The English historian Edward Gibbon (1737 to 1794), wrote six volumes of The History of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. His conclusions have been disputed ever since. But he ushered in a new era of historical and social theory that has dominated Western thought for centuries.

We like to find simple easy explanations — which never work out exactly the way we think they will. We live in a hyper world of facile theories, both about what is happening in the world today and what is likely to happen in the future. A world divided between good and bad people, rival religions, Zionists and anti-Zionists, and almost every other conceivable human political division. Many of them claiming moral high ground and predicting sea changes within the tide of human history. Theories are fine. But they are not reality.

I was brought up in a culture where there were divisions and disagreements, hatreds, and prejudices. But there was a veneer of politeness and sensibility that acted as a safety net. “I might hate you, but I won’t say so in public.” Hypocrisy? Perhaps, but it made life livable. This has now been swept away by the vicious destructive banality and corruption of the media and their pathetic victims.

I always felt the antisemitism embedded in British and most of European societies. Whenever our Jewish school played non-Jewish schools, we were assailed by Jew hatred. The artsy world tended to side with the Palestinians. One of the most vociferous opponents of Israel at Cambridge in my day was an aspiring Jewish actress and of course there was Roald Dahl. Of course there were many good Britons who were if not Philo-semitic at least understood a Jewish point of view that saw autonomy rather than assimilation as a solution to its sense of alienation.

Similarly, in the United States, a vein of antisemitism has run through that society since Peter Stuyvesant tried to ban Jews from New York. In 1862, in the heat of the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant expelled all Jews from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Mississippi. And Harvard had antisemitic restrictions until after the second World War.

Even so, for many Jews escaping the killing fields of Europe, America was a Goldene Medina. It is all relative. Let us not forget that the gates of the US were slammed shut before the Second World War. Jews were looked on as outsiders — and when they did come, were pressured to assimilate.

For a short period in American history, there was a time when the idea that the Jews deserved to have a homeland of their own was accepted — even if the US often refused to get involved or took an apathetic position to Israel. Yet now that seems to be backsliding — and support for Israel is in peril.

The issue now is not whether Israel is right or wrong, good or bad, whether one can criticize or excoriate it. But whether it has any right to exist at all.

In New York, which was once considered to be a Jewish city, the man who would be mayor believes Israel as a Jewish state needs to be obliterated. We have experienced shock after shock these past two years. Hamas and Iran, dedicated to killing Jews, are praised and glorified. Not only our enemies, but even from within our own ranks, opposition to the idea of a Jewish state is returning to the time during the last century when most American Jews were anti-Zionist.

Ideological opponents delight in the claim that there’s a fundamental change in American society. And nearly everybody (except Iran, of course) is anxious to say that they are not antisemitic, heaven forbid. It’s just that they object to Israel.

And here we come to the pig. The Bible says that kosher animals have to have a cloven hoof and chew cud. Cows have both. Pigs only have one. Why is the pig picked as the epitome of non-kosher more than any other animal?

The answer is that the pig could put forward its two feet and show that he must be kosher because he has  cloven hooves. But look further and you see that it doesn’t chew the cud. The pig may protest it is kosher. But it is not! The current wave of dogmatic liberals who are products of years of infiltration and indoctrination, still want to claim they are not antisemites heaven forbid.

Lord knows, throughout my career, I have criticized many aspects of the secular and religious Zionism of Israeli Society and Jewish life. I know full well what our faults, hypocrisies, and failures are, and wish we would not have war imposed on us with all its cruelties.

But when it comes to Israel as a Jewish state (in an imperfect world where nationalities still hold sway), the right to exist the way that we want to, is incorporated into most documents of human rights.

It remains rooted in the idea that we can choose how we want to live. And that includes the right of Judaism to a state of its own — predicated on the fact that no matter how the other nations of the world may have been polite, supportive, and helpful, there are within them, many who wish to see the destruction of the Jewish state and for that reason, they remind me of pigs. Yet most people love pigs.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to face an existential threat. The war in Gaza and its casualties continues. China is rearming Iran as fast as it can. North Korea and Pakistan are offering nuclear support. They are encouraging Iran to go on with its attempted genocide of Israel. Much of what is left of the Jewish community in Iran is either already dead or imprisoned. There is still no end to this. We have to stay strong.

Nothing remains static. That’s what we can learn from history. For all the fine theories, expert opinions, and predictions, we never know for certain how things will work out. And yet we soldier on. We cannot rest on our laurels. In the first battle the Israelites fought against Amalek it was Moshe holding his hands up high that made us realize that it is not by physical strength alone — but with spirit — that wars are won.

