Meanwhile, highly qualified Jewish faculty are either run out of academia or their lives are made intolerable the moment they dare teach the truth about Zionism and antisemitism.
Apart from anything else, it's a horrible betrayal of students, most of whom go deep into debt to get a university education. They deserve to have non-ideological courses taught by leading scholars. Instead, they are treated as interchangeable blanks upon which to stamp simple ideologies. The thing is, you don't need to go to university to learn this garbage. A high school graduate who reads a couple of good books on his/her summer holidays will come out with a more nuanced picture of the subject than the student subjected to semesters of activist propaganda by teachers who are in any case less intellectually able than them.
In real time we are witnessing the bankrupting of truth. Anyone who has been paying attention, that is. Islam and the Socialist Left are playing to win it all, and it starts with infecting future generations
If anyone, especially Mizrachi Jews want to understand the history of the Jewish people living under Arab rulers, should read the following book:
The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Andrew G. Bostom
Description from Amazon books:
"This comprehensive, meticulously documented collection of scholarly articles presents indisputable evidence that a readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism-a specific Muslim hatred of Jews-has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam. Debunking the conventional wisdom, which continues to assert that Muslim animosity toward Jews is entirely a 20th-century phenomenon fueled mainly by the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict, leading scholars provide example after example of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam. The contributors show that the Koran itself is a significant source of hostility toward Jews, as well as other foundational Muslim texts including the hadith (the words and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by pious Muslim transmitters) and the sira (the earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad). Many other examples are adduced in the writings of influential Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars, from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era. These primary sources, and seminal secondary analyses translated here for the first time into English - such as Hartwig Hirschfeld's mid-1880s essays on Muhammad's subjugation of the Jews of Medina and George Vajda's elegant, comprehensive 1937 study of the hadith - detail the sacralized rationale for Islam's anti-Jewish bigotry. Numerous complementary historical accounts illustrate the resulting plight of Jewish communities in the Muslim world across space and time, culminating in the genocidal threat posed to the Jews of Israel today."
If you look up Andrew Bostom's books on Amazon, you'll find some closely related to that one, which may suit your purpose. Or see those listed below, in Noah Otte's comment.
Maybe you can find a second hand book. Nothing suspicious. I bought it about 15 years ago. I still have it. An excellent book if you can get your hands on it.
The fact that the academy would even begin to tolerate this kind of chicanery posing as academia is an indictment that should render the entire institution unfit for purpose
And yet, in many Jewish communities, the moves by the current U.S. Administration to "defund" the colleges and universities who practice this blatant antisemitism is denounced as an infringement of their free speech rights. No one is infringing on their rights to speak freely. They can spread as much of their antisemitic b.s. as they wish; however, finance it through the money in their endowments and not on my tax dime. "Indoctrination U" indeed.
A tour de force of an article, Matthew! You do a splendid job ripping academia new one for improperly representing the Jewish community and peddling a false version of Middle Eastern history in the name of their woke narrative. Professor Cohen does NOT represent that vast majority of Mizrahi Jews and does not have the proper credentials or training to teach a course on Mizrahi Jewish history. First off, never, ever call Mizrahi Jews, Arab Jews! Do NOT ever use the name of those who colonized, discriminated against, persecuted, and murdered them and made them second-class citizens! You are erasing and ignoring the long history of Arab antisemitism and Jewish oppression in the Middle East by doing so. Professor Cohen is a token whether she realizes it or not. Academia has no rigorous standards anymore, they don't care about truth or facts they care about pushing their preferred narrative and affirming their worldview, that's it. They seem to only promote Jewish faculty and teach "Jewish history" that aligns with the anti-Zionist cause. Jewish faculty who are Zionists are harassed, censored, threatened, accosted, denied tenure, fired, and forced out of academia. The Pro-Palestinian professors are all crazy radicals who refuse to have dialogue with Zionist professors. For example, the Zionist Jewish professor who taught a balance class on the Israel-Palestine Conflict and invited a Palestinian speaker, but they simply ghosted her. Returning to Professor Cohen, she claims that "there was never a place in Zionism for Arab Jews like myself." She is so full of it! First of all, Zionism was inclusive of all Jews and non-Jews too. All Israeli Arabs were given citizenship, the right to vote and representation in the Knesset upon the Jewish state's independence. Furthermore, Zionism was a decolonization project. The Jews fought the British Empire along with the Arabs to be restored to their national homeland.
