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OPINIONS

Addressing differences within and without: An open letter from the JSA Board

Op Ed

By: Op Ed

The issue of divestment has caused serious discord amongst Stanford students, and the events of the last few weeks have demonstrated that divisions between campus communities will not mend themselves without intentional intervention. In order to gauge the feelings of members of our own community, the Executive Board of the Jewish Student Association (JSA) conducted a survey of Jewish students last week via the Jewish community email list.

We were happy to learn that many Jewish students feel comfortable expressing their Jewish identity on campus, but we were troubled that many students believe the larger Stanford student body is no longer accepting of all aspects of their Jewish identity. We wish to call on all campus communities, including our own, to recognize the wide range of views within the Jewish community and challenge all students to be critical of the assumptions we make about those with whom we disagree.

The Jewish community at Stanford comprises students with a wide variety of beliefs, and we are proud of our diversity. The JSA, a VSO whose mission is to provide social, cultural, religious, and educational programming to the Stanford Jewish community and the greater campus community, strives to make our community inclusive of all students, regardless of their political views. We could not possibly offer a statement on divestment that would represent the beliefs of all Jewish students. Still, JSA Executives believe it is necessary to address the consequences of the divestment debate.

We are concerned about recent trends in campus discussion that have illuminated a variety of assumptions about the Jewish community. Our survey indicated that many Jewish students, even those not engaged in the debate over divestment, have felt excluded solely due to their Jewish identities. For instance, some reported being silenced in conversations due to their peers’ perception that their Jewish identity relegates them to a place of naïve bias. Others expressed pain because they feel the need to hide their connection to the larger Jewish community. Many described that they do not feel comfortable expressing their love of Israel, an integral aspect of their personal Jewish identity.

Many Jews on campus feel that the assumed connection between opposition to divestment and white supremacy reflects a high level of misunderstanding. This assumption ignores the complex historical and contemporary factors that contribute to opposition to divestment or support for Zionism. It also alienates Jewish students who identify as people of color and as allies of other minority groups. We call on Stanford students to consider these concerns in light of Jewish history and resist the urge to make assumptions about Jewish students’ views.

We also call on Jewish students who oppose divestment to consider that many students in support of divestment are motivated by a genuine desire to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people. We must understand that, for many Stanford students, support for divestment comes from a place of lived experiences dealing with systems of oppression.

As Jewish students, we can work to mend the divisions between our communities by addressing our collective privilege and the power dynamics within campus conversations. We do not surrender our right to defend ourselves against discrimination by doing so. We oppose anti-Semitism, and we must simultaneously oppose all forms of prejudice within the Jewish community and on the Stanford campus. We commit to fighting racism, classism, sexism, Islamophobia, transphobia, homophobia, and xenophobia within our community and beyond it and hold ourselves responsible to work with communities on campus towards these aims.

Our concern for Jewish students does not reflect a belief that our pain is greater or more important than the pain of any other group. Everyone should be alarmed by the discomfort and alienation of any group of Stanford students. As we look towards the rest of our term, JSA Board members are eager to create partnerships that address the concerns of all Stanford students.

We do not ask that anyone change their political beliefs, nor do we wish to impose an artificial unity on campus politics. We implore our peers to remain compassionate as these campus conversations evolve. We encourage all students to make an effort to be critical of our assumptions and to understand the context of the beliefs of those with whom we disagree.

The diversity of our campus is most valuable when we engage with perspectives that challenge our own. We look forward to collaborating with our peers in order to foster inclusion and reconciliation in our Stanford community.

Emma Neiman, ‘16

Joseph Shayani, 16

Asher Kaye, ‘16

Simone Hudson, ‘16

David Kahn, ‘17

Zoe Goldblum, ‘18

On behalf of the JSA Board

Contact the authors of this article through Emma Neiman at eneiman ‘at’ stanford.edu and Joseph Shayani at jshayani ‘at’ stanford.edu.

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  • Liana

    Thank you for this. Well said.

  • Guest

    To those who think they know enough to castigate Israel and find little fault with palestinians please consider that Israel has very real security concerns and do not make security decisions lightly. There are 56 sovereign Muslim countries today (Google organization of the Islamic Committee to see them all) and none of them accept the existence of Israel the worlds’ ONLY Jewish state the size of New Jersey.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iO4UKXmr8zk (9:42)

  • http://www.ihwlaw.com Isaac H. Winer

    Sounds like anti-Semitism is alive and well at Stanford, which has become yet another in the spate of campuses across the US where Jewish students are afraid to express their identity. http://www.amchainitiative.org/

  • Dina Wilson

    Good thing Israel’s military strength far exceeds theirs, doesn’t it?

