Yesterday we mentioned an open letter signed by scholars of Jewish studies deploring Israel’s passage of a law last week barring travel by those who support boycotts against Israel, including BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and boycotts of settlement goods. The letter is being circulated by University of California scholar David Biale, who shared it with us, along with the names of the 172 signatories.
We, the undersigned scholars of Jewish studies, write to express our dismay over the bill passed on March 6 by the Israeli Knesset that would bar entry to any foreigner who supports the BDS movement or supports boycotting settlements or goods produced in the occupied territories. We are researchers with a wide range of professional, social, and personal ties to Israel and a diverse array of ideological positions. But we are unified in our belief that this law represents a further blow to the democratic foundations of Israel, continuing the process of erosion wrought by a recent series of bills including the Regulation Law, the Suspension of MKs Law, and the NGO Law, as well as the earlier Boycott Law. This is unacceptable.
We recall the words of Israel’s Proclamation of Independence promising “full freedom of conscience, worship, education and culture” to all in its midst. We also recall the yearning expressed in it to “admit Israel into the family of nations.” Recent policies, culminating in the latest Law of March 6, move Israel further away from these founding ideals. To begin imposing constraints on thought and speech, in this case directed against foreigners, is dangerous in and of itself. It joins a growing wave of anti-democratic acts in regimes the world over. But it also portends a time when these same constraints might be directed against Israel’s own citizens, especially those who do not support the primacy of Israel’s Jewish character over its democratic aspirations.
Among us are those who oppose the BDS movement, those who oppose BDS but support a settlement boycott, and those who support BDS. In spite of our different views, we stand in strong opposition to the new law. It will be bad for Israel, bad for the cause of democracy at this fragile moment, and bad for the principles of free speech and thought on which our scholarship is based. We hope that the Israeli judiciary will overturn the new law and assure us that our political speech will not prevent us from continuing our rich scholarly interactions with Israeli colleagues in the field of Jewish studies. Should the law stand, we may no longer be permitted—nor permit ourselves—to enter the State of Israel.
Signed,
Inbal Amit-Palombo
Bonnie Anderson, CUNY
Jessica Andruss, University of Virginia
Joyce Antler, Brandeis University
Ari Ariel, University of Iowa
Janet Krasner Aronson, Brandeis University
Dianne Ashton, Rowan University
Mark Baker, Monash University
Michael Barnett, George Washington University
Albert Baumgarten, Bar Ilan University
Elissa Bemporad, Queens College, CUNY
Mara Benjamin, St. Olaf College
Sarah Benor
Joel Berkowitz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Lila Corwin Berman, Temple University
Nathaniel Berman, Brown University
Judah Bernstein, NYU/Rutgers
David Biale, UC Davis
Jeffrey Blutinger, California State University, Long Beach
Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University
Yonatan Brafman
Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University
Ross Brann, Cornell University
Samuel Brody, University of Kansas
Micha Brumlik, Zentrum Jüdische Studien Betlin, Brandenburg
Andrew Bush, Vassar College
Debra Caplan, Baruch College, CUNY
Jessica Carr
Flora Cassen, UNC Chapel Hill
Sally Charnow, Hoftra University
Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University
Julia Cohen, Vanderbilt
Judith Cohen
Steven Cohen, HUC-JIR
Alon Confino, University of Virginia, Ben-Gurion University
Jessica Cooperman, Muhlenberg College
Max Daniel, UCLA
Galeet Dardashti, NYU
Rebecca Davis, University of Delaware
Carolyn Dean, Yale University
Evelyn Dean-Olmsted, University of Puerto Rico
Rachel Deblinger, UC Santa Cruz
Irit Dekel, University of Virginia
Nathaniel Deutsch
Hasia Diner, New York University
Daniella Doron, Monash University
Jodi Eichler-Levine, Lehigh University
Susan Einbinder, University of Connecticut
Barat Ellman, Fordham University
Marjorie N. Feld
Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan State University
Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College
Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania
Louis Fishman, Brooklyn College, CUNY
David Fishman, Jewish Theological Seminary
Arnold Franklin, Queens College, CUNY
Joshua Furman, Rice University
Libby Garland, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY
Barbara Geller, Wellesley College
Ora Gelley, North Carolina State University