Did Mizrahi Jews face discrimination, second-class citizenship and economic hardship in the early decades of the state? Yes, no question about it. But today, Mizrahi Jews have full equal rights and there are high intermarriage rates between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews. Shared schools, neighborhoods, military service, and culture have fused Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews together. Mizrahi food, music, politics, and literature are inseparable parts of Israeli identity. Yes, socioeconomic gaps between the two communities persist and need to be closed. But Zionism doesn't erase Mizrahi identity. In fact, Zionism is the one place where it thrives. Hedar Cohen seems to have forgotten that Jews were second-class citizens or dhimmis, in the Arab and Islamic World. They had to pay the Jizya, faced persecution, discrimination, had to live in segregated neighborhoods, and had to wear distinctive clothing that would help distinguish them from the Muslim population. In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s they were basically forced out of their home countries with only the clothes on their back and a satchel and lost their jobs, property, wealth, and assets and came to Israel dirt poor. She apparently is completely ignorant of all of this. Shai Davdai's horrible treatment by Columbia is more than enough proof that academia doesn't welcome or want Jewish voices who are Zionist, which is most of them. In academia, Arabs are the only victims and Jews are only oppressors. Their history and historical experiences and oppression don't matter. I have a reading list here for all American college students on Mizrahi Jewish and Israeli history since your professors and schools do such a terrible job educating you about them:
* Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris
* The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book by Norman A. Stillman
* Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times by Norman A. Stillman
* The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands by Malka Hillel Shulewitz
* Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight by Lyn Julius
* Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth by Asaf Elia-Shalev
* 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris
Thank you so much for your wonderful essay........ I guess the foreign Muslim countries investing money in our universities, determined who are going to be the " professors " and what are they going to be teaching !!!!!!! This is NOT education this is politics and lack of moral honesty !!!!!.....
Educators hiring unqualified educators means that, at some point, all those doing the hiring will be unqualified to know they're hiring unqualified educators. Hiring will go from intentionally biased to unconsciously ignorant.
So true. This is why Jewish day school education is so important. All Jewish families need to send their children for a proper education in preparation for the hostilities we will face from the “elite” educated condescending cowards.
There are charities available to provide financial help for day school education.
The only way I keep a grip on myself is that the educational system is clearly part of the Satanic world system. I only experienced the anti-Christian bias. But, it's an evil system. Thankfully, the Messiah will be here soon and fix all these problems. The Messiah on David's throne in Jerusalem will solve all of this garbage.
Western academia and all its offshoots, especially the explicity political ones, have been conquered by the Social Justice faith and now all academic positions can only be attained by passing a loyalty test and making a mandatory profession of faith. Our universities are as devoted to their faith and its propagation as much as they were in prior centuries, and once a committed group bound by dogma conquers an entire social sphere they become almost impossible to dislodge.
Unfortunately in the Social Justice faith Jews are now considered oppressors and enemies of Justice, so they can only be tolerated if they are anti-Jewish Jews who renounce the Jewish state and practice a form of Judaism that is more or less the NYT editorial page maybe w a few references to God thrown in. Other types of Jews, especially the ones who refuse to apologize and grovel for acceptance, are prohibited.
Our greatest illusion is that the modern West is still liberal, but liberalism is only suited for a confident people who are rooted in family, faith and community and thus have the strength (mental and emotional) to handle dissent and opposing perspectives. Our era is much more fractured and unstable, thus people seek certitude and the comfort of easy answers—esp the comfort of being told what they need to think, say and believe to be considered a Good Person—and our universities and intellectuals are more than happy to provide this, as they want nothing more than to be considered wise and infallible philosopher-kings.
It's ugly that this has happened, but it's always better to face the truth. The Western Left and its institutions have turned on Jews and this is even more strident in the children of the digital age, who have few liberal memories or habits. Jews need to abandon all these places and let them rot. They will all soon be devoured by the Red Guard of Veruca Salts that they've raised, who will tear down all that doesn't cast back a flattering reflection. It's time to steer clear and build separately.
