TENURED OR TENUOUS: Defining the Role of Faculty in Supporting on Campus

Prepared by Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D.

Published by the Israel on Campus Coalition and the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise TENURED OR TENUOUS: Defining the Role of Faculty in Supporting Israel on Campus

Prepared by: Mitchell G. Bard, Ph.D. Chair, Faculty Task Force Israel on Campus Coalition Executive Director American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE)

Research Assistants: Eric Bukstein Israel Leadership Fellow Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

Avi Hein American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) May 2004

Dear Colleagues,

On behalf of the nearly thirty member organizations of the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), we are pleased to present this resource guide, Tenured or Tenuous, for use by your organization and constituencies. The guide is intended to provide background, context and factual materials for student activists, faculty, campus professionals and the community. Further, the resource guide offers a snapshot of current community and faculty driven initiatives that may be valuable for different audiences.

In 2003 the ICC created a taskforce to investigate the faculty issue, co-chaired by Dr. Mitchell Bard of the American- Israeli Cooperative Enterprise and the late Jeffrey Ross of the Anti-Defamation League. The ICC identified the faculty issue as one of three priority areas (along with Israel study and travel and new student engagement) to advance and raise on the community agenda, while at the same time recognizing our own limitations as representatives of student campus organizations in actually resolving the problem. The taskforce, under Dr. Bard’s leadership, has consulted with academic experts and professionals from the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, the Anti-Defamation League and other organizations and has demonstrated the need for serious discussion about the issues raised within this resource guide.

This publication raises disturbing issues relating to the state of Israel studies, the prevalence of anti-Israel faculty, the relative dearth of pro-Israel scholars on campus, and the resulting impact on education about Israel and the campus environment. We believe the concerns raised here require careful consideration by the Jewish community, working cooperatively and strategically, in a way that is proactive and can reclaim Israel scholarship. In this regard, the resource guide provides tangible suggestions for how faculty can support pro-Israel students and proposals for proactive initiatives aimed at promoting pro-Israel scholarship on campus. Tenured or Tenuous also seeks to inform discussion among the disparate stakeholders for this issue, which have yet to find a common approach or vehicle to address many of the concerns raised herein.

The resource guide is divided into nine sections which include historical and definitional information, case studies, current faculty and community initiatives, and various proposals for proactively meeting this challenge. While the ICC is not endorsing any one specific organizational approach, we do find merit in offering readers a concise summary of the activities and approaches of some of our members and the community at large, so that we can encourage nationwide matchmaking between resources and needs.

We recognize that meeting this challenge will require ongoing communication and coordination. We are hopeful that this guide will be a useful starting point, subject to future updates and alerts, facilitated by regular ICC communications and web site resources.

We look forward to hearing your feedback on this ICC publication and how we can best work together on this and other issues.

Sincerely,

Lisa B. Eisen Wayne L. Firestone Steering Committee Chair Director

Israel on Campus Coalition 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Israel on Campus Coalition and the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise ...... 6 Israel on Campus Coalition Members ...... 7 I. Introduction: The Problem of Faculty By Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Executive Director, American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise Chair, ICC Faculty Task Force ...... 8 II. The Dynamics of the Campus Culture By Professor Jonathan Adelman, University of Denver ...... 13 III. Background on Departments By Marla Braverman, Editorial staff, Azure ...... 15

IV. Background on First Amendment Issues...... 18

V. Case Studies of Problems and Responses ...... 20

VI. Working With Your University Administration...... 22

VII. Community Programs & Strategies

Israel Scholar Development Fund (ISDF), American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) ...... 24 The Bina Intiative, The University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ...... 24 College Presidents' Petition, American Jewish Committee ...... 25 The Initiative for Israel on Illinois Campuses (IIIC) ...... 26 Reforming Title VI of the Higher Education Act ...... 26 VIII. Faculty Driven Initiatives

The Israel Studies Project at the Graduate Center of CUNY/American Academic Association for Israel ...... 28 Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) ...... 29 International Academic Friends of Israel (IAFI) ...... 29 Campus Watch ...... 30 Hillel Faculty E-mail Community ...... 30 Center for Excellence in Middle Eastern Studies ...... 31

4 Table of Contents Brandeis University Summer Institute for Israel Studies ...... 31

IX. The Role of Faculty in Israel Advocacy ...... 32 X. Building Israel Scholarship on Campus By Dr. Mitchell G. Bard

Maintaining Control ...... 34 Strategic Placement ...... 34 National/Regional Approaches ...... 35 Proposals ...... 35 Endowed Chairs ...... 35 Scholar Development ...... 36 Teacher Training ...... 36 Visiting Scholars ...... 37 Scholars as Mentors ...... 38 Appendices

Jewish Faculty Associations ...... 39 Israel Studies Centers ...... 39 Endowed Chairs in Israel Studies ...... 39 Endowed Chairs in Jewish Related Fields ...... 39 Departments of ...... 39 Departments of Holocaust Studies ...... 40 Fellowship Programs ...... 43 Other Programs ...... 43 “Israel’s Biggest Threat On Campus” ...... 44 By Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher of The Jewish Week

Table of Contents 5 ISRAEL ON CAMPUS COALITION www.israeloncampuscoalition.org

he Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC) is a partnership of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman TFamily Foundation and Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, in cooperation with a network of organizations committed to promoting Israel education and advocacy on campus. The nearly thirty organizations currently participating in the ICC are dedicated to working collaboratively to assist students in fostering support for Israel on the college campus.

For more information, contact the ICC: Phone: (202) 449-6587 E-mail: [email protected]

AMERICAN-ISRAELI COOPERATIVE ENTERPRISE www.JewishVirtualLibrary.org

he American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) is a leading content provider for Tstudents and organizations interested in Jewish history, culture, and politics and offers training on how to use this information. AICE publishes:

a) The , a one-stop shop for answers to any question you might have about any subject from anti-Semitism to ; b) Myths and Facts: A Guide to the Arab-Israeli Conflict; c) One page fact sheets on major issues such as the Palestinian "right of return," the Bush Plan, and the status of Jerusalem to arm students with background on current events; d) On One Foot: a Middle East Guide for the Perplexed or How to Respond on Your Way to Class, When Your Best Friend Joins an Anti-Israel Protest, a pocketsize, 75-page book providing three short responses to the 52 toughest issues students face along with a brief paragraph on the history of each issue.

For more information, contact AICE: Dr. Mitchell Bard, Executive Director Phone: (301) 565-3918 E-mail: [email protected]

6 ICC and AICE ISRAEL ON CAMPUS COALITION MEMBERS www.israeloncampuscoalition.org/aboutus/members

Aish HaTorah/Hasbara Fellowships Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life Fraternity and Foundation (AEPi) Israel Program Center

American Israel Public Affairs Committee Israel University Consortium (AIPAC) Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) American Jewish Committee (AJC) Jewish Heritage Programs (JHP) (AJCongress) Jewish National Fund (JNF) American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE) KESHER/Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) (APN) /United Synagogue of Conservative Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Judaism (USCJ)

Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Media Watch International Foundation Stand With Us Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America (OU) Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations United Jewish Communities (UJC)

The David Project* USD/Hagshama of the World Zionist Organization (WZO) Hamagshimim: The University Zionist Movement Sponsored by Hadassah Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)

*Affiliate member

Israel on Campus Coalition Members 7 I. INTRODUCTION: THE PROBLEM OF FACULTY By Dr. Mitchell G. Bard, Executive Director, AICE / Chair, ICC Faculty Task Force

The liberty of the scholar within the university to set forth his conclusions, be they what they may, is conditioned by their being conclusions gained by a scholar's method and held in a scholar's spirit; that is to say, they must be the fruits of competent and patient and sincere inquiry, and they should be set forth with dignity, courtesy, and temperateness of language. The university teacher, in giving instructions upon controversial matters, while he is under no obligation to hide his own opinion...should, if he is fit in dealing with such subjects, set forth justly...the divergent opinions of other investigators...and he should, above all, remember that his business is not to provide his students with ready-made conclusions, but to train them to think for themselves, and to provide them access to those materials which they need if they are to think intelligently.

1915 Declaration of Principles American Association of University Professors

The plight of pro-Israel students on challenge is not being met because of the college campuses has appropriately received absence of scholars who can imbue this increasing attention in the last two years. knowledge and because most of the faculty Highly publicized incidents, such as the mob teaching about the Middle East today are that surrounded pro-Israel students at San hostile toward Israel. Francisco State, the shouting down of According to an American University Benjamin Netanyahu at Concordia, and study, there are 125 Middle East studies checkpoints and guerrilla theater at schools programs in American institutions, and the such as Georgetown and Berkeley have Department of Education funds 14 Middle created the false impression that such East centers and nearly 100 student behavior is the rule rather than the exception fellowships (at a cost of $4 million/year). on college campuses. Tens of millions more have been invested in Middle East studies over the years, with For educators and the professionals who virtually none of the funding spent on work on campus, the greatest challenge is curricula development on Israel. not training students to respond to Israel’s critics, but educating them about the history The detractors of Israel understand the and politics of the Middle East so they can importance of the campus, and they have become independent thinkers who love and heavily invested in endowed chairs and understand Israel, warts and all. This Middle East studies centers that indoctrinate

8 Introduction: The Problem of Faculty students, influence debate on and off Cultures gave a lecture in which he argued campus, shape faculty departments (and, in that Zionism is a European colonial system turn, control hiring to freeze out pro-Israel based on racist principles with the goal of scholars), define (often shoddy) scholarship in eradicating and that Zionists are the field, and establish reputations and/or the new Nazis. use academic affiliations as springboards to influence the wider political debate as Columbia established the Edward Said talking heads on TV, as authors of op-eds, chair of Arab Studies, funded in part by the and as sources for journalists. United Arab Emirates, and immediately hired a vocal critic of Israel.

Here are a few examples of the problem: At American University, an anthropology professor used a comic book as 1,500 academics signed a petition a text that is in the vein of Der Stürmer. warning of a possible impending crime of Another professor crossed out the word humanity: that Israel would expel large “Israel” on a student’s exam and wrote in the numbers of Palestinians during the fog of margin,“Zionist entity.” A third instructor the Iraq war. handed out maps of the Mideast without More than 1,000 academics signed a Israel on them. petition written by the Faculty for Israeli- At one southern university, a Palestinian Peace, which criticizes Israel’s philosophy professor teaches a Humanities security fence and presence in the territories course entitled,“Living under Occupation.” and calls for protecting accessibility to educational institutions in the West Bank At the University of Chicago, a doctoral and Gaza Strip. The group also sponsors a student in the Middle East Studies program conference,“An End to Occupation, A Just was discouraged by faculty from studying Peace in Israel-Palestine” aimed at militant Islamic ideologies and told that this “mobilizing the Academia worldwide to topic was created by a “sensationalist media” promote an end of the Israeli occupation.” and forwards “Zionist” interests. Berkeley offered a course entitled,“The The prevalence of outspoken anti-Israel Politics and Poetics of Palestinian professors and the paucity of pro-Israel Resistance,” which the instructor said would explore how Israel “systematically displaced, scholars is the most insidious danger to killed, and maimed millions of Palestinian Israel’s standing on the campus as some people.” faculty remain for years on campus and shape the campus environment and the Swiss academic Tariq Ramadan, a minds of many students. grandson of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna, who was accused by French Scholars for Peace in the Middle East Jews of fomenting anti-Semitism, has been (SPME) succinctly summarized the reported hired to teach peace studies at Notre Dame. activities of some faculty that concern us:

A professor in Columbia’s Department Fraudulently presenting of Middle East and Asian Languages and misinformation as fact.