Judith Gerson, Rutgers University
Pinchas Giller, American Jewish University
Erin Graff Zivin, University of Southern California
Cheryl Greenberg, Trinity College
Jeffrey Grossman, University of Virginia
Atina Grossmann, Cooper Union
Aaron Hahn Tapper, University of San Francisco
Liora Halperin, University of Colorado Boulder
Sarah Hammerschlag, University of Chicago
Rachel Havrelock, University of Illinois at Chicago
Alma Heckman
Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
Bethamie Horowitz, NYU
Aaron W Hughes , University of Rochester
Sarah Imhoff, Indiana University
Daniel Itzkovitz, Stonehill College
Jack Jacobs, City University of New York
Ari Joskowicz, Vanderbilt University
Jonathan Judaken, Rhodes College
Marion Kaplan, NYU
Brett Kaplan, University of Illinois
Debra Kaufman, Professor Emerita Northeastern University
Michael Kaufman, Retired Professor
Martin Kavka, Florida State University
Agnes Kelemen, Central European University
Ari Y Kelman, Stanford University
Evan Kent, Hebrew Union College
Arthur Kiron, University of Pennsylvania
Michael Kochen, University of Goettingen
Rachel Kranson, University of Pittsburgh
Jonathan Krasner, Brandeis University
Joshua Krug, NYU
Jacob Labendz, Penn State
Hartley Lachter, Lehigh University
Yitz Landes, Princeton University
J. Shawn Landres, UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs
Berel Lang, Wesleyan University
Lori Lefkovitz, Northeastern University
Paul Lerner, University of Southern California
Arielle Levites, Hebrew College
Laura Levitt, Temple University
Lital Levy, Princeton University
Jason Lustig, UCLA
Shaul Magid, Indiana University
Nadia Malinovich, Université de Picardie/Sciences Po
Charles Manekin, University of Maryland
Barbara Mann
Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California
Tony Michels, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan
Leslie Morris, University of Minnesota
Eva Mroczek, UC Davis
Harriet Murav, University of Illinois Urbana
David Myers, UCLA
Margaret Olin, Yale University
Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Louisvlle
Bruce Phillips, Hebrew Union College/USC
Noam Pianko, University of Washington
Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan
Hannah Pollin-Galay, University of Massachusetts
Riv-Ellen Prell, Univesity of Minnesota
Shari Rabin, College of Charleston
Elliot Ratzman, Swarthmore College
Annette Yoshiko Reed, University of Pennsylvania
Gail Reimer, Jewish Women’s Archive
Kate Rosenblatt, University of Michigan
Bruce Rosenstock, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Lawrence Rosenwald, Wellesley College
Michael Rothberg, UCLA
Nora Rubel, University of Rochester
Jennifer Sartori, Northeastern University
Stuart Schoefeld, York University
Joshua Schreier, Vassar College
Daniel Schwartz, George Washington University
Don Schwartz, California State University, Long Beach
Joshua Shanes, College of Charleston
Noah Shenker, Monash University
Eugene Sheppard, Brandeis University
Amy Shevitz, Arizona State University
David Shneer, University of Colorado, Boulder
Sam Shonkoff, University of Chicago
Jeffrey Shoulson, University of Connecticut
Sam Shuman, University of Michigan
Mara Sobotka
Daniel Soyer, Fordham University
Deborah Starr, Cornell University
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, UCLA
Rebecca Stein, Duke University
Lior Sternfeld, Penn State University
Max Strassfeld, University of Arizona
Mira Sucharov, Carleton University
Shelly Tenenbaum, Clark University
David Teutsch, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Ruth Tsoffar, University of Michigan
Irene Tucker, University of California, Irvine
Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan
Alana Vincent, University of Chester
Kora von Witelsbach, Cornell University
Jeffrey Wallen, Hampshire College
Mira Wasserman, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Deborah Waxman, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Lauren Weingarden
Alan Jay Weisbard, University of Wisconsin
Shayna Weiss
Beth Wenger, University of Pennsylvania
Sebastian Wogenstein, University of Connecticut
Diane Wolf, UC Davis
Diane Wolfthal, Rice University
Michael Zank, Boston University
Saul Zaritt, Harvard University
Yael Zerubavel, Rutgers University
Maja Zuckerman, Stanford University
172 signatories as of March 12, 2017, 11 AM PST
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this post included the signatory “Adolph Hitler, National Socialist University of Berlin.” We are sorry to our readers for failing to catch this. David Biale who circulated the letter said, “It’s clear that someone was trying to sabotage our statement and we’re discussing how to put safeguards in place so it doesn’t happen again.”
– See more at: http://mondoweiss.net/2017/03/permitted-ourselves-scholars/#sthash.td0FiLPX.dpuf