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Democrats scramble for a unique message that appeals to Jewish millennials
Jul 28, 2016 | JTA (in The Jerusalem Post)
Whereas older Jewish Democrats once coalesced around Israel as an issue, that’s a harder sell for younger Jewish Democrats, who increasingly question the actions of the government in Jerusalem. -
Jewish Dems urged to reach out to Trump-wary Jewish Republicans
Jul 27, 2016 | The Times of Israel
By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil
The Democratic National Committee rallied Jewish activists attending their party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia, telling them to reach out to Jewish conservatives who may have reservations about voting for Republican contender businessman Donald Trump. -
Bullying foe wins tikkun olam prize
Jul 28, 2016 | The Jewish Standard
Valerie Weisler of New City recently received the NYC-based Diller Teen national award. She was honored for creating the Validation Project, a nonprofit organization that incorporates a “kindness curriculum” to combat bullying in schools across the world. The $36,000 award recognizes teens for their commitment to social good and volunteer service. -
Historic Jewish site outside Mosul said at risk of collapse
Aug 3, 2016 | JTA (In The Times of Israel)
An ancient Jewish site located just 30 miles from Islamic State-controlled Mosul is at risk of collapsing, a representative of Kurdish Jewry says. -
At this museum, Isaac Mizrahi’s influences more Jewish than he claims
| The Jewish Standard
By Liz Posner
There’s something striking about viewing Isaac Mizrahi’s colorful mix of street and couture fashion in the gilded Warburg mansion on Fifth Avenue, part of Manhattan’s Museum Mile. -
Brandeis U’s new president: ‘Discomfort is an important element of education’
Jul 27, 2016 | JTA (in The Time of Israel)
By PENNY SCHWARTZ
On July 1, the 59-year-old New York native took the reins as the ninth president of Brandeis, a Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian research university in suburban Boston with an enrollment of 3,600 undergraduates and more than 2,000 graduate students. Liebowitz was appointed to the position last December.
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Democrats scramble for a unique message that appeals to Jewish millennials
Jul 28, 2016 | JTA (in The Jerusalem Post)
Whereas older Jewish Democrats once coalesced around Israel as an issue, that’s a harder sell for younger Jewish Democrats, who increasingly question the actions of the government in Jerusalem.
Amanda Renteria, the national political director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, was running through the campaign’s messages for minorities and women: immigration for Hispanics, land use for Native Americans, various policies for defending children and women.
She didn’t mention Jews in her briefing Tuesday morning for specialty media, and there’s a reason for that: There wasn’t a Clinton issue that was unique to the Jews.When I asked her to mention some, Renteria looked to Sarah Bard, who directs Jewish outreach for the campaign. Bard acknowledged that targeted messaging was a challenge for Jewish voters, particularly young Jewish voters.
“The Jewish millennial community is tremendously diverse,” Bard said.
Whereas older Jewish Democrats once coalesced around Israel as an issue, that’s a harder sell for younger Jewish Democrats, who increasingly question the actions of its hawkish government.
Hence the Democratic Jewish message relies on Jewish terms for familiar vague themes – Bard cited “kehilla,” or the Hebrew word for community.
“One of the strongest Jewish values is the value of kehilla,” she said before acknowledging “We do have work to do with millennials.”
Bard also spoke to the power of personalities.
“We had Sarah Silverman on the stage last night,” she said, referring to the headline-making moment when the Jewish comedian told staunch Bernie Sanders backers who were disrupting the Democratic National Convention, “You’re being ridiculous.”
Sanders and the following he has acquired among younger Democrats is emblematic of the challenge facing Bard and the Democrats among younger Jews.
Shabbos Kestenbaum, a 17-year-old student at the liberal Orthodox SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, sported a “Jewish Americans for Bernie” button on Tuesday.
“In light of the recent Debbie Wasserman Schultz scandal, the model for Jewish Democrats should be Bernie Sanders, for transparency and integrity,” he said.
Wasserman Schultz, a Florida congresswoman, was ousted this week from her post as chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee after hacked DNC emails revealed animus by her and her staff to the Sanders campaign.
Kestenbaum was attending a breakfast for the Virginia delegation to the convention to hear about the rollout of a new political action committee, Jews for Progress. Virginia is one of six or seven swing states that Democrats plan to target, where Jewish turnout could make the difference.
By contrast, Brianne Nadeau, 35, a member of the Washington, D.C., municipal council and a Clinton delegate, said Jewish women like herself had looked to Wasserman Schultz for inspiration. She was wary of Sanders-driven talk of dismantling existing structures.
