If there is any aspect of Donald Trump’s “character,” (note quotes) that has been amply documented, it has been his bigotries. (Extensive research has also confirmed that agreement with his racial animus is a characteristic of the vast majority of his supporters.) Trump’s own virulent anti-Semitism has been consistently displayed by his numerous reported comments and social media posts, and by his ongoing relationships with, and support from, various neo-Nazi figures.
So the administration’s assertion that its war on universities is an effort to stamp out anti-Semitism is ludicrous. What he wants to “stamp out” is intellectual inquiry and free speech. And plenty of Jewish academics are having none of it.
On Indiana University’s Bloomington campus, thirty-eight current and former Jewish professors delivered a letter to President Pamela Whitten, Provost Rahul Shrivastav and Board of Trustees Chair Quinn Buckner, urging them not to invoke their names or Jewish students’ names as justification for limiting free speech at IU.
Jeffrey C. Isaac, James H. Rudy professor of political science, signed the letter. Isaac said the group opposes antisemitism, and he’s been involved in activism against antisemitism.
Isaac said existing laws and the university’s regulations and policies already protect Jewish people from antisemitism. He’s never felt afraid on campus, and his students haven’t said they’re afraid either.
“I don’t mean to question every person who says they’re afraid,” Isaac said. “We need to listen to them. But that’s different than saying we need to shut down anything that disturbs them, and that’s what’s going on in this country now.”
In the letter, with which I entirely agree, the professors declined to be used as “justification for any action that further limits academic autonomy or freedom of expression at IU.”
We, the undersigned, have all been “Jewish students on campus” somewhere. Our children have been Jewish students on campus somewhere. We teach Jewish students on this campus. And we—unlike Gov. Braun or Education Secretary Linda McMahon—have known antisemitism firsthand. But we also know that our identities, both as Jewish Americans and as public university employees, require respect for free speech and tolerance of opposing viewpoints.
Those values lead us to remind you that IU has a responsibility to stand firmly for freedom of speech.
In coming months, Secretary McMahon and Governor Braun will seek your compliance in enforcing their vaguely defined prohibitions against “antisemitic harassment and discrimination” from “radical organizations and individuals.” The lessons of last year’s overreaction to the protests on Dunn Meadow, withdrawal of Samia Halaby’s Eskenazi Museum retrospective, suspension of Prof. Abulkader Sinno, and imposition of an overbroad expressive activity policy are clear: censoring legal expression—even in the name of bringing us together—only tears us apart.
The letter concluded,
These are fraught times for universities and other American institutions asserting their commitments to the protection of the First Amendment. Still, we recall the words of Hillel: “If I am not for me, who will be for me? And when I am for myself alone, what am I?” This university’s best means to protect the well-being of all of its students will be to affirm its commitment to civil liberties and to protect its academic programs from political interference. We count on you to do so.
Although it remains to be seen, it is unlikely that President Whitten–a politically-connected appointee who has thus far survived several faculty votes of no confidence, and whose response to previous student protests has ranged from unsatisfactory to appalling–will defend civil liberties against the assaults by Trump and Braun. But those who signed the letter, and the many others of us who endorse its sentiments, have made it clear that they do not consent to be cynically used by the blatant hypocrisy of Rightwing partisans who have a long history of actual anti-Semitism. We recognize this ploy as an obvious and thinly-veiled smokescreen for their consistent assaults on basic American civil liberties.
We know our history, and its lessons.
And if there is one lesson Jews all over the world have learned the hard way, it is that–like all marginalized minorities–we can only thrive in an open society that respects the civil liberties and free speech rights of all citizens, whether we agree with them or not.
Hear! Hear! It would be nice to think that our institutions of learning would have learned the lessons of history. The question is, which is more important to any university, freedom of thought and speech or the millions of dollars that they receive from our government? I will applaud any university that chooses freedom.
I’m well aware that the money will help many of us in the long run, since much of it funds research. That’s a given, but what good does it do to have a longer life, if we’re not a free people? If the universities cave, they will have the money, but it won’t be used for independent research. We can see that from the recent notices from RFK, Jr. as he single handedly destroys medical research.
The only way to beat a bully is to stand up to the bully. This is what we need to teach the children and, it seems, the adults.
From Sheila: “And if there is one lesson Jews all over the world have learned the hard way, it is that–like all marginalized minorities–we can only thrive in an open society that respects the civil liberties and free speech rights of all citizens, whether we agree with them or not.”
And from Peggy: “Hear! Hear! It would be nice to think that our institutions of learning would have learned the lessons of history. The question is, which is more important to any university, freedom of thought and speech or the millions of dollars that they receive from our government? I will applaud any university that chooses freedom.”
