[WCUSP] Brandeis defunded

Sun Feb 18 20:28:08 CST 2007

> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 18:19:11 -0800
> 
> Informed Comment 
> <http://www.juancole.com/index.html> 
> 
> Thoughts on the Middle East, History, and Religion 
> 
> Juan Cole is President of the Global Americana
> Institute 
> 
> 
> Friday, February 16, 2007
> 
> 
> Brandeis Defunded by Rich Likudniks
> 
> 
>
<http://www.thejewishweek.com/news/newscontent.php3?artid=13674>
> Super-wealthy donors have retaliated against
> Brandeis University for
> inviting former president Jimmy Carter to speak on
> campus in connection with
> his book on Israeli Apartheid in the West Bank. They
> said they will withold
> further donations 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandeis_University>
> to the
> school.
> 
> The president of Brandeis, Jehuda Reinharz, once
> commented on Middle East
> Centers at major American universities, saying, "My
> problem is not the
> anti-Zionism or even that many of them are
> anti-American, but that they are
> third-rate." Why exactly should he judge their
> scholarship by whether or not
> they are Zionists? Does everyone have to be a
> Zionist? As for the
> Red-baiting and vague, general put-down of the works
> of other academics, it
> is too despicable for words. Reinharz notoriously
> thought well of the
> "scholarship" of Joan Peters, whose "From Time
> Immemorial" was dismissed by
> Israeli historian Yehoshua Porath as a forgery.
> 
> So I have to say it is delicious that Reinharz
> himself is now having the
> economic plug pulled on him by rich old bullies who
> think, by virtue of his
> invitation to Jimmy Carter, that he is anti-Zionist,
> anti-American and third
> rate. 
> 
> Carter's book, by the way, is mostly just Christian
> Zionism. It ignores 1400
> years of Muslim history in Palestine and Jerusalem,
> accepts Peters's false
> thesis of significant in-migration of Arabs in the
> interwar period, and only
> dares raise some timid protests about the execrable
> treatment of the
> Palestinians in the Occupied Territories by Israeli
> occupiers and colonists.
> 
> 
> If even Carter can't protest even this much without
> causing a whole
> university to be defunded, then there is something
> radically wrong with
> higher education in the United States. And what is
> wrong with it has nothing
> to do with the (quite high) standard of scholarship
> in Middle Eastern
> studies. It has to do with radical intolerance of
> any views that depart from
> a rightwing Zionist orthodoxy, and a willingness by
> upholders of that
> orthodoxy to deploy big money to punish anyone or
> any institution that
> departs from it.
> 
> By the way, I have several friends on the Brandeis
> faculty, and their
> academic scholarship is first-rate. I hope they can
> go on enlightening us.
> Scholarship, pace Reinharz, is not a zero sum game.
> We are all enriched by
> the work of good scholars everywhere. 
> 
> posted by Juan @
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html>
> 2/16/2007 06:11:00 AM
>
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> 00>
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> 
> 5 Comments:At 1:16 PM
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html#c1
> 054420892841084062#c1054420892841084062> , Ian M.
>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/09269260004893834566>
>  said... 
> 
> Prof. Cole,
> 
> Sorry, it appears I posted the comment on Peters in
> the wrong posting by
> accident. The comment was directed to this post. My
> apologies.
> Ian Maley 
> 
> At 8:23 PM
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html#c7
> 959552639692704805#c7959552639692704805> , Elizabeth
>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/08924529514196589677>
>  said... 
> 
> I don't know that I agree with your assessment of
> Carter's book. He may not
> be a historian, but his book focused on the last 30
> years. I don't think it
> was supposed to be a history book about Palestine
> over the last 2,000 years.
> 
> 
> Also I think his depiction of the occupation, for
> those who know little or
> nothing about it, was better than "timid." I'm sure
> the oppression of the
> Palestinians as detailed in the book came as a shock
> to some readers who
> know nothing more than what CNN tells them. 
> 
> Carter may not be an intellectual, historian or deep
> thinker, but he
> deserves credit for stating facts, and writing a
> book that he must have
> known would cause him to be branded an "anti-Semite"
> and lead to funding
> losses for his non-profit group and for institutions
> such as Brandeis that
> allowed him to discuss his impressions.
>
<http://www2.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=3463907&postID=795955263969
> 2704805>  
> 
> At 10:38 PM
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html#c4
> 660430463313928707#c4660430463313928707> , mairson
>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/07705947789801643966>
>  said... 
