"Our universities must stop weaponizing antisemitism"

[vanessa_ca]

I recommend reading the entire letter.

UVA JEWISH STUDIES FACULTY:
Commentary: Our universities must stop weaponizing antisemitism
CONCERNED JEWISH STUDIES FACULTY AT UVA Aug 3, 2025

We teach Jewish studies at the University of Virginia. Like our colleagues across the United States, we will begin the 2025-2026 academic year amid an institutional crisis, one that does not bode well for either Jews or higher education in the United States.

-snip-

We write to express outrage at the federal government’s overreach at UVa and its weaponization of antisemitism as grounds for this shocking intrusion into the functioning of a state university. We urge our university and state leadership to adopt and utilize definitions of antisemitism that do not conflate criticism of Israel with discrimination against Jews, so that antisemitism can not be similarly weaponized at other American universities.

We recognize that there has been an increase in antisemitism since Oct. 7, 2023, and that some criticism of Israel can cross the line into antisemitism. More often, though, accusations of antisemitism are weaponized to attack higher education, stifle commentary about Israel, harass members of our community, and shut down speech in defense of Palestinian rights.

-snip-
We urge our university leadership, and the leadership of universities across the state and the country, to reject the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism. That definition conflates criticism of Zionism and Israeli state policies with antisemitism. Even the lead drafter of the IHRA, Kenneth Stern, has strongly opposed its weaponization to regulate and suppress political speech on university campuses.

We implore our university leadership to adopt instead the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism and consult online resources developed by the Nexus Task Force on Issues Related to Israel & Antisemitism.

-snip-

Authors of this column are Jewish studies faculty at the University of Virginia: Jessica Andruss, Department of Religious Studies; Alison Booth, Department of English; Greg Schmidt Goering, Department of Religious Studies; Bonnie Gordon, Department of Music; Jeffrey Grossman, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures; Martien Halverson-Taylor, Department of Religious Studies; Caroline Kahlenberg, Department of History and Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures; Michelle Kisliuk, Department of Music; Daniel Lefkowitz, Department of Anthropology and Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures; Victor Luftig, Department of English; Joshua Miller, Department of English; Sarah Milov, Department of History; Caroline Rody, Department of English; Benjamin Rous, Department of Music; Joel E. Rubin, Department of Music (retired); and Sam Shuman, Department of Religious Studies.

https://richmond.com/opinion/column/article_cb125b05-a81c-4282-81a7-be5ab508f4e8.html

Just to clarify, this letter was from the Jewish Studies faculty. Not everyone who signed this letter is themselves Jewish. There was however a separate, and very similar, letter that was sent by Jewish faculty at UVA about a month ago.

A statement by 40 Jewish faculty and staff on antisemitism and DEI at U.Va.
The current political campaign against antisemitism in higher education does not protect Jews — it harms us, our communities and our institutions

By Jewish Faculty & Staff at U.Va.
July 16, 2025

We are Jewish faculty and staff at the University. We join our Jewish colleagues across the country in our alarm at the pernicious use of antisemitism to damage higher education and, most recently, our own institution. As members of the Jewish community living in the wake of the Aug. 11 and 12, 2017 attacks, we know what it feels like to hear men with torches chant “Jews will not replace us.” We have good reason to take antisemitism seriously as a threat to diverse forms of Jewish life here and around the world. But, we stand opposed to using the pretext of protecting Jewish members of the University community as justification for dismantling the very systems designed to include and protect Jewish faculty, students and staff.

If the University’s Board of Visitors is indeed committed to rooting out antisemitism, we — Jewish faculty and staff at the University— implore the Board to support efforts aiming for a diverse, equitable and inclusive university. Dismantling this programming will only make antisemitism worse, as Jews are a minority globally and at the University.

We have diverse politics, areas of expertise and relationships to Israel and Palestine. We write united in extreme concern, as we witness an exploitation of the term antisemitism deployed in an effort to harass, expel, arrest, deport, dox and defame students, faculty, staff and other academic workers across the country as part of a broader assault on higher education. Politically disfavored speech is disingenuously being labeled “antisemitic.” This misrepresentation makes Jews the face of political repression and the face of the suppression of speech — this itself is a form of scapegoating. This makes Jews less safe. We also note that we have heard the word “antisemitism” used more in the last 18 months than we did in the immediate aftermath of August 11 and 12, when President Donald Trump called the neo-Nazis who marched on our campus “very fine people.”

-snip-

Our investment in debate and disagreement stems not only from our individual beliefs and experiences but also from core Jewish values of engaging with disagreements and protecting the strangers in our midst — this is the heart of “B’tselem Elohim,” a core Jewish value that affirms the dignity of every human being. As scholars and teachers, we know that dissent and debate strengthen our intellectual commitments and moral judgments rather than threaten them. We reject any attempt to deny these basic truths.

-snip-

https://www.cavalierdaily.com/article/2025/07/a-statement-by-40-jewish-faculty-and-staff-on-antisemitism-and-dei-at-uva

[obamanut2012]

1. Go Hoos!