with a history of Israel advocacy.
"I will never forgive the wider Jewish leaders for not seeing this coming"
I was incensed that Noa Tishby, an exceptionally effective pro- Israel advocate in the US, was removed from her official post by the Foreign Ministry because of her ambivalence to the judicial reform proposals. Thankfully, inspired by the incredible civic spirit we've witnessed in Israel in the last 5 months, she's pushing on regardless.
Mr. Oren, the primary founder of the University of Austin is Pano Kanelos. Bari Weiss is one the earliest supporters and is on its board of trustees. Their board of advisors is also filled with exceptional people (including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of my treasured heroes). I encourage your readers to visit their website starting here:
Thank you for this important article. I will share it. I went to Yale as an undergrad 1992-1996. Most of my friends were Jewish, though I am not. My friends are afraid about sending their kids to college now. I have no children, but if I did, I would definitely not send them to any of these schools where antisemitism is a requirement.
Wow. This is really had to read. I quit giving money to my alma mater - UC Berkeley - because of all this, including fears of bodily injury. I knew anti-Zionist meant anti-Semitic, but the degree of all this I really didn’t comprehend. I too will be returning to Israel unless there is a bright light on the horizon. Thank you for writing this.
It’s been coming for some time, the dumbing-down of America. However, it’s not only America. Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are graduating mindless ideologues who have infiltrated all aspects of society. They have no clue about the history of “Palestine” nor do they want to know.
Instead of humanity evolving, it’s devolving into the abyss.
It is some comfort that this anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism. in premier universities is leading to a decline of academic standards. Princeton's Classics department is removing the requirement to learn Greek and Latin. Claudine Gay's academic record, and refusal to disclose the data on which she based her statistical studies, is only the visible tip of the iceberg.
A great deal of the mathematics and physics I studied as a student traces back to just two universities: Heidelberg and Gottingen. After the anti-Semitism of 1930s Germany they have declined to insignificance and it is satisfying that both now rank below the Technion in mathematics:
At some point, university reputation and past glory will not make up for deficiencies in learning and academic rigor. Israeli scientists working in Israel have won 6 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in the last 25 years; that's as many as Germany and one more than France. One Israeli has won the Fields Medal in Mathematics: https://www.jpost.com/israel/israeli-wins-nobel-of-mathematics-185255
Your suggestion that students, and more importantly faculty, should consider the advantages of an Israeli university education are right on!
The Israeli and Jewish affirmation of study, life, and human success is antithetical to the ironic, scoffing, and self-hating posture of the Western intellectual left. Grafted on to this, of course, is the remnant of 500 years of papal antisemitism and projected guilt over Europe’s African colonization project with the attendant demand to give way to unqualified students from favored backgrounds.
The only realistic direction is to, without anger or apology, fight back. Through the courts and ballot box where possible. When it comes to Israel, through diplomacy and force of arms. At the end of the day we should accept being hated if we are also sufficiently feared that the monsters choose other targets
On October 7, the Hamas terrorists were armed, the Israelis massacred were defenseless. The unanswered question is why did Israel disarm its citizens most of whom are IDF veterans and leave them vulnerable to mass rape and murder by Hamas? An incredibly stupid decision and the Israeli government is clearly culpable. Every Jewish family in Israel (and the US) should have a 9 mm handgun, an AR15 rifle and plenty of ammunition for both. Every adult and teenage member of the family should be proficient in their use. Have anti-gun Jewish politicians in both countries learned nothing from the Holocaust and the latest slaughter? Isn't it time for the Jewish people to tell them to go fuck themselves?
I have tried to encourage my children to get weapons training and to get their children into summer programs that teach skills and problem solving and independence. The children are always around adults. They don’t know how to set the table or figure out what to buy to cook a meal. Even if this growing up doesn’t end badly it will not end well.
I found it outrageous that all homes in these communities are required to have a safe room but, when the time came, families went into their safe rooms armed only with a kitchen knife.
The most important export that the US can provide Israel is the Second Amendment. There's something worth adding to the Basic Law. (The right to bear arms dates from the 1689 English Bill of Rights)
In respect to the failure of EVERY security system and EVERY defense organization and EVERY intelligence office on October 7th: Sorry, I simply don’t believe it. In an emergency some things don’t work properly but EVERYTHING failing in a highly defense aware country? No way. The story smells really bad.
…an inside job, including sending all but two jet fighters west of the Mississippi for a training exercise and twisting the arm of Israel to set the explosives. A really, really bad day—especially if one had to bury a victim.
The anti-Israel bias was clear to me when my daughters were at the University of Arizona 20 years ago. I and my Israeli friends frequently bemoaned the total lack of PR from Israel and large Jewish organizations. On one occasion, I went to the U of A Hillel House and asked them why they aren't doing anything to combat the SJP and BDS groups on campus. I was told that it wasn't their domain. Not their domain? Now it is their domain as well as every Jewish organization. The problem is that they are now playing catch-up to the excellent PR work of the Palestinian supporters.
