“The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”- attributed to Edmund Burke. In older times the advent of Spring meant the onset of ugly mosquito borne diseases, such as yellow fever and malaria. This Spring a different sort of affliction has emerged with the warmer weather: an outbreak of on campus demonstrations, long on antisemitic epithets and violence, and short on basic decency. The outpouring of on-campus support for Hamas in the immediate aftermath of the October 7, even before Israel had a chance to count its deaths, revealed a deep moral and intellectual decadence in academia which, though long in gestation, none of us expected to manifest itself with such virulence. The return in force of the protesters with the warmer weather this Spring is even more disturbing as their actions betray a higher level of preparation and coordination.
This assessment is far more representative than the previous cherry-picked examples, of course. There has always been a subcategory of Jews, particularly secular Jews, who are self-hating Jews or anti-Zionist Jews. Even Israeli Jews can loathe their own country, as many Americans loathe the USA. There are some prominent examples of self-hating Jews who donate money to antisemitic causes, such as these campus protests and encampments.
So just because some odd examples here and there can be found, like leaders of antisemitic organizations and anti-Zionist organizations, does not mean they should be taken as some gauge of what most Jews feel. I would not query Norman Finkelstein or George Soros to understand Jewish thought on any particular issue. These are extreme outliers.
Anna, Thank you for sharing the Hillel study. It would be interesting to compare with some other study or studies, and with control samples, while acknowledging the risk of giving too much credence to any survey commissioned by any activist organization compared to more objective academic studies.
I was curious to compare, even within the Hillel results, the feelings expressed w.r.t. protests cf. encampments, since questions 17 and 21 enable an almost 1-to-1 comparison. Neither the article nor the survey results address that specific comparison, so I did it myself. Hopefully the formatting here won't mess it up. A cursory inspection suggests to me that there's not much difference in the feelings of Jewish students evoked by protests vs. encampments, whereas the difference operationally on campuses is significant. Heterodox Academy promotes values that would support protests but maybe not encampments. Without debating the latter (whether encampments are something HxA members should support or oppose), it's clear from the table below that the feelings evoked, as surveyed by Hillel, are much the same, quantitatively.
As Musk has pointed out for over a year, the woke mind virus is effectively antisemitic. And Heterodox STEM opposes the woke mind virus, as far as I can tell. Am I incorrect in this assumption?
For example, one of the main components of wokism is DEI (or DIE or IED), or even more extreme, what is known as "anti-racism". If one followed either of these, almost no Jews would ever have employment in STEM. And some branches of STEM (like my own) are more than 50% Jewish in the most advanced areas. Does one want to apply "equity" there? Or throw all Jews out of STEM because they have been too successful and contributed too much in the past (as one would to apply anti-racism)?
So with all due respect, I disagree that the Heterodox STEM movement (clearly related to the "intellectual dark web") would favor or be supportive of either these pro-Hamas and pro-terrorist "kill the Jews" protests and encampments. As I pointed out, there are participants here on Heterodox STEM who support both, as well as violent threats against faculty and the judiciary and other obscene irrational nonsense. But these are interlopers, people pretending to be fellow Heterodox STEM travelers while clearly supporting wokism and trolling here. I do not think one can do both.
With respect to your comment, "As I pointed out, there are participants here on Heterodox STEM who support both, as well as violent threats against faculty and the judiciary and other obscene irrational nonsense." I'd ask you to cite the instance(s) in which you pointed that out and the instances in which support for violent threats were expressed here. We would find commonality in rejection of such threats, but I don't recall any. That I don't remember any wouldn't mean they haven't occurred, but it seems you should cite the instances here, because if they exist or have existed, those should be rejected as out of bounds.
If your statement is only that you presume that some participants support X, Y, or Z, but they never have expressed the same here, then, well, okay, I accept that your supposition is only presumptuous.
Would that be the same Einstein who wrote the following?
...it is, of course, impossible to prevent distortion by the press. I am in favor of Palestine being developed as a Jewish Homeland but not as a separate State. It seems to me a matter for simple common sense that we cannot ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish. What we can and should ask is a secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration. If we ask more we are damaging our own cause and it is difficult for me to grasp that our Zionists are taking such an intransigent position which can only impair our cause.