these "pro-fressers" (considerin' the non-meritocratic income they eat up) are Jumbo Shrimp & Plastic Silverware....Soros/Qatar-funded Oxy-Moronic fix-chures in academia... (that'd be Occidental "Moronality").... if they don't FIX this mess soon, I think ve choos gotta found sum rigorous non-delusional academic alternatives pronto (not sure if Bari Weiss's attempt ta do so is fully gelled yet....) At this point there is no paucity of able-minded professors...includin' among the canceled... If we wait, I fear the young academics will all be inDOCTRINEated / a lost cause :-(
Arab Jew is a fringe identity meant to erase Jewishishness as a legit identity....it's 'ONLY" a religion. How about the Arab Armenians and the Arab Assyrians? Arab Greeks? True, Jews adopted Judeo Arabic as their tongue....participated in all aspects of the new masters civilization after the colonial settler Arab Muslim invasions. The "Arab Jew" fits the Palestinianist ideology that they are an actual legit nation....the Jews are not and never can be and ONLY a religion. Tell that to Pakistan a nation founded as a Muslim majority homeland. by their reckoning it's not legit nation. Also the rejection of the newly invented "white Jew." That they have no regard for Klezmer...for "gefillte fish" the most maligned dish in the world. Instead they dance the dabke. wear a Keffiyah! So for the record I have in my cds Mizrahi cantors /singers who sing religious lyrics to the music of the great 20th cent. Egyptian musicians. With mostly Jewish names listed playing the instruments. I've heard Ashkenazi Jewish cantors sing prayers to the music of Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler.
I enjoy all of the facets of JEwish experience, I read the excellent blog POINT of NO RETURN where Mizrahi Jews can speak for their own experience with Arab Muslims. So yes, I'm suspicious of a lot of "Jewish studies" as anti Zionist and Palestinianist in ideology. If the Mizrahi believed this crap, they would not fight so valiantly for Israel their homeland.
Apart from anything else, it's a horrible betrayal of students, most of whom go deep into debt to get a university education. They deserve to have non-ideological courses taught by leading scholars. Instead, they are treated as interchangeable blanks upon which to stamp simple ideologies. The thing is, you don't need to go to university to learn this garbage. A high school graduate who reads a couple of good books on his/her summer holidays will come out with a more nuanced picture of the subject than the student subjected to semesters of activist propaganda by teachers who are in any case less intellectually able than them.
In real time we are witnessing the bankrupting of truth. Anyone who has been paying attention, that is. Islam and the Socialist Left are playing to win it all, and it starts with infecting future generations
If anyone, especially Mizrachi Jews want to understand the history of the Jewish people living under Arab rulers, should read the following book:
The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism by Andrew G. Bostom
Description from Amazon books:
"This comprehensive, meticulously documented collection of scholarly articles presents indisputable evidence that a readily discernible, uniquely Islamic antisemitism-a specific Muslim hatred of Jews-has been expressed continuously since the advent of Islam. Debunking the conventional wisdom, which continues to assert that Muslim animosity toward Jews is entirely a 20th-century phenomenon fueled mainly by the protracted Arab-Israeli conflict, leading scholars provide example after example of antisemitic motifs in Muslim documents reaching back to the beginnings of Islam. The contributors show that the Koran itself is a significant source of hostility toward Jews, as well as other foundational Muslim texts including the hadith (the words and deeds of Muhammad as recorded by pious Muslim transmitters) and the sira (the earliest Muslim biographies of Muhammad). Many other examples are adduced in the writings of influential Muslim jurists, theologians, and scholars, from the Middle Ages through the contemporary era. These primary sources, and seminal secondary analyses translated here for the first time into English - such as Hartwig Hirschfeld's mid-1880s essays on Muhammad's subjugation of the Jews of Medina and George Vajda's elegant, comprehensive 1937 study of the hadith - detail the sacralized rationale for Islam's anti-Jewish bigotry. Numerous complementary historical accounts illustrate the resulting plight of Jewish communities in the Muslim world across space and time, culminating in the genocidal threat posed to the Jews of Israel today."
That book us going on my wish list, thank you.
Argh, this book appears to be out-of-print and is difficult to obtain. Yet it was published recently. Disappointing and maybe suspicious.
I just checked the Boston Public Library's website, and they have it in their catalog. Perhaps your local library might own a copy. :)
If you look up Andrew Bostom's books on Amazon, you'll find some closely related to that one, which may suit your purpose. Or see those listed below, in Noah Otte's comment.
Maybe you can find a second hand book. Nothing suspicious. I bought it about 15 years ago. I still have it. An excellent book if you can get your hands on it.
I’m keeping a lookout! I just hate that it’s hard to find when there’s so much propaganda out there. Harrumph.
