How should we address anti-Semitism on campus? Such was the topic at the Hamptons Synagogue with CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez, moderated by Rabbi Marc Schneier last Sunday. It was the Chancellor’s first public address to a Jewish audience since CUNY Law graduate Fatima Mohammed’s May 12 commencement speech that accused Israel of “indiscriminately murdering Palestinians.” The anti-Semitism that has risen in our society has been especially manifest at CUNY in recent years.
Last year’s commencement address by Nordeen Kiswani included an anti-Semitic trope-filled diatribe regarding a “campaign of Zionist harassment by well-funded organizations with ties to the Israeli government and military on the basis of my Palestinian identity and organizing.” The law school’s faculty, comprised of many Jewish professors, and the Professional Staff Congress, the union representing CUNY employees, both passed resolutions supporting the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.
In Sunday’s conversation, Chancellor Matos Rodriguez was quick to point out the initiatives being undertaken to combat this scourge. He noted the university’s official stance against the BDS movement and support for partnerships between CUNY and Hebrew University. In addition, Chancellor Matos Rodriguez spoke of his positive relationship while at the helm of Queens College with the leaders of Hillel and the solidaristic Muslim-Jewish partnerships that brought students together in the wake of the Tree of Life massacre.
The discussion became tense when Chancellor Matos Rodriguez defended the Dean of the Law School’s applause of Ms. Mohammed’s speech. Chancellor Matos Rodrigues said the Law School Dean mistakenly went along with the audience’s applause and therefore has not taken any official action vis-à-vis her continued leadership of CUNY Law School. At the same time, the Board of CUNY issued a statement denouncing Ms. Mohammed’s address as hate speech. The condemnation itself was denounced by the CUNY professors’ union.
Beyond the question of the Dean’s continued tenure and what kind of accountability is warranted for applauding the hate speech, Chancellor Matos Rodriguez implicitly illuminated free speech considerations when he noted student and faculty groups within the University are within their First Amendment rights to freely associate and endorse hateful movements and viewpoints – including the abolition of Israel. Where does this leave the Jewish community?
We must take this rising threat seriously. Those within our community who dismiss or disregard the demonization of Israel as an illusory challenge to American Jewish life have not been on the receiving end of campaigns to ostracize, vilify, and marginalize those among us who have publicly called out those who cloak their anti-Semitism under the façade of Israel hatred. Anti-Israel delegitimization is a rising and pernicious force that inevitably leads to Jews being unsafe, unwanted, and subject to harassment and discrimination.
The answer is not to shred one iota of our pride and love for Israel 75 years into its existence. Beating back ignorance and hate in a moment of profound challenge to Israeli democracy from within should lead our community toward mobilizing to support our brothers and sisters fighting for the Zionist dream of a Jewish and democratic Israel – an Israel that does not annex the West Bank but keeps the pathway to peace with its Arab and Palestinian neighbors alive. Understanding of and appreciation for Jewish history, our lived experience, and struggle for national liberation can only occur in the context of the inextricable link between Zionism and democracy. When we lose sight of the extreme political forces undoing the treasured institutions that comprise Israel’s precious democracy, we further embolden our enemies on college campuses and around the world.
By Ethan M. Felder
