Jewish Privilege?

Like many of us, I am struggling to grasp how students, faculty, and staff are permitted, and even emboldened, to stand at the center of a college campus and call for the extinction of the Jewish people.  Obviously, and correctly, this hateful rhetoric would not be deemed acceptable if directed at people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, or any other minority group, but somehow when the target is Jews, administrators hide behind the mantle of free speech.  

Free speech absolutists are quick to refer to their sacred text, the University of Chicago’s Kalven Principles.  Perhaps they should actually read them. The Kalven Committee Report says that, “From time to time instances will arise in which the society, or segments of it, threaten the very mission of the university and its values of free inquiry.  In such a crisis, it becomes the obligation of the university as an institution to oppose such measures and actively to defend its interests and its values.”  If this isn’t that time, when will it ever come?

I have been trying to understand how we arrived at where we are today, and I recall two particular occasions during my 44 year academic career – 22 of them as a college president – that in retrospect presaged the current situation.

The first took place at Williams College in the late 1980s when, as a faculty member, I attended a lecture titled “When Jews Became White.”  The talk left a lasting impression on me.  The presenter argued that the stature of Jews in America changed in the aftermath of the Holocaust.  Some of it resulted from the valiant service of Jewish soldiers during World War II; some from the shame among non-Jews about ignoring the murder of the Six Million; some from the ascendancy of Jews in business, the arts and virtually every field imaginable.  What especially stood out to me was when the lecturer spoke about how transformational it was that arguably the two most iconic women in post-war America, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor, proudly converted to Judaism.  Now that was a stamp of approval.

But I witnessed the downside of this broadened social acceptance at a second event around a decade ago, when I was president of Northwestern University. I was part of a group of administrators who invited students to discuss how we could work together to make the university as welcoming as possible in light of our rapidly diversifying student body.  One of the student leaders began her remarks by telling us to “check our privilege at the door,” an expression I had never heard at the time but would hear often in the years that followed.  At first I thought she was asking all of us to do so, since not only were we all fortunate to be associated with such a highly regarded institution, but also many of the people in the room were raised in households with considerable wealth. It was immediately clear from the reaction of the other students, however, that they didn’t own up to having any privilege whatsoever.  While I almost blurted out that as a practicing Jew who grew up in a family with very modest means and who faced covert and overt antisemitism throughout my life and career, I have never felt particularly privileged, I kept silent.  As with most such sessions, the intention wasn’t to engage in collaborative dialogue, but rather simply to shame. 

Taken together – Jews over time becoming accepted in American life, and so-called campus progressives focusing on “elites” as the source of all societal ills – I can better understand how we got to the harrowing moment we are in today.

While history suggests that some will always use Jews as scapegoats, I know how blessed I am to be a Jew.  It is both a privilege and an obligation that I will never check at anyone’s door. 

But the critics are right about one thing:  it is indeed a privilege to be Jewish.  How wonderful to be part of a group that contributes so mightily to the welfare of others.  While history suggests that some will always use Jews as scapegoats, I know how blessed I am to be a Jew.  It is both a privilege and an obligation that I will never check at anyone’s door.

Morton Schapiro is the former president of Williams College and Northwestern University.  His most recent book (with Gary Saul Morson) is “Minds Wide Shut:  How the New Fundamentalisms Divide Us.”