When I got to Rutgers University in New Jersey last month, I almost forgot I was on a college campus. The atmosphere was far from the cool, button-down academic reserve typical of such institutions. It was more reminiscent of a battlefield.
My arrival was greeted by a noisy demonstration of Palestinian and Jewish students holding signs reading "Racist Israel" and "War Criminals," together with black-coated Neturei Karta members calling for the destruction of the blasphemous Zionist entity. Faculty members, predictably led by a former Israeli professor, had sent out e-mails protesting the granting of a platform to a representative of the "Nazi, war-criminal" state. Of course, there was the famous pie incident in which a member of a campus Jewish anti-occupation group made his way past my security guards and plastered me in the face with a cream pie while shouting "End the Occupation."
Opposed to them were hundreds of no less rowdy Jewish students, full of motivation to defend Israel and give the protesters back as good as they got. After the pie incident, when I returned to the hall and mounted the stage, the atmosphere was so electric, so full of adrenalin, that the Palestinians and their supporters who had come to disrupt the event had no choice but to abandon their plans for provocation.
Things were not much calmer at Boston University: An anonymous bomb threat brought swarms of police to the lecture hall and almost forced a cancellation of my appearance. But here, too, some good resulted when the bomb threat caused the lecture to be moved to a larger hall, which was quickly filled with some 600 listeners who were unwilling to accept the violent silencing of pro-Israel views.
These moments -- the pie throwing, the bomb threat, the demonstration -- as raucous, threatening and contentious as they were, are among the more pleasant memories from my 13-campus tour of the United States. Perhaps it is because at these moments I felt that there was some point to my trip, perhaps because the violent hostility had stirred the students and motivated them to want to fight and win -- which I, of course, was delighted to see.
One Harvard student admitted to me that she was afraid to express support for Israel, afraid to take part in pro-Israel organizations, afraid to be identified.
There were other moments during my tour, difficult moments when I felt fear, sadness and worry. During a frank and friendly conversation with a group of Jewish students at Harvard University, one student admitted to me that she was afraid -- afraid to express support for Israel, afraid to take part in pro-Israel organizations, afraid to be identified. The mood on campus had turned so anti-Israel that she was afraid that her open identification could cost her, damaging her grades and her academic future. That her professors, who control her final grades, were likely to view such activism unkindly, and that the risk was too great.
Having grown up in the communist Soviet Union, I am very familiar with this fear to express one's opinions, with the need to hold the "correct opinions" in order to get ahead, with the reality that expressing support for Israel is a blot on one's resume. But to find all these things at Harvard Business School? In a place that was supposed to be open, liberal, professional? At first I thought this must be an individual case, particular to this student. I thought her fears were exaggerated. But my conversations with other students at various universities made it clear that her feelings are widespread, that the situation on campuses in the United States and Canada is more serious than we think. And this is truly frightening.
To most Israelis, what happens on the world's campuses hardly seems a life-and-death concern. The world is against us in any case. And as for Jewish students, why should we care? They've got troubles? Let them move to Israel. In my own view, however, this is a fateful issue for the State of Israel and the Jewish people.
Israel has few strategic assets as critical as American Jewry. The fact that the world's leading superpower is a steadfast ally of Israel is due in large measure to this proud and activist community. But nobody can guarantee that the current state of affairs will continue indefinitely. I have been in close contact with the American Jewish community for more than 30 years, and its leadership is largely unchanged. I entered a Russian prison, I got out, I moved to Israel, I became a Cabinet minister and the people I work with are mostly the same people. The leadership is getting old, and the younger generation is not stepping forward.
The leadership of American Jewry is getting old, and the younger generation is not stepping forward.
The continuing support of American Jewry depends on this younger generation. If it chooses to affiliate actively with the Jewish people, if it supports Israel and acts on its behalf, then we will continue to have a strong backbone of support in a world that is turning more and more hostile. But if this younger generation were to disappear -- whether through assimilation or an unwillingness to be identified -- Israel would find within a very few years that it faces an entirely different United States.
