Does my alma mater deserve an F in antisemitism?

(RNS) — Steely Dan put it this way, singing about nostalgia for Bard College: “I’m never going back to my old school.”

Bard College is about an hour and a half north of “my old school,” SUNY Purchase. Unlike Walter and Donald, I do go back to my old school — physically, when I can, and in my memories.

I went back to my old school recently as I read the Anti-Defamation League’s report card on antisemitism on college campuses and how those colleges were dealing with that issue.

They gave SUNY Purchase an F.

Here is the report from the ADL:

State University of New York at Purchase has 750 Jewish undergraduate students, who comprise about 24% of the undergraduate student population. There are 10 Jewish graduate students representing 13% of the small graduate population. Hillels of Westchester, a collaborative unit of Hillel chapters across the county, supports the campus.

There have been recent incidents on campus. A student was suspended in December for entering an administrator’s office and tearing down a “We Stand with Israel” poster. On Rosh Hashanah in September 2023, an Israeli flag was vandalized with antisemitic rhetoric in the campus music building; following that incident, a sukkah on campus was also damaged.

President Dr. Milly Peña sent an email to the campus community saying her administration was “collaborating on a plan” to address campus antisemitism through education, dialogue, and empathy.

Those three incidents were enough to flunk SUNY Purchase (which is ironic, because during my years there, there were no grades — only evaluations).

SUNY Purchase has some significant fellow F winners. They include: Harvard University; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Michigan State University; Princeton University; Stanford University; Swarthmore College; Tufts University; University of Chicago; University of Massachusetts, Amherst; and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Let us be clear: The outbreak of campus antisemitism — the intimidation of Jews — has been one of the byproducts of Oct. 7. It is so bad that only one Ivy League school — Dartmouth University — has remained unscathed by such accusations and investigations of Title VI violations.

Consider what recently happened at UC Berkeley. The School of Law dean, Erwin Chemerinsky, and his wife, law school professor Catherine Fisk, invited students to their home for dinner. A student attempted to give a speech about Palestinian deaths in Gaza and was asked to leave.

This is not a matter of free speech. This was a private dinner in a private home.

UC Board of Regents Chair Rich Leib said: “The individuals that targeted this event did so simply because it was hosted by a dean who is Jewish. These actions were antisemitic, threatening, and do not reflect the values of this university.”

Let me emphasize: This violation of the dean’s hospitality only happened because he was Jewish.

So, let me go back to “my old school” — in my memories.

I entered the State University of New York at Purchase in the fall of 1972. I was in the first entering freshman class, and we were the first four-year class to graduate in 1976.

Because the school was new, we had to create everything. We created the student newspaper. I served on the staff. Adam Nagourney, who was co-editor of the Purchase newspaper, would go on to a wonderful career at The New York Times. JoAnne Wasserman, his co-editor, would go on to an equally great career at the New York Daily News.

We created a Jewish students’ organization. That taught me the rudiments of Jewish leadership. It helped me create a career in the rabbinate.

Whenever Passover rolls around, I go back to “my old school” — to the Passover Seder that we ran, in 1973. The food service enthusiastically agreed to do it for us. Three-quarters of the campus attended; at the time, there were maybe 1,000 students there.

The founding president of the college, the late Abbott Kaplan, led us in song at the Seder. Jewish professors attended the Seder — some of them, for the first time in decades.

We advocated for Hebrew classes. I learned enough Hebrew to prevent me from making a total fool of myself when I applied to rabbinical school.

We advocated for classes in Jewish literature. That was where I first read Philip Roth, Cynthia Ozick, Bernard Malamud, Saul Bellow and Isaac Bashevis Singer. There is now a Jewish studies program on campus; I would like to think our efforts planted those seeds.

But when it came to Jewish identity, those years (1972-1976) were some of the most painful and bloodstained years in modern Jewish history.

• In August 1972, there was the Black September massacre at the Munich Olympics. It happened days before freshman orientation.
• In 1973, toward the beginning of my sophomore year, there was the Yom Kippur War.
• In April 1974, there was the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist attack at Kiryat Shmona, which killed 18 people — including eight children.
• A month later, in May 1974, the terrorist attack at Maalot, which resulted in the massacre of 25 Israeli hostages.
• In November 1974, PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat addressed the United Nations — with a gun in his holster.
• In November 1975, there was the infamous U.N. resolution that equated Zionism with racism. That resolution was the result of Soviet ideology and pressure (you could say that it came with a full helping of Russian dressing on the side). U.N. Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan vigorously defended Israel: “The United States rises to declare before the General Assembly of the United Nations, and before the world, that it does not acknowledge, it will not abide by, it will never acquiesce in this infamous act.”

Each incident came with challenges on campus. During the 1973 Yom Kippur War, I was collecting money for Israeli children who had been orphaned by the war. A professor approached me and said, belligerently: “I am setting up a table to collect money for Egyptian children!”

I responded: “I am sad that those Egyptian children lost their fathers. But that happened because their country, and Syria, chose to invade Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year.”

He nodded his head and he walked away.

A few months later, in a class, a student announced that “Herzl negotiated with Hitler.”

I responded: “Herzl died in 1904, when Hitler was 15 years old. What could they have possibly negotiated about?”

My fellow student shrugged: “Or, something like that.”

“No,” I said. “It was nothing like that.”

Those were challenging times. Those times prompted me to learn about the history of the Middle East, and the origins of the Palestinian problem.

In short: Jewish students grew Jewish minds and Jewish backbones. 

Back to SUNY Purchase’s F grade.

Criticism of Israeli policies (to which many Israelis contribute) can and does morph into antisemitism. An attack on a sukkah? A religious symbol? This has to do with Netanyahu, how … ?

The incidents are disturbing.

But, speaking as a former ADL employee, I do not think these incidents place SUNY Purchase in the same F category as, say, Harvard.

But here is the good news.

The SUNY Purchase administration took that F grade and has committed itself to doing better.

From the office of the president:

We are committed to ensuring a safe, equitable educational environment for all our community members, including our Jewish faculty, students, and staff, all of whom we value.

In the coming month, the College will launch an anti-bias training program and continue our conversations with the Westchester Human Rights Commission and NY State Human Rights Division who are offering us their expertise and resources. We plan on offering more training in the fall.

But like Steely Dan, once again, in my memories: I am going back to my old school.

As I look back on my Jewish college friends, this is what I notice.

• Several of us are Jewish professionals.
• Several of us became rabbis; two, in particular, abandoned secular upbringings and became Orthodox rabbis.
• Several of my classmates now live in Israel. One of our Orthodox rabbi classmates is quite prominent in Orthodox circles in Israel.
• Several of my classmates became lay leaders — in synagogues, Federations and Hillel.
• Others are active in their synagogues and Jewish communities.
• Several have been prominent Jews in the arts, entertainment and literature.

I am proud of all of them.

I can only hope that the current crop of Jewish students will have profited from our long-ago example, and care enough to stand up, to stand out and to stand for.

These times call for nothing less.

As for SUNY Purchase, I will continue “going back to my old school.”