We write to you as Jewish faculty of Trinity College to express our deep concern over your Nov. 7 email regarding messages students left on chalkboards that expressed solidarity with Palestine, called on the college to divest from genocide and denounced the college’s suppression of their freedom of assembly.
We resoundingly reject the assertion that statements of solidarity with Palestine constitute harassment, intimidation or antisemitism. As Jewish members of the Trinity community, we take all instances of religious, racial and ethnic discrimination seriously and are committed to combatting them wherever they arise. It is for this very reason that we contest the conflation of Israel with Jews writ large — a conflation implicit in your email, which suggested that a group had been harmed without naming who that group was. This omission, framed as a gesture of administrative neutrality, was in fact “overtly political” in its targeting of pro-Palestinian expression. To assume that a diverse group of Jews such as ourselves, with a broad range of relationships to Jewish religious practice, community and history, would or should feel unsafe or targeted by pro-Palestinian expression or criticism of Israel is itself a troubling and antisemitic premise. While we understand that some on campus may have initially misunderstood the chalkings as a personal attack, as an educational institution we must insist on the clear distinction between political claims about a state and animus towards a group of people.
We are also concerned about the memo because it seems to have jumped to the conclusion that these chalk messages violated campus policies, a conclusion unwarranted by the facts or previous practice at Trinity, resulting in an atmosphere of confusion in which many faculty, students and staff now fear to speak freely.
As a community we may have political disagreements. What does unite us is our commitment to our students’ right to freedom of expression and our belief that respect for our students entails engaging with their political concerns, including their calls for divestment.
In the spirit of building community, we would also like to invite you to an alternative Shabbat service on Dec. 5 from 5-7 p.m. at the Trinity Social Justice Institute space next to the bookstore. All are welcome and food will be provided.
Sincerely,
Gabriel Salgado, Assistant Professor of Political Science
Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot, Assistant Professor of Anthropology
Jane Nadel-Klein, Professor of Anthropology
Shoshana Goldstein, Assistant Professor of Urban Studies
Cheryl Greenberg, Paul E. Raether Distinguished Professor of History, Emerita
Rebecca Pappas, Associate Professor of Theater and Dance
Johnny E. Williams, Professor of Sociology
Boris Litvin, Reitemeyer Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science
Andrew Conroe, Lecturer in Anthropology
Barbara Sicherman, Kenan Professor, Emerita
Hernán Flom, Senior Lecturer in Political Science
Leslie Ribovich, Director of the Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life; Associate Professor of Religious Studies and Public Policy & Law
Eugene Leach, Professor of History and American Studies Emeritus
Carli Poisson, Lecturer in Neuroscience
Brittany Starr, Lecturer in the Allan K. Smith Center for Writing and Rhetoric
Miranda Sklaroff, Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science.
President Lugo did not, contrary to the argument made in this letter, target or attempt to censure any viewpoint. Rather, he appropriately denounced the _method_ of communication — a cowardly, anonymized campaign of graffiti across school grounds — as having been intended to intimidate and ostracize those who disagreed. To argue otherwise is completely disingenuous.
As for those who wrote this, their ethnicity is irrelevant. That they chose to identify themselves in ethnic terms in an attempt to embarrass and undermine others does nothing to burnish their argument. Perhaps the day will come when they choose to stand and be counted as Jews for some other purpose than denouncing Israel. In the meantime, let them enjoy the company of those who would hold them in contempt for who and what they are were it not for their abject self-abasement.
Everything about this comment is so hilariously bigoted and hypocritical. You denounce the graffiti as “cowardly anonymity” while *leaving an anonymous comment of your own.* You say that the Jewish identities of the writers is irrelevant—and then call them self-hating Jews. You call graffiti a “campaign of harassment and intimidation” while you yourself support a campaign of harassment and intimidation spearheaded by Hillel, targeting Trinity students you don’t agree with. And yet you yourself heard none of the hypocrisy or bigotry while writing this asinine comment. We Jews have a phrase for people like you, anonymous and cowardly commenter. You are a shande fur de goyim.
Adam, aren’t you the same guy who was quoted in the Insider as arguing that “From the River to the Sea” isn’t really an irredentist call for Israel’s annihilation? Come on, man.