{"id":21486,"date":"2016-10-07T00:27:44","date_gmt":"2016-10-07T07:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=21486"},"modified":"2016-10-13T10:24:46","modified_gmt":"2016-10-13T17:24:46","slug":"oberlins-jewish-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/10\/07\/oberlins-jewish-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Oberlin\u2019s Jewish problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

Protesters at Oberlin College. (photo by Pteranadons via Wikimedia Commons)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(This is Part 1 of a two-part series. The second article<\/a>\u00a0examines the student-as-customer approach at universities and its relation to identity politics on campus.)<\/em><\/p>\n

New York Times<\/em> columnist Frank Bruni wrote in a June article that \u201cOberlin College would certainly be in the running\u201d if he picked one campus \u201cthat has been roiled the most by struggles over political correctness.\u201d<\/p>\n

While university president Marvin Krislov has acknowledged upheaval, he wrote \u2013 in the same Times<\/em> section \u2013 that Oberlin\u2019s \u201cfaculty and staff \u2026 maintain high academic standards and rigor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since I attended the 50th reunion of my class, I realize I do care about the calamity that Oberlin College now exemplifies.<\/p>\n

Every town in northern Ohio has history built around either its bar or its liberal arts college. Oberlin was a \u201cdry\u201d town, founded in 1833, the same year as Oberlin College. Then, in 1893, Oberlin became the birthplace of the Anti-Saloon League, the political movement behind the U.S. Constitution\u2019s 18th amendment: prohibition, which took effect in 1920. That social experiment was a disaster, and the 21st amendment repealed the 18th in 1933. Oberlin College finally eased its ban on beer decades later, yet zealotry still haunts the campus.<\/p>\n

Bruni scorns \u201cthe demand for a so-called trigger warning to students who might be upset reading Antigone,\u201d and he seems bemused by \u201ccomplaints about the ethnic integrity of the sushi in a campus dining hall.\u201d But it was not funny when, in September 2013, a Latina Jewish student helped plan a Shabbat dinner where Latin American food would be served \u2013 and another Oberlin Latina student denounced the event\u2019s \u201ccultural appropriation.\u201d As one Jewish student recalled in a Tablet<\/em> article this past May, posters for a previous Asian Fusion Shabbat were \u201cdefaced with graffiti about appropriation and orientalism. Comfort food Shabbat was also ill received, with comments about appropriating black cooking.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a common belief at Oberlin that all Jews are white and rich\u201d \u2013 so a Jew cannot be Latin American, cannot be a \u201cperson of color,\u201d etc. \u2013 and, therefore, all Jews on campus should eat \u201cwhite\u201d food. Of course, such dogma defies both fact and logic, harms individuals and undermines the college\u2019s stated \u201cdiversity\u201d goals.<\/p>\n

In the same Tablet<\/em> article, it was noted that, in 2013, the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association revoked affiliation of one dining hall, \u201cthe Kosher-Halal Coop (used predominantly by Jews).\u201d<\/p>\n

Timothy Elgren became Oberlin\u2019s dean of arts and sciences in July 2014. In February 2016, Oberlin\u2019s online news site posted the transcript of conversation in which Elgren told Krislov that \u201cchanges to the way we run our faculty searches have been very important.\u201d<\/p>\n

One such search for an assistant professor led to the appointment of Joy Karega. By March, Karega had received worldwide attention for her social media postings of anti-Jewish hatred and conspiracy theories. Karega has neither denied nor disavowed her connection to these items.<\/p>\n

In November 2015, for example, Karega wrote that \u201cISIS is not a jihadist, Islamic terrorist organization. It\u2019s a CIA and Mossad operation\u2026.\u201d In other online postings, Karega asserted that Israel and\/or Jews also were responsible for bringing down the Twin Towers of New York\u2019s World Trade Centre on Sept. 11, 2001; for murders at the Charlie Hebdo<\/em> office in Paris in January 2015; for the massacres of 130 people in Paris in November 2015; for shooting down a Malaysian passenger jet over Ukraine; and for \u201cweaponizing the weather\u201d to inflict the damage of Hurricane Sandy in New York City.<\/p>\n

