Magill’s problems started with the Palestine Writes Literature Festival, which was prior to the Oct 7 Hamas attack. She has been embroiled in controversy ever since then, with faculty signing and issuing at least one letter and multiple donors pulling or threatening to pull donations. This week was just the final straw.
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I found the Andrew Sullivan article supremely unhelpful, actually. It just pours gasoline on the fire.
Referee’s have whistles too. Perhaps, everyone needs a timeout. 
This.
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So your basis for concluding that Harvard’s Jewish students fears of antisemitism are “greatly exaggerated” is based on historic DEI and politics not any first hand experience either at Harvard or as a Jew. Please correct me if wrong.
Thanks for providing context. Unlike you I make no claim to having my finger on the pulse of society. .
I will note however that I have spent extended periods of time on Harvards campus and was there as recently as three weeks ago for a speaking engagement. There were no protests that I observed but several torn down hostage posters just off the square. Students I spoke to (Business School) were very animated in describing just how toxic the environment was across the Charles and that several of the protests got out of control in terms of the vitriolic language. I asked for examples.
In a small group three students (not sure their religion) all had heard chants and utterances of F//k the Jews and one apparently had heard a “gas them all” chant just past the Veritas gate (on campus) amongst protesters on their way to the library. She was careful to say she didn’t know if these were students or outsiders looking to agitate
Based on these observations I disagree that Jewish students fears are “greatly exaggerated”. Jewish students walking through campus hearing such things have a legitimate reason to feel threatened.
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Sometimes you have to fight fire with FIRE.
While such a definition is interesting from an academic point of view, and understanding institutional actions, it means nothing for understanding public perception on this issue. It is similar to the concept of free speech. The 1st amendment tries to define it, and courts try to interpret the law, but the interpretations are nothing but biased opinions of an imperfect statute. Unbound free speech is often necessary to understand any complex issue.
Those are just two of many elements, but a telling sign is the logical hopscotch that interviewed students use to interpret criticism of Israel as threats to themselves.
It is interesting to see the perspective of an outsider looking in to the life of Jews. Can’t agree that we are “celebrated” (or words to that effect). This was the first year we considered covering or removing our mezuzzah from the doorway at Halloween. Please understand that feeling unsafe is real.
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The doxxing truck is back at Harvard. I wouldn’t post a photo if it was showing a student, but this time it’s Claudine Gay.
I dont really know if is possible to effectively lockdown the Harvard ( or any urban) campus to outsiders but it would seem advisable to do so. Maybe limit grad student access to their own schools too, since that seems to be a major point of conflict. Sad that adults would deliberately inflame tensions on campus.
Undergraduate classes are over at Harvard and Penn anyway; just cancel exams and send everyone home. Hopefully things will be calmer in the Spring.
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Oh, please. The folks over at F.I.R.E. are probably still wondering why Elizabeth Magill lost her job. She was quoting them word for word at her trial - er, congressional hearing.
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Maybe they’ll sue Penn on her behalf. As noted before, Magill’s problems began before Oct 7th.
One of the great disappointments as I’ve grown older is how the entire education system has failed to teach children “history” at a global level. My kids were educated in both Canada and the US and the mandatory history was all North American oriented and sadly one-side. I, myself, was a history buff and never ever was the “residential school” issue in Canada even mentionned.
So kids growing up learn from their parents (and inherent generational biases and even hatred) or what they learn from social media which is geared toward pushing them down the rabbit hole.
You throw all these kids on university campuses and the “fear of the other” gets multiplied by 100. Plus university campus have always been the recruitment playgrounds for “extremist” and “radical” groups.
Jews don’t understand the Palestinian experience and Palestinians don’t understand the Jewish experience. Both are genetically blood brothers. That is the sad irony of it all.
And many people haven’t or don’t feel safe on university campuses in the last 30 years, from Muslims to Asian students to women. And for any Jewish student to feel threatened now just highlights the politicization and extremism that occurs on college campuses.
Part of the problem at some schools is the sane voices who should be leading student organizations don’t run or don’t get elected. Many campus leadership positions are hijacked by “more extreme” students. And while we can blame university leadership for not knowing how to handle things lets not give a free pass to the student leaders who should be representing the best interests of “all students” and not taking sides.
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Why don’t we ask them?
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Can you point us to some of these interviews so we can evaluate?
Here are a few first hand on college campus student stories I found (Harvard included) which of these students was exaggerating in your opinion?
Lastly, at Harvard the expression “gas them all” (may not have been a student) was used. I am sorry but that seems to extend beyond Israelis to all Jews or would you consider such expressions logical hopscotch.
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I would love to see how funny and clever those two look at the end of five hours of testimony in front of the modern equivalent of a Spanish Inquisition. Again, I’m beginning to see a pattern here of “enemy of my enemy” that isn’t going to help Jewish kids on HYPM campuses.
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And I am beginning to see a pattern here of dismissing campus antisemitism as a problem that is made up and simultaneously made worse by the Jews themselves.
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When did you first figure out that antisemitism was a problem in American society?
EDIT: *a problem on American campuses.
When I finished watching this clip 13 years ago:
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The problem is that the University Presidents rather quickly donned the mantle of free speech when the speech in question was either outright anti-semitic or at least clearly made Jewish students feel “unsafe.” That was the the formulaic adjective previously used to shut down speech that offended more favored campus groups, where safety was hardly more than a metaphor, a way of not having to hear dissonant views. FIRE is being consistent in its defence of free speech from all quarters, as a perusal of their list of offenders will show. But it’s fair to speculate as to why Harvard and Penn (the most egregious of FIRE’s offenders) got religion only at the present moment. Certainly, one can hope it will mean a greater reluctance in future to discipllne unpopular speech in general. However, if I were Jewish (and I’m not) I would be highly suspicious that this is a one-off.
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