Introduction: The Problem of Faculty 9 Intentionally misleading students and Zionism (the settler colonial abusing the position of authority that the movement designed to make Palestine dissemination of such false statements the site of a nation-state for world represents. Jewry by dispossessing and expelling the Palestinian people), the State of Legitimizing the precedence of Israel, and their supporters teach three political goals and personal interests over central claims: standards of truth, accuracy, and scholarship. (1) the Jews invented Zionism, Diminishing the credibility of (2) the Jews are a Semitic people, and scholarship and of academia to both (3) the State of Israel should and will students and the general public. remain an exclusively Jewish state.... Blurring any meaningful distinction The paper concludes that between opposition to specific Israeli policies contemporary Jews essentially and anti-Semitism and, thus, contributing to represent a hodgepodge collection of anti-Semitism on campus. non-“Semitic” peoples (mostly of Slavo- Turkic origins) who (under the agency Stifling scholarly debate and the of Zionism) claim a “Semitic” ancestry expression of differing opinions. and history as a historical explanation and a moral justification for the Anti-Israel teachings in the classroom brutal conquest of a “Semitic” land create a hostile learning environment for and the horrible dispossession, students and place pro-Israel students, in expulsion, and impersonation of a particular, under great pressure. Professors “Semitic” people, the Palestinian Arabs may try to impose their views on students (both Muslim and Christian). and can coerce them by punishing those who do not agree with them with lower grades or The problem extends beyond the withholding recommendations. Even if classroom and academic forums. Faculty professors do not go to such extremes, critical of Israel also tend to be extremely students may still be intimidated by the fear vocal and active, while pro-Israel faculty of retaliation. usually are reluctant to participate in campus debate. This is certainly not true on The malignant teachings of anti-Israel all campuses, but it is the case on the “scholars” spreads like a cancerous growth majority. For a variety of reasons, including throughout the academy by way of intimidation, lack of knowledge, political publications and conferences. Thus, for correctness, and concern for their image on example, the 2004 meeting of the the campus and in their fields, pro-Israel Association of American Geographers offers faculty are hesitant to engage in public or a panel on ethnic geography that will feature even private support for students or to take the presentation of a paper on “The Non- on their colleagues. While some anti-Israel Semitic Origins of Contemporary Jews.” The faculty in subjects completely unrelated to abstract explains: the Middle East will use their classrooms as forums for propaganda, such behavior by pro-Israel faculty is unheard of.

10 Introduction: The Problem of Faculty Though Jews comprise a significant share whose specialities may be in other fields but of academic positions, very few are involved who could be taught enough about Middle in teaching about the Middle East, and some Eastern affairs to allow them to offer courses of those who do are unsympathetic to Israel. through their departments, establishing It is possible to point to positive experiences programs for visiting Israeli diplomats and in institutions that have, for example, strong other Israeli and American scholars to teach visiting scholar programs in which Israelis in local colleges, and creating a mentoring can often have an exponential impact in a program whereby scholars establish longer- short period of time on a particular campus. term relationships with multiple campuses A handful of influential (Jewish and non- and provide guidance and advocacy training Jewish) U.S. scholars have also been active in addition to teaching the fundamentals and have often had an impact beyond their about Israel. campuses. Overall, however, a severe shortage exists of scholars who are qualified Jews understand the importance of the to teach about Israel and who have any academy, but they have focused on creating sympathy for their subject. chairs and centers of Jewish and Holocaust studies while neglecting Israel. Today, The Israel on Campus Coalition, as well as approximately 130 departments of Jewish a separate task force of individuals with studies and another 60 in Holocaust studies experience in academia and working with have been established. By comparison, only students, are studying the problems with four centers of Israeli studies currently exist. faculty and proposing possible treatments (A fifth was turned into a hostile Middle East for what ails the academy. This is a long-term center by anti-Israel faculty.) At least 60 project and one that is not meant to be a panacea. Certain aspects of the academic chairs in Jewish-related fields have been structure and culture, such as the ingrained endowed, while only five chairs (one for a anti-Israel bias in Middle East studies visiting Israeli) have been specifically departments, and the perception that established for Israel studies in the United academic freedom is a license to teach States. (And one remains unfilled.) See almost anything about Israel, will be difficult, appendices for more details. if not impossible, to reverse. If the pro-Israel community wants to Rather than try to fight these endemic change the atmosphere on campus, educate structures, the best strategy is to provide students about Israel, and increase the alternatives for educating students about probability that the American public and its Israel. This requires a series of creative future leaders are knowledgeable and measures that may include creating sympathetic toward Israel, it is vital that the endowed chairs in Israel studies, creating a issues described here be addressed. Israel’s fund to support graduate training in Israel detractors have had a big head start, so there studies and related fields, training scholars is no time to waste.

Introduction: The Problem of Faculty 11 II. THE DYNAMICS OF CAMPUS CULTURE

By Professor Jonathan Adelman, University of Denver

Understanding the dynamics of campus Vietnam and other social and political culture requires understanding first of all the causes. dynamics of modern universities. Modern American universities are: Many faculty and students today are sharply critical of the and its Vast, highly complex institutions, close allies such as Israel. including more than 3,000 major Faculty live in an environment universities and colleges that enroll more (guaranteed tenured jobs, enclosed than 14 million American students and campuses, autonomy and self-governance) 500,000 foreign students. quite removed from the harsh realities of the Big businesses spending $300 billion Middle East. on students and managing $80 billion of Faculty and students have strong endowments for the top ten universities. sympathy for the perceived underdog and Fund raising is the top priority for university victims (Palestinians) rather than a military presidents, typically consuming 50% of their power (Israel), which is often seen as total time. representing brutality. Governed by complex codes of Faculty and students have greater conduct for more than 500,000 professors sympathy for Third World "oppressed" and more than a million administrators and countries that live in dire poverty staff. (Palestinians) than for successful First World Run by administrators, who spend countries (Israel). only a tiny portion of their day on issues such as the Middle East, and prefer to allow In addition, there are several structural everyone their say, no matter how distasteful factors: and harmful (“free speech”). Students in college are often going through a phase of rebellion against parental People often ask why politics on many and societal authority, which can be campuses seems often to be quite anti-Israel. represented by countries like Israel and the While conditions vary dramatically from United States. campus to campus, a number of factors are in play: Middle East study centers and courses on the region are dominated by Middle American universities have a long Easterners and others typically sympathetic history of liberalism and leftism (currently to the Palestinian cause. anti-Israel) going back to the 1930s. The level of knowledge about The majority of faculty members international affairs and the Middle East today grew up in the 1960s and 1970s, a among students and faculty is abysmally low, period of social activism against the war in making it easier to ignore such factors as the

12 The Dynamics of Campus Culture 2000 Camp David peace offer and the large numbers of students increasingly oppression of women and minorities involved in pro-Israel activity. Furthermore, common in the Middle East. there is increasing evidence that the many student leaders from a variety of groups Middle Eastern funding for speakers, (e.g. student government, campus centers and activities often is quite newspapers) are actually pro-Israel. There significant in the anti-Israel movement. may indeed even be a majority of students on campus that support Israel. But, it is There is some good news. The Israel on important for us to understand the Campus Coalition and its constituent parts complexities of campus life and act in an (such as AIPAC, Aish HaTorah, Hillel, etc.) are effective manner to make sure that both making progress in reaching and educating sides are heard in this vital issue.

The Dynamics of Campus Culture 13 III. BACKGROUND ON MIDDLE EASTERN STUDIES DEPARTMENTS By Marla Braverman,“The Arabist Predicament,” Azure 15 (Summer 2003), pp. 176-184.

The real story behind the field of Middle easier to place blame for the impasse on Eastern studies is its consistent failure over Israel. the past three decades to account for the most significant events in the region. Kramer points to George Hourani's 1968 Instead, scholars painted a romantic picture MESA [Middle Eastern Studies Association] of a region perennially on the verge of presidential address as the sounding bell for reform and prosperity. As a result, they have this new, anti-Israel era in Middle Eastern failed to explain the many catastrophic studies: In his address, entitled “Palestine as a developments which have plagued the Problem of Ethics,” Hourani asserted that Middle East, such as the Egyptian-Syrian “the Arabs’ claim to a state [in Palestine] is… invasion of Israel in 1973; the Lebanese civil based on indisputable facts,” while “the claims of the Jews to live in and have a state war that broke out in 1975; the Iranian in a part of Palestine… present a serious revolution in 1978; the Iran-Iraq war of the ethical problem.” Hourani dismissed Jewish 1980s; Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990; the historical and religious claims to the land of explosion of Palestinian violence since 2000; Israel, and pronounced the early Zionist and the rise of Osama Bin Laden and the settlement wholly immoral. Not even the tragic events of 2001.... flight of Jews from Nazi tyranny made the [In his book, Ivory Towers on Sand: The Zionist immigration legitimate, since “it Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, cannot be assumed that if Palestine had not Martin] Kramer traces the roots of the been available all other gates out of central problem to the intrusion of politics into Europe would have been closed to these scholarly research in the wake of the 1967 Six individuals.” The Jews would have done Day War. Until then, most scholars had better, Hourani concludes, had they realized promoted an optimistic theory of the suffering that the Zionist enterprise development for the Middle East, which saw would inevitably bring in its wake, and political, social, and economic reform just relinquished their desire for statehood. around the corner. As Roger Owen, head of Like everyone else, Middle East scholars Middle Eastern studies at Harvard, explained had their own political preferences. After in 1990: "It was difficult not to become 1967, however, they felt free to use the excited by the Nasser project, to see Egypt… academic rostrum to advance them. through his eyes, to write about it using the Hourani's speech, Kramer contends, thus same highly charged vocabulary of planning opened the door to a kind of political and education and social justice for all." partisanship that has remained endemic to Middle East scholars were thus baffled by the Middle Eastern studies to this day. Arab refusal, in the months following Israel's dramatic victory, to admit defeat, sign a It did not take long for the Arab-Israeli peace treaty, and begin the process of self conflict to become the hottest subject in appraisal essential for progress. Instead of Middle Eastern studies, as well as the favorite grappling with the issues raised by the Arabs' topic of most academic publications behavior, many scholars simply found it concerned with that part of the world.