“As a member of the next generation, I want to challenge people who came before me as well as respect them,” Nadeau said.
The Clinton campaign recognizes the challenge. Xochitl Hinojosa, who handles minorities media, noted the campaign’s first major hire from Sanders’ winding-down campaign is Kunoor Ojha, who will be handling campus outreach.
The Jewish campaign also will include a campus component, Bard said, with a staffer headed to Ohio next week to work campuses there.
She and Renteria, the political director, described an intensely active Jewish campaign, with phone banks for rabbis and community leaders who call one another for support and ideas, and then report back to the campaign on successes and setbacks. There are Jewish house parties for Hillary and meetings of Jewish women. Debra Messing, the “Will and Grace” star who was scheduled to speak to the convention Tuesday night, has appeared at campaign sessions with Jewish women.
Going forward, there would be appeals asking Jews in “safe” states to campaign in swing states, including Florida, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Colorado.
But the elusiveness of a single unifying message was evident Tuesday afternoon at a Jewish Round Table organized by Bard. Speakers focused on “tikkun olam,” repairing the world, a phrase that has become a catch-all for the Democratic social justice agenda.
“Donald Trump is not a tikkun olam kind of guy,” said Pennsylvania State Sen. Daylin Leach. “He’s more a destroy olam kind of guy.”
In Bard’s opening remarks, it was clear that Israel, a unifying factor for Jews in earlier elections, was not going to cut it anymore.
“We have no greater ally in keeping the world safe than Israel,” she said, using a one-time surefire applause line that this time was met with silence.
Much of the session focused on the threat posed by Trump’s broadsides against minorities and its recent echoes for Jews.
“This is a scary election cycle,” said Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo. “We have a candidate nominated by a major party who retweets quotes from neo-Nazis, from Aryan Nation, who uses divisive quotes our people have heard throughout history.”
Speaking earlier at a J Street session, journalist Peter Beinart, who has written extensively about the drift away from Israel among millennials, said Jewish leaders needed to retool. He said the ethos of facing down threats that motivated earlier generations no longer inspires a generation of Jews distant from the Holocaust and born after Israel’s defining wars of defense.
He lauded J Street, the liberal Middle East lobby, and American Jewish World Service, which fights global poverty and defends LGBTQ rights abroad, for tailoring their missions along lines that could appeal to younger Jews. Their approach, Beinart said, recalls the threats Jews once faced and makes them relevant to a generation that has grown up in relative safety and affluence, and with Israel viewed as a regional power.
“They say to young American Jews, ‘You have been given power and privilege because of what your parents sacrificed. Are you going to use that ethically?’” he said.
http://www.jpost.com/US-Elections/Democrats-scramble-for-a-unique-message-that-appeals-to-Jewish-millennials-462642 -
Jewish Dems urged to reach out to Trump-wary Jewish Republicans
Jul 27, 2016 | The Times of Israel
By Rebecca Shimoni Stoil
At convention roundtable, Democratic congressman say flipping Republican Jewish votes to Clinton could determine entire election
The Democratic National Committee rallied Jewish activists attending their party’s nominating convention in Philadelphia, telling them to reach out to Jewish conservatives who may have reservations about voting for Republican contender businessman Donald Trump.
“We have all had our differences with Republican nominees, but here you have one who is so far from the norm of conservatism that we’re used to opposing that he is not even supported by many of them,” Rep. Jared Polis, a Jewish member of the House of Representatives told party activists at the Pennsylvania Convention Center.
Supporters of both nominee and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders attended the event, which was billed as a roundtable for Jewish Democrats. Polis acknowledged that Trump had harnessed a frustration in American society, but argued that “we have to make sure that this great and very legitimate frustration that the American people feel doesn’t manifest in scapegoating or in blaming their frustration on others.”
While stressing that Trump “should be scary not just to the Jewish community, not just to minorities, but to every person who believes in the constitution, that all people are created equal,” Polis suggested that the Republican nominee represented not just a threat, but an opportunity.
“There is a unique opportunity with our Republican Jewish brothers and sisters who may not support this nominee,” he continued.
Urging Jewish Democrats to talk to their counterparts, he told them to “say I understand you’re a conservative, a Republican, but to say that this nominee is beyond the pale.” Polis characterized Trump as a “statist” who “wants to use the levers of state to his own ends” – an ideology that Polis said should be anathema to a true small-government conservative.
