The Statement with a frequently updated list of signatories is here.
Statement from Jewish faculty and staff at Northwestern University
As Jewish faculty and staff at Northwestern University, we write today to defend the values of academic freedom, pluralism and independence that animate Northwestern and undergird its commitment to teaching, learning, and research. We write to dispel misconceptions that are being wielded by outsiders to weaken the university and harm our students. The fact that U.S. government leaders are making unwarranted threats to our university and stripping rights from students, faculty, and researchers nationwide in the name of Jews is deeply offensive to us. We believe it should stop.
In announcing Title VI investigations of 60 universities, including Northwestern, the U.S. secretary of education spoke of “relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.” As Jews who walk the campus every day and teach in its classrooms, we can reliably report that this depiction bears little resemblance to life at Northwestern. Some of us have been disappointed at times by Northwestern’s response to campus events. We recognize that antisemitism is present on college campuses, as it is in the world. Yet a fair-minded assessment would reveal a faculty and a university administration committed to the education of our students through rigorous and respectful debate.
We come from different points on the political compass. We express our identities as Jews in myriad ways. But we are united by the conviction that our Jewishness must not be used as a cudgel to silence the vigorous exchange of ideas that lies at the heart of university life. To punish Northwestern financially or to limit academic freedom in the name of protecting Jewish students could itself spark antisemitism — and would be an injustice to those very students and an injury to American society at large.
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