This younger generation is growing up on the university campus. That is where the core of future administrations is taking shape. The students I met at Princeton, Columbia and Harvard will be the decision-makers of the coming decades. Will they be as pro-Israel as today's decision-makers? Will they stand up fearlessly for Israel? Given the level of anti-Israel sentiment on today's campuses, where being "in" means being hostile or at least apathetic toward Israel, I have grave doubts.
The transformation of campuses into hothouses of anti-Israel opinion did not happen by itself, nor did it occur overnight. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the mood on campus was completely different. Jewish students then were at the center of student activism, leading movements for human rights, including the Soviet Jewry freedom movement. Demonstrations, hunger strikes, mass rallies -- all this combined to form a massive army that was largely made up, as the Soviet secret police used to put it sneeringly, of "students and housewives." These struggles were an inseparable part of the Jewish identities of those young people. They were certain of themselves, certain of the justice of their cause and certain that they were on the side of the angels. The goal was clear, the enemy was defined and their pride in themselves, their Jewishness and Israel was boundless.
When I sat for Sabbath dinner with 300 Jewish students at Columbia University in New York -- together with Glenn Richter, who in 1964 at the university launched the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry -- and I told them about those days, the events seemed to them all but unimaginable. Today, when Jewish activity on campus is directed almost entirely inward, when Jewish student organizations feel like walled fortresses in enemy territory, when pro-Israel students hardly dream of taking leadership positions in campus struggles for human rights, those days seem like a distant dream.
Years of massive investments of money and effort by Arab states and the Palestinians have changed the picture. One after the other, departments of Middle Eastern studies have been set up on university campuses, with generous Saudi funding -- departments that worked to establish pseudo-scientific theories, presenting Israel as the last colonial state, a state whose very existence is immoral regardless of borders, a state that should not exist. Differing views are as a matter of course not tolerated. When Jewish community leaders decided in the last few years to begin investing funds to create chairs in Israel studies, they discovered there is no one to teach them. There are no experts, no writers. The field has been abandoned.
Not only in the intellectual arena have we abandoned the field. In the public relations field, too, the Palestinians have learned, unlike the Israelis, to appreciate the importance of the university as the shaper of the next generation, and to concentrate their efforts there. Articulate, effective speakers have been dispatched to campuses to mobilize the idealistic students for their own political interests.
The banner of human rights, once identified to a great degree with Jews, has become a weapon against them.
They have been sent to explain that despite the fact that in the Arab nations, as in the autonomous areas of the Palestinian Authority, there are no rights for women, minorities, or nearly anyone else, that despite all this they are the true bearers of the banner of human rights; that all true seekers of justice should act on their behalf, and against Israel's.
The absurdity cries out to the heavens, but no one seems to notice. The banner of human rights, once identified to a great degree with Jews, has become a weapon against them. Liberal and democratic discourse on human rights serves mainly as a vehicle for attacks against Israel, and increasingly against Jews.
In the last three years the process has greatly intensified. Students, young, idealistic and naturally tending to see the world in black and white, have been greatly influenced by daily media reports about "human rights violations" carried out by Israel, by pictures of Palestinian children, by unbalanced reportage. Lacking a serious "other side," lacking any real information about the roots of the conflict, lacking any serious Israeli public relations effort, the campuses have become more and more hostile.
When I assumed my current position as minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora affairs, it was clear to me that this issue of campuses as centers of anti-Israelism and their influence on the young Jews of the world must be at the center of my agenda. It is a matter of critical importance for the State of Israel and the Jewish people. And so I decided to travel, to learn the facts first-hand and to try to begin a process of change.
Before I left Israel my daughter said to me, "Dad, if they throw eggs at you, duck." My other daughter countered: "Why duck? Catch them and throw them back." You may laugh, but that is how I felt. After ducking for so long, while Israel was under constant attack for supposedly being a "war criminal," a "Nazi state" and the "embodiment of evil," I felt the time had come to throw back a few eggs. Especially on campuses, especially on the topic of human rights. Not to apologize, but to try to show the true picture -- who is the only democracy in the Middle East and who are the dictatorships, where are human rights honored and where are they trampled.