Polis suggested that while a large percentage of the Jewish vote in the United States generally supports Democratic presidential candidates, delegates should attempt to raise that percentage to 90 percent. If they accomplished that, he said, Clinton would carry key swing states like Florida that are expected to shift the balance of electoral college votes on election night.
A number of prominent Jewish Republicans and conservatives, including former Minnesota senator Norm Coleman, columnist Jennifer Rubin, and editor Bill Kristol have all said that they would not vote for Trump.
Brookings Institution fellow and foreign policy adviser to the 2008 McCain presidential campaign Robert Kagan announced very publicly – in the pages of the Washington Post – that “for this former Republican, and perhaps for others, the only choice will be to vote for Hillary Clinton. The party cannot be saved, but the country still can be.”
Polis said, however, that it would not necessarily be a hole-in-one or an easy sell.
“So many people are tempted by the charlatan reckless Republican candidate and his silver tipped tongue that relies on tearing everything down,” he acknowledged, but emphasized to delegates that “we need to push back with our Jewish brothers and sisters…and help deliver for Hillary Clinton.”
Speaker after speaker emphasized that Clinton was a better match for Jewish values, frequently citing the concept of “tikkun olam” – repairing a damaged world, and arguing that it reflected the Clinton campaign’s sensibilities.
New York Councilman David Greenfield, who represents a number of Brooklyn neighborhoods including Bensonhurst, Borough Park, Gravesend, Kensington, Midwood and Sheepshead Bay, spoke of Clinton’s support for Israel – while disparaging Trump as an unknown.
“If you look at where the candidates stand, Hillary Clinton has been a supporter of Israel throughout her whole career,” he said, citing her work in setting up sanctions against Iran, supporting Israel’s decision to build a security barrier, co-sponsoring the 2006 Palestinian Anti-Terror Act, and speaking out against the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement – “including within her own church,” he added.
Regarding Trump, he argued that “when it comes to Israel issues and Jewish issues, the record is not clear. Because you marched in an Israel Day parade once does not mean you are supporter of Israel,” Greenfield quipped, referring to Trump’s frequent reference to his position as grand marshal of the 2004 Israel Day Parade in New York.
At least one Sanders supporter took the messages of Jewish unity in the face of Trump to heart. Wearing a blue “Sanders 2016” yarmulke, he clapped vigorously when Greenfield told the audience that it was time to treat Trump as he would treat one of his children if they used words like “dumb” or “stupid.”
“Folks,” Greenfield intoned. “In November let’s send Donald Trump to his room and elect Hillary Clinton as president of the United States of America.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/jewish-dems-told-to-reach-out-to-jewish-republicans-wary-of-trump/
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Bullying foe wins tikkun olam prize
Jul 28, 2016 | The Jewish Standard
Valerie Weisler of New City recently received the NYC-based Diller Teen national award. She was honored for creating the Validation Project, a nonprofit organization that incorporates a “kindness curriculum” to combat bullying in schools across the world. The $36,000 award recognizes teens for their commitment to social good and volunteer service.
Valerie, 18, who graduated from Clarkstown South High School this spring, was a shy high school freshman and frequently bullied at school. She created the Validation Project after seeing the impact she had on another bullied student. When she told him “you matter,” he answered by telling her that her words “validated” him. That became the foundation for Valerie’s campaign, in which teens identify their skills and passion, partner with mentors in their field of interest, and then design campaigns to positively impact their community. By focusing their energy on constructive contributions, teens overcome the obstacles, such as bullying, that once had held them back.
Now in its tenth year, the Diller Teen Tikkun Olam awards have given more than $3 million dollars to 84 Jewish teens who are tackling global issues and creating lasting change through tikkun olam — the vision of Bay Area philanthropist Helen Diller, the force behind the Helen Diller Family Foundation.
http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/bullying-foe-wins-tikkun-olam-prize/
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Historic Jewish site outside Mosul said at risk of collapse
Aug 3, 2016 | JTA (In The Times of Israel)
Kurdish Jews call on UN to preserve 1,500-year-old structure of Nahum’s Tomb near Islamic State-controlled territory
An ancient Jewish site located just 30 miles from Islamic State-controlled Mosul is at risk of collapsing, a representative of Kurdish Jewry says.
Sherzan Omer, Kurdish Jewry’s representative in the Ministry of Endowment and Religious Affairs at Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), said the biblical prophet Nahum’s tomb, which is in the town of Alqosh, is in dire condition, Kurdistan24 reported Tuesday.