The frightening level of politicizing of education in Indiana became blatant here in Indianapolis with the separation of IUPUI into separate parties with former Governor Mitch Daniels’ behind the curtain in his payback position as President of Purdue University. Which university is reaping the most government money benefits here; PUI or IUI, and how is that separation working out for all students?
Yes. It is very disturbing to see how many of my fellow Jews have fallen into the trap of being used as tools to justify the race towards fascism, which not only violates key Jewish values about respect for all people and respect for diverse points of view (“two Jews, three opinions”), but also so obviously will be turned against us in short order.
Plus, these unconstitutional actions also feed *straight* into the classic “Jews have too much influence” trope. So in the name of “protecting” Jews, the fascist regime gets to *also* build more hate against us. No. Not in our name.
To be clear: holding the state of Israel to nonsensical standards that no other country is held to (including the USA), and calling for solutions that involve the genocide of the world’s Jewish population, *is* antisemitic. And failing to enforce university policies which ensure their smooth functioning as educational institutions and social communities when those policies are being violated on behalf of antisemitic messages, *is* antisemitic. But none of that justifies destruction of democracy.
What thoughts you share Sheila. Thank you once again for shifting the focus of my thoughts.
This use of minority groups as validation for laws and policy is poor governing, and/or managing.
These individuals and smaller groups are being used by the policy makers to support their ideologies and in doing so shifting “the “target” to the back of others. It seems to be another way of scapegoating, and using the few as examples to manage and control the many.And it often works in large diverse societies.
The core problems/issues are not being addressed as the government, both federal and in Indiana attempt to manage larger, diverse, and often loosely connected people’s. We humans often have a difficult time as we use our limited understanding of the complexity of systems of interdependent social, and life, supports for vast numbers of others. Or perhaps we are not considering others as much when we become fearful of losing our own standing in our world.
Thanks again.
How come so many Christians do not counter those using fascist in their name?
Moreover, how come so many of the Jewish persuasion are not condemning the genocide?
Should read….”using fascism in their name”.
Godamned spellchecker.
Thank you. This self-righteous dog-whistling about ant-semitism should be seen for all it is, an attempt to rally the groups through an emotional appeal rooted in hypocrisy. Would that the universities and American public could call it out as you have. Thank you, professors at IU.
Maybe in my reference to the IUPUI split here I should have asked about where the highest level of antisemitism was and is, rather than politics or money. The most recent Trump appointment to SCOTUS came from Purdue University, a Catholic university.
Recall the movie “Look Up?”
How difficult was it concerning that particular movie, to get people to just look up? It was practically impossible!
Now, getting into the nitty and the gritty as my great grandfather used to say, how long has it been on this particular website, have folks been yelling to look up? For well over a decade I would imagine, maybe longer?. Unfortunately, looking up never really seem to grasp the urgency of what was happening.
When someone wants to scrub history from the educational system, it kind of made people feel a little more comfortable, that maybe their ancestors were not responsible for some of the most barbaric treatment of their fellow men ever.
And then we can see how easily protections can be given and then similarly snatched away like pulling the rug out from underneath someone’s feet. Hence, the Cubans with their wet foot dry foot protection. That’s been taken away. And all of those that through their lot in with the current president, are losing their protection and getting ready to be shipped back to Cuba. Oops!
Have you heard of the identifier, Quizling?
Quizlings were folks who turned against their own, to save themselves. In the end, the quizzlings met the same fate as those that they turned against. And the Cubans and others are finding out exactly what that identifier meant.
And if you don’t know what Quizling is, look it up. It’s been mentioned here a few times, but it’s extremely appropriate for today. Trump is basing his hopes on enough Jewish Quizlings taking the bait hook line and sinker! Without a doubt, the Cubans have taken the bait and swallowed it hook line and sinker, and even the pole.
You can see that there are Jewish heroes, black heroes, Hispanic heroes, being scrubbed from DOD websites, why? Well, as Sheila says, we can see why. The question is, what can be done about it?
The fuse has been lit, and, who is going to volunteer to take a ride on that petard? It seems like there’s still quite a large line at the gate to the petard. Go figure!
Someone mentioned Purdue, and my Chrome Extension “Who Funds Who” lit up, so I checked, and it was Koch and Big Pharma—shocking! I had already looked it up a long time ago when Mitch appointed himself president. Do you think Big Pharma uses federal and state money at these universities for their research and development? 😉
It goes to the maxim, publicize the costs, and privatize the profits. It’s socialism for the rich and rugged capitalism for the working class. Trump will only inflict damage to liberal colleges because those being used by the private sector will continue to flourish. Trump claims liberal colleges don’t have the “right kind of ideology.” Fascists hate people who question authority, and it’s why the fascists call them Marxists.