I'll add to my comment that the comparison is difficult because (presumably) encampments is a subset of protests, so one would like to tease out the differential effect of students experiencing only protests versus encampments, and there seem to be only 212-131=81 of those, or 38% of the 212. Another way to say this is to admit that the Hillel survey doesn't address especially well the question that could be important to many HxA members on principle and to university administrators operationally in deciding whether to disallow encampments specifically while protecting free expression. In so far as students' feelings are significant to university administrators (and donors, etc), the question is an important one to address. As much as one might like to stick to some principled view that feelings shouldn't matter, they do, in a customer-centric business like modern universities, and they also do when an administrator is thinking about keeping their own job while navigating these challenging times and their responsibilities w.r.t. civil rights laws (e.g. Title VI).
Still, for me, the great similarity in the numbers in the two columns suggests similar feelings evoked.
Even here on Heterodox STEM, we have among us those who push this ridiculous antisemitic woke narrative. They resort to death threats and legal threats. And now that they have revealed themselves, mere opprobrium is probably not enough. We will have to see how this evolves.
Sure, speaking out is good. But in dealing with extreme belligerency and unprofessional behavior, perhaps more consequences will ensue.
It is amazing how much energy our local 𝐏rotocol 𝐑eview and 𝐌onitoring 𝐂ommittee devotes to trolling, attempting to somehow demonstrate that most Jews hate Israel and every other woke bit of nonsense, including destroying the safe spaces of biological women. Frankly, I doubt that he is making much headway, because I suspect that most of us are educated enough to be immune to his sophistry and vitriol. And also, I think his threats just make him look worse.
And once again, we hear from our local ardent advocate for woke ideology. This time instead of using ChatGPT, he attempted to write it himself and exhibited his illiteracy.
Campus Protests in the Voices of the Students Who Experienced Them
With the school year at or coming to an end, five Jewish students reflect on the year.
https://momentmag.com/campus-protests/
These are jarring testimonies. For more quantitative assessment how the protests affected Jewish students, Hillel has released the results of a new survey: https://ejewishphilanthropy.com/most-jewish-college-students-say-anti-israel-protests-disrupted-their-classes-a-quarter-say-they-faced-physical-or-verbal-assault/?af=&gs=
This assessment is far more representative than the previous cherry-picked examples, of course. There has always been a subcategory of Jews, particularly secular Jews, who are self-hating Jews or anti-Zionist Jews. Even Israeli Jews can loathe their own country, as many Americans loathe the USA. There are some prominent examples of self-hating Jews who donate money to antisemitic causes, such as these campus protests and encampments.
So just because some odd examples here and there can be found, like leaders of antisemitic organizations and anti-Zionist organizations, does not mean they should be taken as some gauge of what most Jews feel. I would not query Norman Finkelstein or George Soros to understand Jewish thought on any particular issue. These are extreme outliers.
Anna, Thank you for sharing the Hillel study. It would be interesting to compare with some other study or studies, and with control samples, while acknowledging the risk of giving too much credence to any survey commissioned by any activist organization compared to more objective academic studies.
I was curious to compare, even within the Hillel results, the feelings expressed w.r.t. protests cf. encampments, since questions 17 and 21 enable an almost 1-to-1 comparison. Neither the article nor the survey results address that specific comparison, so I did it myself. Hopefully the formatting here won't mess it up. A cursory inspection suggests to me that there's not much difference in the feelings of Jewish students evoked by protests vs. encampments, whereas the difference operationally on campuses is significant. Heterodox Academy promotes values that would support protests but maybe not encampments. Without debating the latter (whether encampments are something HxA members should support or oppose), it's clear from the table below that the feelings evoked, as surveyed by Hillel, are much the same, quantitatively.
Question # 17 21
Protest Encampment
Respondents (n) 212 131
Angry 44 42
Annoyed 45 46
Curious 20 20
Empowered 19 25
Excited 13 17
Frustrated 48 42
Happy 14 9
Proud 21 21
Sad 45 40
Scared 44 47
Distracted na 26
Something else 4 3
No feelings 4 5
net negative 78 78
As Musk has pointed out for over a year, the woke mind virus is effectively antisemitic. And Heterodox STEM opposes the woke mind virus, as far as I can tell. Am I incorrect in this assumption?