14 Background on Middle Eastern Studies Departments Kramer cites a survey of major articles and conform to Western models of political, books on the history of the Middle East social, and economic development, many published between 1962 and 1985, showing Middle East scholars were all too happy to that more than a third dealt with some accept Said’s new paradigm. “Middle Eastern aspect of the Arab-Israeli conflict — a studies,” Kramer writes,“came under a take- disproportionate amount of attention paid no-prisoners assault, which rejected the idea to a single issue in a region riddled with of objective standards, disguised the vice of wars, religious upheaval, and political and politicization as a virtue of commitment, and social instability. This attention, Kramer replaced proficiency with ideology.” concludes,“came at the expense of other Orientalism made it acceptable for scholars countries and subjects, many of which “to spell out their own political suffered from relative neglect. But in the commitments as a preface to anything they atmosphere of the 1970s, it became wrote or did,” and enshrined “an acceptable acceptable to teach one's political hierarchy of political commitments, with commitments, and courses on the Arab- Palestine at the top, followed by the Arab Israeli conflict could always be justified by nation and the Islamic world.” But above all, comparatively large enrollments.” As Israel Kramer believes that Said effectively began to play a growing role in the rhetoric delegitimized Western scholarship on the of Arab politics, so too did academic East, arguing that all of its practitioners preoccupation with the Jewish state increase. were, consciously or not, tainted by prejudice and the desire to keep the Arab peoples in a Anti-Israel sentiment became the state of submission. springboard for a dramatic expansion of scholars’ political activism in 1978, when The rise of the Islamic fundamentalist Edward Said, a professor of English literature regime in Iran and the outbreak of religious at Columbia University, published civil war in Lebanon turned scholars’ Orientalism, a sweeping critique of the ways attention increasingly toward Islam itself in in which Western civilization related to the the late 1970s. Yet instead of addressing what Arab world....With Orientalism, then, Said appeared to many Westerners to be a situated the Palestinians in a much wider gathering storm, scholars attempted to context: They were now just the latest reinterpret the region in terms more victims of a systematic prejudice against palatable to Western tastes. Arabs and Islam in general, employed by the West to justify its domination of the East. As As for Arab violence, American academics Said explained,“Every European, in what he were quick to point out that focusing on it could say about the Orient, was a racist, an would only reinforce stereotypes. Like any imperialist, and almost totally ethnocentric.” modern, democratic country, the Arab states had, according to [Georgetown professor Orientalism signaled a major shift in the John] Esposito, already reached the political orientation of Middle Eastern conclusion that violence was scholarship. Now the enemy was not just counterproductive, and would no doubt Israel, but much of Western civilization, in recede in the years ahead. Thus in the 1990s, particular its political, scholarly, and literary most scholars of the Middle East refused to elites. Frustrated by the region's failure to admit the existence of — let alone devote

Background on Middle Eastern Studies Departments 15 their attention to — those Islamic “the propensities of the non-elite news fundamentalist groups that posed the media to over-publicize, hype, and sell greatest threat to the United States.... hostility to Islam.”When this is juxtaposed with Joel Beinin’s response to the 2001 World Most telling, however, is the reluctance of Trade Center attacks, in which he denounced most MESA scholars to change their tune, the “self-appointed guardians of patriotic regardless of developments in the region. rectitude” who perpetrate “hate crimes Thus after the first World Trade Center against Muslims and Arabs,” one is struck by bombing in 1993, Columbia University history the field’s propensity to repeat its own professor Richard Bulliet organized a errors.... conference under the auspices of the Columbia University Middle East Institute — Excerpted from a review of Martin not to explain the appearance of terrorism in Kramer’s book, Ivory Towers on Sand: The New York, but instead to confront a “new Failure of Middle Eastern Studies in America, anti-Semitism” against Muslims, fueled by Azure (Summer 2003).

16 Background on Middle Eastern Studies Departments IV. BACKGROUND ON FIRST AMENDMENT ISSUES

One of the most difficult and frustrating However, speech within the scope of the rally aspects of confronting the problem of anti- and directed to a general audience is not Israel behavior by faculty is the umbrella punishable. most universities give to their staff under the rubric of academic freedom. While most If the university decides not to take universities would not tolerate faculty action to enforce its code against a student teaching utter nonsense in other fields – for or faculty member for hateful speech, some example, a physics professor telling students legal precedent does exist for suing the that the earth is flat; they are unwilling to university for a breach of contract when it take action against professors who teach refuses. More generally, colleges and equally absurd concepts relating to Israel. universities are required to provide a Universities also seem to have adopted a zero learning environment that is safe and free tolerance approach to faculty attacks on from hostility for all students. A school every minority group except Jews. violates its duty to prevent a hostile environment when The Anti-Defamation League has summarized these free speech issues in a hostile environment exists; Fighting Back — A Handbook for Responding the school has notice of the problem; to Anti-Israel Rallies on College and University and Campuses: it fails to respond adequately to Faculty speech is almost always protected remedy the situation. from discipline by principles of academic freedom. The ideal of academic freedom Federal law prohibits federally-funded demands that faculty members on university schools from allowing hostile environments campuses be free to develop and espouse to persist on campus that harass students original and controversial ideas. Universities based on their race, color, or national origin. that have attempted to silence or remove Religion (as well as sexual orientation) is not faculty members for unpopular speech have included in the groups protected under the faced significant pressure from the academic federal law, although some states extend this community not to do so. For these reasons, protection to religion. most universities are reluctant to regulate the speech of their professors both in and Victims of such an environment can sue out of the classroom. for injunctive relief – that is, to force the university to take action – or for monetary The principle of academic freedom and damages. the rules set forth in a student code of conduct apply with equal force to student or While the law does provide for some faculty speech at political protest rallies. recourse in certain instances where abuse is Speech outside the legitimate scope of the clear, the reality is that the cloak of academic rally that is profane, threatening, an freedom is today used to frustrate most incitement to violence, or directed efforts to hold faculty accountable for specifically against an individual student adhering to any principles of fairness or based on his race, color, nationality, or scholarly integrity. Supporters of Israel religion can be disciplined by the university. should not seek to censor Israel’s detractors

Background on First Amendment Issues 17 or restrict debate, but they should expect faculty to be held to the same standards of scholarship when teaching about the Middle East that are applied in all other fields.

Fighting Back — A Handbook for Responding to Anti-Israel Rallies on College and University Campuses can be downloaded at www.adl.org/education/fighting-back- final.pdf.

18 Background on First Amendment Issues V. CASE STUDIES OF PROBLEMS AND RESPONSES

Despite the obstacles created by issues of free speech and academic freedom, it is sometimes possible to bring about changes in the classroom. Often the best approach is a quiet one, but occasions may require an escalation of pressure to obtain results. While there are no guarantees of success, students can take the following steps in response to problems with faculty:

Document everything. Take notes on what a professor says and, if possible, tape lectures. Bring your concerns to the professor. It is possible that making a professor aware of inaccuracies or insensitivities may be enough to bring about change. If the professor does not respond, it may be desirable to discuss concerns with the department chair and/or school dean. Contact the Israel on Campus Coalition Faculty Task Force for guidance ([email protected]). Inform the director of Hillel and/or other Jewish agency professionals and let them pursue the matter through the appropriate university channels. Publicize the problem. No university wants bad publicity and embarrassment in the press, and articles criticizing the behavior of a university can sometimes either encourage the university to take action on its own or provoke members of the community and alumni to pressure the administration to address the issue.

BERKELEY first through its Committee on Courses and subsequently through its Divisional Council, reviewed the course section description for In 2002, a Berkeley graduate student in “The Politics and Poetics of Palestinian the English department offered a course Resistance” and determined that it met the entitled,“The Politics and Poetics of faculty’s pedagogical standards. Palestinian Resistance,” which generated a The English Department assumed firestorm of controversy. UC Berkeley responsibility for regular observation and Chancellor Robert Berdahl declared a “failure mentoring of the graduate student of oversight” by the English Department in instructor leading the course. The reviewing course descriptions and said the department chair agreed to attend the first class would be monitored to ensure that it class and advise students enrolled in the does not exclude or discourage qualified section of their right to free expression and students from participating.“It is imperative to have their work evaluated free of that our classrooms be free of indoctrination discrimination or harassment. A faculty – indoctrination is not education. Classrooms must be places in which an open observer was also assigned to attend all environment prevails and where students sessions of the course to ensure open are free to express their views,” he said. discussion, and students were to be asked to evaluate the course and instructor before the The Berkeley Academic Senate, acting semester midpoint, leaving sufficient time

Case Studies of Problems and Responses 19 for any necessary adjustments to be made. speak with faculty in the department and to have the class reviewed and the teacher Changes were also made to the original monitored. course section description. In particular, the statement “Conservative thinkers are After several interventions by Hillel staff encouraged to seek other sections” was with a variety of faculty, a senior philosophy deleted. Nevertheless, the course was still professor was assigned to monitor the class allowed to be taught by an instructor who by sitting in on lectures and reviewing the described the course as examining “The syllabus and reading materials. brutal Israeli military occupation of Palestine, an occupation that has been ongoing since 1948, has systematically displaced, killed, and maimed millions of UNIVERSITY OF IOWA Palestinian people.”

At the University of Iowa, there is neither a Middle East Studies nor a Jewish Studies UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN department. Yet there are courses on Middle East issues in numerous departments, including political science, history, geography, A Palestinian graduate student in and global studies. One of these courses, philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, “Understanding the Middle East,” has been Madison was teaching an introductory coordinated for the past three or four years Philosophy class entitled,“Contemporary by a geography professor, cross-listed among Moral Issues.” The course description said six several departments, and taught mostly by a weeks would be spent on the treatment of succession of guest lecturers. The professor the Palestinians. Questions to be examined has a longstanding interest in the region, has included: Was it ethical for Israel to go to spent time in Jordan and (to a much smaller war? Is the occupation morally justified? Is extent) Israel, and is well known in the local the creation of Israel morally just? The community as an activist in favor of syllabus did not include any readings that reconciliation. People in the pro-Israel might represent a different point of view community have accused him of being pro- from that of the instructor. Palestinian and anti-Israeli, although he does not see himself that way. To further his cause, the graduate student invited two Jewish graduate The University of Iowa Hillel Director — a students, who were active in a left-wing former faculty member in the political Israel group, to teach two days of the class. science department — was invited by the These graduate students were not trained in instructor of “Understanding the Middle Philosophy, but in Art and History. Both East” to speak to the class when the course accepted the invitation but were deeply was first offered. In the past three years, they upset with the experience after the have developed a routine whereby the Hillel instructor told them he would not stand for Director speaks twice — early in the them teach his students any Zionist semester, where he focuses on basic tenets of apologetics. The Jewish students asked to Judaism, a topic the students invariably

20 Case Studies of Problems and Responses know nothing of, and then later in the of Israel are not necessarily knee-jerk semester, when he discusses the politics of political activists but are often well-informed the conflict. and thoughtful. To the extent that the students enter the course expecting to learn The effect of this arrangement is twofold: first, because the course does not begin why Israel is the regional bully and addressing the conflict until the Hillel oppressor, these accomplishments are very Director (and other specialists) have spoken significant. And the goodwill generated by on background topics, the students are better this level of cooperation gives Hillel prepared to understand the context against credibility on campus, even when Jewish which the conflict has developed; second, the students take unpopular or controversial students and instructors see that supporters political positions.

