Et Tu Brandeis
The Jewish Ledger, Editorial
By now, we’ve all become used to hearing about the rancorous debate on our campuses over the existence of Israel. But it still shocks us when a variation on the same theme is played out at a school where one would expect the deepest appreciation of the importance of the creation of the Jewish state.
Brandeis, whose mission statement says it was “founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian university under the sponsorship of the American Jewish community to embody its highest ethical and cultural values and to express its gratitude to the United States through the traditional Jewish commitment to education,” is set to honor at its commencement a person who thinks Israel should not have been created and who is embarrassed by her very existence. This is now a source of controversy and discussion.
About ten years ago, Brandeis, trying so hard to be just like any other university, added shrimp to its dining hall menu. This non-kosher seafood is readily available anywhere food is sold, so this in-your-face move of adding a non-kosher food to a dining room that was at the very least kosher style up until that point was negative symbolism of the worst kind.
It was only a matter of time before the trivial moved to the substantive, and today’s shrimp is Tony Kushner, who is slated to receive an honorary degree at Brandeis’ commencement on May 21.This is a man whose words loudly for themselves.
“I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”–The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY (10/14/02)
Kushner: ” Establishing a state means f…ing people over. However, I think that people in the late 20th century or early 21st century - having seen the Holocaust, having seen the 20th century and all of its horrors - cannot be complacent in the face of that.”
Ha’aretz reporter: “But you are saying that the very creation of Israel as a Jewish state was not a good idea.”
Kushner:” I think it was a mistake.”
Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“I am not a Zionist, in case you haven’t noticed.” Kushner then cited the shame of American Jews” for failing to “denounce Israel.”
Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)
“The existence of the state of Israel, because of the terrible way that the Palestinian people have been treated, is now in great peril and the world is in peril as a consequence of it. And we have now the spectacle
of Jewish people all over the world, who in the past century had an absolutely magnificent tradition of rejecting barbarism and right-wing murderous politics, rallying behind Ariel Sharon who 10 years ago would never have been acceptable anywhere.”
In These Times interview (3/4/02)
“Israel is a foreign country. I am no more represented by Israel than I am by Italy.”
Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“The Israeli-built security wall should come down, the homeland for the Palestinians should be built up, with a strictly enforced peace, not enforced by the Israel Defense Forces, but by the United Nations.”
Baltimore Jewish Times (6/4/04)
“I deplore the brutal and illegal tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces in the occupied territories. I deplore the occupation, the forced evacuations, the settlements, the refugee camps, the whole shameful history of the dreadful suffering of the Palestinian people; Jews, of all people, with our history of suffering, should refuse to treat our fellow human beings like that.”
London Times (5/7/02)
“[Israel is involved in] a deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people.”
New York Sun (10/4/02)
“To avoid facing up to such atrocity, to sustain the refusal of any Israeli share in culpability, Zionism has produced a long, shameful, and debilitating history of denial… “
“Wrestling with Zion“- Introduction, p.5
And one more….in the book “Conversation” edited by Robert Vorlicky, Univ. Michigan Press 1998, pp 83-84, “The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community and Israel tself has got this disgraceful record….Israel is a creation of the U.S., bought and paid for…There are lots of beautiful little orange groves and olive groves which the Palestinians had before the Jews were there, and some very attractive European-looking cities, but there’s no real country there…”
[Thanks to CAMERA for gathering these quotations.]
Kushner, the scriptwriter for Steven Spielberg’s decline into moral equivalence, the film “Munich,” is, according to the Brandeis web site, being honored for his art. We don’t think much of his art or his acclaim which is for the most part based on his early 90’s epic, “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” which even its fans would have trouble claiming has anything to do with the American Jewish community’s “highest ethical and cultural values.” For us it is the words of Louis D. Brandeis that echo, not those of Tony Kushner.
“The glorious past [of the Jews] can really live only if it becomes part of a glorious future; and to this end the Jewish home in Palestine is essential. We Jews of prosperous America above all need its inspiration.” (Menorah Journal, January 1915)
It is clear though that we and others are troubled when an avowed enemy of Israel is honored anywhere in academe, but are particularly distressed when it is at a place like Brandeis. But then again this is what happens when you put shrimp on the menu in the dining hall; the other non-kosher things and ideas aren’t far behind.
Disagree with us? We’d be glad to know why. Email us at editorial@jewishledger.com.