The author is a writer and rabbi in New York.

The post Why Pig Is Not Kosher and the Hidden Face of Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

In a stinging blow to the BDS campaign’s international drive to economically isolate Israel, University of California (UC) President Michael Drake said Wednesday in a letter to university chancellors across the entire UC system that student governments operating on UC campuses may not enact boycotts of companies “based on their association with a particular country.”

Noting that university polices “require that financial and business decisions be grounded in sound business practices including competitive bidding,” Drake stressed that the same principle applies to student governments within the UC system, one of the largest public university systems in the country.

“Actions by University entities to implement boycotts of companies based on their association with a particular country would not align with these sound business practices,” Drake wrote.

“The right of individuals and groups to express their views on public matters is distinct from the responsibility of University entities to conduct their financial affairs in a manner consistent with University policy and applicable law,” Drake continued. “This letter reaffirms both: the rights of students, faculty, and staff to express their views, and the university’s obligation to ensure that its units do not engage in financial boycotts of companies associated with a particular country.”

UC student governments have endorsed the BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement against Israel before, blurring distinctions in the public mind separating the stances of particular anti-Israel activists from official institutional policy. Such ambiguity is now a liability for any university whose budget is supplemented by taxpayer funds awarded by the federal government in the form of research grants and contracts. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has ordered the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other entities to freeze funding to universities participating in a boycott of Israel, as well as those operating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs which practice racial discrimination.

Launched in 2005, the BDS campaign opposes Zionism — a movement supporting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination — and supports political demands that threaten Israel’s survival as as a Jewish state. It seeks to isolate the country internationally with economic, political, and cultural boycotts. Official guidelines issued for the campaign say that “projects with all Israeli academic institutions should come to an end” and delineate specific restrictions that its adherents should abide by, for instance denying letters of recommendation to students who seek to study in Israel.

In Feb. 2024, UCLA’s student government passed a resolution endorsing the BDS movement, as well as false accusation that Israel is committing a genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.

“The Israeli government has carried out a genocidal bombing campaign and ground invasion against Palestinians in Gaza — intentionally targeting hospitals universities, schools, shelters, churches, mosques, homes, neighborhoods, refugee camps, ambulances, medical personnel, [United Nations] workers, journalists and more,” claimed the resolution, passed 10-3 by the UCLA Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC). “Let it be resolved that the Undergraduate Student Association of UCLA formally call upon the UC Regents to withdraw investments in securities, endowments, mutual funds, and other monetary instruments … providing material assistance to the commission or maintenance of flagrant violations of international law.”

Only days earlier, the UC Davis student government passed legislation adopting BDS.

“This bill prohibits the purchase of products from corporations identified as profiting from the genocide and occupation of the Palestinian people by the BDS National Committee,” reads the measure, titled Senate Bill (SB) #52. “This bill seeks to address the human rights violations of the nation-state and government of Israel and establish a guideline of ethical spending.”

Such policies would be guided by a “BDS List” of targeted companies curated by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), a list which includes Puma, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Airbnb, Disney and Sabra. The language of the legislation afforded the UC Davis student association the authority to add more.

Powers enumerated in the bill include veto power over all vendor contracts, which SJP specifically applied to “purchase orders for custom t-shirts,” a provision with implications for pro-Israel groups on campus.

“No ASUCD funds shall be committed to the purchases of products or services of any corporation identified by the BDS List as being complicit in the violation of the human rights guaranteed to Palestinian civilians,” read the bill.

Responding to the resolutions two months later, in April 2024, the UC System said in a statement that it has always opposed “calls for boycott against and divestment from” the state of Israel.

“While the University affirms the right of our community members to express diverse viewpoints, a boycott of this sort impinges on the academic freedom of our students and faculty and the unfettered exchanges of ideas on our campuses,” the statement declared. “Through careful management of the university’s retirement and endowment funds, UC investment provides a stable and growing revenue stream that benefits current and retired employees and supports the university’s education, research, and public service mission.”

Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.

The post University of California Bans Student Government Boycotts of Israel in Blow to BDS first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

The shape of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and antisemitism was changed again in June by deadly attacks on Jews by “free Palestine” terrorists, by the Israeli and American attack on Iranian nuclear and regime facilities, and by the victory of Democratic Socialist BDS supporter Zohran Mamdani in the Democratic primary for New York City mayor.

Taboos about bashing Israel in politics have been broken, as have taboos regarding overt expressions of antisemitic hatred in politics as well as culture.

