Here’s an important story about red lines in the Jewish community–and why Norman Finkelstein can’t get arrested on the Upper West Side but Michael Oren is speaking at Brandeis. Steve Horn is with a student group at the University of Wisconsin/Madison called Kavanah that is under the umbrella of Hillel. He sought to invite Jad Isaac, a Palestinian academic, to talk about water rights last month. Isaac was traveling to Chicago as a guest of the American Friends Service Committee. The Isthmus has the story.
Oh and by the way, my headline is all about Jewish IQ. We used to be the smartest folks around. Now all our mental energies are devoted to arguing that Jim Crow is cool. Well not all. There are more and more Steve Horns.
Horn approached Hillel about providing a room for the event and using money earmarked for Kavanah to cover some costs. An April 8 email from a Hillel staffer to Horn suggests it’s a done deal, asking what equipment is needed and mentioning an agreement to pay for Isaac’s hotel room.
On April 12, Horn was summoned by Hillel to a "crucial meeting," where he says he was peppered with questions about Isaac’s views. The next morning, Horn got an email from Inbal Unger, Hillel’s director of Jewish student life, itemizing "the details I would need to know in order to proceed with this program."
Among these was whether Isaac’s talk would include "any pro-Israel points" and "positive" things about Israel. The email asked: "Does he support Israel’s right to exist?" and "Does he believe in a two-state solution?" It also wondered whether Isaac might feel "unease" to appear as part of a celebration of Israel’s independence.
Horn emailed these questions to his contact with the Quakers in Chicago. "Hillel is freaking out a bit about Jad coming," he related. "I apologize for their paranoia." He says the contact tried talking to Hillel, to no avail.
Greg Steinberger, Hillel’s executive director, agrees some "hard questions" were asked about Isaac’s visit but says the main concerns came from other members of Kavanah, who in the end "stepped away from the program Steve planned in their name."
Isaac did come to speak at University of Wisconsin as a guest of the Quakers and Horn. Though Hillel kicked in some money to take Isaac to dinner.
Horn, an opinion writer at the Badger Herald, says this and similar dustups show that Hillel "doesn’t allow open and honest dialogue on the Israel-Palestine issue to take place within its walls. Every time a proposal is brought forth that involves a critique of Israeli policies, hysteria unfolds." He says such concerns don’t arise when speakers are aggressively pro-Israel.
Jennifer Loewenstein, a local activist and faculty associate in the UW’s Middle East Studies Program, agrees, calling Hillel’s list of questions akin to a "loyalty oath." She finds it quite distasteful: "Here we are on a university campus and academic freedom is bypassed when it comes to this organization [Hillel]."