Disagree with Kushner being honored by Brandeis? Then let Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz know about it. Write: Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454-9110
jreinharz @ brandeis.edu
Ricky Greenfield publisher of The Jewish Ledger here in Connecticut is a friend. A friend in more ways than I care to count. He’s a plain speaking Zionist who doesn’t shirk from telling American Jewish institutions when they are off base. Ruth S. King, a weekend visitor to the nutmeg state and leader in AFSI considers The Jewish ledger as one of the few substantive Jewish federation publications in the US with independence of thought and action.
My buddy Lori Lowenthal Marcus whose commentary on WNWR.com, is the Philadelphia regional ZOA President. She’s also a Brandeis alum and a graduate of Harvard Law School.
She’s very much in the mold of both Ricky and Ruth fearlessly standing up and taking action-you’ve seen it in the current Penn State art exhibit fiasco with young Josh Stulman.
Lori is irate, so are several Brandeis graduates in my extended family like my daughter in law Carrie, her brother Stu and their mother Sharon among thousands of other Brandeis alumni.
Why Yehuda Reinharz saw fit to suggest and obtain from Brandeis University trustees another honorary doctorate for an acknowleged self hating Jew and anti-Zionist with deep Stalinist roots is beyond, you should pardon the expression, the Pale. I guess his wife Shulamit who is on the Brandeis Faculty didn’t convince him to the contrary. Too bad, I guess the pillow talk didn’t sink in.
I have two gay friends who are accomplished playwrights, one Jewish-William Hoffman and the other not, but a Zionist nevertheless, Glyn O’Malley. Bill or Velke, “the wolf” was the librettist for John Corgiliano’s stunning opera, “The Ghosts of Versailles.” Glyn O’Malley has written and directed seering reality plays of note like “Paradise”-the retelling of the fateful killing of innocent Israelis by the first female Palestinian shehada and his thought provoking play about the Iraq War, “A Heartbeat to Baghdad” done for the !01st Airborne Theater project. Glyn has also been victimized-appropriate choice of words in this case- by CAIR who muzzled and cancelled the initial production of Paradise in Cincinnati in 2003 for which he got a PEN award for his courageous exercise of “free speech.”
Unlike Tony Kushner, an acknowledged gay and radical leftist, neither Velke nor Glyn are sought after by Hollywoodian film makers and producers, because they are not politically correct. If anything because they are both Zionists they are not sought for their views in play and film scripts. Too bad, because their messages and views like Ricky’s editorial opinions in The Jewish Ledger should have a wide audience. If Yehuda and Shulamit Reinharz and the Brandeis trustees are reading this comment they had missed a real opprtunity for a break through honorary degree.
By granting Tony Kushner an honorary doctorate at what passes for a Jewish in origin “non-sectarian” elite university, Brandeis has fallen far from the words and values of its founding icon, Justice Brandeis. Tony Kushner is ann anti-Zionist self hating shatdlan who never had a moral compass even in his genes nor has he any sense of yiddishkeit.
Brandeis has committed a shander.
Comment by Jerry Gordon
— April 28, 2006 @ 4:49 am
ZOA Criticizes Brandeis University For Relationship With Al-Quds University, Which Denies Jewish Connection To Jerusalem & More
Comment by Ted Belman
— April 28, 2006 @ 5:34 am
Since Louis Brandeis himself was a Zionist, perhaps this university should change its name and break so embarrassing a connection.
Comment by ATimeToSpeak
— April 28, 2006 @ 7:04 am
ATimeToSpeak:
Great point! In fact, Brandeis was national president of the Zionist Organization of America. Maybe if Reinharz et al were aware of that, they would change the name of the university to - Kushner College? Al Quds of Massachusetts?
Lori Lowenthal Marcus
Comment by Lori LM
— April 28, 2006 @ 7:09 am
I would guess that Brandeis University has gradually strayed from the path set for it by its founders and the spirit of Justice Brandeis’ Zionism.
Starting out with the goal of being just as good as to big boys on the block, the forces of secular humanism and assimilation have converted that goal for Brandeis University to be just like the big boys on the block.
This change has probably been inexorably proceeding at such a slow pace that it has largely has gone unnoticed.
Brandeis University’s decision to bestow an honorary degree on Tony Kushner might just serve as a wake up call to American Jews.
Perhaps that call might be loud and shrill enough to rally Jews to press Brandeis University to return to the path that its founders blazed for it.