BDS and antisemitism in June were dramatically reshaped by the war against Iran, and by expanding unrest in the US aimed at the Trump administration’s enforcement of immigration laws. The US attack against Iranian nuclear sites raised fears of Iranian backed terrorism directed against Jews and Jewish institutions to even higher levels.

In the case of street protests over immigration enforcement and then Iran, the same networks which had mobilized against Israel in 2023-2024 have been at work. These include pro-Hamas organizations, National Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestinian Youth Movement, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, and Within Our Lifetime, which have urged their members to join protests. Protests in Los Angeles and other cities against immigration enforcement prominently featured Mexican, Palestinian, Hamas and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine flags as well as slogans like “Death to the occupation, from the West Bank to LA.”

Individual attacks included:

• In Boulder, CO, an Egyptian illegal immigrant, Mohammed Sabry Soliman, shouted “death to Zionists” as he doused a group of elderly Jewish marchers with flammable liquid, setting several on fire;
• A brick with the words “Free Palestine” thrown through the window of a kosher supermarket in Brookline, MA;
• On Long Island, three Jewish owned businesses were vandalized in one night and a Jewish center was vandalized with a banner reading “50,000 dead Gazan children”;
• The windows of a Jewish-owned cafe in San Francisco were smashed and vandalized with “Intifada,” “Death 2 Israel is a Promise” and “Die Zionist.” Several assaults of Jewish individuals were also reported in San Francisco;
• In Ohio Jewish Rep. Max Miller (R-OH) was the target of a driver who attempted to run him off the road while yelling “death to Israel” and waving a Palestinian flag. “Northeast Ohio man” Feras Hamdan was arrested;
• In Britain, terrorists from the Palestine Action group broke into an Royal Air Force base and vandalized aircraft. The organization, which is suspected of being Iranian-funded, was then finally proscribed as a terrorist group by the British government sparking massive and violent street demonstrations. A pro-Israel counter-protestor, whom the London police chief complained was “damned stupid,” was threatened with arrest;
• A Holocaust memorial and synagogue in Paris were vandalized, as was a Holocaust memorial in Ottawa. An unnamed city employee was later arrested and charged;
• A Melbourne synagogue was vandalized twice in the same week with “Iran is da bomb” and “Free Palestine”;
• A group of more that 100 domestic terrorists attacked a Belgian defense factory and destroyed over $1 million of equipment thought intended for Israel. The equipment was actually intended for Ukraine.

A variety of incidents were reported on campuses including the destruction of a flower garden at the University of Michigan, for which Pro-Hamas activists took responsibility, swastikas carved into the exterior of a building at Georgetown University, and spray-painted Hamas slogans at Williams College, the University of Portland, the University of Denver, and California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

The conflict between Israel and Iran has also raised the potential of attacks against Americans and Jews. The FBI announced that it was increasing surveillance of of Iranian cells in the US over fears of attacks. The FBI also arrested 11 Iranian illegals on various charges including several with Hezbollah connections. In one case, a pro-Israel summit in Dallas was canceled after organizers received “indirect and direct threats made by American, pro-Hamas, Jihadist groups, who issued calls to ‘target’ the Israel Summit and the private facility where the event was slated to be held.”

Underscoring the connections between Hamas and supporters in the West, freed hostage Shlomo Ziv reported that his captors had shown him images of protests at Columbia University and claimed that “You see, we have our own people everywhere,” and “that Hamas has an ‘army’ operating out of Gaza that focuses specifically on media and sending Hamas propaganda and messaging throughout America.”

Connections between Hamas and protestors at Columbia were also alleged in the Federal indictment of Tarek Bazrouk, who is being held on several charges of assault against Jewish individuals. Bazrouk is alleged to have been a member of a chat group that received updates from Hamas’ Al Qassam brigades spokesman.

Universities and colleges continue to reel from the Trump administration’s funding cutbacks and threatened restrictions of foreign students. While state allocations to public universities have been cut, private universities have yet to face additional pressures such as increased endowment taxes. Among those announcing cuts and layoffs was Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Many universities which provided bridge funding to researchers have now begun to scale back support. Efforts to solicit corporate and private funding have increased. In one case, Harvard University has turned to a Turkish private equity firm to fund a lab while Georgetown University continues to expand its dependence on Qatari donations, which includes ownership and operation of the School of Foreign Service in Doha. Yale University reportedly has begun to sell of its holdings in private equity in order to raise cash.

Other universities and consortia have sued to have new indirect funding cuts revoked, and another court ruled that the National Institutes of Health must restore funding to a number of DEI and LGBTQ grants that had been terminated, calling the administration’s move “racial discrimination and discrimination against America’s LGBTQ community.” Yet another judge ruled that the administration had no power to bar international students from Harvard.

