By Matt Golden
Matt Golden
Chief Impact & Strategy Officer, Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCC
I think the following X (formerly Twitter) quotes speak for themselves:
“Whatever political entities Jews/Israelites historically had in Palestine were marginal entities. [A footnote in human history. Real change makers in the region Arabs, Persians, Greeks, etc. Not the nomadic Israelites].”
“Israel is finished when the tentacles of the Jew lobby in D.C. are yanked.”
“No American Zionist Jew lobby, no Israel. Today we are closer than ever.”
“The peak of Jewish power in human history is the Zionist Jew lobby in the U.S. A unique phenomenon in human history. 2% of the U.S. population riding the world’s empire as to an important policy issue, to the detriment of the empire’s interests.”
Those are the words of a college professor. Not at some far-flung coastal university, but right here, at Murray State, a publicly-funded university right down the road. This professor teaches law, ethics and Middle Eastern politics for Murray State.
I read his words again and again. These are not some rantings of an unbalanced mind, but carefully chosen words calculated to touch on classic antisemitic tropes. The professor marginalizes Jewish history and contributions to the land of Israel as mere footnotes of a separate and inferior people (the fact that ½ the world’s 8 billion people can trace the foundations of their religions to Israel and Judaism is apparently of no consequence). Touching on the “dual loyalty” canard, that if only American Jews’ political voices were eliminated, the world would see the professor’s vision complete: Israel ceasing to exist. He plays on the Jewish parasite trope with words like “riding on the world” and “tentacles of the Jew lobby” to convey his message.
The Murray State professor is not just a “one off.” We now know that there is a concerted effort by the Iranian government on our college campuses to “stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.” The same government that funds Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis abroad with weapons of destruction is acting here, in our country, with words. That is not my opinion; that is the statement of Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence for the United States. She indicated that there are “actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.” That professors like our friend from Murray State are taking part was praised by Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, who said: “The support and solidarity of your professors is a significant and consequential development.”As an aside, the brutal crackdown on women’s and girls’ rights by Tehran has gone almost unnoticed.
Against this backdrop, governments have stepped in to pass laws, to enact plans, to create taskforces. These are all good and laudable efforts to stamp out antisemitism from a 30,000-foot view. As we all navigate the waters between a public university’s foundational requirements to protect free speech and a student’s protections against hostile campus environments under Title VII, we know that government and organizational efforts too are essential.
However, we also know that very little will be done for the students who are heading off to college in three weeks. That is a reality. While we can hope for positive outcomes from others down the road, we know that, right now, our support network for Louisvillians bound for college is not as robust as it needs to be.
For decades, the Jewish Federation has been proud of the arc of support we’ve given to Jewish people in Louisville—from the babies to the bubbies. Without even mentioning our adult and senior programming, for our children we fund and support the PJ Library program, which has provided free Jewish books to more than 1,000 families in and around Louisville. We help children attend sleepaway camps, travel to Israel, and visit the Holocaust Museum. We have need-based assistance for our Early Learning Center, and we provide funding to every Jewish day school, preschool, Sunday school and Hebrew school program in our community to support their efforts. We support and staff BBYO for our high schoolers, and we fund and support the University of Louisville’s Hillel program, plus numerous other initiatives to wrap around our community members. Our sense of peoplehood requires that we show up.
We are now going to fill yet another need: providing a program that prepares our kids to go off to college amid this hyper-charged environment. A program built to help them recognize and combat antisemitism and to support them from Louisville, no matter where they may go. The 2 ½ hour pilot program for the 2024-25 school year will be built around an overview of antisemitism including tropes that students will encounter on campus, a peer-to-peer learning and roundtable for incoming freshmen to meet with students currently in college to share their lived experiences, and a Q&A with representatives from JCRC, Hillel, the Federation and JFCS, to build supportive networks around these incoming students. There is no cost for this program, and thanks to a generous grant from Chuck O’Koon and Howard Berman, students will be provided $100 stipends for attending.
Because space is very limited for the August 11, 2024, pilot session, please register at https://tinyurl.com/mryrd9u9. We will be offering a similar program for parents of college students in September, if there is enough interest. We need your help in spreading the word about both programs.
The Murray State professor and the Iranian funding to destabilize college campuses has been very much on my mind as of late. We need to do something about it and, frankly, we need to rely on ourselves as well as our allies. Any attempt—coordinated or not—to silence Jewish voices and delegitimize and demonize Jewish people, both here and abroad, is a threat. We must respond, or we will become what the professor said we were, “. . . a footnote in human history.” We need a bit of self-defense.
Matt Golden is Chief Impact & Strategy Officer of the Jewish Federation of Louisville and the Trager Family JCC.