Americans repulsed by college students harassing Jewish students were more horrified when the adults in charge refused before Congress to condemn calls for Jewish genocide as a violation of their codes of conduct and suggested the words were fine until acted upon. Three university presidents responded to a congressional query about calls for “intifada” with mealy-mouthed words, citing the need for context. One even called the query “a difficult question.”
Most Americans, however, do not require advanced degrees to condemn antisemitism . This failure in leadership revealed latent antisemitism and moral blind spots but also revealed deeper systemic issues afflicting leading universities.
RUDY GIULIANI OWES $148 MILLION: WHAT NEXT FOR AMERICA'S MAYOR AFTER DEFAMATION DISASTER ?
While many wish these privileged students were better informed about the Jewish people’s historical and spiritual connections to the land, it has become clear the anti-Israel protesters are impervious to corrective instruction. Their protests reveal more about their moral rot than intellectual deficiencies. The university presidents may have been forced to apologize in the face of donor and bipartisan condemnation, but they are merely addressing the symptoms and not the root causes of higher education’s current crisis.
First, campuses must embrace their roles as facilitators of open debate rather than advocates of liberal viewpoints. The same hypocritical university leaders that declare themselves powerless to condemn antisemitism created “safe spaces,” punished “microaggressions,” and enforced mandatory DEI indoctrination to silence conservatives. Universities issued virtue signaling statements following George Floyd’s death, proudly declaring that “Black Lives Matter” and that they stood with racial justice protesters. Imagine their reactions had the anti-Israel protesters targeted men competing in female sports rather than Jewish students. This “social justice” approach teaches students the university’s purpose is advancing privileged viewpoints rather than promoting open debate of new, challenging, and unpopular ideas in an endless pursuit of truth.
Universities must recommit themselves to protecting freedom of speech by adopting principles such as those affirmed by the University of Chicago. Universities must dedicate themselves to ideological diversity and the discovery of knowledge rather than monolithic indoctrination. The correct response to antisemitic protesters is not to further restrict speech, but rather to differentiate hateful speech targeting individuals and inciting violence from speech that merely offends the liberal higher education establishment.
Second, campuses must promote merit and reject the liberal notion of deserving minorities that divides campuses into oppressors and victors. Affirmative action admissions and hiring policies, recently dealt a blow by the Supreme Court, give preferential access to African Americans, Hispanics, and sexual minorities, regardless of the applicant’s background. Liberals have expanded the definition of “white privilege” to include Asian American and Jewish students, and some now want to differentiate between black Americans descended from slaves and those who immigrated more recently.
Recognizing applicants who have overcome specific hardships is different from judging individuals based on immutable group characteristics they have not chosen. This group mentality dehumanizes individuals, ignores their unique accomplishments, and denies them the agency to transcend their circumstances. Antisemitic protesters, for example, don’t care that Israeli Jews come from many countries. Instead, they devalue their suffering and condemn them as “colonizers.” That’s why many feminist groups have been silent about the atrocities committed against Jewish women. Universities must reject this collectivist mentality, affirm their commitment to excellence, and award students and faculty based on merit, promoting the best scholarship, research, and teaching.
Third, campuses must embrace an optimistic view of progress and their foundation in Western civilization and reject the liberal mentality of perpetual victimhood. Accumulating grievances and denying statutes of limitations encourages ongoing enmity between individuals who have no history of wrongdoing or injury. Reparations would redistribute resources from those who were never oppressors to those who were never victims. Why should a child be denied college admission, held to a higher standard, or labeled racist for actions they have not taken? Initiatives such as the 1619 Project inflame historical grievances, deny progress and the power of healing and diminish the ability of forgiveness and time to diminish suffering. Obsession with past injustices committed against only particular groups prevents society from looking forward.
Antisemitic protesters selectively focus on Palestinian suffering while deemphasizing Jewish persecution and Hamas’s role. This same pathological elevation of one’s victimhood over empathy animates violent terrorist groups. Selective application of the victimhood narrative results in the cognitive dissonance of sexual minority protesters siding against Israel, despite its progressive record.
Reducing groups to victims inhibits their capacity for growth. Liberals reduce the accomplishments of Western civilization to exploitation and thus ridicule patriotism. Universities must teach how enlightenment, free inquiry, universal values, and human dignity transformed Western societies that shaped their institutions, and form future leaders capable of empathy and moral growth.
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American universities have been a source of comparative advantage through their discovery and dissemination of knowledge and attracted the world’s best and brightest. The nation needs its universities to become models of innovation, pluralism, and intellectual diversity again to help lead the free world in its economic, technological, and military competitions with more closed, ideological, and top-down societies.
Bobby Jindal served as governor of Louisiana from 2008-16 and a U.S. assistant secretary of health and human services from 2001-03 and serves on LifeMD's board of directors. Justin Schreiber is the CEO and chairman of LifeMD, a publicly traded telehealth company.
The root causes of our illiberal higher education system
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17.12.2023
Americans repulsed by college students harassing Jewish students were more horrified when the adults in charge refused before Congress to condemn calls for Jewish genocide as a violation of their codes of conduct and suggested the words were fine until acted upon. Three university presidents responded to a congressional query about calls for “intifada” with mealy-mouthed words, citing the need for context. One even called the query “a difficult question.”
Most Americans, however, do not require advanced degrees to condemn antisemitism . This failure in leadership revealed latent antisemitism and moral blind spots but also revealed deeper systemic issues afflicting leading universities.
RUDY GIULIANI OWES $148 MILLION: WHAT NEXT FOR AMERICA'S MAYOR AFTER DEFAMATION DISASTER ?
While many wish these privileged students were better informed about the Jewish people’s historical and spiritual connections to the land, it has become clear the anti-Israel protesters are impervious to corrective instruction. Their protests reveal more about their moral rot than intellectual deficiencies. The university presidents may have been forced to apologize in the face of donor and bipartisan condemnation, but they are merely addressing the symptoms and not the root causes of higher education’s current crisis.
First, campuses must embrace their roles as facilitators of open debate rather than advocates of liberal viewpoints. The same hypocritical university leaders that declare themselves powerless to condemn antisemitism created “safe........
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