The administration’s losses in district courts over its ability to restrict foreign students and funding may also be pressuring it to compromise. Formal mechanisms to nominally protect Jewish students from harassment and intimidation are likely to be part of any agreement.

Elsewhere, universities have been pressured to take action to prevent the appearance of supporting antisemitic protests. Goldsmiths, University of London, published a long-awaited report documenting the extent of antisemitic harassment aimed at students and faculty. The independent report took three years to complete and does not name individuals responsible, but some indication was given when a number of organizations withdrew from engaging with the inquiry, charging that it “marginalizes Palestinians.”

The University of Toronto Governing Council was presented with an irregular motion that proposed banning encampments and adopting the IHRA working definition of antisemitism. Members of the council overwhelmingly rejected the proposals. University representatives apologized for letting a culture of antisemitism develop.

Efforts to reign in anti-Israel faculty and academic units have also been mixed. At Brown University, the notorious Center for Middle East Studies, a nexus of pro-Hamas activity and provider of K-12 resources, will become an independent unit. But at Harvard Divinity School the Religion and Public Life program, equally notorious for its hostility toward Israel and enthusiasm for Hamas, has been dismantled.

In contrast to ambiguous moves on the part of American institutions, universities in Europe continue to embrace BDS and anti-Israeli politics. Queen’s University in Ireland announced that it was following the example of Trinity College Dublin and ending all investment in Israeli companies and academic ties with Israeli universities. Increasingly European academics point to the attendance of students who have served in the military at Israeli universities as a rationale for boycotts.

With the summer break underway, faculty members are assessing the extent of damage to their institutions and professions caused by the Trump administration’s funding cuts and threats to foreign students. As key universities such as Harvard and Columbia inch toward concessions to administration demands, faculty members find themselves caught between their self-imposed cultural requirement to ‘resist’ Trump and the need to restore Federal funding.

States have also begun to introduce post-tenure reviews or eliminate tenure altogether for faculty.

Manipulation of tenure committees by radical anti-Zionist faculty members has long been a method to undermine and purge departments of pro-Israel scholars.

More evidence also continues to emerge regarding both the overall faculty support for pro-Hamas protests as well as individual cases of harassment and intimidation. One new lawsuit alleges that well known Israel hater, MIT professor Michel DeGraff, targeted Israeli graduate students with social media and letter writing campaigns which resulted in the students being harassed by strangers.

The intensity of antisemitic hatred among some faculty was illustrated in Britain where Middlesex University lecturer Tarek Younis demanded that “our work isn’t done until all Zionists are removed from our institutions and shamed, alongside all racists, into nothingness.” Younis also participated in a legal effort by Muslim lawyers to remove Hamas from the list of terror groups.

Another example came at the University of Sydney where biology instructor Fahad Ali was investigated by the police after stating on social media “F**k sanctions, I want Zionists executed like we executed Nazis.” A class action lawsuit has also been filed against the University of Sydney over explicit support for Hamas from other faculty members.

In an American example, well-known Israel opponent Jonathan Brown, chair of Georgetown University’s Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Alwaleed bin Talal chair of Islamic Civilization in the School of Foreign Service, called on Iran to conduct a “symbolic strike” against American forces in the Gulf region. The university administration claimed it was “appalled” by the statement.

BDS and anti-Israel activity on campus has diminished for the summer as activists participate in pro-Hamas, pro-Iran, and anti-Trump street protests. Several hunger strikes have ended including at Stanford University, while others have been launched — but the strategy attracted little attention this past academic year.

As if to illustrate the intersectional nature of opposition, BDS and Mamdani supporter, actor Cynthia Nixon, announced that her child has begun a hunger strike “for Gaza” along with other members of Jewish Voice for Peace. Nixon herself claims to have participated in a two day hunger strike in November 2023.

Finally, responding to the strikes on Iran, and in another illustration that the ‘Palestinian cause” is a stalking horse for broader anti-American and anti-Western movements, the National Students for Justice in Palestine attacked the US and Israel saying, “The unprovoked attacks the US and the Zionist entity have launched against Iran prove only one thing: imperialism in the region will not stop at suffocating Palestine. From Iraq to Lebanon, Libya, Yemen, Syria, and now Iran, the Empire [sic] demands constant expansion and destabilization.”

The author is a contributor to SPME, where a version of this article was originally published. 

The post As Colleges Tune Out for the Summer, Antisemitism Moves to Other Areas first appeared on Algemeiner.com.