I wanted to show that even during a cruel war against terrorism, Israel was showing great sensitivity to human rights -- certainly in comparison to other democracies at war: the United States in Afghanistan, NATO in Yugoslavia, Russia in Chechnya. I talked about the battle of Jenin, when we decided not to use airplanes that could hurt the Palestinian civilian population, and instead sent our soldiers hunting house to house for weapons and terrorists.
I wanted, as someone who had spent a considerable part of his life struggling for human rights, to bring the human rights struggle back to its proper context. To return it to its true owners. To explain that support for terrorists and dictators like Yasser Arafat and his gang cannot be considered support for human rights.
For six days I traveled across the United States. I did not meet with administration officials or do any politicking. Just campuses. Meeting students, instructors, Jewish and non-Jewish activists. A marathon of 13 campuses in six days. I discovered an enormous thirst for knowledge, for straight answers about these supposed "human rights violations" and "war crimes." I learned that combining human rights, a popular, burning issue among students, and Israel, a very unpopular issue, works to Israel's advantage, because even the most pro-Palestinian students, including Arab students, had to back down when the discussion centered squarely and honestly on human rights and democracy.
Nearly 90% of our students are Jews of silence.
But I also learned that every such victory was a limited one, like capturing a single hill in enemy territory. The overall picture is deeply worrying. On every campus I visited, Jewish students make up between 10% and 20% of the population, but no more than a tenth of them, by my estimate, take part in Jewish or pro-Israel activity. Another tiny but outspoken fraction serves as the spearhead of anti-Israel activity, for there is no better cover for hiding the racist nature of causes like an anti-Israel boycott than a Jewish professor or student eager to prove that he is holier than the pope. And the rest? The rest are simply silent. They are not identified, not active, not risk-takers. Nearly 90% of our students are Jews of silence.
To the credit of the activists, it must be said that they do impressive work. But they are few, and many are tired and discouraged. One student who was active in pro-Israel organizations told us that at a certain point he could no longer stand the peer pressure of those around him who viewed him as a pro-Israel obsessive. He now pours his idealistic energies into an organic farm he started. Now that he is involved in environmental activism everyone is happy with him. Having myself grown up in a place where those around me barely tolerated my Jewish involvements, I know that this sort of peer pressure will drive most people to flee, just as we -- most of us -- in Russia tried to run away from our Jewishness to the ivory towers of science or the arts. We thought that scientific excellence would save us from the mark of Cain on our foreheads.
Can the trends be reversed? Can we recapture the campus? I believe we can. But it will require a concentrated effort and a genuine change of consciousness and direction in Israel's informational efforts. We in Israel and in Jewish communities around the world must combine our efforts and work together. In the United States things have begun to stir, and various organizations are extremely active on campus. Now it is time for Israel to do its share.
This article is reprinted with permission of the author. Translated by J.J. Goldberg.
(29) Anonymous, February 3, 2005 12:00 AM
I am afraid as well. afraid to express myself. Afraid to express my love and support for Israel.
I completly understand the students who are afraid. Everytime they even stand up for Israel and the jews in any way they are immidiatly attacked. Its frighting to think that in a country that preechess about freedom of religon and speech is terrifying its inhabitants into silence. I think that its somthing that needs to be taken care of.
(28) Mike, November 11, 2003 12:00 AM
End the silence and educate!!
Mr Sharansky,
Your article articulates the thoughts that I never had the guts to say. I live in Europe and anti-semitism is making a comeback reminiscent of the 1920's and 1930's. We must stop being afraid, and tell the world what we know is right.
(27) Gershon Perlman, November 9, 2003 12:00 AM
Read "Never Again"
I was an indifferent jewish student on a college campus until the fall of 1974. From the evening that Rav Kahane came and spoke I became very "different," I became a religous Zionist, moved to Israel and have never looked back.
