Rising Movement Attempts to Drive Jewish Teachers and Students Out of Academia

Dear Friend of FLAME:

A movement is now afoot in the United States to drive Jews out of higher education—drive them out as teachers and drive them out as students. The movement, using the poisoned spear tip of anti-Zionism, is gaining momentum. It’s reminiscent of nothing more than the movement to expel Jews from the educational system in Nazi Germany.

In 1933, Germany’s new civil service law excluded Jewish university professors as well as Jewish elementary- and secondary-school teachers from the teaching profession. In the same year, Germany’s Law Against Overcrowding in Schools and Universities limited the number of Jewish students who could enroll, forcing Jewish children into private schools.

Many student fraternities and other student groups in Germany banned Jews and protested against professors whom they believed did not support “traditional German values.” Non-Jewish professors joined in shunning their colleagues. Thus, the Nazis were quickly successful in hounding out of the education establishment “undesirables” and any opposition to their policies and values.

This institutionalized antisemitism soon made Jews pariahs in the German education system—entirely because of their beliefs and ethnic identity.

The latest attack on Jews in American higher education was just launched by the UC Berkeley Law School’s branch of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). SJP convinced nine Law School organizations to adopt a by-law refusing to invite or sponsor any speaker who supports “Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel and the occupation of Palestine.”

Zionism is of course the movement to support the self-determination of the Jewish people in its homeland, the state of Israel. Zionism is a primary tenet of Judaism, and it is supported by the overwhelming majority of Jews worldwide, including those in the United States.

No wonder a group of leading U.S. Jewish groups termed the UC Berkeley Law initiative “unabashed antisemitism.” No wonder former assistant U.S. secretary of education for civil rights Kenneth Marcus said the by-law established “Jewish-free zones” at Berkeley.

The law school’s dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, who is Jewish, noted that it would prevent him from speaking at such events—and, he might have added, also ban 90 percent of American Jews.

Anti-Semitism, according to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism—which has been adopted by hundreds of nations and organizations worldwide—includes blaming Jews collectively for the actions of the state of Israel or for Israel’s existence.

Yet today, it is increasing difficult for openly pro-Zionist Jews in the United States to find employment in higher education—particularly within the Humanities. Virtually no Zionists are hired in Middle Eastern studies, despite Israel’s leadership as the region’s only democracy.

Jewish professors like Dr. Jeffrey Lax, head of the Business Department at City University of New York (CUNY) Kingsborough campus, complain of open antisemitism, usually tied to anti-Israel sentiments. Lax declines to wear his yarmulke at school. “I don’t want to be targeted. That’s the reason,” he said. “I just wish I could do my job.

Lax reports that when some fellow faculty members learned he is Jewish and a Zionist, his colleagues leveled threats and intimidation at him. While the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has substantiated Lax’s claims, CUNY has taken no steps to mitigate the hostile work environment.

Pro-Israel students at CUNY Kingsborough and other schools have complained about prejudice and open attacks against them by faculty.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is investigating the University of Southern California for failing to protect a Jewish student from discrimination and harassment because she supports Israel. Federal antisemitism investigations are also underway at the University of Vermont, the State University of New York and Brooklyn College.

Hussein Aboubakr Mansour, an educator at pro-Israel advocacy group Stand With Us, reports the experience of a student contact: “When I applied for Ph.D. programs, I was told in the face by one of the biggest names in Middle Eastern Studies in the West that your affiliation with pro-Israel organizations is a problem for get[ting] into academia.”

Imagine: An African-American at Harvard University is prevented by his fellow Student Government members from becoming school president because of his strong identification with African culture.

How can he be objective, his colleagues ask him, about the struggles of marginalized people against sexual and other forms of bondage, given his identity with the world’s largest haven for modern slavery—the continent of Africa?

Or imagine this: At UCLA, a Jewish student is to be confirmed to the student council’s judicial board, when a fellow council member asks her how she can maintain an unbiased view, given her identity with the Jewish community? After a lengthy discussion of the student’s Jewish identity, her nomination is voted down.

The first story—of the Harvard African-American—is fiction, and unimaginable, though Africa is indeed the world’s leading slavery region .But the second story—about the Jewish UCLA student— is tragically true: It happened to Rachel Beyda in 2015.

In her recent article, “New Loyalty Oath Imposed on Jews,” writer Melissa Langsam Braunstein quotes NYU freshman Kayla Hutt about some surprising advice she got from her high school headmaster on her NYU application essay: “There was a big chunk of it about the Chabad and Hillel, and the overall Jewish community at NYU . . . He told me I shouldn’t have that in there, that it’s enough they’ll see I go to a private yeshiva high school and I shouldn’t rub it in their faces that I was in the Israel Awareness Club and that I’m a proud Zionist.”

How long will Jewish Americans tolerate what no other ethnic group in the United States would stand for—to be discriminated against openly for our blessed peoplehood, for our honored identity? When will supporters of free speech say no to this travesty of one of our country’s most sacred values?

Please point out to friends, family, elected representatives—and in letters to the editor—that antisemitism in the form of anti-Zionism is increasingly permeating American higher education, making it harder and harder for Jewish faculty to teach and Jewish students to attend. It’s reminiscent of the Third Reich, one of the most disgraceful periods of world history.

Above all, emphasize that this is not just a Jewish issue or an issue regarding one of our greatest allies—Israel. Above all, this is about people trying to rob us of freedom of speech . . . in our schools and in our society.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—”Democracy Thrives in Israel”—which exposes false claims that Israel deprives Arab Israeli citizens and Palestinian Arabs of their rights.

Best regards,

James Sinkinson, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)