From the Group | Confronting antisemitism

Up to now two months, Stanford has been victimized by a succession of antisemitic acts. On April 17, a Nazi swastika was discovered carved into the metallic panel of a males’s restroom within the Historical past Nook — the fourth time this odious image has been present in that location since Feb. 28. A few of these acts have additionally included the racist n-word and the letters “KKK.” On April 3, a mezuzah was torn away from the doorframe of an undergraduate residence and damaged. And on March 10, a Jewish undergraduate pupil found a caricature of Adolf Hitler surrounded by swastikas on the whiteboard connected to his dorm room door.

In accordance with the Protected Identification Hurt Reporting (PIHR) web site, there have now been six documented stories of antisemitic vandalism on our campus for the reason that begin of the educational 12 months.

As college members at Stanford devoted to creating an surroundings the place all college students can be taught and thrive, we’re deeply unsettled by the prevalence of antisemitism on campus and anxious in regards to the well-being of our Jewish college students.

College students focused and harassed for his or her identification really feel marginalized, distrustful and remoted from the campus group. We’re disheartened that the sufferer of 1 latest antisemitic incident shared that his expertise was “actually making this residing state of affairs really feel fairly hostile…” and that “it’s very unsettling pondering that [he] was in [his] room sleeping and somebody was exterior of [his] door doing this.” We can not assist however be involved that it will irrevocably tar this pupil’s expertise at our esteemed establishment.

We imagine that it’s the accountability of Stanford College — together with ourselves as students and educators — to foster a campus local weather the place all college students really feel welcome and included, free from bigotry, intimidation and harassment. Thus, we name on our college’s management, and our fellow college, to double down on confronting antisemitism at Stanford and creating the supportive studying surroundings that our Jewish college students deserve.

This can require a sustained effort to grasp the scope of the issue, have interaction a broad array of stakeholders, and educate the campus group in regards to the roots and penalties of one of many oldest and most widespread types of hate. We stand able to lend our educational experience to this needed job. As well as, many instructional organizations, such because the Tutorial Engagement Community, through which we’re members, and Hillel Worldwide, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and others now have glorious sources, trainings, greatest practices {and professional} growth alternatives and applications that we will make the most of in our effort.

Our establishment, to its credit score, has a monitor document of confronting antisemitism. This previous fall, a report was launched detailing Stanford’s deliberate limitation of Jewish enrollment within the mid-twentieth century. President Tessier-Lavigne forthrightly apologized “to the Jewish group, and to our whole college group, each for the actions documented on this report back to suppress the admission of Jewish college students within the Nineteen Fifties and for the college’s denials of these actions within the interval that adopted,” and said that “these actions had been unsuitable. They had been damaging. They usually had been unacknowledged for too lengthy.” We hope this brave work of self-reflection and training will proceed within the wake of those most up-to-date incidents of vandalism and harassment.

On this spirit, we’re proud to endorse the phrases of Stanford Hillel’s Rabbi Jessica Kirschner, as she exhorts: “Allow us to make sure that our campus is united by its personal founding and present mottos: a spot devoted to reality and repair, the place the winds of freedom blow for all who’re a part of this ever-flourishing group.”

Professor Danit Ariel
Professor David Cornfield
Professor Larry Diamond
Professor Jeffrey Glenn
Professor Judith Goldstein
Professor Roger Kornberg
Professor Jonathan Levav
Professor Ronald Levy
Professor Richard Popp
Professor Jeffrey Ullman
Professor Sam Wineburg
Professor Adam de la Zarda

A number of of the authors are Stanford college who’re members of the Tutorial Engagement Community, an academic nonprofit group that works with almost 900 college members on 300 campuses to counter antisemitism and the denigration of Jewish-Zionist identification whereas upholding educational freedom and freedom of expression.