Rabbi condemns Ivy League profs who embolden anti-Israel activists

A Jewish rabbi recently wrote an open letter directed at Yale University faculty, criticizing them and other Ivy League professors who participate in anti-Israel protests. 

Rabbi Elchanan Poupko, who is “an 11th-generation rabbi, a writer, and a teacher,” published his letter on Sept. 12 in the New Haven Register. 

Poupko states that “the magnitude of antisemitism harbored in the pro-Palestinian campus movement becomes undeniable.” He cites the case of a Jewish student at Columbia University who faced consistent anti-Semitic harassment from colleagues, despite the fact that he was not involved in any overt pro-Israel advocacy. 

Certain students allegedly texted him while he was away from school for Passover: “You probably shouldn’t come back to campus. It isn’t safe here for you.”

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The letter continues, citing the impacts of anti-Semitism on Jewish students: “Today, on campus, 44% of Jewish students are afraid to admit they are Jewish, 15% of all students show attitudes hostile to Israel, and 16% of all students show attitudes that are hostile to Jews.”

“Simply put, your Jewish students are either quietly leaving your campus, taking classes they deem to be less hostile, or hiding their Judaism altogether. Any professor who can sleep well at night knowing this is taking place on their campus and still does not speak out, has a great deal of soul-searching to do,” the rabbi continues. 

Poupko believes that pro-Palestinian protests on college and university campuses do not actually benefit Palestinians in Gaza, who are meant to be the supposed beneficiaries of such advocacy. Instead, such activism only hurts Jewish students: “It sends Jewish students a clear message they are not welcome on campus.”

“The fact that so many professors at Yale and Harvard are willing to march with and express support for the pro-Palestinian movement, that fact that so few are willing to march with their Jewish students and for Israel despite the fact that quietly most professors do not believe this way, are more of a testimony to the power of the masses and mobs over reason, than a testimony to public support,” the letter states.

“It is time for faculty and administrations to restore calm, curb the tide of hate, make sure all students feel welcome, and make sure their institutions are indeed of higher learning rather than battlegrounds for culture wars and hateful movements,” Poupko concludes.

Members of the Yale University faculty have created a chapter of the anti-Israel group Faculty for Justice in Palestine, which defines itself as “a faculty collective of Yale University who support the cause of Palestinian liberation.” 

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“We understand the struggle for Palestinian freedom to be aligned with anti-colonial movements and struggles in many parts of the world,” the group’s description page states. “FJP-Yale pledges support to all of our students and colleagues who are using words, research, music, social media, and civil disobedience to actively protest the war on Gaza and struggle for justice in Palestine.” 

Professors are not the only ones advancing the anti-Israel cause at Yale. Students from the Ivy League school made an Instagram post in May advocating for “open intifada” and “escalat[ing] disruption.”

Campus Reform has contacted Yale University and its chapter of Faculty for Justice in Palestine for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.