I agree with several of the posters about having antisemitism shoved down our throats will cause animus toward Jews. It’s already happening here and globally. There is a vast disconnect between the nation’s leaders and their citizenry. For one, the citizens are paying substantial dollars to support Israel. For the US, the AIPAC lobby owns 85-90% of the politicians in Washington—even the Progressive Caucus. When several of the politicians acted like real Progressives and voted against bills aiding and abetting genocide, they got to run against an AIPAC-friendly candidate in their primary and lost.
Thomas Massie is one of the legislators who is most outspoken against AIPAC. He tells us that every public official accepting AIPAC dollars has an appointed Jewish overseer who keeps in constant contact with them on The Hill.
I won’t even start to get into the corruption of our media regarding Israel. The muckrakers in this country have exposed our media for what it is and how they use propaganda to persuade Americans to support Israel. The support is waning, like in Ukraine, but it’s still strong.
And, to be clear, the right-wingers are split on Israel. The NeoNazis hate Jews, but the Christian Nationalists support them in every way.
To further complicate this issue, if you remember when Elon Musk offended Jews on Twitter/X, his corporate advertisers pulled ads until Elon went to Israel and kissed Bibi’s ring. Once he did, the money spigot started flowing again.
Whitney Webb’s book I’m reading started in the 1940s and 50s, when Israel and Mossad were interlinked with the CIA and the underworld and stole US secrets. Remember the famed mobster Meyer Lansky? His real name was Maier Suchowljansky.
It will be interesting to see which universities stand up to Trump and which ones cave. 😉
One way to understand humans is by considering our closest evolutionary cousins, Bonobos, and Chimpanzees. One aspect of their behavior that’s essential to the survival of their DNA (the purpose of life) is both male and female posturing, which is how animals and plants display their intentions.
Human posturing reveals the intentions of several authoritarians here, notably MTV (Musk, Trump, Vance supported by Mike Johnson), Putin, Jong Un, and Netanyahu, as well as several Middle Eastern secular and Muslim leaders. One way they all display is wanton attacks on neighboring social groupings or tribes who they don’t want to share territory with.
That posturing can take many displays, including murder, destruction of habitat, and eviction from disputed territory.
The big question is what the unintended consequences of their actions are, which, in my case, is anger at the people who presume that I will go along with such behavior.
I’m a fan of representative social order that promotes collaboration with others so our species continues to experience progress for everyone.
Sure, we are facing existential problems due to excesses in our relationship with the rest of known life, but the combination of human and artificial intelligence offers peaceful solutions to them.
Let’s go home with who brought us to the dance.
John Sorg’s invocation of the term Quisling is particularly appropriate, as was one yesterday that reminded us of Vichy. The Quislings in Norway and Vichy in France were groups that sold out their countries to Germany supposedly to keep from suffering the fate of violent war. We should all know how that worked out; i.e. not well.
Todd; I am the one who mentioned Purdue University and Mitch Daniels; but antisemitism is thousands of years old and can hardly be considered “shoved down our throats” today. It has always been with us.
John Sorg is our Biblical expert here but I doubt he can find and quote Chapter and Verse as to who and what began antisemitism; it was already the rousing cry
for hatred long before Moses received the Ten Commandments and centuries before the birth of Christ and the initial “creation of man” in Genesis gave Adam and Eve no religious foundation to base their “original sin” on. Can anyone on this blog actually cite a personal reason for their antisemitism or considering it is being “shoved down our throats” at this time?
What is the source of the beginning of antisemitism, they are called “God’s people”; who started the rumor and why…and why are Jewish and Christian celebrations so closely tied in time?
As I tried to point out, JoAnn, that’s a very complex subject. I know most of it had to do with their religion. The Romans demanded everyone to honor their gods, but the Jews refused. Then, there was that little problem with the Jews killing Christ for challenging their religion.
All this history probably helped our founders exclude religion from the state. 😉
Locally, I know the Jews were segregated just like the blacks and Chinese. Even the educated Jews weren’t allowed to live in certain areas, and the architects were only allowed to design homes in specific neighborhoods. The local oligarchic rulers did this.
Thank you, Barb, for this: ” It seems to be another way of scapegoating, and using the few as examples to manage and control the many.”
I think that that gets to the core of the motivation for Trump, and his minions.
That “many” blatantly/obviously, includes Native Americans, whose work as “code-breakers” in WWII has been scrubbed from the relevant archives, and the move to rename military bases for confederate “heroes,” just to name two.
A fascist leader does not just control some of the groups one can call outliers in a society, but the society as a whole. And, he/she will use bigotries to fuel that fire:
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-
Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me-and there was no one left to speak for me.”