Karega\u2019s illustrated postings also have claimed that the Rothschild family is \u201cworth 500 trillion dollars,\u201d owns \u201cnearly every central bank in the world\u201d and owns \u201cthe media, your oil, and your government.\u201d Abraham Socher, an Oberlin associate professor of religion, noted in the student newspaper, the Oberlin Review<\/em>, that such notions harked back to the infamous antisemitic fabrication The Protocols of the Elders of Zion<\/em>. He reminded his readers that a U.S. government definition of antisemitism specifically includes: \u201cMaking mendacious, dehumanizing, demonizing or stereotypical allegations about Jews as such or the power of Jews as a collective \u2013 especially but not exclusively, the myth about a world Jewish conspiracy or of Jews controlling the media, economy, government or other societal institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Karega posted anti-Jewish bigotry and conspiracy theories online, she also taught \u201csocial justice writing\u201d to Oberlin students. When I spoke with Krislov on April 6, he could not identify any actual research or publication by Karega at Oberlin. Yet, Karega retained her professorial position there.<\/p>\n

Starting in March, publicity about Karega and Oberlin spread among online news sites and print newspapers in the United States, then to papers in England and Israel. Articles about controversy at Oberlin had appeared months earlier in The Atlantic<\/em> and Vanity Fair<\/em>, as well as a New Yorker<\/em> feature that followed in May.<\/p>\n

As I learned about Karega, I found that broad anti-Jewish manifestations at Oberlin predated her \u2013 and that other campuses in the United States and Canada may have similar cultures, in which it is acceptable to denounce, mock, bully or intimidate any student who is perceived to be Jewish. Perhaps only \u201cfringe\u201d individuals on campus indulge in bigoted behavior, but the community as a whole may ignore or appease the fringe \u2013 as part of \u201cfree speech\u201d and \u201cacademic freedom\u201d or to avoid personal reprisals?<\/p>\n

Some of the fringers, however, restrict free speech. They disrupt presentations that they disdain and they have invaded Hillel meetings or other Jewish activities, according to one unnamed \u201clongtime Oberlin professor,\u201d quoted in the same Tablet <\/em>article as the student cited previously.<\/p>\n

Hadas Binyamini, a 2014 Oberlin graduate and co-founder of the college\u2019s J Street U chapter, wrote in the Forward <\/em>in March this year: \u201cI was uncomfortable publicly identifying as a Zionist\u201d but, even more importantly, \u201cWhat I didn\u2019t find at Oberlin were spaces to engage with prevalent forms of antisemitism that have nothing to do with Israel. No tools were offered for students to critically examine American Jewish identity and to deconstruct antisemitic motifs\u2026.\u201d And, Binyamini continued, \u201cthe Multicultural Resource Centre \u2026 remains silent on antisemitism. Similarly, the department of comparative American studies, which trains students to \u2018investigate power, inequality and agency through the analysis of \u2026 race \u2026 class \u2026 and citizenship,\u2019 [seems] unable to engage students with these same issues when it comes to American Jews.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marc Blecher, an Oberlin professor of politics and East Asian studies, agreed: \u201cour Multicultural Resource Centre has been silent on antisemitism.\u201d It is worth noting that, this year, Oberlin celebrates the 20th anniversary of its MRC, which \u201cstrives to advance \u2026 multicultural understanding among all campus communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isabel Sherrell, another Jewish graduate of Oberlin \u2013 who, according to the Forward<\/em>, attempted some dialogue with Karega \u2013 compiled a list of anti-Jewish incidents and attitudes on the campus. She permitted the use of her name when a Washington Post<\/em> blog publicized her observations this past February. For instance, Item #6 on her list is anti-Zionist advocacy in the classroom of an African studies professor. Item #18 includes, \u201cBeing told I was simply European and Judaism is a religion not an ethnicity,\u201d although the latter view logically contradicts the (false) campus dogma that a person cannot be both Jewish and a \u201cperson of color.\u201d<\/p>\n

Item #10 on Sherrell\u2019s list begins, \u201cThe fact that so many Jewish students are bullied into silence\u2026.\u201d Unlike Sherrell, I have zero personal knowledge of \u201ccyber-bullying\u201d or \u201ctrolling\u201d or \u201cdoxing\u201d via \u201csocial media\u201d and I have no idea how a target on campus should respond to such abuse. But Jonathan Weisman \u2013 who is not a student, but rather is an editor at the Washington bureau of the New York Times<\/em> \u2013 announced in June that he felt obliged to quit Twitter altogether, because, \u201cFor weeks, I had been barraged on Twitter by rank antisemitic comments, Nazi iconography of hooknosed Jews stabbing lovely Christians in the back, the gates of Auschwitz, and trails of dollar bills leading to ovens.\u201d (Weisman believes that the tweets he received came mostly from right-wing white supremacists, not from left-wing campus \u201csocial justice\u201d warriors.)<\/p>\n