Whether American Jewry does rally in that regard depends on just how far American Jews have been pushed or pulled away from their roots, self perceptions and goals by the forces of secular humanism, assimilation and multiculturalism.
The question therefor of whether they want to be just as good or just like the big boys on the block is for American Jewry to ask itself.
Comment by Bill Narvey
— April 28, 2006 @ 8:21 am
Brandeis is not honoring Kushner for his opinions on Israel. They are honoring him for his brilliant playwriting. You demean yourself and your argument by not even mentioning Brandeis’s motive. Your criticism of Brandeis for serving shrimp is even more absurd. More than half the University is not Jewish. Every dining hall in the university has kosher options (real kosher, not “kosher style”). The student run beis medresh is packed every night. The Jewish studies department is the widely considered best in the world. But all of that is null and void because they honored a playwright who said stupid things, and they serve shrimp to goyim!
Comment by sunshine
— April 28, 2006 @ 5:43 pm
Sunshine
Some people even separate Wagner’s music from his Nazi views or Hitler’s painting from his attrocious crimes. You likewise separate Kushner’s art from his politics.
If a person is repugnant to you it is wrong to ignore that and argue he is kind to dogs. You cannot ignore the man while praising his art.
I prefer to honour people who I respect and refuse to separate the man from the art.
Comment by Ted Belman
— April 28, 2006 @ 8:56 pm
Tony Kushner to be Honored at Brandeis:…
Playwright Tony Kushner is to be receive an honorary degree at Brandeis University, a Jewish-sponsored, nonsectarian university (and my alma mater). Various groups, led by the Zionist Organization of America, are criticizing Bran……
Trackback by The Volokh Conspiracy
— May 2, 2006 @ 7:47 am
SHAME ON BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
BY: FERN SIDMAN
It has been announced that Brandies University in Waltham, Mass will bestow an honorary doctorate degree to anti-Israel playwright, Tony Kushner at its 55th commencement ceremony on May 21st 2006.
According to the Brandeis University web site, “Tony Kushner, one of the most highly acclaimed playwrights of his generation, is being honored for his many literary accomplishments in drama. His early 1990s epic “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes” was groundbreaking for its provocative, witty portrayal of politics, sex and religion in the United States at the end of the second millennium. It earned him the Pulitzer Prize for drama, two Tony Awards and two Drama Desk Awards, among many other honors. More recently, he wrote the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s “Munich,” which earned five Academy Award nominations this year, including for best picture and best adapted screenplay. Kushner has also written “Caroline, or Change,” “Homebody/Kabul” and “Hydrotaphia,” as well as other plays and adaptations. Additionally, Kushner has written a short play, “But the Giraffe, a Curtain Raiser to Hans Krasa’s ‘Brundibar,’” as part of his collaboration on “Brundibar” with Maurice Sendak that opens in New Victory Theater in New York April 28th.”
According to a press release issued by the Zionist Organization of America in New York, Kushner’s long record of anti-Israel sentiment is clear. “Kushner has also made numerous egregious statements viciously condemning Israel and decrying its very existence. He called Israel’s founding “a mistake,” saying “it would have been better if Israel never happened” He also condemned Israel for “ethnic cleansing” and behaving abominably and denounced, ‘the shame of American Jews for failing to denounce Israel.” He called American Jews who support Israel “repulsive,” and Israel a “disgrace.”
Kushner also “deplored the brutal and illegal tactics of the IDF” and “the deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people.” He is also on the board of an organization that opposes the security fence, a unified Jerusalem, or military aid to Israel, recommends Norman Finkelstein’s notorious anti-Israel, anti-Jewish books.
Tony Kushner’s recent screenplay of the movie Munich was widely condemned by numerous critics as being grossly inaccurate in ways that were hostile to Israel and inappropriately sympathetic to Palestinian terrorists. The critics include the Wall Street Journal’s Bret Stephens: Harvard’s Alan Dershowitz; Columbia Professor and author Samuel Friedman (Jerusalem Post): the New Republic’s Leon Wieseltier: movie critic and social analyst Michael Medved: former U.S. Holocaust Museum Director Dr. Walter Reich (Washington Post): the New York Times’ Edward Rothstein: Commentary’s Gabe Schoenfeld; Charles Krauthaumer: Variety Magazine and MTV’s Kurt Yoder The anti-media bias organization CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), for example, stated that in Munich, “Kushner repeatedly blamed Israel for supposed ‘ethnic cleaning’ and ‘dispossession’ of Palestinian’s casting the alleged action of denying Palestinians a homeland as the root fo the Arab-Israeli conflict, while disregarding the reality of the Arab world’s rejection of a non-Arab, non-Muslim Jewish homeland in its midst and Israel’s repeated peace overtures.” Only this week on the Charlie Rose Show, Ephraim Halevy, former Director of Mossad, the Israeli secret service, said that Tony Kushner’s screenplay of the movie Munich “had no relation to the truth or the facts.”