In a statement released Monday, Omer said his team “investigated the structure of the building, consulting experts, engineers and architects, and they report the building could completely fall apart within a couple of months.”
He called on historical preservation groups, the United Nations, UNESCO and others to come to its aid.
The 1,500-year-old building was for centuries the site of a major Jewish pilgrimage each year on the holiday of Shavuot. When the majority of Kurdish Jews moved to Israel in 1951, the tomb was left in the hands of a Chaldean family that struggled to maintain it.
“This site does not only belong to Jews. It’s part of human history, therefore saving the site is everyone’s responsibility,” Sherzad said in a statement.
According to Kurdistan24, Alqosh is located 30 miles north of Mosul. It has been protected by Peshmerga forces since the Islamic State rose to power.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/historic-jewish-site-outside-mosul-said-at-risk-of-collapse/
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At this museum, Isaac Mizrahi’s influences more Jewish than he claims
| The Jewish Standard
By Liz Posner
There’s something striking about viewing Isaac Mizrahi’s colorful mix of street and couture fashion in the gilded Warburg mansion on Fifth Avenue, part of Manhattan’s Museum Mile.
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and never miss our top storiesGold chain bling and puffy parkas don’t quite align with delicate ceiling molding and the glimpses of Central Park, right outside the windows. There’s something odd about “Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History” and its place at the Jewish Museum this spring and summer. The exhibition initially seems as if it might be more at home in the Met’s Costume Institute or the Museum at FIT.
The other galleries at the museum walk you through artifacts from Jewish history, beginning with ancient Mesopotamian stone etchings, and feature entire rooms dedicated to the diaspora, anti-Semitism in early modern Europe, the Holocaust, and the founding of Israel. Scattered between the collections are works of art that demonstrate the emotional impact of each event: paintings by Chagall and Reuven Rubin, gilded menorahs, furniture shipped from wealthy Jewish families who escaped war in Eastern Europe. How does a 21st century fashion designer fit into all this?
In an interview with the Observer, Mizrahi claimed that his religion plays no part in his artistic sensibility. “I’m an artist first and a Jew fifth,” he said. Fine. We can add his name to the long list of agnostic and atheistic Jewish movers and shakers who resist the description of “Jewish artist.” But the exhibition is at the Jewish Museum, and as you walk through it, you’re tempted to consider each Mizrahi gown, each costume and fur cape and belt, through the lens of possible Jewish influence.
You enter the exhibit amid an explosion of color. A wall welcoming you to the gallery at first appears to be made of stained glass. Upon closer inspection, you see that it’s an amusing mosaic of fabric swatches. You are led to a flock of bright multi-honed dresses and coats in pink, orange, and blue. Rich embroidery and embossed textiles are a consistent treat for the eyes.
It’s all beautiful, colorful, fun. Art like this makes you purely happy. While I took photos of Mizrahi’s gowns, a New York Times notification popped up on my phone to inform me that three police officers had been shot dead in Baton Rouge. How surreal, admiring thousand-dollar gowns in a Gothic Revival mansion on the Upper East Side while violence and tragedy erupt. But perhaps that’s why we need luxury and fashion. It’s an irony the Jewish people are used to, and explains why so many Jews have flocked to the arts for five millennia.
Escapism is on my mind as I stuff my phone back in my pocket and walk to the next room. Theater and fantasy take up their own section of this gallery, in the form of Mizrahi’s costumes for various operas and ballets from the past three decades. Most striking is a green, scaly, webbed-fingered gown guarded on either side by two masculine mannequins in velvet bodysuits and topped with oversized frog masks. “I have this fantasy that she’s the Margaret Dumont of eighteenth-century swamp creatures,” Mizrahi said of the amphibian character in Platée, the 1745 French opera for which he designed costumes. Mizrahi’s 1997 interpretation is adorned with the same matronly gold and pearls worn by the dowager in the Marx Brothers’ classic movies.
A nearby sign tells me “as a boy at the Yeshiva of Flatbush,” Mizrahi “sketched fashions in his prayer books and staged elaborate puppet shows for his neighbors.” It hangs across from another Mizrahi theater costume, this one a gigantic pink and red ostrich that reminds me a bit of my bat mitzvah dress.
There are subtle touches that nod to Mizrahi’s background: notably, a black jumpsuit that boasts a thick leather belt with an enormous Jewish star buckle. He said once about the outfit, “If crosses are everywhere, why not make the Star of David ubiquitous too?” Then there are the touches that make you wonder: Is this Jewish? For instance, every other mannequin in the exhibition wears a white headscarf, reminiscent of a babushka.