(26) Bobbie, November 9, 2003 12:00 AM
Rutgers has seen progress
Recently there was a pro-Israel rally at Rutgers at which thousands attended and easily outnumbered the seemingly handful in opposition.
(25) Anonymous, November 6, 2003 12:00 AM
i want to help, but how?
i would like to do something to help i believe in israel, ibelieve i can hold my head up because jewish people have a homeland now , but i dont know how ,...help
(24) Yisrael Harris, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Sharansky's Article
What a fantastic article.
(23) Anonymous, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Is it possible to tell me specifically how I am to address this problem?
(22) Ese, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Take a look at this from the outside looking in
It would be wrong for me too say, this is getting out of hand, but I feel some times, that the Palestinians, along with the Jewish Community, should exam everything that is occurring in the Middle East, as if they did not belong to either commnunities....How would you feel about the events that are occurring, if you were not belong to these groups? For me I think this whole thing is going to an extreme, I am not condemning either groups, but there have been too many Palestinian deaths, both as suicidal bombers, and war casualties, as well as too many Israelis that have died......and aslo the slanderings, or harrassments that have resulted to individuals not even in the territory(others all over the world) is going to far. I think what we all need to do, and this goes for any group, whether discussing Palestinian/Israeli relations, to black and white non-relations....I think we need to step out of the scenario, and exam the situation from the outside looking in. althrough reading an article on the War in Jenin, I kept think..."oghene biko", which literary translates to God have sympathy, in Urhobo(nigeria). so I say again Oghene biko.
(21) Anonymous, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Join the Republican Party
What is happening to Israel should not be a surprise. Israel has always been on the list of the left's targets. Its now at the top of the list. The democratic party, with some exception,has now moved to a position of neutrality on Israel (don't be fooled by the Democrat's pablum).
The Jewish people need to start moving away from their left-wing liberal democrat party tradition. Move to the middle or the right. Change your voter registration to Republican. If you can't handle that, change your voter registration from democrat to unaffiliated.
The democratic party now thinks of Jews as part of their constituency that can be taken for granted. Bad, bad, bad, for the Jewish people. Good good good only for the left wing and special interests of the democratic party. Get off the democrat's plantation.
(20) Anonymous, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Frightening changes on our campuses
These attitudes of intolerance on our campuses do not bode well forthe future of the United States itself, let alone Israel!
(19) susan, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
sorry situation
Unfortunately,I see the mediadistorting everything. Newspapers and radio and television. I remember how Jenin was one sided and the whole world believed Israeli was slautering Palestinian life.
(18) L. Pryse, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Students Have Recourse
I would hope students who face the vicous racism and harassment like that described in this article realize they do have other options rather than suffering in painful silence.
If someone touches you, pushes you or threatens you, you can call the police. Even if you are at a rally instead of the cafeteria when it happens...the law is not suspended because you have chosen to attend a rally.
If you are called names, or feel you are taunted becasue of your religion, you might find relief under the University policy. Find out what the policy on human rights is at your university and file a complaint according to the process that is outlined. It is the University's responsibility to ensure all students have an environment condusive to learning. It is their responsibility to ensure you are not harassed on campus. If you feel you have been graded poorly becasue of your support of Israel by a professor, you may be able to appeal the grade. Find out what the policy is on that as well.
You may also be able to file a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (or whatever the government department is in the U.S.) against other students or faculty members. You may also be able to bring a civil suit against someone who harasses you, if you feel it affects you adversely in some way.
This kind of persecution poisons the environment at school and makes learning more difficult--and learning is why you are there and what you have paid your tuition for. Harassment and discrimination can also affect your self-esteem and have long term consequences. A harasser can be a person in a position to grant you benefits, like an instructor, but remember, another student at a rally can also be a harasser too. The bully behaviour of some students, under the excuse of political expression, is just common criminal behaviour and we do not have to tolerate it.
Sometimes it is frightening to stand up, but standing up can also be the very way to conquer the demons.
Perhaps we need another article, Aish, to inform students what to do if they feel they have been harassed and provide them with some helpful resources.