For example, one of the main components of wokism is DEI (or DIE or IED), or even more extreme, what is known as "anti-racism". If one followed either of these, almost no Jews would ever have employment in STEM. And some branches of STEM (like my own) are more than 50% Jewish in the most advanced areas. Does one want to apply "equity" there? Or throw all Jews out of STEM because they have been too successful and contributed too much in the past (as one would to apply anti-racism)?
So with all due respect, I disagree that the Heterodox STEM movement (clearly related to the "intellectual dark web") would favor or be supportive of either these pro-Hamas and pro-terrorist "kill the Jews" protests and encampments. As I pointed out, there are participants here on Heterodox STEM who support both, as well as violent threats against faculty and the judiciary and other obscene irrational nonsense. But these are interlopers, people pretending to be fellow Heterodox STEM travelers while clearly supporting wokism and trolling here. I do not think one can do both.
With respect to your comment, "As I pointed out, there are participants here on Heterodox STEM who support both, as well as violent threats against faculty and the judiciary and other obscene irrational nonsense." I'd ask you to cite the instance(s) in which you pointed that out and the instances in which support for violent threats were expressed here. We would find commonality in rejection of such threats, but I don't recall any. That I don't remember any wouldn't mean they haven't occurred, but it seems you should cite the instances here, because if they exist or have existed, those should be rejected as out of bounds.
If your statement is only that you presume that some participants support X, Y, or Z, but they never have expressed the same here, then, well, okay, I accept that your supposition is only presumptuous.
I will follow Einstein's dictum and ignore you.
Would that be the same Einstein who wrote the following?
...it is, of course, impossible to prevent distortion by the press. I am in favor of Palestine being developed as a Jewish Homeland but not as a separate State. It seems to me a matter for simple common sense that we cannot ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish. What we can and should ask is a secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration. If we ask more we are damaging our own cause and it is difficult for me to grasp that our Zionists are taking such an intransigent position which can only impair our cause.
https://www.shapell.org/manuscript/einstein-zionist-views-in-1946/
I'll add to my comment that the comparison is difficult because (presumably) encampments is a subset of protests, so one would like to tease out the differential effect of students experiencing only protests versus encampments, and there seem to be only 212-131=81 of those, or 38% of the 212. Another way to say this is to admit that the Hillel survey doesn't address especially well the question that could be important to many HxA members on principle and to university administrators operationally in deciding whether to disallow encampments specifically while protecting free expression. In so far as students' feelings are significant to university administrators (and donors, etc), the question is an important one to address. As much as one might like to stick to some principled view that feelings shouldn't matter, they do, in a customer-centric business like modern universities, and they also do when an administrator is thinking about keeping their own job while navigating these challenging times and their responsibilities w.r.t. civil rights laws (e.g. Title VI).
Still, for me, the great similarity in the numbers in the two columns suggests similar feelings evoked.
Even here on Heterodox STEM, we have among us those who push this ridiculous antisemitic woke narrative. They resort to death threats and legal threats. And now that they have revealed themselves, mere opprobrium is probably not enough. We will have to see how this evolves.
Sure, speaking out is good. But in dealing with extreme belligerency and unprofessional behavior, perhaps more consequences will ensue.
It is amazing how much energy our local 𝐏rotocol 𝐑eview and 𝐌onitoring 𝐂ommittee devotes to trolling, attempting to somehow demonstrate that most Jews hate Israel and every other woke bit of nonsense, including destroying the safe spaces of biological women. Frankly, I doubt that he is making much headway, because I suspect that most of us are educated enough to be immune to his sophistry and vitriol. And also, I think his threats just make him look worse.
And once again, we hear from our local ardent advocate for woke ideology. This time instead of using ChatGPT, he attempted to write it himself and exhibited his illiteracy.
I cringed.
https://youtu.be/CDnCikgff8E?si=kqfllmmSrqDs3Z8X&t=121
Too little, too late. At least you'll have your essay and Public Statement ready the next time there's protests on campuses.