In general, Mizrahi’s gowns awe me, except for a few ethically questionable pieces, like the dress made of Coca-Cola cans collected by homeless New Yorkers and shipped to Paris to be made into sequins, then sent to India to be embroidered onto silk. Bizarre when you consider that the Indian people who made the dress probably enjoyed a lower standard of living than the homeless New Yorkers, but it’s an interesting insight into Mizrahi’s unique brand of global tikkun olam. It certainly makes a few statements.
Then there’s a Navajo-style embroidered jacket from 1991 that is borderline cultural appropriation and would catch flak from Native American activist groups today. The curators excuse it as a product of one of the many cultures that influenced Mizrahi during his upbringing by a modern Orthodox family in melting-pot Flatbush.
Otherwise, most of the designs showcase the designer’s artistry and incredible imagination. There is a gown made of elevator padding. Another gown — red lush silk — has a baby carrier attached to the front, suggesting that mothers can be part of high fashion.
Mizrahi’s efforts to create couture for the middle class also are commendable. It’s easy to appreciate his democratization of fashion through his Target collection, a five-year collaboration. He partners with QVC and regularly appears on the retailer’s television station. No doubt his decade-long work to bring fashion into the living rooms of Americans everywhere is not only a smart business move, but also a great tactic for the designer’s personal brand. By comparison, it’s hard to imagine Karl Lagerfeld appearing on daytime cable, though the two make equally beautiful clothes.
In the last room, a three-paneled film reel gushes over highlights from Mizrahi’s fashion shows, clips from “I Love Lucy” and other inspirations, reels from the artist’s stunts on “Jeopardy” and “Project Runway,” and even his dramatic roles alongside Woody Allen and Kenneth Branagh. The designer’s claim that “fashion is a form of entertainment” fully sinks in here. After walking through this exhibition, it’s hard not to agree.
The work is often outrageous, flamboyant, colorful, funny, fun — and deeply Jewish. (Liz Posner)
The curators of “An Unruly History” do a great job of bringing you into the artist’s world. You’re engrossed in his pop culture influences and you witness the miniature cult of his personal celebrity. You see the final product in his designs: a purely American aesthetic, of course, that bares little resemblance to French or Italian high fashion. But it’s hard to deny there’s a certain New York eccentricity to Mizrahi’s clothes, and more than a hint of a manic, ironic zeitgeist that arguably only a Jewish artist can capture.
On my way out, I’m struck by one last Mizrahi quote on the wall by the exit. “As I shift into the middle of my career and as my neurosis about my work deepens, so do the pleasures I take in it.” Fashion or not, that sounds like a Jewish intellect to me.
“Isaac Mizrahi: An Unruly History” runs through August 7.
http://jewishstandard.timesofisrael.com/at-this-museum-isaac-mizrahis-influences-more-jewish-than-he-claims/
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Brandeis U’s new president: ‘Discomfort is an important element of education’
Jul 27, 2016 | JTA (in The Time of Israel)
By PENNY SCHWARTZ
Incoming helmsman Ron Liebowitz speaks about diversity, identity, BDS and freedom of expression as he prepares to take on his new job
After 32 years at Middlebury College, the last 11 as its president, Ron Liebowitz is calling Brandeis University his new academic home.
On July 1, the 59-year-old New York native took the reins as the ninth president of Brandeis, a Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian research university in suburban Boston with an enrollment of 3,600 undergraduates and more than 2,000 graduate students. Liebowitz was appointed to the position last December.
“Yeah, I’m nervous in some ways,” Liebowitz acknowledged with a chuckle.
But any new-job jitters are tempered by decades of experience as an acclaimed leader in higher education. A scholar of political geography who specializes in Russia, Liebowitz rose from faculty member to provost at Middlebury before being tapped in 2004 for its highest position. In 2009, Time magazine named him one of the 10 best US college presidents.
Liebowitz said he was attracted to Brandeis because of its strong liberal arts education combined with its investment in high quality research. But discovering more about the school’s founding by the Jewish community in 1948 was very persuasive, he said.
“It was formed to give Jewish students the opportunity to come to a first-rate institution, but also underrepresented students from across the spectrum. Being open to all has taken on new meaning. It was very compelling. Today it’s as relevant as ever,” he said.
Liebowitz and his wife, Jessica, and their three children live in Newton, Massachusetts, near the Brandeis campus in Waltham. The couple is collaborating on research on the future of US doctoral education. They’ve been warmly welcomed at Congregation Kehillath Israel in nearby Brookline, Liebowitz reported. His children attend a local Jewish day school.