  • J Leland Kupferberg

    Historians will look back on this strange “progressive” interlude in the annals of academia with an air of bemusement.

    If I didn’t know any better, I think I just read an “open letter” by the JSA Board for eveyone – Jew and Gentile alike – to be “inclusive” and respectful of any and all viewpoints. Methinks the JSA Board had some kind of progressive revelation from on high, and decided that now was the time to remind the progressives in their community that it was time to be…well, progressive.

    At least I think that is what this “open letter” was about, with all its progressive gobbledy-goop about “lived experiences” and “systems of oppression”. And while I initially thought that they were going to actually take a position against divestment, somehow one of the writers (or all of them) had to segue into an obligatory condemnation of “transphobia” followed by a holy recitation of the whole progressive catechism of phobias and demonic “isms”.

    As one who is slightly older than the starry-eyed millennials who penned this, my “lived experiences” make me highly doubtful that these kids had ever had any personal encounters with “systems of oppression” while growing up in the privileged comforts of their North American suburban surroundings.

    By now, it is clear that these hopeless progressive student Judenrat members (look that one up) will not stake any claim at all on behalf of the Jewish State or Jewish national interests. Instead, they opt to sanctimoniously bleat, bleat , bleat their progressive credentials, while insultingly reminding the rest of the “unenlightended” herd about the need to – bleat, bleat, baaaaa, baaaa – be “inclusive” in all the variety of our “conversations” and “lived experiences” and “expressions of identity.” Baaaaaaa. Baaaaaaaa.

    And, of course, from out of nowhere, it seems that one of the writers snuck in an honorable mention about “Jews of color.” Just in case, you know, the rest of the sheep weren’t aware that such folk exist and that, at least in 21st century Stanford U, any kid named Adam Cohen is as likely to be an African American as an Ashkenazi.

    Well done, JSA Board! Consider myself enlightened by the light of your collective prescriptive wisdom. Now, excuse me as I continue on my “Jewish journey” as a fully “lived experience” despite the “systems of oppression” that perpetually threaten to hamper the full expression of my “Jewish identity” (because when you’re a non-practicing progressive Jew, expressions of “identity” – does delicatessen-scented vomit count? – trump actual observance every single time).

  • rab

    What snotty tripe. They’re speaking the language of their campus and so many other campuses. What do you expect from them, to speak as you do? You think that will win them support or friends? Do you not understand that they’ve been cornered by others who use this very language and that those people are backed by many faculty members and a silently complicit administration who are all pretending to wage or accept the waging of war against Israel which in reality is nothing more than war against their campus’s Jewish students? Can you not see that this letter is an attempt to communicate this to their peers without losing their dignity and in the language their peers would understand? Do you not understand how challenging it is for them to fight back when as an organization they also have to represent turncoats who have joined forces (often serving as fig leaves) with those who discriminate against them, leaving this group hamstrung because those betrayers belong to the same group and must be served equitably?

    Instead of writing mean-spirited idiotic attacks, and I’m being kind, why don’t you recognize how hard it is to have written this letter and what a cry of anguish it represents. Why don’t you consider how shameful it is that they have to inform their peers what is going on even at one of this country’s and the world’s finest universities. Like so many other campuses this one has become nothing more than an intellectual hunting ground targeting Jewish students and ensuring they will not be permitted to have the same experience as all other students…because they’re Jewish. So when they reasonably attempt to express this to their community, instead of support, these 20 year olds find themselves being compared by a more experienced and older Jewish person to the Judenrat. Brilliant. You could teach JVP a thing or two about aiding and abetting campus opponents of Jewish groups and students.

  • AJ

    Yes very good. But such large investments in military (and mandatory service) has opportunity costs that are probably not ideal.

  • J Leland Kupferberg

    Yes, I get that. Hearts bleed. Yours does, theirs do. To be clear, what I took from the JSA statement was that it was a cop-out, encapsulated by the following statement:

    “We could not possibly offer a statement on divestment that would represent the beliefs of all Jewish students.”

