‘Jews and the University: Antisemitism, Admissions, Academic Freedom’

What was your thinking behind creating this series?

The series is trying to acknowledge and address what occurred on campus last semester. So much of what the public saw about events came from the media, and I wanted to create a way for the university community to gain a deeper understanding of what was happening, including what was at stake for members of the Jewish community. The events of October 7 were deeply traumatizing, and the ramifications are far from clear yet, so we will need to address those events separately. This series is a response to the resulting turmoil on campus. As a faculty member who cares about the University, and as a parent of Jewish children who attended Penn, I wanted to better understand myself how we reached this period of crisis, and to be better informed as we try to find a way forward to a better place.

How do you think this series can address these concerns?

We want to put this moment in a larger historical context, to talk about some of the history that is behind the concerns that many in the Jewish community have. Jews in the past have faced discrimination, and I think part of this is a triggering of anxiety that comes from that earlier experience.

Some of the talks in this series are about how Jewish life came to flourish on campuses, including a talk about sororities. I also want the series to help people to understand and remember the great relationship that has existed between Jews and the institution of the university in America. It’s true that there was an earlier era of discrimination, but that did not deter Jewish immigrants and their descendants from wanting to become a part of university communities, having recognized early on the university’s power to help people fulfill their potential and to integrate people from different backgrounds.

Once Jews were able to overcome the barriers that restricted their access to academia, they were able to contribute to the university in many different ways, and they’ve benefited immeasurably from the university in turn. I want the series to also help people to remember, or to understand, why this love story between Jews and academia is, and has been, so important.

Of course, we also felt the need to grapple with some of the problems and controversies that led to this moment, including the difficult challenge of how to relate criticism of Israel or Zionism to antisemitism. How does a university like Penn, which is committed to open expression, manage that very complicated challenge? One of the talks, by Penn’s Sigal Ben-Porath, will specifically address that challenge.

Why is this series important?

Last semester, with everything happening in the world, on campus and online, it became very difficult to stay focused on my mission as an educator, and I have come to see that that was true for many other people at Penn as well. A great university like Penn is at its best when it is bringing light, not heat, to the world, but last semester we were ourselves darkened by conflict, misunderstanding, hatred, and turmoil. The only way forward that I can see is to reembrace the core values of the University, including its commitment to help people become more knowledgeable about the world, about others, and about themselves, and this series is meant as a small contribution to that effort.

Steven Weitzman is the Ella Darivoff Director of the Herbert D. Katz Center of Advanced Judaic Studies, the Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures, and the undergraduate chair of the Department of Religious Studies in the School of Arts & Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania. 

Anne Oravetz Albert is the Katz Center’s Klatt Family Director for Public Programs and executive editor of the Jewish Quarterly Review.