He has taken the helm following a few years when Brandeis made national news on the hot-button issues of campus free speech and racial diversity: In 2014, the university withdrew a speaking invitation to human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali over comments she had made criticizing Islam, and last year the campus was divided over inflammatory comments tweeted by an African-American student following the funeral of two slain New York police officers and the critical response by a conservative Jewish student.
He succeeds Frederick Lawrence, who left after four years on the job, and Lawrence’s interim replacement, Lisa Lynch.
A warm and congenial leader, Liebowitz shared his views with JTA on diversity, free speech and anti-Semitism during a conversation in his office at the Irving Presidential Enclave, where the bookshelves were still nearly bare and some boxes were still unpacked.
Below is a condensed and edited version of the interview.
What does being open to all students mean today?
I’m a firm believer that any institution benefits in terms of the quality of education if it’s diverse, if it has people from many backgrounds, different life experiences, different perspectives talking to one another. If done properly, if there is really a mix of students brought together on campus, it’s an incredible learning environment and that’s what we aspire to.
How do you envision continuing Brandeis’ historical connection with the Jewish community?
The institution never loses its founding spirit and the Jewish values established here of academic excellence and critical analysis. I’d add to that being self-critical. The third is “tikkun olam,” healing the world. I see that in our student body. They are extremely engaged locally and also globally.
What about specific Jewish practices on campus such as the schedule and food?
We want to continue being the place where all Jews feel comfortable on this campus. That requires us to respect some aspects of Jewish life like diet, holidays and so forth. I see us continuing in that vein.
An online survey last year by Trinity College and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law [unrelated to Brandeis University] found that more than half of Jewish students in US colleges reported experiencing anti-Semitism. Is that reflected at Brandeis? What role does Brandeis play in that conversation?
Anti-Semitism is unfortunately showing itself everywhere, in Europe and in the US, and on college campuses. There was a survey of students [at Brandeis]. One of the more heartening issues is that students who identified themselves as Jewish noted their level of comfort was extremely high. I think Brandeis is a beacon and can be a model. The BDS issue, which is generating a lot of these issues on other campuses, seems to be much less of a factor. There is a BDS presence, but here it’s not seen as a major issue.
What are your views on the debates over free speech on campus. Are students too fragile?
’m a big proponent of free speech, especially in an educational environment. It comes with rules about how people interact. You can’t hurt. You can’t insult with your ideas. I think students need to be free to speak. Faculty need to be free to speak. But respect is needed as well as civility. Those two things are very crucial. With intimidation tactics that we’ve seen or heard about, you really lessen the educational quality.
Are you going to address this issue?
Oh yes. We will have this on the agenda for sure. The University of Chicago is noted for its [free speech policy] statement, which I find compelling. We want to protect students, but we also don’t want to shield them from ideas they might not think about. They’re not here to get insulted, but they are here to hear things. Sometimes discomfort is an important element of education.
There was a 12-day sit-in last year by Brandeis students protesting a lack of racial diversity. What is the status of the agreement negotiated between the administration and the students?
Before she went back to the Provost’s office, [interim President] Lisa Lynch sent out an update on the recommendations. We’ll engage each one of those. There are real challenges when it comes to diversity. There are creative programs out there to bring more recently minted Ph.D.s into institutions like Brandeis. But keeping them is difficult because they are easily raided by wealthier and larger institutions. So we have to do this in a creative way.
Is being Jewish important in the role of Brandeis president?
It’s an interesting question. When it was announced that I was president of Middlebury, in 2004, the first call I got was from a reporter who asked, “Are you the first Jewish president of Middlebury”? [He was.] It may be important. It may not be important. I think it’s very important to certain Jewish constituents.
Does it matter in terms of fundraising?
It’s important for a particular group, but I think we also have to be much broader in our fundraising. Brandeis has really thrived for 68 years with incredible philanthropy from the Jewish community. But we also want to reach out to the alums, more and more of whom over the years will be non-Jewish. That’s really been the demographics.
What are you planning to say when you welcome incoming freshmen?
I think we should be aspirational in how we engage students as they set out on their college career. [At Middlebury], I left the advice to the people who do orientation. I try to stay at a higher level about the full four-year experience. But I need to learn more about Brandeis to tailor some of the comments I will make.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/brandeis-us-new-president-discomfort-is-an-important-element-of-education/
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