Case Studies of Problems and Responses 21 VI. WORKING WITH YOUR UNIVERSITY’S ADMINISTRATION

Excerpted from “The Handbook for Pro-Israel Activists,” compiled by the Jewish Community Relations Council of San Francisco.

Background government, director of the student center, director of room scheduling, Cultivating relationships with your and the editor of the student school’s administration is strongly newspaper encouraged and should not be overlooked. Establishing relationships with deans, faculty Campus police chief and even the president of the university in quiet times is extremely valuable in times of tension on campus. Don’t wait for a crisis to establish these relationships!

Relationships with whom? Establishing a relationship with an administrator during a crisis is not nearly as University administrators are extremely beneficial as already having such a busy people. Yet, you are fully a part of the relationship developed in times of quiet. The constituency they serve and oversee. establishment of trust is essential to a good Consequently, administrators are willing to relationship with the administration; you meet and work with students. At the same need to be seen as someone who is reliable, time, any meetings should be coordinated trustworthy and rational. with Hillel and should include representative leadership – rather than individuals coming one by one. In times of crisis:

The administration at all levels can and Some of the administrators you should should play a role in harboring and try to get to know are: maintaining a positive atmosphere on campus. But, sometimes various campus President of the university groups prefer to “shake things up” as a Provost means of bringing attention to their cause. A crisis can be created if an extremist Vice-Provosts for Student Affairs and speaker is invited to campus, or if a series of Campus Relations anti-Israel or anti-Jewish events are planned. Dean of students An example: Department chairs (particularly of Middle East studies, Jewish studies Several years ago at San Francisco State and/or Religious studies, History, University, the Student Union Governing Political Science, Law, Philosophy) Board allocated funds for the creation of a Various directors and advisors of permanent Malcolm X mural, to be placed on student institutions such as student the outside edifice at a location known as the

22 Working With Your University’s Administration Malcolm X Mall on the side of the student administrators. For example, the Hillel center. The mural contained a large painting director on campus most likely has a of Malcolm X. The borders of the mural, relationship with the president of the school. contained a number of Jewish stars with If such is the case, ask the Hillel director to either skulls and crossbones or dollar signs introduce you. If there is no Hillel on your superimposed in the stars or placed in close campus, see if the local off-campus Jewish proximity to the stars. Furthermore, along community may have a relationship with the one side there were several Jewish stars with president of the school. the statement “African Blood” underneath. The mural was deemed by most in the But, sometimes ‘cold calls’ campus and wider community as being anti- are the only way Semitic. The president of the school took the courageous step of ordering the mural You will also need to take the initiative removed, despite vehement protest from the yourself on a number of occasions. Hillel may mural’s supporters. The campus Jewish not have a relationship with everyone you community had a previously existing strong want to cultivate. Here are some basic “cold relationship with SFSU’s president, which call” techniques you may want to use: helped in the resolution of this particular Call or visit the administrator you crisis. want to meet. Explain who you are, why you want to meet and what you hope to achieve Reinventing the Wheel: Don’t do it! as the result of the meeting.

Establishing these relationships may not Describe why this meeting would be be as daunting as it seems. Relationships beneficial to the administrator’s ability to get probably already exist between the campus their job accomplished. Impress upon them Jewish community and any one of these that you wish to help them.

Working With Your University’s Administration 23 VII. COMMUNITY PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES

Problems with faculty are not new, but they have been largely neglected, as reflected by the paucity of programs we could identify. A handful of communities and organizations have made efforts to address problems at local campuses in a systematic way. Here are a few examples:

Israel Scholar Development Fund (ISDF) Bina Initiative – American-Israeli Cooperative The University of North Carolina, Chapel Enterprise (AICE) Hill

To address the critical need to develop The Bina Initiative: Exploring Israel is an new scholars and place established Israel opportunity for Jewish faculty and students scholars on campus, AICE has created the at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Israel Scholar Development Fund. This fund Hill to think deeply about Israel and issues will: relating to Israel on campus. The goal of this program is to create a close-knit group of Identify U.S. and Israeli scholars who students and faculty with a sophisticated could be placed in visiting professorships. understanding of how they feel about Israel and how Israel factors into their Jewish Offer universities matching funds to identities. hire a visiting scholar. The Bina Initiative fosters an ongoing, Brief scholars on issues, provide them open dialogue in a safe and pluralistic media training, and encourage them to environment. educate the public through public lectures and media appearances. Participants are immersed in an intensive 11-session education and discussion Identify students who want to forum about the many facets of Israel. become Israel/Middle East scholars and offer Discussion topics include: politics, culture, them scholarships for graduate study. history, current events and religion. Develop a strategic plan for The sessions included: guest speakers, promoting Israel studies that would involve films, articles, short stories, music, poetry and identifying institutions that could and self-reflection. should have pro-Israel scholars. Participants challenge their Advise philanthropists on where assumptions, defining and refining their positions should be created to have relationship with Israel. the greatest impact, and how to do it so their intentions are not frustrated All participants are equal, learning (e.g., an anti-Israel scholar is chosen from and teaching one another. instead of a pro-Israel one). The Bina Initiative was also developed For more information, please contact to create close interactions between students Dr. Mitchell Bard, AICE Executive Director and faculty, giving both groups a chance to ([email protected]).

24 Community Programs and Strategies talk with one another and develop In the current period of worldwide political relationships. turmoil that threatens to damage one of our country’s greatest treasures – colleges and For more information, please contact universities – we commit ourselves to academic Or Mars, North Carolina Hillel Executive integrity in two ways. We will maintain Director ([email protected]). academic standards in the classroom and we will sustain an intimidation-free campus. These two concepts are at the core of our profession. College Presidents’ Petition The American Jewish Committee Our classrooms will be open to all students, and classroom discussions must be based on sound ideas. Our campus debates will be conducted without threats, taunts, or Hundreds of college and university intimidation. We will take appropriate steps to presidents across the country are signing insure these standards. In doing so, we uphold onto a statement decrying intimidation on the best of American democratic principles. campuses. The statement was initiated by several current and former college presidents We are concerned that recent examples of in the wake of a series of incidents on classroom and on-campus debate have crossed campuses in which Jewish students were the line into intimidation and hatred, neither of targeted. which have any place on university campuses. The original letter distributed to In the past few months, students who are presidents came from James O. Freedman, Jewish or supporters of Israel’s right to exist – former president of Dartmouth College; H. Zionists – have received death threats and Patrick Swygert, president of Howard threats of violence. Property connected to Jewish University; Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, organizations has been defaced or destroyed. president of George Washington University; Posters and websites displaying libelous Frank H.T. Rhodes, president emeritus of information or images have been widely Cornell University; Theodore M. Hesburgh, circulated, creating an atmosphere of president emeritus of the University of Notre intimidation. Dame; and Jehuda Reinharz, president of These practices and others, directed against Brandeis University. any person, group or cause, will not be tolerated The American Jewish Committee is on campuses. All instances will be investigated facilitating distribution of the letter, which and acted upon so that the campus will remain says: devoted to ideas based on rational consideration. We call on the American public and all members of the academic community to join us.

For more information, please contact Kenneth Bandler ([email protected]).

Community Programs and Strategies 25 The Initiative for Israel on Reforming Title VI Illinois Campuses (IIIC) of the Higher Education Act

This initiative to work with university Title VI of the Higher Education Act administrators and faculty in Illinois is a (http://www.ed.gov/policy/highered/leg/hea partnership of the Jewish Community 98/sec601.html), originally passed in 1958, Relations Council of the Jewish United Fund provides support for programs at colleges of Metropolitan Chicago and the Hillels of and universities which work to advance Illinois. The IIIC has done the following with knowledge of world regions, encourage the university faculty: study of foreign language, and train Americans to have the international Building on existing relationships, key expertise and understanding to fulfill individual faculty members already pressing national security needs. As such, demonstrating a willingness to be active Title VI has helped fund Middle Eastern were urged to become more involved in studies programs on many college campuses providing support and resources for the across the country. activities of the IIIC. They were also urged to help discover and motivate other like-minded In recent years, Title VI has come under faculty. scrutiny for supporting extreme and one- sided criticisms of American foreign policy. In summer 2003, the IIIC convened a Many community organizations, including meeting of leading faculty activists from American Jewish Congress and the American area campuses to discuss and strategize Jewish Committee, are supporting together. They expressed the desire to be amendments to Title VI, through the “networked” together—to be able to draw International Studies in Higher Education Act upon faculty strengths available on other (HR 3077 - http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi- campuses. They also discussed resources bin/bdquery/z?d108:h.r.03077:), to: that the community could provide to faculty members. Reflect the current international climate, especially noting the effects of The IIIC organized a day-long September 11, 2001 on the importance of conference to advance the aforementioned international education; and goals. Clarify support for linking these The IIIC is currently exploring a programs with overseas institutions of faculty mission to Israel. They are hoping higher education that promote research and that lead faculty members on campus will training abroad for Americans. identify junior members to whom they will offer themselves as a “mentor” in an attempt The primary goal of the bill’s supporters to move that individual into their own realm is not to dictate a particular point of view of activism. but to guarantee that tax dollars do not fund an exclusively anti-American and anti-Israel For more information, please contact viewpoint. Sarah Friedman, Initiative for Israel on Illinois Campuses Coordinator ([email protected]).

26 Community Programs and Strategies In addition, the bill would: overall Title VI funds to be used for undergraduate education. Create a new International Education Advisory Board for all Title VI programs to Evaluate the degree to which activities increase accountability by providing advice of programs, centers, and fellowships at and recommendations to the Secretary of institutions of higher education advance Education and the Congress on international American interests, generate and education issues for higher education. disseminate information, and foster debate Allow centers and programs to serve on American foreign policy from diverse as a national resource for courses and perspectives when awarding grants. This will materials for elementary and secondary help to ensure funds are best used to schools, encouraging and enhancing advance the purposes set forth in the Act. international knowledge at all stages of education. HR 3077 has passed the House of Representatives and is now before the United Allow up to 10 percent of a project’s States Senate. funds to be used for sending undergraduate students on educational programs abroad for For more information, contact the purpose of enhancing their foreign David Twersky ([email protected]), language proficiency and deepening their Debra Feuer ([email protected]), or cultural knowledge – allowing more of the Reva Price ([email protected]).

