RABBIS OF LA | Is Rabbi Levine a Victim of Anti-Zionist Bias at UCI?

For the last three years it has been nearly impossible to secure a seat in Rabbi Daniel Levine’s course on major Jewish texts. Even so, UC Irvine chose not to renew his contract last spring. The campus rabbi and senior Jewish educator at the Hillel Foundation of Orange County was not surprised. He has a theory why his Jewish Studies contract was not renewed. 

“My entire life I have stood up for what I think is right at the risk of offending basically everybody.”

Having spent 14 years on college campuses, Rabbi Levine  has detected a trend that separates Jewish Studies faculty from other ethnic groups. “For a generation,” he said, “there has been a trend countering the (majority) interests of the Jewish people and the Jewish community as a whole. This is most obviously notable in the rise of anti-Zionist Jewish Studies faculty. If being a Zionist means you don’t want Israel destroyed, 95% of American Jews consider themselves, in some ways, Zionist.“ However, among Humanities faculties on campuses, saying you are a Zionist “basically is like walking into a room and saying you are a neo-Nazi or white supremacist.” 

Most Humanities professors, he said are “much more progressive activists than trying to do real education. If you don’t share their opinion, it will be harder for you to get hired, and your co-faculty will shun you.” While Rabbi Levine grants the majority of people interested in Jewish Studies are not anti-Zionist, hiring is a different story. “If a school looks at my background and a rival is a notable anti-Zionist, the anti-Zionist will be hired.”

There’s another issue at UC Irvine: Unlike other universities where there might be a standalone Jewish Studies department, Irvine’s Judaic Studies program is part of the History department. And two weeks after Oct. 7, Prof. Susan Morrissey, the chair of the Irvine’s History department, signed onto a “solidarity statement” in support of Palestinians.

Rabbi Levine, 31, a San Diego native, wants it known his opinions are not from a right-wing perspective. It’s not news, the rabbi noted, that “the university has been captured by dominant left-wing ideology.” The surprise is when he adds “I say this as a liberal. I view myself as a capital ‘L’ Liberal, not a progressive. I think what has happened in the last generation, the history of it is rooted in Soviet influence.” The Soviets, he said “pushed virulent antisemitism. They just called it anti-Zionism.” He believes “a lot of this infiltrated into the way modern left-wing groups talk about Israel and Zionism. These ideas have taken hold in the university.”

Rabbi Levine said that friends and colleagues employed in Humanities departments have had a difficult time since Oct. 7. “Not only did their colleagues not check up on them after Oct. 7 to see how they were doing, instead, there was active hostility: ‘How dare you mourn the lives lost in Israel. Don’t you know Israel is evil, blah, blah, blah?’”

He grew up in “the more Orthodox community” in San Diego. “I still embed myself within the Orthodox community socially, but ideologically, I am no longer Orthodox,” he says. “I grew up more Conservative, then became liberal. I am always going to say what I believe. That’s important.”

As for the chair of the History department, Prof. Morrissey, she is “a notable anti-Zionist” in the rabbi’s opinion. “Do I have smoking gun proof? No. What I do know is my course, Jewish Texts, was always full for the three years, which is rare. Across the country, enrollment in History is down. My evaluations always were top of the university.  

“My class was inspiring more students to study Jewish Studies every year. Forty to 50 students every class. When I began, there were between one and two Jewish Studies minors. Now I think it’s in the 20s.”

Rabbi Levine seeks to make a muscular case for retaining his Jewish Studies post. “For all practical purposes,” he says, “for bolstering enrollment, students being passionate about a class, there was no good reason to not renew the contract. When it was not renewed, there was a lot of pushback.”  A third-year student called his class “the highlight of my week.”

The rabbi described the declining of a contract renewal “at first strange and secret. They weren’t sure in the beginning. Then they said they found somebody who since has been let go.” Two tenure-track professors were hired to replace the rabbi – “and what do you know?” he asked. “Both were affiliated with anti-Zionist organizations.”

Months later, the rabbi still seems in shock. “Imagine if this had happened to any other ethnic studies group,” he asks. “Whether or not the full intent was there, it is part of a general trend at the university.”

Rabbi Levine is currently teaching two “slightly different” classes at Irvine for the School of Social Sciences and the School of Social Ecology. One is on ancient Jewish medieval thought and the other on ancient texts and contemporary problems. “It’s not what I have been teaching the last three years, but we’ll see,” he said.

As the senior Jewish educator for Orange County Hillel, this means he works full-time for Hillel, so he is the rabbi for Hillel at UC Irvine.

“Being a rabbi is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. I don’t work as a rabbi. I am a rabbi. To be a rabbi is to say you are committed to this mission of Jewish education and building Jewish community.”

“Being a rabbi is not a job. It’s a lifestyle. I don’t work as a rabbi. I am a rabbi. To be a rabbi is to say you are committed to this mission of Jewish education and building Jewish community.” 

Rabbi Levine frankly replied to the question of whether he has a realistic chance of regaining his old class: 

“I hope so, but I don’t think so.”

Fast Takes with Rabbi Levine

Jewish Journal: What is your next goal?

Rabbi Levine: To continue the good work many Jewish organizations have done in the past year. I want to try to build: How do we have a Jewish community with diverse thought? How do we have a university with diverse thought?

J.J.: What is your favorite Shabbat food?

R.L.: My wife is Persian. I am a firm believer Persian food is much better than Ashkenazi food. Ghormeh sabzi is my favorite Shabbat food.

J.J.: What is your favorite hobby?

R.L.: I am a rock climber.