Jewish Professors Should Not Retire Right Now

Professor Barbara J. Risman — a distinguished professor of sociology for nearly two decades at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC)—announced that she intends to retire early. While I do not know Prof. Risman, and her area of research is outside of my own, I was devastated by the news. Risman said she never anticipated an early retirement from her “beloved academic home” of the past 17 years but decided to leave her tenured position because, in her own words, “UIC is no longer an institution comfortable for me, as a Jew who believes Israel has a right to exist.” 

Few institutions of higher education are “comfortable” for Zionist professors. However, leaving academia is not the solution; it is exactly what protesters hope will happen. Stepping away from higher education is a surrender to antisemitism; it is selfish, and the larger Jewish community does not benefit from such behavior.

In her Chicago Tribune op-ed, Risman identifies the hypocrisy of UIC’s diversity, equity and inclusion principles and the antisemitism that is rooted deeply in these principles. Among the many examples, she notes after the Hamas attack against Israel on Oct. 7, several administrative student support centers, including the Disability Resource Center and the Women’s Leadership and Resource Center, released a statement of solidarity with the Palestinians, but failed to mention the mass slaughter of innocent Israelis and the Jews globally who were suffering. Risman states, “glaringly absent from the statement was concern for Jewish and Israeli students.” 

“While concern for students who are worried about loved ones in Palestine is important,” Risman wrote, “and necessary, why are Jewish and Israeli students rendered invisible? Are Jews of no concern to those at the centers designed to support student success?” Risman believes that UIC has made Jews feel “othered,” and units of the school “have crossed the line from simple micro-aggressions against Jewish students and faculty to outright institutional antisemitism.” 

Understandably, Risman wants to leave, claiming, “It’s become a very alienating place to be right now. It’s shocking when you think you are a part of a community and you realize in many ways that you are not.” She notes that students are struggling: “Jewish students no longer want people to know they’re Jewish. Israeli students no longer want to speak in public because their voices will call attention to them.”

The suffering of Jewish students is exactly the reason why tenured faculty should not resign and why Risman’s statement was so disturbing. The antisemitism that has plagued higher education for years is now visible to the world and Jewish students feel profoundly unwelcome and unsafe not just at UIC, but also throughout the collegiate world. Rather than retreat from higher education, we need Jewish faculty on campus more than ever. Despite the hostility toward Jews on campus, Jewish professors can offer Jewish students community and solidarity, far above what the DEI bureaucracy was intended to do. Jewish students desperately need to know that they are not alone. When an openly Jewish academic who is a supporter of Israel walks away from a university, it is further detrimental to Jewish students on campus who desperately need the support of faculty right now.

We should not cede this ground and walk away from our students.  While Jewish and Zionist faculty may not be able to fully stop anti-Jewish ideas that are poisoning college and university campuses, remaining employed has sadly become an act of defiance and resistance. 

As a professor at Sarah Lawrence College, I have experienced hatred toward Jewish students and Zionist professors like myself that is oppressive and omnipresent. Many Jewish students live in fear and silence and are looking to leave. Many Sarah Lawrence faculty and administrators along with student protesters would be happy if I no longer taught there. The school is rightly being investigated for a Title VI violation by the Department of Education. I have been treated very poorly for being a Jew and this is exactly why resignation is not what I or any other professor should do. We should not cede this ground and walk away from our students. 

While Jewish and Zionist faculty may not be able to fully stop anti-Jewish ideas that are poisoning college and university campuses, remaining employed has sadly become an act of defiance and resistance. Messaging throughout the country implies that Jews are unwanted, unwelcome, and the cause of many societal ills. Thus, those Zionist Jewish faculty who have the security of tenure and can be openly Jewish must, in the spirit of Emerson, stand our ground; resignation is the easy way out but these times call for standing firm and supporting Israel and the Jewish community. My very presence on campus and my refusal to bend my narrative about Israel’s right to exist and its self-defense is maddening to the antisemites but it provides a sense of security to the Jewish students. 

It is often overlooked that aside from research and writing, a big part of our jobs is working with students and serving as their mentors and advocates; too many professors minimize this critical role. While walking away from this battle in higher education is a path that some may choose — and I wish them no ill — I hope that more faculty run into the fight. Jewish continuity and safety depend on those of us who can stand up to hate and support the Jewish community at this critical juncture. Risman’s resignation is not the path forward; it encourages the threats of violence against Jews and contributes to the harms that Jewish students are already facing by abandoning students when they need support and role models the most.

Samuel J. Abrams is a professor of politics at Sarah Lawrence College and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.