Community Programs and Strategies 27 VII. FACULTY DRIVEN INITIATIVES

The Israel Studies Project at the Graduate Center in New York, Graduate Center of CUNY/American (2) “Israel Confronts Diversity” at San Academic Association for Israel Francisco State University, and (3) “The Holy Land: Its History and Its Peoples” at Princeton University in co-sponsorship The Israel Studies Project at the Graduate with Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Center of The City University of New York and Public and International Affairs. the American Academic Association for Israel, A fourth conference, on Zionism, is being a 501(c)(3) set up to help support the Israel planned in co-sponsorship with the Queens Studies Project's activities, were established College Center for Jewish Studies, for to promote a more positive understanding of November 2004. Each conference will result Israel among America's professors. in the publication of a 60-70 page “conference report,” including the papers The Israel Studies Project is based on the and an introductory summary of the assumption that if professors are given material. These booklets, designed to be academically sound material on Israel's academically solid but short enough to get history and current situation, most will read, will be disseminated by our “key develop a much more supportive contacts” and others to those professors who appreciation of Israel than they now seem to should see them. They can become the focus have. The best way to reach professors is of faculty discussion groups and seminars through their academic colleagues, and the and thus bring a more accurate picture of only way to influence them is by using Israel into the academic community. They can materials that meet scholarly standards. also be distributed by other organizations to The Israel Studies Project has begun its students, community leaders, and others work on several tracks. It is developing a who should have the best information network of "key contacts" on major campuses available on topics that are becoming through whom a wider group of professors important in public discourse about Israel. can be reached and involved in various kinds The Project is also developing a modular of activities. Which activities are undertaken curricular guide for teaching Israel. The on each campus must depend on the teaching guide can be used by professors particular character of that campus and on who might introduce a unit about Israel in the recources available there. Colleagues at their courses or put together a series of more than 80 universities have agreed to lectures or mini-courses, for credit or not, to serve as “key contacts” for the Project, and help students understand Israel better. It can the number grows regularly. also be used in adult education and may The Project is conducting a series of come to serve as a basis for teacher training regional one-day conferences. Academics in a programs in state departments of education. particular area are invited to come together Other projects to reach and involve to hear papers analyzing various aspects of a professors are undertaken as funding topic of current importance and to discuss becomes available. general issues. The conferences already For more information, please contact the conducted include: (1) “The Jewish State and Israel Studies Project ([email protected]). the Democratic Tradition” at CUNY's

28 Faculty Driven Initiatives SPME has created 16 chapters, a faculty Scholars for Peace in the , and a speakers bureau. The group (www.spme.net) provides free consulting services to students and faculty and works on a peer-to-peer basis, often quietly behind the scenes, in an Scholars for Peace in the Middle East is a effort to resolve problems. 501(c)(3), charitable, educational, not-for- For more information, please contact profit,“big-tent,” grassroots, independent, SPME ([email protected]). faculty-driven organization of more than 550 members, with Chapters forming on many of the more than 200 campuses worldwide International Academic Friends of advocating for Israel's right to live in peace Israel (www.iafi-israel.org) with its neighbors with safe and secure borders and addressing issues of anti- Semitism and anti-Israel teachings, expressions, behaviors and events in college International Academic Friends of Israel classrooms and on campus. (IAFI) is a not-for-profit organization devoted to promoting and supporting the free and SPME was formed to address the open exchange of ideas and information in increasing number of anti-Israel and anti- the international academic community. IAFI’s Semitic incidents on campus. SPME Network mission is to foster productive interactions members come from diverse academic between academics regardless of race, disciplines, faith groups, political ideologies, religion, nationality, or political preference. ethnic backgrounds, gender orientations and national origins. Yet all SPME members are IAFI seeks to ensure that Israeli academics for peace, prosperity and security for Israel and scientists are included and accepted in and its neighbors who wish to live in peace. global academic and scientific circles and that their accomplishments in their SPME has formed task forces to examine respective fields are internationally heralded. issues of: IAFI also supports the exchange of ideas within the international community to help 1) anti-Semitic or anti-Israel biases in the overcome divisions and prejudices and to mandatory multicultural religious and ethnic lead toward peace in the Middle East. teachings on campus and in the community; IAFI operates under the direction of an 2) working to maintain "intimidation international board comprising leading free" campuses; academics and scientists and other 3) dealing with academic integrity with supporters of its mission. respect to fabricating and falsifying data To achieve its goals, IAFI: when discussing the Middle East; Hosts and supports international 4) Responding to anti-Israel and anti- scientific meetings in Israel; Semitic incidents on campus as they arise, especially in classrooms and university- Brings Israeli and global academic and sponsored events. scientific leaders together in other forums

Faculty Driven Initiatives 29 Promotes worldwide understanding Produces analyses of institutions, and appreciation of Israeli scientific and individual scholars, topics, events, and trends. academic achievements; and Makes its views known through the Creates research fellowships in the media — newspaper op-eds, radio U.S. for Israeli and Palestinian students. interviews, and television interviews. Through its network of international Invites student complaints of abuse, academics, IAFI has communicated with investigates their claims, and (when thousands of supporters of academic warranted) makes these known. freedom and has obtained immediate proactive support for petitions opposing Campus Watch seeks to have an divestiture in Israeli companies as well as influence over the future course of Middle those opposing severance of academic East studies through two main avenues: communication with Israeli scientists. IAFI Engage in an informed, serious, and also has cosponsored international scientific constructive critique that will spur professors meetings in Israel, including the first to make improvements. convened since the start of the second uprising. Alert university stakeholders (administrators, alumni, trustees, regents, For more information, please contact IAFI parents of students, state/provincial and ([email protected]). federal legislators) to the problems in Middle East studies and encourage them to address Campus Watch existing problems. (www.campus-watch.org) For more information, please contact Campus Watch ([email protected]).

Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum, reviews and critiques Middle Hillel-Faculty E-mail Community East studies in North America, with an aim to improving them. The project mainly addresses five problems: analytical failures, HF: Hillel-Faculty is an e-letter the mixing of politics with scholarship, ([email protected]) for Jewish professors, college intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, staff members, and doctoral students whose and the abuse of power over students. Jewish self-identity and academic interests Campus Watch fully respects the freedom of range across the spectrum. HF collects and speech of those it debates while insisting on shares reactions from its 1,600 members on its own freedom to comment on their words issues facing them as Jews on campus. and deeds. Campus Watch:

Gathers information on Middle East studies from public and private sources and makes this information available on its website, www.Campus-Watch.org.

30 Faculty Driven Initiatives Center for Excellence Brandeis University in Middle Eastern Studies Summer Institute for Israel Studies (www.brandeis.edu/departments/nejs/ news/summerinstitute.html) Founded in 2004, the Center for Excellence in Middle Eastern Studies develops programs to counterbalance the Brandeis University is establishing a anti-American, biased atmosphere that Summer Institute for Israel Studies with the pervades many college campuses today. The support of the American Jewish Committee. Center for Excellence is building a network of The seminar is designed to assist faculty in dedicated university alumni to focus on this colleges and universities in North America in issue at their alma maters. These alumni will the design of new courses in Israel Studies establish and build relationships with they are interested in introducing into the student leaders, faculty and university curriculum of their home campuses. administrators to maintain standards of academic excellence, truthfulness and Under the guidance of distinguished objectivity. scholars, each seminar in this newly emerging field will explore a significant The center’s focus on issues in the Middle issue with a view to developing a sense for East includes current events, the region's current research on central issues and history, views of the United States, familiarity with classic scholarship. The opportunities for peace, democracy, and seminar includes an overview of Zionist minority and women's rights. The programs thought but primarily focuses on the social, the Center for Excellence will sponsor include political and economic history of the State of a speaker's series that will be deployed in Israel including settlement, immigration, collaboration with its partners on select nation-building, cultural studies including campuses nationwide. The programs will literature available in English translation, seek to reduce the perceived legitimacy of ethnic and religious/secular divides, Arab- extremists, provide a safe haven for student Jewish relations within Israel and between and scholarly debate, and create new role Israel and states in the region, and models for students. international relations. At the conclusion of the seminar each participant will present a For more information, please contact Rich syllabus suitable for introduction on the Sorkin at (650) 570-6107 ([email protected]). home campus.

For more information, please contact Professor Ilan Troen ([email protected]).

Faculty Driven Initiatives 31 IX. THE ROLE OF FACULTY IN ISRAEL ADVOCACY

General Faculty proceed to launch a complaint about the class to appropriate academic officers and offices. Regardless of religious affiliation, ethnic background, or academic discipline, faculty i. Serving as a role model to students, members have, or should have, a other faculty and administrators, inspiring commitment to truth and honesty. Faculty the entire campus community to publicly can demonstrate this commitment: support Israel, and demonstrating to all students and members of the academic 1. On their own campuses, by: community the importance of standing up a. Making sure that issues such as the against the conventional wisdom, even harassment of Jews on campus, or the use of among academics. funds by school departments or student j. Encouraging students and colleagues groups to pursue anti-Israel or anti-Semitic to fight the casual bigotry that occurs in too agendas, are raised and processed through many classrooms, wherein professors and the proper channels. students cast aspersions on Israel or Zionism b. Speaking out if campus anti-Israel even when not at all related to the class activism crosses the line into anti-Semitism. subject matter. c. Speaking out and working to help k. Insuring that freedom of speech with prevent and/or defeat divestment petitions academic integrity and without fabrication and related activities on campus. and falsification for all is maintained as a value of central importance in the university. d. Serving as mentors to pro-Israel students. l. Working with administrators on developing contingency plans in the event e. Showing support for student that protests do get out of control, making programs by attending events and sure that every campus security force and participating in discussions. administration has an emergency plan both for protecting students if threatened with f. Providing a social environment where violence and for responding to such threats Jewish students may share coffee or a aggressively and effectively. Shabbat meal and discuss their concerns and other topics of interest. 2. In the academic community, including organizations of academics, by: g. Privately and publicly advising students on how to deal with instructors a. Organizing nationally and whose class lectures and syllabi on the Arab- internationally to address issues of anti- Israeli conflict may lack balance and be Semitism and anti-Israel attitudes and unfairly slanted against Israel. behaviors on campus and to advocate for Israel's right to exist within safe and secure h. Providing insight on how best to borders at peace with her neighbors. advocate directly with the instructor to add appropriate material and, if discussion fails, b. Speaking out against boycotts of

32 The Role of Faculty in Israel Advocacy Israeli applicants for academic appointments invited to participate in academic or student admissions and of manuscript conferences or events on campus. These submissions from Israeli academic include academic and apolitical events as institutions. well as discussions focusing on the politics of the Middle East. c. Participating in the preparation of statements supporting academic freedom e. Opposing, when necessary, invitations and opposing the exclusion of Israelis. to speakers who lack appropriate qualifications, especially those implicated in d. Providing information on anti-Israel or advocating terrorism. or anti-Semitic behavior observed in faculty and department settings. f. Responding, when necessary, to false and hostile presentations.

