[Editor’s note: Open letters published in the Bi-College News do not reflect the views of the publication, its staff, or its editorial board. This letter represents only the views of the author. The Bi-Co News continues to strive to reflect the perspectives and experiences of all students, faculty, and staff across the Consortium.]
Last summer a friend of mine on the faculty at Haverford College asked if I would speak on campus to help him and his colleagues understand my choice, as a rabbi and Religion Professor, to identify as an anti-Zionist. The talk I gave, “Judaism Does (Not) Equal Zionism: Exploring American Jews’ Complicated Relationship to Israel/Palestine,” detailed the history of American Jewish anti-Zionism and explained that, on this topic as on all others, Jews are not of one mind.
It never crossed my mind that the President of Haverford would receive a letter from the US House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce that would require her to defend allowing me to speak on the topic, which the letter described as promoting “a culture of antisemitic discrimination.”…