We shall survive!! Through thousands of pogroms over centuries, temple destructions, holocausts, Marxism, communism, and all the other isms, we prospered, achieved goals, took vacations, had happy families, and ultimately and rightfully returned to create the state of Israel that is thriving!! Attacked, yes, but thriving and able to withstand aggression. This runs counter to the millions who don’t wish us our existence! They are the losing ones, trying to beat “ the losing horse” as he ends the winner after all! The jealousy and bitterness these patent losers display should turn us in even tougher and more determined to succeed Jews, and primarily and mostly be united “one for all and all for one”!!
I love the idea of more and more American Jewish students going to Israel for their education, but I also hope the elite universities change dramatically.
Wait so Ivy League schools taking billions from fucked up Muslim dictatorships more racist than the KKK would result in antisemitic curriculum? Nooooo, impossible! I thought universities were beacons of truth-seekers and the socratic method. Leftists would never compromise the last surviving Jewish community in the Middle East for $$$? Leftists are super moral and virtuous.
There are some great US universities that are standing up to anti-semitism on campus. I have a daughter at one of them -Washington Univ. in St. Louis (WashU). As a parent of a Jewish college student, and a graduate myself of two Ivies, I am so so and relieved happy she is there. Chancellor has excelled in this hard time. School literally opened up a mid-year transfer program in December to welcome students who were no longer comfortable on their campus. An amazing place and leadership. Kudos to WashU
I will never forgive the wider Jewish leaders for not seeing this coming. Israel Apartheid week has been prevalent for over 2 decades in most campuses. Students for Justice in Palestine has been harassing Jewish students without any issue for just as long throughout the country. Most tenured professors embraced antisemitic Soviet style communism. The legacy Jewish organizations did nothing and in fact most embraced the DEI and progressive movements ignoring its threat to Jews. They parroted the mantra of freedom of speech without any thought to protecting Jewish students. That was left to a handful of grassroots student led groups.
The question isnt is there a Jewish future in the ivies. The question is why should Jews waste their time, energy, and money on these irredeemable useless academies. The ivies are only important because the elite in society prop them up. Maybe it's time to reevaluate who we consider elite and what we consider a good education.
When I received a letter from Hillel Int't asking for donations....and not a single reference to Israel or Zionism I wrote back that I wouldn't, couldn't because of this absence of Israel content.....Your points are excellent. The administrations are craven...when not actively supporting anti Zionism and Jew Hate weeks. Legacy Jewish organizations are still of the Sanders , Raiskin, and J Street ilk. Must show evenhandedness so called...even when there is absolute hate from the other side.
In defense of Hillel: Attachment to Israel is at the core of the organization's goals and you can see it at the campus chapters, including trips to Israel, and including coming to do farm wrk during the current war. See https://www.hillel.org/israel-guidelines/
that's very encouraging...as I did that directly after the YK War....now I read about "Open Hillel" so that anti Zionism can be normalized as an acceptable Jewish position....One can be Jewish and anti Zionist on one's own time...not in a Jewish organization with a history of Israel advocacy.
"I will never forgive the wider Jewish leaders for not seeing this coming"
I was incensed that Noa Tishby, an exceptionally effective pro- Israel advocate in the US, was removed from her official post by the Foreign Ministry because of her ambivalence to the judicial reform proposals. Thankfully, inspired by the incredible civic spirit we've witnessed in Israel in the last 5 months, she's pushing on regardless.
https://www.noatishby.com/
Mr. Oren, the primary founder of the University of Austin is Pano Kanelos. Bari Weiss is one the earliest supporters and is on its board of trustees. Their board of advisors is also filled with exceptional people (including Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of my treasured heroes). I encourage your readers to visit their website starting here:
https://www.uaustin.org/our-people?duty=board+of+trustees
Thank you as always for a superb column today. Blessings.
Thank you for this important article. I will share it. I went to Yale as an undergrad 1992-1996. Most of my friends were Jewish, though I am not. My friends are afraid about sending their kids to college now. I have no children, but if I did, I would definitely not send them to any of these schools where antisemitism is a requirement.
Wow. This is really had to read. I quit giving money to my alma mater - UC Berkeley - because of all this, including fears of bodily injury. I knew anti-Zionist meant anti-Semitic, but the degree of all this I really didn’t comprehend. I too will be returning to Israel unless there is a bright light on the horizon. Thank you for writing this.
Sammy Alzofon
Well said, from another Berkeley grad.
I never doubted the anti-Semitism of the Left at Berkeley but, as a science and engineering student, never saw it from faculty.
It seems to have been hiding in plain sight. We chose not to believe it. October 7 th ripped the veil off of the truth…
It’s been coming for some time, the dumbing-down of America. However, it’s not only America. Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand are graduating mindless ideologues who have infiltrated all aspects of society. They have no clue about the history of “Palestine” nor do they want to know.
Instead of humanity evolving, it’s devolving into the abyss.
which is what I've enountered on FB from non Arabs shilling for hamas.
It is some comfort that this anti-Semitism, and anti-Americanism. in premier universities is leading to a decline of academic standards. Princeton's Classics department is removing the requirement to learn Greek and Latin. Claudine Gay's academic record, and refusal to disclose the data on which she based her statistical studies, is only the visible tip of the iceberg.
