Commentary

Convention from page 50

• The Israel Health Model provides
appropriate care to its citizens that
enable a healthy and productive com-
munity to the Jewish people.
• Israel and Palestinian life is per-
petually impacted by the constant
threat of war; the Palestinian use of
rocket attacks, suicide bombers and
Israel's response with the use of force
is in its right to protect its citizens.
With these resolutions and observa-
tions, many prominent religious lead-
ers within the African American com-
munity have now formally embraced
a solidly pro-Israel position on many
of the hardest questions affecting the
Jewish State. This message will now be
preached on Sunday morning sermons
to millions of church members, and
Jews can be rightfully hopeful that
pro-Israel support can broaden and
that supportive African American pol-
iticians can be elected and re-elected
to Congress.
We should applaud the brave
African American leaders who trav-
eled to Israel, studied the issues and
carefully crafted and delivered the
resolutions, irrespective of the risk of
any political fallout. And we should
similarly applaud the efforts of AIPAC
and AIEF for their decision to educate
Baptist leadership about Israel and its
massive challenges through the trip
last January.
AIPAC has rightly concluded that
Israel needs support outside the
Jewish community, and its robust
"Outreach" efforts — which promote
dialogue and action within the African
American community as well as the
evangelical and Latino communities
and others — is a worthy and much-
needed initiative.
But while it is great that these
African American leaders have offi-
cially declared their support for Israel,
it now becomes even more critical
for American Jews to do their part to
sustain and be deserving of that sup-
port. It starts with awareness that Jews
and African Americans do indeed
share many common values on Israel,
and that certain radical voices we may
see in the media do not speak for an
entire people. Jews have a responsibili-
ty to know these facts and to eliminate
stereotyping or racial insensitivities.
Something big and historic just hap-
pened here, and while it wasn't a magic
cure to all issues still confronting Jews
and African Americans, it was never-
theless an extraordinarily positive sym-
bol of how our two communities can
be and should be closely aligned.

Rejecting Hatred Is Not Rejecting Free Speech

ok

uthor Alice Walker was invited
then disinvited to the University
of Michigan's Center for the
Education of Women celebration of its 50th
anniversary. On her blog, Walker blamed
"removal of funding from ...
donors because of ... comments
regarding Israel:'
Walker has done more than
make uncomplimentary "com-
ments regarding Israel." In
a review of her recent book,
The Cushion in the Road, the
Anti-Defamation League wrote,
"(Walker) devotes 80 pages to a
screed on the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict replete with fervently
anti-Jewish ideas and pep-
pered with explicit comparisons
between Israel and Nazi Germany:"
In 2012, Walker directed her agent not
to translate her book The Color Purple into
Hebrew, because, as Haaretz reported, she
contended, "Israel is guilty of apartheid
and persecution of the Palestinian people,
both inside Israel and also in the Occupied
Territories:' More recently, Walker publicly
implored singer Alicia Keys not to perform
in Tel Aviv, but Keys rebuffed the boycott.
So much for Alice Walker as the poster-
woman for the free exchange of ideas.
Recent reports indicate Walker has
been invited again to speak on the U-M
campus in another venue. In between the
cancellation and new invitation, Michigan
Provost Martha Pollack sent an email letter
to her faculty, in which she noted Michigan's

"commitment to free speech and to the
expression of diverse viewpoints:'
University administrators face difficulty
in confronting issues of freedom of expres-
sion. They must encourage free thought and
expression if universities are to
fulfill their mission of developing
new knowledge and educating the
next generation of leaders.
Universities also have a recog-
nized role to play in maintaining
a non-hostile environment where
students can study in a place
where they feel safe and free to
express their views. Students are
taught that while there is free-
dom of expression, hate speech is
unacceptable and not tolerated.
In fact, the University of
Michigan was the defendant in a land-
mark 1989 case that overturned as overly
broad their "Policy on Discrimination and
Discriminatory Harassment of Students in
the University Environment."
Today at Michigan, "non-criminal activi-
ties that harm another because of that per-
son's membership in a classification, such
as race, color, ethnicity, national origin,
sex, gender identity or expression, sexual
orientation, disability, age or religion" are
called "bias-related" incidents and are sub-
ject to penalty.
If the university vetoed departmental
sponsorship of the Ku Klux Klan, it is
unlikely anyone on campus would object.
But in regard to Israel and Jews, there
appear to be a different set of rules. We see

The Importance

this same debate today at many campuses
across the country.
Unfortunately, hate speech directed at
Jews and Israel is considered acceptable
in many parts of the world, including in
some places in the United States. Over the
two millennia since Rome destroyed the
last Jewish state, Judea, Jews have been the
victims of hatred, persecuted and expelled
from many European and Middle Eastern
states. The 1940s witnessed the culmination
of 2,000 years of hatred, which predated the
rebirth of Israel, with the murder in Europe
of 6 million men, women and children.
And while people, including Walker, are
free to express their views, they are not auto-
matically entitled to funding to support that
expression. I have the right of free speech,
but I am not entitled to space on the edito-
rial page of the New York Times. Although
I might be happy to address next year's
Michigan commencement, it would not be
deemed an abridgement of my rights if the
university chose someone else.
University leaders have an obligation to
truth and the students and faculty they lead,
including to ensure that resources are used
wisely. As George Washington similarly
observed of our country, universities must
give "to bigotry no sanction, to persecution
no assistance:'
Freedom of expression does not obligate
supporting those preaching hatred.

❑

John R. Cohn, M.D., is chair of the Hillel of
Greater Philadelphia Committee for Israel on
Campus.

of

Jewish

69 Generation

What is the most important Jewish holiday to you personally?

Older Jewish Americans

Younger Jewish Americans

(Ages 60+)

(Ages 18-39)

■
■

Yom Kippur

Rosh Hashanah

Passover

Hanukkah

II Other

❑

Mark Jacobs is board and executive
committee member at Jewish Family
Service of Metropolitan Detroit and active
in AIPAC.

Public ill
Religion

SOURCE: Public Religion Research Institute, Jewish Values Survey, March 2012 (N=1,004 Jewish American adults)

Research
Institute

September 5 • 2013

51