Specialists g. Organizing events and conferences within the academic framework.

h. Developing relationships and regular Faculty with specific expertise on Israel, communication with Jewish community the Middle East, Judaism, anti-Semitism, or bodies on (i.e., Hillel) and off (e.g., ICC, ADL, related topics also contribute: AIPAC, JCRC) campus.

1. On their own campuses, by: 2. In the academic community, including organizations of academics, by: a. Helping students who engage in pro- Israel advocacy campaigns to consider a. Providing information about false multiple tactics to spread their message and hostile speakers. accurately, persuasively and without stridency. b. Reviewing textbooks used in courses related to the Middle East to assess their b. Supervising (and helping to develop academic merits. supervisory criteria for) graduate assistants who teach course sections or lead class c. Encouraging and/or organizing discussions to make sure that their teaching training sessions to prepare teachers (e.g., is balanced, to the point, and accurate. high school) for teaching courses on the Middle East. c. Encouraging colleagues toward fealty to established historical fact (bearing in d. Reviewing existing training programs mind that the historical narrative is itself for balance and accuracy. often subject to dispute). e. Serving on committees that review d. Ensuring that appropriately qualified grant proposals or oversee other aspects of individuals from other institutions are academic life that may impinge on Israel.

The Role of Faculty in Israel Advocacy 33 X. PROPOSALS FOR RECLAIMING MIDDLE EAST SCHOLARSHIP By Dr. Mitchell G. Bard

Maintaining Control academic presence. Donors may necessarily favor their own local institutions and alma maters, but we can still encourage them to One of the most important issues in focus on building programs at colleges that introducing new scholars to the academy is are most important because of the number maintaining control over their selection. of students they educate, the prestige of Without control, there is little to prevent their programs, and/or their geographic anti-Israel faculty from vetoing pro-Israel location. Given the cost of some of the scholars and hiring hostile professors. At programs suggested here (e.g., $750,000-$3 Berkeley, for example, an endowment for a million for endowed chairs), it is not possible visiting Israeli professor was usurped by anti- to make a difference everywhere at once. Israel faculty to frustrate the intention of the Broadly, the most important regions donor. Critics of Israel may also suggest, for would include: New England, New York, example, that Israel is part of the Middle East Washington, D.C., California, Florida, Illinois and therefore Israel Studies should be under and Texas. Resources will be strategically Middle Eastern Studies. This is exactly what focused on the nation’s premier institutions. happened at Denver University where the Israel Studies Center was co-opted to become an anti-Israel Middle East Center headed by a National / Regional Approaches far-left Israeli. This is the model for the American-Israeli Any effort to create an endowed or Cooperative Enterprise’s new Israel Scholar visiting faculty position should involve Development Fund (ISDF). One benefit of the careful and creative negotiations to ISDF is to centralize fundraising and make maximize control over the appointment. This decisions more strategic. For example, the might be accomplished, for example, by fund will develop a database of major donors specifying who is on a selection committee. and key alumni from around the country, Generally, however, the best chance for assisting schools to solicit those with whom achieving a satisfactory result is to work with they have associations and encouraging people and institutions with whom you have donors to invest in colleges with specific a relationship and level of trust. needs (e.g., Ivy League schools will have many potential funders, but some of the money might be more effectively directed Strategic Placement elsewhere). The ISDF will also have prominent faculty advisors and negotiators familiar with the processes involved in university hiring who will work to protect donors’ Though students on every campus could interests. benefit from pro-Israel scholars on the faculty, scarce resources require a more In parallel with efforts on a national level, strategic approach to creating a nationwide regional and local agencies should raise

34 Building Israel Scholarship on Campus awareness of the needs of local campuses, need to be educated about Israel. solicit funds, and channel them in the most efficacious direction. This may be done Typically, the approach used for creating through regional Israel on Campus Coalitions chairs has been to focus on the institution and/or Federations. In Washington, D.C., for and the field of study, but one alternative is example, the ICC of Greater Washington is to build the chairs around scholars and to working with local campuses to ascertain limit the endowment to their tenure or some their needs, educate local philanthropists, fixed period. The idea is to exert greater and encourage donors to invest in Israel- control over the appointment process to related programs. prevent the chair from being abused. Few, if any universities, however, will allow donors Turf may become an issue. For example, a to choose scholars for them. Universities philanthropist who lives in city X might be an strongly resist strings attached to donations alumnus of a school in city Y who could be and have established bureaucratic processes solicited to donate money to their alma for academic appointments that are difficult, mater, but the local authorities may be upset if not impossible, to circumvent. In addition that “their” donor is not supporting the local to university procedures, affirmative action campuses. The ISDF can work to minimize this friction and offer professional advice to guidelines may also create obstacles to local communities interested in funding appointments of specific individuals to scholarships and faculty positions. permanent chairs. Another possibility is to hire faculty for Israel-related courses through Jewish studies Proposals departments to give a presumably more sympathetic academic committee control Endowed Chairs over the selection and avoid problems that may arise by going through more The creation of chairs and Israel studies controversial departments. This could also centers have the greatest potential for long- partially prevent the study of Israel from term influence on the course of scholarship, being “ghettoized” and separated from the development of new talent, and support related topics. On the other hand, if it were for pro-Israel students. On the other hand, placed in Jewish studies, the Israel-related one potential danger is that the endowed courses may be seen as “Jewish” and lessen professor may change their views over time their appeal to the broader student or simply become unproductive, and the population. university is then stuck with that person. Worse, if the endowment is not negotiated Unfortunately, a tradeoff will usually be carefully, it could support the hiring of an necessary between placing Israel studies in a anti-Israel professor. In addition, if the chairs natural academic niche such as history, are outside typical areas for the study of political science or Middle Eastern studies, Middle East affairs, such as political science and isolating the field to increase the degree and Middle Eastern studies, the courses may of control over appointments for teaching not attract the broad range of students who positions.

Building Israel Scholarship on Campus 35 Scholar Development Plantation, or in Israel itself) to train them to teach about Israel. Today, there is both a shocking lack of jobs for pro-Israel scholars and a depressingly shallow pool of talent to fill those few Teacher Training positions. There is also little incentive for new scholars to enter a field that is hostile to Besides preparing new scholars, there is their work and offers few opportunities for an immediate need to train current scholars employment or advancement. This whose specialities may be in other fields, but perpetuates the shortage of scholars. The who could be taught enough about Middle situation has persisted so long that, in the Eastern affairs to allow them to offer courses short run, it may not be possible to find through their departments. The National qualified candidates for all the endowed Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) offers chairs that should be established. summer seminars that train scholars in other To address this problem, it is vital to fields – and similar seminars could be identify exceptional students interested in created to train multi-disciplinary college pursuing advanced degrees in Israel-related faculty to teach courses about Israel and studies and provide funding for them to related Middle East topics (e.g., Islamic receive graduate training in approved studies, Palestinian history, the Arab-Israeli programs (or perhaps in specific regional conflict). The program will also support centers such as NYU, Brandeis, Emory, and outreach programs for high school teachers – UCLA) with the proviso that they enter a to begin to create a large cadre of educators related professional or academic field at the at all levels. It may also be advantageous to conclusion of their studies. Postdoctoral provide training for people in unrelated fellowships are also needed for those fields. completing their degrees. By directing these Some efforts are already underway to students to departments with endowed begin this process. Brandeis is planning to chairs, it will also be possible to create Israel offer a teacher training program this studies hubs where prominent scholars can summer, and American University has serve as mentors to multiple graduate proposed a similar project. students.

AICE’s Israel Scholar Development Fund is planning to provide partial scholarships for Visiting Scholars graduate students. Given the cost of graduate education, particularly at major Israel has a great pool of talent that could private universities, additional resources will also be tapped for the benefit of American be needed for scholarships and postdoctoral students. In particular, many Israelis have fellowships. long, distinguished careers in public service who would make terrific teachers for short- In addition, enrichment programs for term assignments, and would no doubt be graduate students could be created that welcomed by many institutions that would might be held during the summer (e.g., in a see the benefit of having people with real- place such as the Aspen Institute or Wye world experience on their faculties. Many

36 Building Israel Scholarship on Campus former Israeli ambassadors and other The ISDF will also prepare Israelis in diplomats involved, for example, in various various visiting programs for what to expect peace negotiations, could become part of a in the United States. Scholars with limited visiting diplomacy program. (The Israel Office exposure to the United States will be of Academic Affairs is interested in helping to brought together for briefings by Jewish facilitate in this exchange.) This effort would organizations regarding the political climate be in addition to the promotion of in the United States. Visiting scholars will conventional programs, and possibly chairs, also be encouraged to educate the public established for visiting scholars from Israeli through public lectures and media universities and possibly prominent appearances. journalists. The ISDF can only fund a limited number Visiting scholar programs do not have to of positions, so the hope is that be limited to Israelis. Some U.S. scholars may regional/local groups will work in concert be willing to spend stints as visitors and with ISDF to maximize the number and these positions may provide opportunities effectiveness of the positions established. for young scholars. This may also be a way to Visiting programs of two to three years encourage prominent former U.S. may be optimal and avoid certain problems government officials to participate in of permanent endowed chairs. These campus education. programs also increase the donor’s level of One of the advantages of the visiting influence as they can refuse to renew their programs is that they can often be set up funding if they unhappy with the program’s more quickly, at less expense, and with direction. On the other hand, a temporary minimal bureaucratic interference. As in the appointment doesn’t allow you to lock in a case of hiring permanent faculty, a key issue good scholar for the long-term, has less is control, and all the previously mentioned prestige than a permanent chair, and may be caveats apply. Short-term appointments, more difficult to fill because it requires however, do not usually require the same greater flexibility on the part of the scholar level of academic oversight, so it is likely that and guarantees no job security. donors can have greater influence over a visiting slot than a permanent chair. Scholars As Mentors AICE’s Israel Scholar Development Fund is going to provide matching funds to select Today a number of scholar/advocates universities that establish visiting Israel speak on college campuses, but they do so in scholar programs. The ISDF advisory board a haphazard and inefficient way. Usually will screen Israeli applicants to insure they their visits are sponsored by one of the major are able representatives of Israel. This does Jewish organizations and they essentially not mean censoring opinions or making parachute in for a day and leave. It would be decisions on the basis of politics, but the far more effective to adopt a more strategic process will be designed to identify scholars approach whereby scholar/advocates were who do not represent extreme views of the assigned to regions and then would visit left or right. multiple campuses at least twice a year to

Building Israel Scholarship on Campus 37 offer advocacy training for student leaders, The main benefits would be to provide meet with faculty, and lecture to the entire continuity to students and build long-term campus. The scholars assigned to a particular relationships between scholars and students region would then be those campuses’ and particular campuses. It would make it advisor/mentor and students could contact possible to spread our resources to cover them at any time during the year for help more ground, especially underserved and advice. The scholar/advocates would campuses. Though more limited than having work in close cooperation with Hillel and a faculty position on a campus, this approach other campus organizations. Assignment to would be much less expensive and at least a particular region would not preclude a offer a consistent presence of a pro-Israel scholar from speaking elsewhere or other scholar at campuses that lack them. scholars from coming to their assigned campuses.