Kent State 5/70 trump state TBD. theres no recount to the past peaceful protests that have been disturbed by vigilantes and the law. now we have armed rightwing factions ready to dress rehearse for campuses. religious groups are now feeling the heat of what they exposed and demanded. trumps exect orders are a show of what he wants and what he expects. unfortunately the neo public nazi is ready to submit and commit. the DOJ may ignore it to a local level. trumps hitleresque style is making alot of people uncomfortable and find themselves in a place they dont want to be,after they supported this countries/trumps authoritarian comeons. i like to point out in conversation how that works, today your all about screwing someone and then your screwed. it isnt a real world when talking with people whos minds are locked up out of reality and commonsense. but then again, that is how many people are killed without thinking. todays media in America has been the beacon of propaganda and hate.they all deny the conversation and hard core reasons why this is happening today. its not real,its not what you think(were telling you not to think) and its bought and paid for by the rich. wheres the wall street conversation when they talk about uncertainty? nope, dont wanna shine a light there..
I agree with Aimee Yermish @7:34 am; I seem to be the only Jew I know who sees this “outcry” against antisemitism for what it is: the first step toward free speech suppression. The current regime is already attacking museums for showing our white nationalist history in less than stellar lights, and they’re starting to move in on the Holocaust itself.
I’ve experienced antisemitism first hand and definitely don’t agree with pro Palestinian protests, but unless they turn violent or involve trespassing and/or assault, they are covered by the first amendment. We definitely are on the precipice of a very slippery slope.
And Todd, your full throated antisemitism is beyond tiresome.
Todd; so the Romans started antisemitism? And just recently Trump bragged about our Italian connections all the way back to the Roman Empire. Is a puzzlement!
It seems that humans favor strong positions on anti- and for-.
I believe that proceeded us on the planet and comes as a curse/gift from billions of earthly years.
Extremism is the source of the cursed result.
Mutual respect, diplomacy, and woke liberalism instead of extremism soften all blows so differences can be ironed out through peaceful means instead of death and destruction.
While our life styles riled nature’s dealing of death and destruction, we don’t benefit from adding our own to it.
I’ve smelled the “fishiness of Denmark” for some time—anti-semitism, my a$$! NYT article (link below) on Trumps’s “war” with Columbia University is very enlightening. Sorry if it’s behind their paywall. This explains a great deal, given Dumpster’s pit-bullish penchant for vengeful attacks on self-perceived acts of ingratitude/rejection: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/21/nyregion/trump-columbia-university-400-million.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
JoAnn,
I am honored to try for you!
It’s not that the Jews/Israelites were a different ethnicity, it was that they had a covenant with God. Through Abraham who was loyal to his God, he also had a relationship with Melchizedek. The king of Salem which the city of Jerusalem is built on top of today. Some considered Melchizedek to be Shem, one of Noah’s sons. So Abraham gained God’s favor through Melchizedek. And actually, Jesus Christ was known as the greater Melchizedek. Abraham was formerly called Abram, and Abraham’s wife Sarah was formerly called Sari. (Genesis 11:31–12:1, 4, 5; Acts 7:2-5)
(Genesis 22:15-18) This extended promise is often called the Abrahamic covenant, and the later new covenant would be closely linked to it.
Thank you, The Other Sheila, for giving us a live example of getting anti-Semitism shoved down our throats. Much of my reading is focused on the 50s and 60s but is moving into the 90s quickly. Although I haven’t read much of the new JFK releases, the authors and journalists who have already done the research have disclosed Mossad’s and Israel’s involvement in assassinating JFK. He and Bobby were getting ready to make the Israeli lobby register as foreign agents and denied Israel’s nuclear program. Once LBJ was sworn in, all of the Kennedy bro’s work was abandoned.
I’ll also say the gangster Meyer Lansky also helped. He wasn’t just a mobster; he was the granddaddy of the mafioso.
Israel has harmed itself with their actions over the years. Just like with NATO in Europe, we need to bail on Israel in the Middle East. Force them to use diplomacy with their neighbors after giving Palestinians their state and quit occupying Palestine.
Biden is no different than Trump. However, I do believe their Zionism comes from two different places.
If stating facts bothers people, that’s your problem. Deal with it!
Todd, what facts have you stated?
Well stated Sheila!
I agree 100% Aimee – thank you!
The Other Sheila – Every Jew I know sees this for what it is.
Although I see more antisemitism than most (institutional antisemitism exists as does institutional racism – that is why a Black fellow college student told me that I was lucky because I could “pass”), Trumps balderdash about protecting the Jews by destroying free speech is just that – balderdash – and I will always call him out on it.
Destroy democracy ? Not in my name!
@Todd Smekens. it is a well known fact that:
Pope: ‘Jews Are Not Responsible For Killing Jesus’
March 4, 2011 12:00 PM ET. I cite the pope’s statement of fact but, there are hundreds of others…
Add me to the list of Jews that see this for what it is. A blatant attempt at attacking free speech.
Thank you as always Sheila for shining your light.