November 20, 2023
Dear President Salovey and Provost Strobel,
We write to you as a community of Yale University alumni, faculty, and parents, both Jewish and non-Jewish, who have been deeply saddened to watch the tidal wave of antisemitism sweeping across campuses all over the United States. Our beloved alma mater, Yale University, has been no exception. We never imagined that we would feel compelled to write you such a letter, and we write with heavy hearts.
Yale espouses the values of Lux et Veritas. In the words of Yale’s For Humanity campaign, “We must ensure that the brightest people from all backgrounds have the support they need to study here and to thrive.” As Yale nurtures the leaders of tomorrow, the inclusive community it seeks to foster must include its Jewish students.
Recent events on campus, sadly, show that Yale has abdicated its responsibility. Below are three examples of an ongoing series of incidents and behaviors that do not measure up to Yale’s lofty values, yet have been tolerated on campus.
Hate speech from faculty:
On October 7th, we woke to the horrifying news that Hamas terrorists had infiltrated Israel and committed atrocities on a scale that was previously unimaginable. We were shocked when the response of a Yale professor to the heinous Hamas terror attack was to celebrate it on our very own campus. Associate Professor Zareena Grewal retweeted a video of the attack with the caption “It’s been such an extraordinary day.” As if war crimes are acceptable, she stated that “Palestinians have every right to resist through armed struggle (New York Post, October 12, 2023).” A Professor of American Studies should know the difference between resistance and war crimes. Yale’s Jewish students cannot feel safe in her classroom while she celebrates the slaughter of their friends and family.
Hate speech from peers:
Yalies4Palestine also supported the Hamas attack. At their rally on October 25th, supporters shouted “When people are occupied, resistance is justified (Yale Daily News, October 26, 2023).” Gaza is not occupied; it has been under Hamas rule since 2006, after Israel pulled out unilaterally in 2005. Other statements made by supporters of Yalies4Palestine, as documented on their Instagram page, include the infamous “from the river to the sea,” which calls for the genocide of Jews who live between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. This area encompasses the entire State of Israel. Hamas called for the murder of all Jews in its 1988 charter. “The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews, killing the Jews (Hamas Charter, 1988).” Chanting in support of genocide outside the dormitories of Jewish students constitutes harassment and creates an unsafe environment.
Hate speech from visiting academics / exclusion of pro-Israel voices:
The current University climate of antisemitism does not exist in a vacuum. Prior to October 7th, Yale hosted a French academic who posed with a sign calling for Jews to be sent to gulags. Houria Bouteldja told the world that she identified with a terrorist who carried out a mass shooting in a Jewish school (New York Post, April 18, 2023). Not only was she hosted by the University, but the event occurred on the second night of Passover, when Jewish students celebrated their holiday and were thus unable to attend and provide an alternate viewpoint. The Yale administration would be unlikely to turn a blind eye to a visiting academic who called for other minorities to be sent to labor camps. There should not be a double standard for Jewish students.
In sum, Yale has enabled a climate of hostility to Jews and pro-Israel voices.
A failure of the duty to protect Jewish students:
The administration’s response to these events is a glaring double standard, hiding behind free speech. A University statement on November 3rd recognized that these words can cause “some in our community” to feel “dehumanized”, and called for compassion and humanity in our “community of many viewpoints.” We support the tenet of free speech on campus so long as it does not violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Let us be clear: calling for genocide does more than dehumanize your Jewish students. It is a direct threat. It makes them feel unsafe. The burden of response should not be theirs to bear. It should not require an extraordinary act of courage on the part of the University to call out antisemitism. Looking the other way legitimizes hate speech against Jews, and that too is antisemitism.
In our country and on our campus, Jewish students are afraid to wear symbols of their identity. They are afraid to wear their stars of David or yarmulke or carry an Israeli flag because of the antisemitic environment in which they live and learn.
According to Yale’s policy on harassment, effective August 1, 2021, “harassment means subjecting an individual to objectively offensive, unwelcome conduct based on any of the protected characteristics (including race, religion, or national origin), when such conduct…creates an intimidating or hostile environment.” The above examples unequivocally constitute harassment according to Yale’s own definition.
Yale’s legal responsibility:
On November 7th, the Department of Education sent a Dear Colleague Letter to remind schools of their legal obligations under Title VI to provide all students, including students who are or are perceived to be Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian, a school environment free from discrimination, including harassment. As outlined by the multiple examples above, that is not the case for Jewish students on campus today.
Our proposal:
President Salovey’s October 10th condemnation of Hamas made a clear statement about the University’s values. Now is the time to put actions to those words. In order to assure our community of the administration’s serious commitment to tackle antisemitism, we request the following:
1. Reject Antisemitism:
2. Protect Jewish Students:
- Discipline faculty or students who threaten Yale’s Jewish community, which includes banning groups that advocate violence against Jews or against Israel. Law enforcement should be involved when threats are made.
- Create a blue ribbon antisemitism task force on campus that reports to the President, addressing the welfare and safety of Jews at Yale.
- Expand DEIB to include required antisemitism training, and include members of the antisemitism task force within the existing DEIB framework.
3. Include the Jewish narrative:
- Diversify to include Jewish and pro-Israel faculty in departments where they are currently underrepresented.
- Commit to gathering Yale experts from multiple disciplines and perspectives to teach the history and geopolitics that have led to current events.
We call on your commitment to the For Humanity campaign, your decency, and your obligation to your students. The current state of affairs is unacceptable. Yale can and should do better.
This year, we observed the eighty-fifth anniversary of Kristallnacht. When the world failed to act, Nazis discovered they could commit ever-increasing crimes against the Jews, culminating in the mass murder of 6 million.
If you ever asked yourself what you would have done in the Holocaust, this is your moment. We cannot remain silent. We will not remain silent. Yale’s Jewish community feels alienated, unwelcome, and unheard. Actions matter. We look forward to yours.
Respectfully,
Concerned Yale alumni, parents, and faculty
cc: The Yale Corporation
This letter is open to Yale University alumni, Yale faculty, and Yale parents. Signing this letter implies both consent to be included in the list of signatories to this letter and the understanding that this letter will be made public online and in print.