38 Building Israel Scholarship on Campus APPENDICES The following is a list of Jewish and Israel-related faculty appointments, programs and associations gathered as of April 2004.

Jewish Faculty Associations Emory Hebrew Union College Schatten Professor of Contemporary American Jewish History AJS Women's Caucus Middle Eastern History and Israeli Bible American Academy for Jewish Studies (Ken Stein) Bible and Archaeology Research Biblical Literature Association for the Social Scientific Georgetown Cantorial Arts and Composition Study of Jewry Aaron & Cecile Goldman Visiting Communal Service Association for Israel Studies Israeli Professorship East European literature Association of Jewish Studies Economic or socio-economic subjects Indiana University Association of Holocaust Ethics Pat M. Glazer Chair in Modern Israel Organizations Human Relations Studies (unfilled) European Association for Jewish Jewish History Studies NYU Jewish Intellectual History Midwest Jewish Studies Association Henry and Marilyn Taub Chair of Jewish Women's Studies National Association of Professors Israel Studies (filled, but not yet Jewish Religious Thought of Hebrew announced) Jewish Religious Education Western Jewish Studies Association Judaeo-Christian Studies World Union of Jewish Studies University of Calgary Practical Rabbinic Kahanoff Chair in Israel Studies Religion, Ethics and Human Relations Israel Studies Centers (Alan Dowty) and Philosophy The Rabbi Michael Matuson University of Toronto American University — Center for Professorship for Emerging Scholars Andrea & Charles Bronfman Chair Israel Studies [Currently does not Visiting Distinguished Alumni in Israel Studies (Emanuel Adler) teach political courses] World Peace and Human Relations Emory — Institute for the Study of Modern Israel Endowed Chairs in Jewish Indiana University New York University – Taub Center Related Fields Pat M. Glazer Chair in Jewish for Israel Studies Studies (Mark Roseman) Brandeis — Center for Middle East Brandeis Irving M. Glazer Chair in Jewish Studies Joseph H. and Belle Braun Professor Studies (Steven Weitzman) University of Denver — Institute of American Jewish history Cohn Chair in Yiddish Studies for the Study of Israel in the (Jonathan Sarna) (Dov-Ber Kerler) Middle East* (Shaul Gabbay) Holocaust Studies Colby Jewish Cultural Studies (unfilled) [*Was Israel Studies Center The Pulver Family Chair in Jewish before hijacked by anti-Israel Studies (Howard N. Lupovitch) Jewish Theological Seminary forces] Albert B. and Bernice Cohen Chair in Dickinson College Medieval Jewish Literature Endowed Chairs in Israel Sophia Ava Asbell Chair in Judaic (Menahem Schmelzer) Studies Studies (Andrea Liever) Gerson D. Cohen Chair in Rabbinic Culture (Seth Schwartz) Emory University Berkeley Dina and Eli Field Family Chair in Dorot Professor of Modern Jewish The Diller Visiting Israeli Scholars Jewish History (Benjamin Gampel) and Holocaust Studies (Deborah E. Program (Oren Yiftachel) [Ed. This Louis Finkelstein Chair in Talmud Lipstadt) is an example of a chair gone and Jewish Law (Joel Roth) awry as the selection committee George Washington Helen Fried Kirshblum Goldstein chose a post-Zionist scholar] Charles E. Smith Professor of Judaic Adjunct Lecturer in Professional and Pastoral Skills (Rabbi Mychal Brandeis Studies (Marc Saperstein) Springer) Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Chair in Yitzhak Rabin Memorial Professor Dr. Bernard Heller Chair in Jewish Israel Studies (Ilan Troen) of International Affairs (Walter Reich) Education (Carol Ingall)

Appendices 39 Sol and Evelyn Henkind Chair in University of Maryland Center for Judaic Studies Yiddish Literature (David Roskies) Louis L. Kaplan Chair in Jewish Brandeis University - Department E. Billi Ivry Chair in Talmud and History (Bernard Cooperman) of Near Eastern and Judaic Studies Rabbinics (Judith Hauptman) Harvey M. Meyerhoff Chair in Brandeis University Hornstein Chana Kekst Chair in Hebrew Jewish History (Marsha Rozenblit) Program in Jewish Communal Literature (Alan Mintz) Robert H. Smith Professor of Service Irma Cameron Milstein Chair in Hebrew Bible (Adele Berlin) Brooklyn College - Department of Bible (Stephen Geller) Judaic Studies Elaine Ravich Chair in Jewish University of Miami Brown University - Program in Studies (Shaul Magid) Dr. M. Lee Pearce Chair in Middle Jewish Studies Benjamin and Minna Reeves Chair East Peace Studies (Haim Shaked) California State University, Chico - in Talmud and Rabbinics Modern Jewish and Israel Studies University of Michigan (Shamma Friedman) California State University Long Women's League Chair in Gender Preston R. Tisch Professor of Judaic Beach - Jewish Studies Program Studies (Not Assigned) Studies (Zvi Gitelman) California State University Los William Haber Professor of Modern Angeles - Jewish Studies Program Johns Hopkins Jewish History (Todd M. Endelman) Case Western Reserve University - Felix Posen Chair in Modern Jewish Padnos Visiting Professor in Judaic Samuel Rosenthal Center for History (Kenneth Moss) Studies (Eli Massif) Judaic Studies Tandetnik Yiddish Studies Jean and Samuel Frankel Professor CET's Jewish Studies Program in of Rabbinic Literature (Yaron Elias) Prague Northwestern University Samuel Shetzer Endowed Chair in Clark University - Concentration in Crown Family Professor of Jewish American Jewish Studies (Julian A. Jewish Studies History Levinson) Columbia University - Center for The Perlman Foundation Guest Israel and Jewish Studies Professorial Fellowship University of Nebraska, Lincoln Columbia University - Yiddish Philip M. & Ethel Klutznick Chair in Schlesinger Professor for Social Studies Program Jewish Civilization (Jacob Lassoer) Justice (Jeff Spinner-Halev) Cornell University - Program of Hymen Rosenberg Professor of Jewish Studies Penn State Judaic Studies (Alan Steinweis) Mitrani Professor of Jewish Studies Dartmouth College - Hebrew and European History (Paul Rose) University of Texas, Dallas Language and Literature Chaiken Family Chair in Jewish Leah and Paul Lewis Chair of Dartmouth College - Jewish Studies Studies (Baruch Halpern) Holocaust Studies (Zsuzsanna Program Ozsváth) DePauw University - Jewish Studies Notre Dame Dickinson College - Judaic Studies Abrams Professor of Jewish Thought Vanderbilt Program and Culture (Rabbi Michael Alan Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Drew University - Jewish Studies Signer) Jewish Studies and Hebrew Bible Earlham College - Jewish Studies Jordan Kapson Chair in Jewish (Jack Sasson) Emory University - The Rabbi Donald Studies (Hindy Najman) A. Tam Institute for Jewish Studies Departments of Jewish Florida International University - UC Davis Studies Institute for Judaic and Near Emmanuel Ringelblum Chair in Eastern Studies Jewish History (David Biale) American University - Jewish George Washington University - UCSD Studies Program Program in Judaic Studies Katzin Chair in Jewish Civilization Arizona State University - Jewish Georgetown - Center for Jewish Studies Program Civilization University of Chicago Baltimore Hebrew University Graduate Theological Union Richard John Henry Barrows Professor in the Bard College - Jewish Studies S. Dinner Center for Jewish Studies Divinity School (Joel Kraemer) Program Gratz College [Islamic and Jewish intellectual Binghamton University - Judaic Harvard University - Center for history] Studies Department Middle Eastern Studies Boston University - Elie Wiesel Hebrew Union College

40 Appendices Indiana University - Robert A. and Studies University of Maryland, College Sandra S. Borns Jewish Studies Sol Drachler Program in Jewish Park - Joseph and Rebecca Program Communal Leadership Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Jewish Theological Seminary Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies Studies Kean University - Jewish Studies Stanford University - Program in University of Maryland, Baltimore and World Affairs Jewish Studies County - Judaic Studies Kent State University - Jewish SUNY, Buffalo - Judaic Studies Program University of Massachusetts, Studies Program SUNY, Albany - Department of Amherst - Department of Laura & Alvin Siegal College of Judaic Studies Judaic and Near Eastern Studies Jewish Studies (formerly the Susquehanna University - Jewish University of Massachusetts, Cleveland College of Jewish Studies Program Dartmouth - Judaic Studies Studies) Touro College University of Miami - Judaic Studies Lehigh University - Philip and Tulane University - Jewish Studies Program Muriel Berman Center for Jewish University at Albany - Judaic University of Michigan - Dept. of Studies Studies Department Near Eastern Studies McGill University - Department of University of Arizona - Center for University of Michigan - Center for Jewish Studies Middle Eastern Studies Middle Eastern and North African Miami University - Jewish Studies University of California, Davis - Studies Michigan State University - Jewish Jewish Studies Minor University of Michigan, Ann Arbor - Studies Program University of California, Los Jean and Samuel Frankel Center Mount Holyoke College - Jewish Angeles - Center for Jewish Studies for Judaic Studies Studies Program University of California, San Diego - University of Minnesota - Center for Muhlenberg College - Religion Judaic Studies Program Jewish Studies Department University of California, Santa University of Missouri, Kansas City - New York University - Skirball Barbara - Jewish Studies Program Judaic Studies Department of Hebrew University of California, Santa Cruz - University of North Texas - Jewish and Judaic Studies Jewish Studies Studies Program Northwestern University - Jewish University of Central Florida - Judaic University of North Carolina, Studies Program Studies Program Asheville - Center for Jewish Studies Oberlin College - Jewish Studies University of Chicago - Graduate University of North Carolina, Chapel Ohio State University - Yiddish and Programs in Jewish Studies Hill - Carolina Center for Jewish Ashkenazic Studies Program University of Chicago - Center for Studies Ohio State University - Melton Middle Eastern Studies University of Oregon - Harold Center for Jewish Studies University of Cincinnati - Schnitzer Family Program in Penn State Department of Judaic Studies Judaic Studies Portland State University - Schnitzer University of Connecticut - Center University of Ottawa Family Program in Judaic Studies for Judaic Studies and University of Pennsylvania - Jewish Princeton University - Jewish Contemporary Jewish Life Studies Program Studies Program University of Delaware - Frank and University of Pittsburgh - Jewish Purdue University - Jewish Studies Yetta Chaiken Center for Jewish Studies Program Program Studies University of Rochester - Queens College - Jewish Studies University of Denver - Center for Department of Religion and Program Judaic Studies Classics Reconstructionist Rabbinical College University of Florida - Center for University of Rochester - Judaic Rollins College - Jewish Studies Jewish Studies Studies Program University of Hartford - Maurice University of Tennessee, Knoxville - Rutgers University - Center for the Greenberg Center for Judaic Fern and Manfred Steinfeld Study of Jewish Life Studies Program in Judaic Studies San Jose State University - Jewish University of Illinois - Program in University of Texas - Center for Studies Program Jewish Culture and Society Middle Eastern Studies Seton Hall University - Department University of Judaism University of Texas at Austin - of Jewish/Christian Studies University of Kentucky - Judaic Center for Middle Eastern Studies Smith College - Program in Jewish Studies Program University of Texas at Austin -