(17) John A. Foscaldi Sr., November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
Shame on me and those becoming as I
From a laymans point of view;
"As times before in our generation, the more we distance ourself's from G-d and Torah, the more we ......."
You,dear reader, finish what I have started to say....
For me to finish my own thought is to admit that I do not live as a Jew. I was born Jewish, lived with and as a Roman Catholic. Even with this there is no reason for me not to live by G-d's word. Shame on me, I pray that there are very few like me.
(16) Sheila, November 5, 2003 12:00 AM
excellent article.
Fortunately I have attended large pro-Israel rallies in Montreal filled to capacity with students. I believe their will is there.
(15) Michael Itzhaki, November 4, 2003 12:00 AM
Sad, but True
Bs`D
People hating us with all their strength is nothing new in our history, but this time anti-semitism merely takes a different shape, with the exact same content: anti-Zionism. If they were to be screaming clearly "Death to the Jews", they would be taken as pure nazis, instead they hide the same message inside their anti-Israel propaganda. Every jew, they say, is personally responsible for the 'atrocities' commited against the poor and innocent palestinians, therefore they all should be punished... What I'm saying is: Don't be mistaken! Anti-Israel feelings are nothing more than a new wave of pure hate against the jewish people, this time disguised as pro-palestinian feelings. A man throwing a pie at mr. Sharansky is not, by any means, better than another man throwing a stone at a jewish kid in the street and yelling 'You bloody jews'. They're both fascists, and nothing more. Anti-Zionism is a terrible problem and it has to be fought, beginning with trying to stop american and european media's complete bias. Mr. Sharansky, if you read this, please know that we are with you, and we know our army, the Tzahal, is an army of ethics and courage, and so are you! May G-d bless you!
(14) Connie Schneider, November 4, 2003 12:00 AM
Suggestions for better Pro-Israel information to the public
I have recently decided that at 56 I had better start shouting becaues unlike my college days of the 60's, no one seems to be outraged enough to stand up. I suggest you contact UAHC and have them contact their member congregations (we are one in Santa Barbara County) and ask specifically for members to talk to their college age students, write letters to their newspapers and start speaking out..verbally and financially. It is time a concerted campaign is mounted.
Email me if you want help
(13) dan davis, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
frightening
i am not surprised, except at the level of antagonism. I attend a presentation of an Israeli and a Lebanese professor at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo, and the level of hatred against Israel by the sponsoring Catholic women's group was frightening.. to experience such fear and anger.. unfortunately, I also feel that Ariel Sharon is a fanatic who should never have been elevated to a position of such influence.
(12) pauldubois, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
the "new" anti-semitism
The current "anti-racism" veers all too
often into anti-semitism, doesn't it? I remember
attending a conference on the Middle East back in the eighties that was hoste
by an organization called 'France-Palestine'. It all seemed so intelligently handled until some of the
participants, Palestinians, began making
interventions. I was taken aback by the
bursque change of tone: thinly-veiled
reference to the Protocoles of Zion. It
was then that I took my distance with the French Left.
(11) Daniel Rushefsky, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
Shalom
The students at the Pro Israel rally were not rowdy; I was there. Conveying a message of "day without hate" and pro-peace initiatives were undermined somewhat by another speaker's anti-Palestinian rhetoric. Recommendations, from the Talmud is it not, is to remove the evil from the people and not the evil people. (Bruria)
(10) Belle, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
it's not just the students
One cannot just blame the students. There are many Jewish professors who have sat back and smirked as all of this was developing. Or have cast their political and student pandering lot with the "liberal " crowd. Check out the people who sometimes can be found under the "Zionism=Racism" banners. Several years ago when David Duke was spreading his hate message on campus;where were the professors of conscience? When the idiocy of "new scholarship" somehow trying to prove that Jews werein control of all the old slave trade; where were the Jewish professors?
(9) Irving, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
Israel not fighting the war on one of the most crucial fronts
I think that Natan Sharansky has adeptly sounded the alarm. With all of her (our) military prowess, we are not fighting the war on that most crucial of fronts - the public relations war! Sharansky is not the first one to raise this concern. The question becomes however: when will Israel wake up to this reality and begin investing more of its resources in the public relations war?