A great deal of the mathematics and physics I studied as a student traces back to just two universities: Heidelberg and Gottingen. After the anti-Semitism of 1930s Germany they have declined to insignificance and it is satisfying that both now rank below the Technion in mathematics:
https://www.qschina.cn/en/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2023/mathematics
At some point, university reputation and past glory will not make up for deficiencies in learning and academic rigor. Israeli scientists working in Israel have won 6 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry in the last 25 years; that's as many as Germany and one more than France. One Israeli has won the Fields Medal in Mathematics: https://www.jpost.com/israel/israeli-wins-nobel-of-mathematics-185255
Your suggestion that students, and more importantly faculty, should consider the advantages of an Israeli university education are right on!
Princeton: no Latin or Greek? In the Classics Department? No, the Department of Fuzzy Feelings.
The Israeli and Jewish affirmation of study, life, and human success is antithetical to the ironic, scoffing, and self-hating posture of the Western intellectual left. Grafted on to this, of course, is the remnant of 500 years of papal antisemitism and projected guilt over Europe’s African colonization project with the attendant demand to give way to unqualified students from favored backgrounds.
The only realistic direction is to, without anger or apology, fight back. Through the courts and ballot box where possible. When it comes to Israel, through diplomacy and force of arms. At the end of the day we should accept being hated if we are also sufficiently feared that the monsters choose other targets
"When men act with honor, more are saved than are lost.
In flight, there is neither glory nor refuge."
-- The Illiad
Words to live by
Easy to say when you’re not being assaulted by Hamas sympathizers.
On October 7, the Hamas terrorists were armed, the Israelis massacred were defenseless. The unanswered question is why did Israel disarm its citizens most of whom are IDF veterans and leave them vulnerable to mass rape and murder by Hamas? An incredibly stupid decision and the Israeli government is clearly culpable. Every Jewish family in Israel (and the US) should have a 9 mm handgun, an AR15 rifle and plenty of ammunition for both. Every adult and teenage member of the family should be proficient in their use. Have anti-gun Jewish politicians in both countries learned nothing from the Holocaust and the latest slaughter? Isn't it time for the Jewish people to tell them to go fuck themselves?
I have tried to encourage my children to get weapons training and to get their children into summer programs that teach skills and problem solving and independence. The children are always around adults. They don’t know how to set the table or figure out what to buy to cook a meal. Even if this growing up doesn’t end badly it will not end well.
I found it outrageous that all homes in these communities are required to have a safe room but, when the time came, families went into their safe rooms armed only with a kitchen knife.
The most important export that the US can provide Israel is the Second Amendment. There's something worth adding to the Basic Law. (The right to bear arms dates from the 1689 English Bill of Rights)
Completely agree and me and my family, we live in US, did our training over 3 years ago and continue to go to the range. Never again requires action
In respect to the failure of EVERY security system and EVERY defense organization and EVERY intelligence office on October 7th: Sorry, I simply don’t believe it. In an emergency some things don’t work properly but EVERYTHING failing in a highly defense aware country? No way. The story smells really bad.
Your post evokes a challenge. September 11, 2001 in New York City was....?
…an inside job, including sending all but two jet fighters west of the Mississippi for a training exercise and twisting the arm of Israel to set the explosives. A really, really bad day—especially if one had to bury a victim.
And there we have it. I guess maybe I should thank you for your honesty. But I won't. You're a conspiracy nutter.
The anti-Israel bias was clear to me when my daughters were at the University of Arizona 20 years ago. I and my Israeli friends frequently bemoaned the total lack of PR from Israel and large Jewish organizations. On one occasion, I went to the U of A Hillel House and asked them why they aren't doing anything to combat the SJP and BDS groups on campus. I was told that it wasn't their domain. Not their domain? Now it is their domain as well as every Jewish organization. The problem is that they are now playing catch-up to the excellent PR work of the Palestinian supporters.
We shall survive!! Through thousands of pogroms over centuries, temple destructions, holocausts, Marxism, communism, and all the other isms, we prospered, achieved goals, took vacations, had happy families, and ultimately and rightfully returned to create the state of Israel that is thriving!! Attacked, yes, but thriving and able to withstand aggression. This runs counter to the millions who don’t wish us our existence! They are the losing ones, trying to beat “ the losing horse” as he ends the winner after all! The jealousy and bitterness these patent losers display should turn us in even tougher and more determined to succeed Jews, and primarily and mostly be united “one for all and all for one”!!
The Ivies need Jews. Jews don’t need the Ivies.
I love the idea of more and more American Jewish students going to Israel for their education, but I also hope the elite universities change dramatically.
Wait so Ivy League schools taking billions from fucked up Muslim dictatorships more racist than the KKK would result in antisemitic curriculum? Nooooo, impossible! I thought universities were beacons of truth-seekers and the socratic method. Leftists would never compromise the last surviving Jewish community in the Middle East for $$$? Leftists are super moral and virtuous.
Gosh!!! I am Columbia College '66 and former faculty Public Law and Government... until 1977.
Quit teaching since the kids just want grades.
TY, Neal Hugh Hurwitz... among the many Jews on CU faculty 1967-77