Showing up for Jews in Higher Education - Response Piece

Ashley N. Robinson, Postdoctoral Research Associate & Instructor, University of Connecticut

In the January blog post, Steven Feldman offered an adaptation of the prayer “May their memory be for a blessing.” This is a distinctly Jewish sentiment about the dead, one that asks us to carry forward the memories of the deceased so that they might continue to live on. When I read Steven’s piece, I was reminded of Dara Horn’s (2021) book People Love Dead Jews. Horn explores various ways that a focus on Jewish death and suffering in the non-Jewish imagination perpetuates the erasure of Jews and the realities of antisemitism. Memorializing of Jewish death exists alongside a perverse denialism of our historical and contemporary marginalization and suffering, which can make the former seem virtuous. But Horn argues that if the standard for non-Jewish concern with antisemitism is not endorsing or denying the Holocaust, that is a dangerously low bar. Steven has offered non-Jews a call to action against pervasive and increasing antisemitism. My aim is to offer insights from my personal and scholarly perspective about how researchers and practitioners might prioritize research, policymaking, and practice that specifically engages Jewish experience and frameworks for understanding and combatting antisemitism. 

 

As a response to Steven’s prayer, I offer my own: הנני, hineni. Hineni is repeated throughout the Bible on occasions when characters are called upon to act by G-d. It means “I am here,” but not just being present; rather, it conveys a sense of preparation and willingness. Hineni means really showing up. Educational communities have a responsibility not just to memorialize the death and suffering of Jews, but to show up for our lives. To be prepared and willing to learn about diverse and nuanced Jewish experiences, histories, and traditions. To be prepared and willing to learn from Jews about what antisemitism is, historically and contemporarily, and recognize the ways that it pervades social institutions and cultural beliefs that most of us uphold and perpetuate. 

 

The fear of displaying Jewish identity that Steven described is situated within long histories of oppression and erasure. Jews have persisted in hostile and violent conditions for millennia by resisting assimilation—displaying our symbols and standing out within dominant cultures across the Jewish diaspora. Standing out has very often not been safe for Jews. The coercive pressure to assimilate and denounce or conceal Jewishness is a fundamental characteristic of antisemitism—one need only look so far as the expulsion of Jews from Spain in the 15th century. However, this is not only a historical phenomenon—the majority of antisemitic acts against Jews in the U.S. target Orthodox Jews—the most visibly Jewish among us. Contemporary Jewish identity is diverse and expressed in a multitude of ways. Displaying markers of Jewish identity is a form of Jewish joy and resilience. I wear a Magen David or other Jewish symbols every day—this is an essential part of my identity, which for me is not just about being Jewish but, as a Jew by choice, about becoming Jewish. I hang a mezuzah on the door of my home because this reminds me each time I come and go of the values and beliefs that we hold dear. Yet, I think about a student on my campus whose mezuzah was ripped from a residence hall doorway and then questioned by police about whether or not the “item had value.” Interruptions of Jewish observance and identity with fear for safety are psychological trauma and cultural erasure. I remind myself of the importance of responding to rising antisemitism with these symbols of Jewishness, a philosophy exemplified by Hillel International’s #OwnYourStar campaign. But it’s not just up to Jews to bravely display our identities; we need non-Jews to make it safer for us to do so. 

 

Part of creating that safety comes down to whether and how higher education institutions respond to incidents of antisemitism. As Steven detailed, antisemitic violence is alarmingly commonplace, including at colleges and universities. Jewish students, faculty, and staff regularly experience marginalization, harassment, and violence in higher education spaces. One can find evidence of this in data from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and organizations like the student-led Jewish on Campus, which tracks almost daily occurrences of hatred toward Jewish students and organizes and advocates to put pressure on institutions to respond. In my research on higher education responses to racist incidents, I have learned that institutional policies and practices to respond to antisemitism are closely tied to those used to respond to racism and other forms of identity-based bias. However, as Steven points out, Jewish identity and experience are nuanced and complex. The manifestations of hatred against Jews are situated within specific socio-historical-political contexts—thousands of years of context as historian Robert Wistrich (1991) pointed to by calling antisemitism “the longest hatred.” To effectively condemn antisemitism requires understanding antisemitism and Jewish experiences in nuanced ways and for institutional practices to reflect that understanding. Higher education organizations can deepen their understanding of antisemitism by engaging with the ADL’s definition of antisemitism, their guide to antisemitic tropes (2020), and the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. These resources are a beginning point for engaging with and understanding the context and characteristics of antisemitism.   

