The 2019 Mensch List

This moment calls for moral imagination. For solidarity with the Iranian people demanding dignity. For sustained support of those who seek a freer future.

Can you imagine what it’s like to read about a Persian prime minister seeking to destroy the Jews – as the Jewish army is finally fighting back with the American army against the Persian Jew-haters?

We write as current and former UC faculty, many of us in STEM fields and professional schools, in response to the release of When Faculty Take Sides: How Academic Infrastructure Drives Antisemitism at the University of California.

It turned out that this first round of sirens was a wake-up call, a warning that Israel and America were attacking – so we could expect a different day of rest than all of us had planned.

When Purim arrives at a moment of global tension connected to Iran, it lands differently.

America’s new muscularity has placed the world on notice: This is no longer the United States of Obama and Biden. Red lines will be enforced. Provocations will not be ignored. Allies will be defended.