By mid-April, Oberlin\u2019s board of trustees and a majority of faculty members had publicly criticized Karega. Also, some sort of investigative process was announced. But at least three members of the Africana studies department individually voiced some support for Karega. One concern was that<\/p>\n

Karega might be a scapegoat, burdened with blame for an anti-Jewish climate that pervaded the campus before she arrived.<\/p>\n

I have found no record of public comment by Krislov regarding Karega or related issues until after<\/em> her story went viral. Then, he issued a statement, which the Oberlin news site posted on March 1, about \u201cThe Mission of Liberal Arts Education\u201d: \u201cAt Oberlin, we are deeply committed to \u2026 ensuring our students a diverse, inclusive and equitable educational experience. We demand intellectual rigor\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his mission statement \u2013 as in his Times<\/em> essay and elsewhere for months \u2013 Krislov minimized campus problems, promulgated platitudes and did not mention Karega by name.<\/p>\n

Oberlin has an Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and it released on May 19 a \u201cCampus Climate Report,\u201d which also did not include Karega\u2019s name in its Jewish section.<\/p>\n

During the first week of August 2016 \u2013 five months after the earliest Times <\/em>article about Karega, and fast approaching the start of the 2016-2017 academic year \u2013 Oberlin finally announced that \u201cDr. Karega has been placed on paid<\/em> [emphasis added] leave and will not teach at Oberlin\u201d until \u201cthe faculty governance process \u2026 plays out.\u201d Karega\u2019s attorney accused Oberlin of \u201cpandering to the dictates of a handful of vocal and wealthy religious zealots.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Atlantic<\/em>, back in 1941, invited and published an article on \u201cThe Jewish Problem in America,\u201d in which the journalist (formerly an Episcopal priest) Alfred Jay Nock wrote: \u201cThe problem, stated in the fewest words, is that of maintaining a modus vivendi<\/em> between the American Jew and his fellow citizens which is strong enough to stand any shocks \u2026 such as may occur in the years ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

From New York City, he observed with alarm: \u201c\u2026 in the late summer of 1939 \u2026 anti-Jewish street demonstrations … were going on in Brooklyn, Jackson Heights, the Bronx and Yorkville at the rate of 50 or 60 a week. \u201cThese were assaults, baitings, intimidations, picketings, soapbox speeches, incitements to boycott, and the like.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is not impossible that I shall live to see the N\u00fcrnberg laws reenacted in this country and enforced with vigor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The N\u00fcrnberg \u2013 or Nuremberg \u2013 laws, which were announced by Nazi Germany in 1935, stripped Jews of citizenship and institutionalized their persecution. Happily, Nock lived to see Hitler and Nazism defeated in 1945.<\/p>\n

In 2014, the Nuremberg city council adopted a one-page resolution stating: \u201cWe are decisively opposed to every form of antisemitism\u2026. Jewish life in Nuremberg enjoys our very special protection and our care [and] demonstrations in the context of the Israeli-Palestine conflict must be prevented from being misused as political manifestations of antisemitism.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oberlin\u2019s official online optimism outshines Pollyanna, Pangloss and Pinocchio. But the actual campus \u2013 the college on the ground in Ohio, about 35 miles southwest of Cleveland \u2013 does have a Jewish problem in 2016.<\/p>\n

Ned Glick<\/strong> lives in Vancouver. His baccalaureate is from Oberlin College and his PhD is from Stanford. After teaching at the University of Chicago, he had University of British Columbia appointments in mathematics, in statistics and in the faculty of medicine. He retired to emeritus faculty status in 1992.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Protesters at Oberlin College. (photo by Pteranadons via Wikimedia Commons) (This is Part 1 of a two-part series. The second article\u00a0examines the student-as-customer approach at universities and its relation to identity politics on campus.) New York Times columnist Frank Bruni wrote in a June article that \u201cOberlin College would certainly be in the running\u201d if […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[801,6443,2427],"class_list":["post-21486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-antisemitism","tag-oberlin-college","tag-racism"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}