Rabbi's Blog

Dear Haverim,

This time, for most American Jews, the venom of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on university campuses – from some students and even faculty members – feels so threatening and personal, even more, a betrayal.

Jews have always believed in education as a path to not only upward mobility and economic security, but as a mitzvah, a touchstone of repairing society, a way of creating mentschlichkeit/human decency within individuals.  Even though Jews know that human decency isn’t guaranteed by an education, many feel, as Reconstructionism’s founder Rabbi Mordechai Kaplan said, that learning is the “lifelong education of the conscience.”

As one young woman, awaiting the November 1 “early decision” date, said:  “I was going to apply for early decision at Cornell or Penn.  But then, I went to visit the Penn campus, and I saw people ripping down the missing Israeli hostages posters….”

As a Penn alumnus, I feel anger and shame at what the administration has allowed to fester by a milquetoast statement after the October 7 massacre against 1400 innocent Israeli men, women and children, and the over 240 Israelis and others taken hostage.

Cornell hasn’t fared much better, where murderous threats against Jewish students forced a lockdown, and a professor described Hamas as “exhilarating and energizing.”  At Tulane, three Jewish students were attacked when they were counter-protesting a pro-Palestine rally.  As one parent said:  “Rankings be damned.  I want a place where my son will be safe.” Many of the UC schools have had vicious graffiti and chanting: “Kill the Jews.”

Of course, there has been a certain level of tension between groups like “Students For Palestine” and pro-Israel groups on campuses for decades, but the recent level of indecency, praising Hamas murderers as liberators and threats online like: “If you see Jews on campus, follow them home and slit their throats,” has shocked the FBI, the Biden Administration and every Jewish parent and student.

In the past, Jewish students have sometimes been reluctant to come forward or have felt that as a “privileged minority” they shouldn’t speak out, and, even if they did, the university administration wouldn’t see prejudice against them as part of the DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) community.

Hopefully, there will now be more assertiveness by Jewish students and faculty, and, perhaps, eventually, more recognition that anti-Semitism is still a problem in our country.  It may get worse before it gets better, but it will get better.

That’s why this Friday, November 10, at 7:00 p.m., our topic will be “Anti-Semitism On Our Campuses: What’s Happening and What Can We Do About It?” with our guest speaker, UC Berkeley Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky.  (RSVP here)

As Dean Chemerinsky has said:  “Almost immediately after the Hamas attacks on October 7, shocking messages celebrating the terrorism were voiced on college campuses across the country.  Expression of anti-Semitism has become frighteningly common in the last few weeks.  It is important to understand why this is happening and how things have changed, and it is essential to think about what can be done, especially to protect Jewish students, and to go forward in a meaningful way.”  (Click here to read Dean Chemerinsky’s LA Times Op Ed.) We will also remember Kristallnacht before Mourners Kaddish and honor Veterans. 

Erwin Chemerinsky became the 13th Dean of Berkeley Law on July 1, 2017, when he joined the faculty as the Jesse H. Choper Distinguished Professor of Law. Prior to assuming this position, from 2008-2017, he was the founding Dean and Distinguished Professor of Law, and Raymond Pryke Professor of First Amendment Law, at University of California, Irvine School of Law. Before that, he was the Alston and Bird Professor of Law and Political Science at Duke University from 2004-2008, and from 1983-2004 was a professor at the University of Southern California Law School, including as the Sydney M. Irmas Professor of Public Interest Law, Legal Ethics, and Political Science. From 1980-1983, he was an assistant professor at DePaul College of Law.

He is the author of sixteen books, including leading casebooks and treatises about constitutional law, criminal procedure, and federal jurisdiction. His most recent book is Worse Than Nothing: The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism. He is also the author of more than 200 law review articles, a contributing writer for the Opinion section of the Los Angeles Times and he writes regular columns for the Sacramento Bee, the ABA Journal and the Daily Journal, as well as frequent op-eds in newspapers across the country. He frequently argues appellate cases, including in the United States Supreme Court.

In 2016, Dean Chemerinsky was named a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and, in 2017, National Jurist magazine again named Dean Chemerinsky as the most influential person in legal education in the United States. In 2022, he became the President of the Association of American Law Schools. He received his B.S. at Northwestern University and his J.D. at Harvard Law School.

This week will be a powerful one for us all.  November 7 will mark a month since Hamas’ massacre and hostage-taking, and November 9-10 will be the 85^th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust, Kristallnacht.  Please be with us this Friday evening (RSVP here) to remember the past and to change the future.

Chazak, Chazak, V’nitchazek/Be Strong, Be Strong And Let Us Strengthen One Another,

Rabbi Arnold Rachlis