Nine student clubs at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law announced in August they would not invite speakers who support “Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine.” This concerned campus Zionists while following a now familiar pattern on American campuses: Progressive student groups that have nothing to do with the Middle East take a stand on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Jewish Zionist students, who are often progressive themselves, end up feeling ostracized.
This became major news last week when Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, slammed the move in the Jewish Journal. Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the Berkeley School of Law, has since rebutted the piece and written a stand-alone article in the Daily Beast, as did two Berkeley professors in J. The Jewish News of Northern California.
THE NEW LOYALTY OATH IMPOSED ON JEWS
Chemerinsky wrongly dismissed this story as a preferred narrative. Rather, it’s another example of why many American Jews are apprehensive about academia.
The dean clarified his personal position by calling the student groups’ statement “offensive” and acknowledging that if this bylaw was acted upon, “I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies.”
Professors Ron Hassner and Ethan Katz further criticized the bylaw as “an outrage” and cited the Berkeley Antisemitism Education Initiative as an important remedy, adding that they “do not deny that there are real problems and concerns on our campus.” Indeed, while conducting interviews for the Washington Examiner, I found Zionists encounter problems on many campuses.
This media storm is surely miserable for Berkeley. However, it prompted someone like Barbra Streisand to focus attention on campus anti-Zionism, which is associated with increased campus antisemitism and has quietly roiled younger American Jews.
It’s time all Americans understood how profoundly the campus experience has changed for many American Jews.
Problems have been building since the 1960s. But Rachel Fish, co-founder of the Israel education think tank Boundless, described watching fundamental changes take root in 2001, the year of the “second Durban conference, the wake of the second Intifada, and then the emergence of the BDS movement on campuses in America.” Reflecting on the last two decades, Fish told me, “Anti-Israelism has become a litmus test for progressivism.”
This test is now firmly entrenched on many campuses, and Jewish Zionists, the overwhelming majority of American Jews, have had to adapt. While the dean and two aforementioned professors write that Berkeley hosted Israeli Knesset member Yossi Shain, a positive thing, student attendees likely won’t broadcast their opinions.
As a University of Chicago sophomore explained, “With my Jewish friends, my observant friends, of course we talk about Israel, and it’s expected we talk about Israel. With non-Jewish friends, only with close friends do I bring this up.”
Law students may be more predisposed to debate, but even they self-censor. One recent New York University School of Law graduate didn’t advertise Zionist beliefs in order to avoid isolation: “You have study groups and outlines. You want friends to give you notes. Law school is rigorous. You need friends and acquaintances to help you.”
Students also fear blowback. Benjamin Rosenzweig, a Swarthmore College junior, recalled a campus push to ban Sabra hummus. Anti-boycott students organized a petition, but “people were so scared of signing. So one-third signed anonymously.” He added that students “don’t feel they have the agency to disagree without running into cancel culture.”
Now, Chemerinsky oversees a different campus than these. But as he characterizes the bylaw change as a free speech issue, consider that the Jewish Students Association at Berkeley Law posted a group response to the bylaw. Individual students may feel less comfortable expressing opposition.
And this is where others might be helpful. Provide more speech and help students feel less alone. The Jewish Studies Zionist Network has already sharply denounced “the muzzling of Zionists in campus spaces” as “a form of antisemitism.”
Still, this problem exists nationwide. Taxpayers should inquire about the campus climate at their local state schools. Graduates should question annual giving solicitors. And everyone should familiarize themselves with the Amcha Initiative’s database of antisemitic activity.
As Joshua Washington, director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, observed, “The time is over for people to be scared and quiet. It’s [now] push back or be pushed.”
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Melissa Langsam Braunstein (@slowhoneybee) is an independent writer in metropolitan Washington.