    Alright, then. They represent nothing at all, other than to be sensitive to all viewpoints and to take a position on none of them. Imagine if the early Zionists operated with that kind of motto.

    It’s taking political correctness to an absurd result. Do you really need a Jewish Student Association to chant the same holy progressive catechism recited by every single student association at Stanford? It the obvious play, taken from the standard progressive script.

    The more ballsy move would have been to stake out a position on the issue of divestment, to call out its proponents as the moral hypocrites that they are. Now, if they used flowery, polite language to do so, I have no issue with that. I’m all game for shaming your opponents with the persuasion of your arguments and the grace of your delivery.

    But this? The JSA clearly opted for the path of least resistance, one that obviously gratified the writers’ sense of their own morally superior ability to stand above the fray, as they raise the banner for “civilized debate.” How courageous, how admirable…and how utterly preachy can you get.

    At least the proponents of divestment are confident enough in their position that they could care less if a student “feels pain” upon hearing their less than progressively couched arguments (though harsh arguments against Israel are mostly mandated by progressives in general).

    What I gather from the JSA statement is that a bunch of its writers may very well agree with the underlying principles of divestment, but in a gesture of intellectual noblesse oblige, they are at least willing to go to bat for those fellow Jews who otherwise want the right to articulate their support for the Jewish State in a “secure environment.” How charitable of them to make the request!

    Now, wouldn’t it be great if Jewish students at Stanford could elect a Jewish Student Association body that actually took a collective stand in defense of the Jewish State and (take a deep breath) the Jewish religion? Or is it more important to keep the pegs secured on that “Big Tent”, so that all viewpoints are accommodated, and no preferences – for or against – are ever enunciated, other than to uphold precious progressive values concerning debate, inclusion, diversity, and tolerance?

    Judging from the comments here, a lot of millennials have to start the hard work of deprogramming themselves. It’s not at all “courageous” to keep enunciating the usual self-congratulatory platitudes and to presume that everyone else needs to be “reminded’ to act as you are acting.

    In the days before Progressive values neutered the culture of debate on campus, we used to have a word for the kind of conduct that the JSA is engaging in: we called it “sanctimonious.”

  • rab

    The person being sanctimonious may be the person who seeks to have others do his fighting for him. You and I agree about the overall premise and I’m all for the fight, but we differ on what obligations Jewish students might have.

    I think students should have the opportunity to be students. This opportunity, of course, is being afforded to all students except Jewish ones who find themselves in the cross-hairs of these campus wars. The Jewish students have three options. One: they may join a Jewish organization and almost by default find themselves embroiled in this campus battle the other side is more than happy to bring on. Yes, I know there’s a group calling themselves “Jewish” Voice for Peace, but seeing as they feel comfortable disrupting Auschwitz liberation commemorations (http://legalinsurrection.com/2015/01/anti-israel-activists-disrupt-nyc-council-vote-commemorating-liberation-of-auschwitz/), we may view them as they are, the enemy.

    Two: they may join the anti-Israel side or the pseudo-pro-Israel side that provides nearly as much criticism of Israel and its supporters as the anti-Israelis, but apparently they’re Zionists. Joining these groups forces engagement on this issue, but it also, by default pits many of these students against most of the Israel-supporters.

    Three: they can simply ignore the entire mess and live as students who disengaged from this conflict. This leaves them also out of Jewish campus organizations which, almost be default, find themselves in the front lines of these battles. The majority of Jewish students on campus belong to this group.

    I understand the third group and those who seek to follow in its path. Why should these young men and women, living in a foreign country, often with a tenuous link to Israel and many without even a strong link to Jewish heritage and culture, take up the fight for Israel? Why should we expect them to take it up? Let them be students, even if it means the other side wins the campus war. You are more likely to have a stronger and larger Jewish community – which is precisely what these BDSers are targeting, since they know these campus votes are mostly meaningless other than in engaging some leftist students, but a weakened future Jewish community can be a serious problem for Israel and the Jewish people in general – both in the short term but especially in the long term if Jewish students have a positive experience as a campus community.