Same here. Amazon uk has clearly removed it.
The fact that the academy would even begin to tolerate this kind of chicanery posing as academia is an indictment that should render the entire institution unfit for purpose
And yet, in many Jewish communities, the moves by the current U.S. Administration to "defund" the colleges and universities who practice this blatant antisemitism is denounced as an infringement of their free speech rights. No one is infringing on their rights to speak freely. They can spread as much of their antisemitic b.s. as they wish; however, finance it through the money in their endowments and not on my tax dime. "Indoctrination U" indeed.
A tour de force of an article, Matthew! You do a splendid job ripping academia new one for improperly representing the Jewish community and peddling a false version of Middle Eastern history in the name of their woke narrative. Professor Cohen does NOT represent that vast majority of Mizrahi Jews and does not have the proper credentials or training to teach a course on Mizrahi Jewish history. First off, never, ever call Mizrahi Jews, Arab Jews! Do NOT ever use the name of those who colonized, discriminated against, persecuted, and murdered them and made them second-class citizens! You are erasing and ignoring the long history of Arab antisemitism and Jewish oppression in the Middle East by doing so. Professor Cohen is a token whether she realizes it or not. Academia has no rigorous standards anymore, they don't care about truth or facts they care about pushing their preferred narrative and affirming their worldview, that's it. They seem to only promote Jewish faculty and teach "Jewish history" that aligns with the anti-Zionist cause. Jewish faculty who are Zionists are harassed, censored, threatened, accosted, denied tenure, fired, and forced out of academia. The Pro-Palestinian professors are all crazy radicals who refuse to have dialogue with Zionist professors. For example, the Zionist Jewish professor who taught a balance class on the Israel-Palestine Conflict and invited a Palestinian speaker, but they simply ghosted her. Returning to Professor Cohen, she claims that "there was never a place in Zionism for Arab Jews like myself." She is so full of it! First of all, Zionism was inclusive of all Jews and non-Jews too. All Israeli Arabs were given citizenship, the right to vote and representation in the Knesset upon the Jewish state's independence. Furthermore, Zionism was a decolonization project. The Jews fought the British Empire along with the Arabs to be restored to their national homeland.
Did Mizrahi Jews face discrimination, second-class citizenship and economic hardship in the early decades of the state? Yes, no question about it. But today, Mizrahi Jews have full equal rights and there are high intermarriage rates between Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews. Shared schools, neighborhoods, military service, and culture have fused Mizrahi and Ashkenazi Jews together. Mizrahi food, music, politics, and literature are inseparable parts of Israeli identity. Yes, socioeconomic gaps between the two communities persist and need to be closed. But Zionism doesn't erase Mizrahi identity. In fact, Zionism is the one place where it thrives. Hedar Cohen seems to have forgotten that Jews were second-class citizens or dhimmis, in the Arab and Islamic World. They had to pay the Jizya, faced persecution, discrimination, had to live in segregated neighborhoods, and had to wear distinctive clothing that would help distinguish them from the Muslim population. In the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s they were basically forced out of their home countries with only the clothes on their back and a satchel and lost their jobs, property, wealth, and assets and came to Israel dirt poor. She apparently is completely ignorant of all of this. Shai Davdai's horrible treatment by Columbia is more than enough proof that academia doesn't welcome or want Jewish voices who are Zionist, which is most of them. In academia, Arabs are the only victims and Jews are only oppressors. Their history and historical experiences and oppression don't matter. I have a reading list here for all American college students on Mizrahi Jewish and Israeli history since your professors and schools do such a terrible job educating you about them:
* Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881-2001 by Benny Morris
* The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book by Norman A. Stillman
* Jews of Arab Lands in Modern Times by Norman A. Stillman
* The Forgotten Millions: The Modern Jewish Exodus from Arab Lands by Malka Hillel Shulewitz
* Uprooted: How 3000 Years of Jewish Civilization in the Arab World Vanished Overnight by Lyn Julius
* Israel's Black Panthers: The Radicals Who Punctured a Nation's Founding Myth by Asaf Elia-Shalev
* 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War by Benny Morris
* 1949: The First Israelis by Tom Segev
Anyone that would refer to themselves as an "Arab Jew" is already disqualified.
This is what woke academia looks like with respect to Jewish studies .Magid’s predecessors are rolling over in their graves over his appointment
Great piece.