Appendices 41 Department of Hebrew Studies Departments of Holocaust University of Minnesota - Center for University of Texas - Jewish Studies Studies (by state) Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program University of Toronto - Dept of Near California Missouri and Middle Eastern Civilizations California State University at Chico Webster University - Center for the University of Toronto California State University at Study of University of Utah - Middle East Fullerton Center Chapman University - Rodgers Nevada University of Virginia - Jewish Center for Holocaust Education University of Nevada - Center for Studies Claremont McKenna College - Holocaust, Genocide and Peace University of Washington - Middle Center for the Study of Holocaust, Studies East Studies Center Genocide and Human Rights University of Waterloo, Ontario Mills College New Hampshire University of Western Ontario San Diego State University Keene State College - Cohen Center University of Wisconsin, Madison - Sonoma State University - for Holocaust Studies Hebrew and Semitic Studies Holocaust Studies Center University of Wisconsin, Madison - New Jersey Mosse/Weinstein Center for Colorado Brookdale C.C. - College Center for Jewish Studies University of Denver - Holocaust Holocaust Studies University of Wisconsin, Madison - Awareness Institute College of St. Elizabeth - Holocaust Department of Hebrew and Education Resource Center Connecticut Semitic Studies Drew University - Center for Yale University - Fortunoff Video University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, - Holocaust/Genocide Studies Archive Department of Hebrew Studies Kean University - Holocaust University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, - Florida Resource Center Center for Jewish Studies Florida Atlantic University - Princeton University Vanderbilt University - Jewish Holocaust Outreach Center Ramapo - Center for Holocaust and Studies Program Florida International University Genocide Studies Vassar College Department of Richard Stockton College of New Religion Georgia Jersey Virginia Tech - Program in Judaic Emory University - Fred R. Crawford Rider University - Koppelman Studies Witness to the Holocaust Project Holocaust / Genocide Center Virginia Commonwealth University Georgia Tech Rutgers University - Holocaust - Judaic Studies Program Resource Center Washington University - Jewish, Indiana Seton Hall University - Holocaust Islamic, and Near Valparaiso University Studies Eastern Studies Program Stockton College - Holocaust Maryland Washington University - Jewish and Resource Center St. Mary's College of Maryland - Near Eastern Studies William Paterson University - International Summer Program Wesleyan University - Hebrew / Holocaust and Genocide Resource on the Holocaust/ Judaic Studies Center Williams College - Jewish Studies Massachusetts Program New York Clark University - Strassler Family Wright State University - Judaic Archives Kingsborough Community Center for Holocaust and Studies College - Holocaust Resource Genocide Studies Yale University - Judaic Studies Center Program Michigan CUNY - The Rosenthal Institute for University Michigan State University Holocaust Studies Northern Michigan University Manhattan College - Holocaust Resource Center Minnesota Monroe Community College - St. Cloud University - Center for Holocaust-Genocide Studies Holocaust/Genocide Education Project

42 Appendices Nassau Community College - University of Pennsylvania - Education Resource Center Holocaust, Genocide and Human Program in Law and the Western Washington University Rights Institute Holocaust Queensborough Community West Chester University - West Virginia College - Holocaust Resource Holocaust/Genocide Education American Military University Center & Archives Center Marshall University

North Carolina Tennessee Wisconsin Appalachian State University Middle Tennessee University - Alverno College Holocaust Studies Committee North Dakota Dickinson State University - Texas Fellowship Programs Holocaust Resource Center University of Texas at Dallas Berkeley Pennsylvania Vermont The Diller Graduate Student Albright College - Holocaust Library University of Vermont - Center for Fellowship & The Diller Research and Resource Center Holocaust Studies Program Gratz College - Holocaust Oral History Archive Virginia University of Texas Muhlenberg College - Lehigh Valley Ferrum College Dorot Foundation Postdoctoral Jewish Archives/Holocaust Lynchburg College Resource Center Research Fellowships in Jewish Pennsylvania State University at Washington Studies Harrisburg Washington State - Holocaust

Appendices 43 ISRAEL’S BIGGEST THREAT ON CAMPUS Gary Rosenblatt, Editor and Publisher,

It took a long time for the American Jewish community to focus on the Israel-Palestinian battles that have been playing out at universities around the country the last three years. But now that a number of communal organizations are working to bolster advocacy for Israel by helping students counteract pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel demonstrations, rallies and petitions, the most serious threat to the Zionist cause is coming from another corner of the campus: the faculty. There is no question that the impact of a respected professor teaching a history or political science course and framing the Mideast conflict in ways hostile to Israel is far more lasting, and insidious, than students holding an “End the Occupation” protest on the Quad. Students come and go, but professors remain, shaping the views of their charges year after year. And the sad truth is that a disproportionate number of university faculty members, including Jews, are more sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and often hostile to Israel. There are numerous reports of professors questioning the legitimacy of the State of Israel, in class, and students feeling too intimidated to challenge them, for fear of ridicule or reduced grades. Academic freedom goes a long way, particularly on traditionally liberal college campuses, where Israel has gone from David to Goliath since the Six-Day War of 1967. The Jewish state is commonly perceived as a brutal occupier of the Palestinian people and stumbling block to Palestinian freedom and statehood. Too few students have the knowledge, or courage, to offer a counter view. Ed Beck, president of the Susquehanna Institute in Harrisburg, Pa., notes that a history professor at Ohio State University proclaims that the State of Israel is based on “historical mythology.” A professor at Vassar turned down a request to join a pro-Israel organization, saying he would not support any group that promotes a “low-grade war of genocide against the Palestinian people.” And both of these men are Jews. In an effort to address the increasing number of anti-Israel incidents and teachings on college campuses, Beck helped found a group in June 2002 called Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. The organization claims 600 members, from a wide range of academic disciplines and from some 200 universities across the U.S. and in other countries. The goal, Beck says, is to “educate, network and empower” faculty members to be “knowledgeable mentors and authoritative resources” for colleagues, students and others on campus. But Beck admits it’s been tough going. His initial mailing was to 25,000 faculty members with Jewish names, and only a few hundred responded positively, he says. “Many pro-Israel professors are feeling isolated, threatened and intimidated” to speak out for Israel, according to Beck. “It’s just not politically correct on college campuses today to be an advocate for Israel.” Other professors, he said, “have problems” with the policies of the government in Jerusalem, and feel that supporting Israel is perceived as an endorsement of Ariel Sharon and George Bush, two highly unpopular figures on campuses. “The line has been drawn,” said Beck, who has taught psychology at various universities for 35 years. “If you support Israel, you are considered a right-wing extremist.” Several other faculty-initiated groups are working to balance the overwhelming pro-Palestinian support, particularly in how Mideast history and the Arab-Israeli conflict are taught. In a sense, Middle East studies have been hijacked, with most departments decidedly pro-Arab, in part because a number of prestigious chairs in the field are subsidized by Arab governments, organizations or individuals. In response, , a scholar of Islam and a pro-Israel activist, has launched Campus Watch, a Web site that “reviews and critiques Middle East studies in North America with an aim to improving them,” according to the site. The five problems it addresses are “analytical failures, the mixing of politics with scholarship, intolerance of alternative views, apologetics, and the abuse of power over students.” Critics accuse Pipes of “McCarthyism” for naming professors he says are anti-Israel, but Pipes insists he has every right to challenge the writings and teachings of academics on the merit of their work. “Academic freedom does not mean the freedom from criticism,” he asserts.

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44 Israel’s Biggest Threat on Campus Andrew Marks, a professor of physiology and cellular biophysics at Columbia University, heads the International Academic Friends of Israel, an organization that seeks to counter academic boycotts against Israeli professors, primarily in Europe. And Mervin Verbit, a professor of sociology at the City University of New York, founded the Israel Studies Project almost two years ago through the university. Its goal is to improve Israel’s standing in academia by creating a board of highly respected professors, organizing academic conferences on the subject of the Mideast and developing models for curriculum. Verbit says he is “trying to win back the middle” among faculty not familiar with the Mideast, “people of goodwill” who can best be reached by their peers because, he notes, “professors only listen to other professors.” Not surprisingly, there are turf battles among the academic groups and conflict between some of them and the organized Jewish community, which has long been critical of Jewish academics for being removed from communal life. The academics, in turn, say they become professionally compromised if they appear to be active in Zionist causes. Such disputes are upsetting to Rabbi Eric Lankin, director of religious educational activities for United Jewish Communities and a mentor to Ed Beck’s Scholars for Peace in the Middle East. “It’s exciting to see an upstart group fueled by volunteers, and I am trying to help them as they bump up against the establishment organizations.” Rabbi Lankin says it’s unfair to expect volunteers to know how to function within the complex framework of the Jewish organizational world, raise their own funds and meet time-consuming demands for extensive reports. “Volunteers can only bring their passion,” the rabbi says, and the community should be helping to provide the infrastructure for their efforts. Complicating this whole issue is the fact that there are few experts in Israel studies on the university level, and most of those in the field, including Israelis, are among the school of post-Zionists highly critical of Israeli policies regarding the Palestinians. What is needed is a coordinated effort between pro-Israel faculty and the Jewish community to find a new means to educate college students about Israel. Mitchell Bard, chair of the faculty task force of the Israel on Campus Coalition, a group created and funded by a number of prominent Jewish organizations and philanthropists, warns that “the ingrained anti-Israel bias in Middle East studies departments, and the perception that academic freedom is a license to teach almost anything about Israel, will be difficult, if not impossible, to reverse.” Bard is one of a handful of activists with academic credentials seeking to create a mentoring program, training student activists. He also would like to see funding for young scholars and visiting professors who defend the legitimacy of Israeli statehood, and for coordinated speakers programs on campus. It is frustrating, if not impossible, to assess the degree of anti-Israel bias taught in the guise of history on our university campuses, but such is the reality. We must respond with a long-term strategy that will assure that the next generation of college students can learn the truth about Israel and its history.

Gary Rosenblatt can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

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