    So here you have the leaders of a group seeking to cater to all Jewish students who speak in a language that prevails on campus these days. This offends you and brings forth an attack? Why not have some sympathy for their plight, understand that they didn’t ask for this fight and are not really ready for it. Also, they probably shouldn’t be engaged in it because for the most part they are outnumbered and those who fight are segregating themselves, leaving those who don’t fight completely disengaged. It’s better they met, had a good time, became friends for life, treasure their connection to their heritage and save the fighting for later on when they’re older, wiser and better able to manage it.

  • J Leland Kupferberg

    Rab, to be perfectly honest, who knows what a “Jew” is anymore – at least those who aren’t from the Orthodox community? If it’s just a mish-mash of people from various ethnic backgrounds, with a hodge-podge of religious beliefs, there is really no common ground to relate.

    Perhaps this is what the JSA is responding to: A coherent “Jewish” community no longer exists at Stanford, or at any other campuses for that matter, with the obvious exception of Yeshiva University.

    Frankly, I don’t much care for the “feelings” and “pain” of individual Jewish students who simply want to be left alone to enjoy their “heritage.”

    Why even bother wasting energy on the indifferent or on those who are adverse to the Jewish State? This is what I’m getting at. It’s time to stop pandering to those groups of Jewish students who contribute little of their thoughts and energies to the Jewish collective other than “savoring” their heritage like it was some kind of tasty bagel from Zabar’s.

    Indeed, groups like the JSA should instead attend to the needs of the pro-Israel activist core, whose opinions are the only ones that count in the end. Everyone else is – and I’m sorry if it sounds harsh – dead weight and irrelevant to the “conversation.”

  • rab

    That’s not only pessimistic, it misses a couple of important points. The first is that people change over time, especially as they become older, they tend to reflect and return to their roots. I’ve seen this happen with Jewish couples, for example, once they have children and want to have them gain some perspective on Jewish life. I’ve seen it happen with people who are in their late twenties, early thirties and who begin to “seriously” look for a life partner. I’ve even seen it on Birthright, where younger adults come back from a relatively short trip with new perspectives not only regarding Israel but also regarding themselves and where they stand with respect to their personal connection to Jewish life.

    The second issue is that Jewish life has always been about more than just religion. It has always found expression in realms of community and history not to mention a sense of longing for a certain past and place (Zion, of course). There have always been Jews who are not sticklers for the rules but feel very strongly connected nonetheless. Certainly over the past 300-350 years this has been true and that’s a very long time. However, I can also point you to a couple of thousand years ago. Do you suppose the Torah keeps admonishing the Israelites to keep rules because they’re keeping them? My point is that we can’t simply dismiss those whose connection is different than others’. We also shouldn’t assume we all carry some truth others are missing.

    Regarding the treatment of the Israel-opponents, I agree they deserve to be ignored and pushed aside. However, the role of the Jewish organizations is to be open to Jewish people. By definition, they are a home to the anti-Israeli Jews. And, I suspect, the rules wouldn’t allow them to discriminate even if they wanted to do so.

  • J Leland Kupferberg

    Rab, in actual fact, the Jewish world historically was never as inclusive as you’re making it out to be. If you crossed certain red lines, you were beyond the pale.

    When, over a thousand years ago, a group of Jews decided that they would follow the written Torah alone but not the Oral Law, our ancestors determined that they would no longer be part of the community as Jews. You might know those people as Karaites. And for centuries, they lived apart from Jews.

    A thousand years before that, when Paul of Tarsus determined that Christians did not need to keep Torah law in order to enter into what had formerly been a Jewish sect, that, too, was the final break.

    My point is, a cohesive Jewish world has always presented red lines and boundaries to determine who is in and who is out.

    If ancestry and religious belief and political convictions no longer form the basis for any kind of consensus or collective action, then being a “Jew” has no meaning or substance at all.

    Thus, a student with partial Jewish ancestry, who rejects the Jewish religion, while castigating the Jewish State, has no real claim of “common identity” with me, despite the fact that he nevertheless expresses “pride” in his vestigial “Jewish identity.”

    Rather than resort to objective boundaries and red lines, the JSA looks to include any student with a subjective belief that they are covered by the adjective “Jewish.”

    At that point, the whole enterprise becomes nothing more than a collective therapy session which does nothing except to ensure that everyone with a subjective claim to the noun, “Jew,” will feel included in the “conversation” – kind of like sharing your thin stick of Wrigley’s gum with the rest of the classroom.

    Sounds nice in theory, but idiotically impractical all the same.

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