The silence of Jewish studies departments in the face of anti-Israeli crowds

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MONTREAL — In a 2008 article in Commentary Magazine, Ruth Wisse, who in her youth was a pioneer of Jewish studies at McGill University, issued a warning to Jews in the diaspora: if the Arab “rejection” of the legitimacy of If Israel, including the need for Israel’s elimination, comes to be accepted as normal, then not only the Jewish state, but Jews around the world, will once again be seen as “politically idiosyncratic.”

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This is exactly what has been happening in full view in our universities for decades. The massacre of October 7 gave wings to the supporters of rejection, tearing away the timid and thin facade of anti-Zionism to reveal the coiled anti-Semitism that it had barely concealed. Result: since October 7, Jewish students who consider attachment to Israel as a natural component of their identity have not had a full day of rest on campus.

Middle East studies departments support and amplify the anti-Zionist chorus on college campuses. External Jewish organizations and advocacy groups are doing what they can to support Jewish students and combat hate. But most university Jewish studies departments, home to the alleged antagonists of the keffiyeh gangs, have been reluctant to enter the fray.

Last month, a long essay on the “silence” of American Jewish studies departments, written by Andrew Koss and published in Mosaic magazine, sparked discussion – and controversy – among Jewish scholars.

Koss argues that a decline in intellectual self-confidence allowed Jewish studies departments to be colonized by the fashionable progressive themes known collectively as “wokeness”, including “subaltern studies” (l ‘study of the oppressed, where Israel is considered an “oppressor”). .

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At an Association for Jewish Studies conference in 2023, for example, speakers on Israel ranged “from the Zionist far left to outright anti-Zionism, often without representatives of other views.” Koss concludes that “the deeper danger for the field is not that all current professors of Jewish studies become obsessed with bad ideas, but that bad ideas tend to drive out good ideas if not actively opposed.” .

One of these “bad ideas” is “diasporism.” The theory – which, while still fringe, is gaining ground among progressive Jews – asserts that for Jews, being in a state of power over others is unnatural. According to this way of thinking, Jews should accept permanent exile and find their Jewish fulfillment in religion, culture or in causes of social justice, such as the plight of the Palestinians.

The diasporists’ reasoning is that Zionism was a highly controversial and controversial issue for Jews in the decades before the 1917 Balfour Declaration which set in motion Israel’s right to national self-determination. True enough. So, according to their logic, their own anti-Zionism is just a continuation of this debate.

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That does not make any sense. The debate of the early 20th century was a debate of ideas. Zionism won. The sovereign state of Israel is a 76-year-old material reality – a state that is home to more than seven million Jews. So, for diasporic Jews, speaking as if the legitimacy of Israel – and Israel alone among the nations – is up for debate is a bit like arguing for infanticide as nothing other than a continuation of the 20th century debate over legal abortion.

The diasporists’ alignment with Hamas’ eliminationist ambition constitutes a stunning betrayal of half the world’s Jews. It is deeply disturbing that the views of such contributors enjoy respectability in all departments of Jewish studies.

I spoke with Eric Caplan, chair of McGill’s Jewish studies department, who assured me that even if one of his professors had anti-Zionist beliefs, “it wouldn’t come across in the classroom.” He concedes, however, that a certain number of teaching assistants are anti-Zionist, which makes the situation “difficult, but not unmanageable”.

Caplan does not see what I would call “loudspeaker engagement” as his role. It ensures that students are exposed to a full range of perspectives during class discussions and debates. Caplan mentioned without judgment that he had on his bookshelf diasporism guru Shaul Magid’s book, “The Necessity of Exile.” It is legitimate to wonder if diasporism will ever be taught at McGill as part of a “spectrum” of perspectives.

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Concordia University has traditionally been a more turbulent arena for contestation on this issue. I spoke with Csaba Nikolenyi, director of Concordia’s Azrieli Institute for Israel Studies (AIIS), who takes a very different stance. It is time for academics to come out of their ivory towers, he believes, and “this is the time”.

Nikolenyi has witnessed increased hostility from quarters such as Concordia’s prestigious Simone de Beauvoir Institute, with which interdisciplinary collaboration was previously cordial, but which now excludes AIIS students (one student told Nikolenyi that she hides her Magen David necklace when she is at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute). de Beauvoir).

“The lack of academic professionalism hit me in the face,” Nikolenyi said. “My own life has completely changed,” he added, with most of his time now devoted to supporting struggling students.

Nikolenyi provided me with numerous examples of rather frightening interactions with pro-Hamas militants targeting both AIIS itself and some of its donors. And it gets worse every day. In 2022, he invited Israeli Consul General Paul Hirschson to give a lecture on the Abraham Accords. There was strong participation and “wonderful professional engagement, just as you want at a university,” he said. Today, however, it would not be prudent for Hirschson to speak at Concordia.

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Nikolenyi fears that AIIS summer programs in Israel, which are so enriching for students but anathema to anti-Zionists, are under threat, due to the relentless pressure placed on the administration by protesters . For six weeks, a dedicated security guard has been stationed in front of his office. Activists who stormed an administration building on June 3, blocking it from the inside and demanding divestment from Israel, vowed more such actions to come. “It is clear that we are on alert,” Nikolenyi concluded in a rather somber tone.

Jewish studies departments do not have the luxury of scholarly detachment from this existential historical moment. Like it or not, our security in the West is linked to that of Israel in the Middle East. As Elie Wiesel wrote: “Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the persecutor, never the tormented. Sometimes we have to intervene.

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