It has also been reported that “Kushner sits on the Board of Advisors of the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which advocates divestment and boycott campaigns against Israel. His name appears on JVP letterhead, including on a letter saluting]” the Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) for its move toward divesting from companies that do business with Israel. The letter posted on the JVP Web site not only applauds selective divestment focused on particular companies as proposed by the Presbyterians but says “we absolutely reject the accusation that general divestment or boycott campaigns are inherently anti-Semitic.” It should be noted that often news stories referring to JVP’s involvement in anti-Israel activity makes special mention of Tony Kushner as a member of the Board of Advisors.
Kushner, an ardent anti-Zionist, once said that “the founding of the State of Israel was for the Jewish people a historical, moral, and political calamity.”
The interesting thing, though, is Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz’s response to the controversy:
Brandeis bestows honorary degrees as a means of acknowledging the outstanding accomplishments or contributions of individual men and women in any of a number of fields of human endeavor. Just as Brandeis does not inquire into the political opinions and beliefs of faculty or staff before appointing them, or students before offering admission, so too the University does not select honorary degree recipients on the basis of their political beliefs or opinions.
Over the years, Brandeis has honored hundreds of men and women of distinction whose personal views, I am sure, span the full spectrum of political discourse, and the University applies no litmus test requiring honorary degree recipients to hold particular views on Israel or topics of current political debate.
Mr. Kushner is not being honored because he is a Jew, and he is not being honored for his political opinions. Brandeis is honoring him for his extraordinary achievements as one of this generation’s foremost playwrights, whose work is recognized in the arts and also addresses Brandeis’s commitment to social justice.
It is clear that the decision to grant an honorary degree to Tony Kushner by America’s “only non-sectarian Jewish-sponsored college or university,” which is named after the great American Zionist and Jurist, Justice Louis D. Brandeis is indeed a reprehensible and appalling one. Brandeis University has been an infamous bastion of Jewish liberalism and self hate since its inception.
The decision to publicly recognize and honor an anti-semite does not further the “lofty” goal of social justice as those on the Brandeis board of directors would have us believe. This egregious decision can only assist in bolstering and encouraging the burgeoning anti-Israel movement that is sweeping college campuses all across the USA.
Perhaps Jewish donors to Brandeis will re-think their decision to provide financial support to this Jewish “self-hating” institution of higher learning.
As we know, there is no difference between anti-Zionism and anti-semitism. While it is politically correct and palatable for haters of Jews to claim they are “anti-Zionist” but not “anti-semitic, we know that this is nothing more than a simplistic semantical argument. How easy it is for Jew haters to cloak their venom and vitriol towards Jews under the “innocuous” label of “anti-Zionism”, yet we who know the truth see it very clearly.
While Iranian President Ahmadnajed calls Israel “a Nazi regime”, we all know that he is calling all Jews “Nazis” and the most horrifying aspect to this is that the world remains silent. His vituperative is embraced by many willing “progressive” Jews who provide support and succor to his demonic views by echoing their own version of anti-Israel lies and propaganda.
We can no longer remain in denial. Jew hatred, on a global level is at an all time high and increasing with every passing moment. An apocalyptic catastrophe for Jews is not outside the realm of possibility. It is up to every Jew who possesses even a modicum of self pride to speak out against this outrage and to vocalize their indignation at the administration of Brandeis University and to all self hating Jews who aide and abet the Jew haters of the world.
Could it be that our destruction and demise will lay within ourselves?
Let us beseech the G-d of Israel for mercy and compassion at this critical juncture of Jewish history. Let us gird our loins and prepare to defend our faith. Let us gain the resolve and strength to walk in the ways of Hasher and to follow His commandments. For in the end, we must not fear the Jew hater, whether he is Jewish or not.
Comment by Fern Sidman
— May 12, 2006 @ 1:47 am