as much as ever
Hours after hundreds of white supremacists marched with torches in Charlottesville chanting “Jews will not replace us,” the condemnations started flowing.
Harvard University issued a statement characterizing the events in Charlottesville as “deeply distressing.” The “hatred, racism, and violence,” it continued, deserve “our strongest condemnation.” The University of Pennsylvania and MIT issued similar statements.
These strong and unequivocal condemnations were comforting to most Americans, and especially to Jewish communities in the U.S. and around the world.
Only seven years later, representatives of the same three universities — testifying under oath in front of Congress — were unable to unequivocally say that similarly antisemitic hate speech would constitute a violation of their universities’ policies if it happened on their own campuses.
I’ve long been a defender of freedom of speech in universities and academic freedom, including when it comes to criticizing Israel and its policies.
But the line should be very clear: Incitement to violence, and calling for mass murder of Jews or any other population — which history tells us can very easily transform into action — cannot be tolerated.
In 2023, with well-funded diversity, equity and inclusion programs operating across every aspect of society, it should not be so difficult for Jews to demand our right to be protected against hate speech.
However, since Oct. 7, it has become increasingly clear to all of us Jews that, as has been true for centuries, we’re pretty much on our own.
https://forward.com/opinion/572727/...aring-harvard-university-of-pennsylvania-mit/