 

All too often, when incidents of identity-based bias and hate occur in higher education, the responsibility for driving institutional response falls to the targeted groups and individuals. Take, for example, the occurrence of seven antisemitic incidents reported at my university during the 2020-2021 academic year, including four incidents during Passover. The university did not send a campus-wide message until six incidents had occurred, following weeks of organizing and advocacy from Jewish students and Hillel staff (Kilyk, 2021). The same day that the university-wide message was sent, another academic building was vandalized with graffiti of a swastika and “SS.” These incidents drove continued student activism, mobilizing local and national Jewish organizations to support a protest and making demands of the administration. The university now has a specific webpage of resources dedicated to combatting antisemitism and offers a 1-credit course on confronting antisemitism, developed and taught by Jewish faculty and staff. Although these are certainly improvements that responded to some of the students’ demands, these efforts only occurred because of the labor of Jews who had already been traumatized following a year full of painful and hateful incidents. In many ways, this sequence of events feels like too little, too late. There is no good reason, in the current political and social climate, to not be proactive about antisemitism in higher education. Let my university’s story be a cautionary tale—do not wait until there are five or six or seven antisemitic incidents to start having conversations that center Jewish experience and that unequivocally condemn anti-Jewish hate. Researchers, too, should consider how antisemitism is almost exclusively researched by Jewish organizations and scholars—perpetuating the idea that it is a problem for Jews to deal with and solve. Scholars can contribute in meaningful ways to knowledge about Jewish students’ experiences in higher education and about how antisemitism occurs and is addressed by including Jewish identity and experience in research. Jews in higher education need our friends, colleagues, peers, and leaders to show up, to say “hineni,” I am here, because Jewish life, culture, and joy is complex, important, and beautiful. 

 

References

Anti-Defamation League. (2022, May 3). Antisemitism. https://www.adl.org/antisemitism

Anti-Defamation League. Antisemitism Uncovered. https://antisemitism.adl.org/?_gl=1%2Alyimvz%2A_ga%2AMzI1OTIwNDY0LjE2NzYzOTc5NTI.%2A_ga_S9QB0F2PB5%2AMTY3NjU1ODI4NC4yLjEuMTY3NjU1ODY0Ni4wLjAuMA

Anti-Defamation League. (2022, May 3). Audit of Antisemitic Incidents 2021. https://www.adl.org/resources/report/audit-antisemitic-incidents-2021

Hillel International. #OwnYourStar. https://ownyourstar.hillel.org/

Horn, D. (2021). People Love Dead Jews: Reports from a Haunted Present. W. W. Norton, Incorporated.

International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. What is antisemitism? Non-legally binding working definition of antisemitism. https://www.holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definitions-charters/working-definition-antisemitism

Jewish On Campus. https://www.jewishoncampus.org/

Jewish Virtual Library. Modern Jewish History: The Spanish Expulsion. https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-spanish-expulsion-1492

Kilyk, A. (2021, March 31). UConn responds to recent antisemitic incidents at Storrs campus. Daily Campus. https://dailycampus.com/2021/03/31/uconn-responds-to-recent-anti-semitic-incidents-at-storrs-campus/

Office for Diversity and Inclusion. Combatting Antisemitism. University of Connecticut. https://diversity.uconn.edu/combatting-antisemitism/

Office of the Provost. Why the Jews? Confronting Antisemitism. University of Connecticut. https://provost.uconn.edu/why-the-jews/

Pew Research Center. (2021) Jewish Americans in 2020. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2021/05/11/jewish-americans-in-2020/

UConn Hillel. [@uconnhillel]. (2021, March 31). With 7 antisemitic incidents on campus this school year alone, it’s time to proclaim that enough is enough. Jewish students. Instagram. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.instagram.com/p/CNFw8fvrmN9/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=loading&hl=en

UCONN Husky. UCONN: Take Action against Antisemitism and Listen to your Jewish Students. Change.org. https://www.change.org/p/uconn-condemn-antisemitism-and-protect-your-jewish-students

Wistrich, R. S. (1991). The Longest Hatred. Thames Methuen.

 

About the Author

Ashley N. Robinson, Ph.D. is a Postdoctoral Research Associate and instructor in the Higher Education and Student Affairs (HESA) program at the University of Connecticut. Her research uses critical qualitative approaches to examine how higher education institutions are socially organized and impact the material realities of people’s lives, with a focus on the pervasive influence of whiteness. As a critical feminist teacher, she takes joy in engaging students in critical student affairs praxis and disrupting the power structures that inhibit learning and connection. In her “free” time, she can be found trying to keep up with her toddler and two dogs and tending to her large collection of house plants.