(8) Nancy, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
I am not silent
I apologise for your reception at the universities! I too teach within the University system, and yes,many student's today are very rude and confrontational. They have not been taught even the basic manners, and can be quite threatening at times. I no longer remain quiet when they condemn Israel! I remind them why the United States is a friend of Israel. I state with pride that minutes after the twin towers fell, while our enemies cheered, Israel fighter jets were in the air and ready to help the U.S. defend! Only Israel! When my angry Arab student's call me a "zionist pig" I speak with respect and a calm that only God could give me. I also demand that they calm down and return that respect! I have never been more vocal regarding Israel then today! (In reply to the Sharon Brand-second comment... God was everywhere in this article. please read again! Joy, Nancy
(7) Sharon Brand, November 3, 2003 12:00 AM
Where is Hashem?
A frighteningly honest and excellent article. But not once is G-d's name mentioned. For me, that is more frightening.
(6) Manny, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
What about the Jewish refugees???
I am very pleased that Natan Sharansky and the Israeli government have identified American Jewish college students as a critical audience in securing the Israel's future. Indeed, US support is absolutely crucial, and for this we must educate American Jewry to speak loudly in support of Israel.
What continues to boggle my mind is why the Government of Israel fails to utilize all the tools at its disposal; namely, the case of almost one million Jewish refugees that were kicked out of Arab lands in a coordinated campaign of expulsion. Surveys demonstrate that this is the single, most effective point in neutralizing the refugee issue and in framing the conflict into its proper context: five million Jews struggling for self-determination among some 300 million hostile Arabs. Over 50% of Israel's Jews have come from Arab lands, American non-profit groups have recently discovered this element of the Jewish narrative, and still the Israeli government continues to suppress the story of the Mizrachim. If anything, Natan Sharansky must recognize that this could be one of the best opportunities to reposition the Jewish state as one of true Human Rights and liberalism in a region of apartheid-like dictatorships. The flight of the Jews from Arab countries must be heard, both for the justice of these people, to make the case for Israel, and to contextualize the conflict for the outside world. As I fight to raise awareness of this issue in the United States, I am ashamed at the callous manner in which the GOI has worked against such productive efforts. Please join me in applying pressure on the government, and especially a man like Sharansky who should identify with this struggle to be heard. Thank you.
(5) Lynn Provencio, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
So what can we do?
I work on a college campus where all these things exist, but not so strongly yet. At a local JCC meeting where IDF representatives came to speak, a Jewish/Arab faction was loud and rather disruptive, which would have been impossible a few years ago. I'm only just beginning to see these developments, and it makes me feel sick. I'm not an experience activist, and I have a job I want to keep. But I see that it's more than time to speak up and fight back. The question is how? What will work best? How to start?
(4) oppie, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
GOODE
excellent, important article
amer jews need to know this
(3) Dustin, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
It's bad on campus
If you want to retake the campuses, then you have to somehow figure out how to disassociate leftist and muslim student groups. On my campus, at CSU Sacramento, they hold anti-Israel rallies on campus as a joint effort. This is a difficult thing to deal with but must be dealt with.
(2) Anonymous, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
Worrisome but honest appraisal
I've never thought much of typical college student's wisdom. Sadly, this article proved it. I am grateful to Mr. Sharansky for his leadership to attempting to bring a viewpoint from the "otherside". To those pro the Palestianin issue, I say to hell with them.
(1) Rebecca Witonsky, November 2, 2003 12:00 AM
Anti-Semitism on Campus
Sharansky's experience on American campus is truly frightening. Ninety percent of the Jews on campus, like most of my secular Jewish friends and even some of my fellow religious Jews are also the "Jews of Silence." A Boston University Jewish student told me the PLO staged an anti-Semitic riot on Yom HaShoah at her university. The only answer is to stand up to the anti-Semites on campus and proudly support Israel.