> 
> It isn't clear to what extent Brandeis has been
> "defunded". There is surely
> a lot of static and discontent. It could be, for
> instance, that such damage
> is exaggerated by those who would prefer the more
> liberal minded to stand
> down. Nobody really knows yet. It's too early to
> tell.
> 
> The article in the Jewish Week cited by Prof. Cole,
> despite its title
> ("Brandeis Donors Exact Revenge for Carter Visit"),
> contains some very
> encouraging information.
> 
> For example, Prof. Jonathan Sarna, a Brandeis
> professor "who maintains close
> ties with the administration" (says the article),
> makes clear that inviting
> speakers does not mean that the university endorses
> their views---and I
> think that this should always be true. Said Sarna,
> 
> "The American Jewish community understands the visit
> by Carter to Brandeis
> to be reflecting a heksher [a stamp of approval]
> from the university. They
> see it as a statement that Brandeis certifies him as
> kosher. The faculty
> views it very differently, that Brandeis is a forum;
> that views are uttered
> in that forum, some of which we agree with and some
> of which we don't. But
> the faculty does not view his appearance as a
> heksher. It's that gap in
> perception that seems to require greater dialogue
> between the two entities
> so at least one understands the other."
> 
> It's exactly that institutional neutrality which
> allows all sorts of
> speakers to come in and all sorts of opinions to be
> considered. 
> 
> Equally encouraging are the words of Michael
> Berenbaum quoted in the Jewish
> Week article---he was once project director of the
> Holocaust Museum in
> Washington:
> 
> "I think everyone was surprised at how well he
> [Carter] was received. That
> may be the most important part of the story. Instead
> of coming as partisans,
> they listened to Carter attentively, asked tough
> questions and gave him an
> audience. The Jewish community may have a more
> significant generation gap
> than they understand between what young people are
> prepared to hear and what
> older activists are prepared to hear."
> President Carter's visit to Brandeis may have
> changed few minds about
> politics in the Middle East, but may have changed a
> lot of minds about what
> universities can do, and about what people can say.
> When people start to
> talk differently, they start to think differently.
> These are all causes for
> optimism. 
> Harry Mairson
> Professor of Computer Science
> Brandeis University
>
<http://www2.blogger.com/delete-comment.g?blogID=3463907&postID=466043046331
> 3928707>   
> 
> At 5:14 PM
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html#c7
> 537011209453625817#c7537011209453625817> ,
> Schreyvogel
> <http://www.blogger.com/profile/23685432>  said... 
> 
> Brandeis is a jewish university with mostly jewish
> teachers and jewish
> students. If jewish sponsors stop funding Brandeis
> they are harming mostly
> jews. Why should they do such a thing? I am
> confident that they will resume
> funding very soon. No big matter to worry about.
> 
>  
>
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> 3625817>   
> 
> At 1:51 AM
>
<http://www.juancole.com/2007/02/brandeis-defunded-by-rich-likudniks.html#c2
> 108471354602687433#c2108471354602687433> , Blue Gal
>
<http://www.blogger.com/profile/18293627981248346055>
>  said... 
> 
> As a student at Brandeis from 1981-1985, I was part
> of a group that
> considered inviting Meir Kahane to campus. We turned
> him down after much
> consideration that having him there indicated that
> our student group
> condoned his hate speech.
> 
> Jimmy Carter has never done anything but strive for
> peace and greater
> understanding in the Middle East. The word
> "apartheid" in his title is used
> very frequently in letters to the editor of The
> Jerusalem Post and other
> Israeli newspapers. That some big donor bullies are
> raising a ruckus
> indicates the close-mindedness of some of the AIPAC
> cabal. Too bad they
> object to a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize
> indicating that their fiefdom
> over American foreign policy is bad for Israel and
> the cause of peace. 
> 
> As one foreign policy expert in the Atlantic
> Monthly, pointed out in regard
> to US-Israel relations: "Friends don't let friends
> drive drunk." What we
> have endorsed in Israeli behavior in terms of
> Palestine, Lebanon, and the
> greater Middle East is nothing short of bad for
> Israel and bad for the
> entire region.
> 
> I'm hardly a big donor to the Alumni fund, but at
> this moment I'm very proud
> to be a Brandeis alum.
> 
>  
>
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>  
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