Thank you 🙏🏼
Thank you so much for your wonderful essay........ I guess the foreign Muslim countries investing money in our universities, determined who are going to be the " professors " and what are they going to be teaching !!!!!!! This is NOT education this is politics and lack of moral honesty !!!!!.....
Educators hiring unqualified educators means that, at some point, all those doing the hiring will be unqualified to know they're hiring unqualified educators. Hiring will go from intentionally biased to unconsciously ignorant.
So true. This is why Jewish day school education is so important. All Jewish families need to send their children for a proper education in preparation for the hostilities we will face from the “elite” educated condescending cowards.
There are charities available to provide financial help for day school education.
The only way I keep a grip on myself is that the educational system is clearly part of the Satanic world system. I only experienced the anti-Christian bias. But, it's an evil system. Thankfully, the Messiah will be here soon and fix all these problems. The Messiah on David's throne in Jerusalem will solve all of this garbage.
Western academia and all its offshoots, especially the explicity political ones, have been conquered by the Social Justice faith and now all academic positions can only be attained by passing a loyalty test and making a mandatory profession of faith. Our universities are as devoted to their faith and its propagation as much as they were in prior centuries, and once a committed group bound by dogma conquers an entire social sphere they become almost impossible to dislodge.
Unfortunately in the Social Justice faith Jews are now considered oppressors and enemies of Justice, so they can only be tolerated if they are anti-Jewish Jews who renounce the Jewish state and practice a form of Judaism that is more or less the NYT editorial page maybe w a few references to God thrown in. Other types of Jews, especially the ones who refuse to apologize and grovel for acceptance, are prohibited.
Our greatest illusion is that the modern West is still liberal, but liberalism is only suited for a confident people who are rooted in family, faith and community and thus have the strength (mental and emotional) to handle dissent and opposing perspectives. Our era is much more fractured and unstable, thus people seek certitude and the comfort of easy answers—esp the comfort of being told what they need to think, say and believe to be considered a Good Person—and our universities and intellectuals are more than happy to provide this, as they want nothing more than to be considered wise and infallible philosopher-kings.
It's ugly that this has happened, but it's always better to face the truth. The Western Left and its institutions have turned on Jews and this is even more strident in the children of the digital age, who have few liberal memories or habits. Jews need to abandon all these places and let them rot. They will all soon be devoured by the Red Guard of Veruca Salts that they've raised, who will tear down all that doesn't cast back a flattering reflection. It's time to steer clear and build separately.
these "pro-fressers" (considerin' the non-meritocratic income they eat up) are Jumbo Shrimp & Plastic Silverware....Soros/Qatar-funded Oxy-Moronic fix-chures in academia... (that'd be Occidental "Moronality").... if they don't FIX this mess soon, I think ve choos gotta found sum rigorous non-delusional academic alternatives pronto (not sure if Bari Weiss's attempt ta do so is fully gelled yet....) At this point there is no paucity of able-minded professors...includin' among the canceled... If we wait, I fear the young academics will all be inDOCTRINEated / a lost cause :-(
Arab Jew is a fringe identity meant to erase Jewishishness as a legit identity....it's 'ONLY" a religion. How about the Arab Armenians and the Arab Assyrians? Arab Greeks? True, Jews adopted Judeo Arabic as their tongue....participated in all aspects of the new masters civilization after the colonial settler Arab Muslim invasions. The "Arab Jew" fits the Palestinianist ideology that they are an actual legit nation....the Jews are not and never can be and ONLY a religion. Tell that to Pakistan a nation founded as a Muslim majority homeland. by their reckoning it's not legit nation. Also the rejection of the newly invented "white Jew." That they have no regard for Klezmer...for "gefillte fish" the most maligned dish in the world. Instead they dance the dabke. wear a Keffiyah! So for the record I have in my cds Mizrahi cantors /singers who sing religious lyrics to the music of the great 20th cent. Egyptian musicians. With mostly Jewish names listed playing the instruments. I've heard Ashkenazi Jewish cantors sing prayers to the music of Sunrise Sunset from Fiddler.
I enjoy all of the facets of JEwish experience, I read the excellent blog POINT of NO RETURN where Mizrahi Jews can speak for their own experience with Arab Muslims. So yes, I'm suspicious of a lot of "Jewish studies" as anti Zionist and Palestinianist in ideology. If the Mizrahi believed this crap, they would not fight so valiantly for Israel their homeland.