Barb May" <
barbmay@gmx.com> wrote:
The Civility Pledge
* will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
* will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
* will stand against incivility when I see it.
As the crowed swarmed me, one student yelled, �He�s subhuman!� Another
student shouted, �I can�t wait for Hamas to come to your door � al-
Qassam is going to kill all your friends for no reason.�
I pointed with pride to the red Kippah, Jewish skullcap, that adorned
my head. It was soon forcefully ripped off by a �peaceful� student who
dug his nails into my scalp as he pulled it off, along with some hair.
This was one of three assaults I was subjected to at Columbia
University.
I am a �professional Jew.� It takes a lot to unnerve me. As an Israeli
Olympian and captain of an Israeli bobsled team that is majority non-
Jewish (Druze comprise most of our team,) my job is to represent the
nation and country of Israel. Representing Israel for the past 10 years
has been the greatest honor of my life, and it has given me a rather
unique perspective on the mutating virus of Jew hate that has become so
visible these past six months.
Jew hate is a rather unique form of hatred. It is a super-virus that
mutates to gain entry to its host in the form of whatever grievance or
bias that host might have. There isn�t a grievance that cannot be
blamed on the Jews as a means of alleviating oneself or a system of the
rightful blame. Jews either sit atop the power structure, pull the
strings behind the structure, or lie beneath the structure to
destabilize it. In my travels, I have experienced Jew hatred from
socialists, capitalists, centrists, communists, you name it. These new
virulently hateful protests come as no shock to me. Quite the opposite.
At institutions like Columbia, which foster almost exclusively a
culture of victimhood and oppression narratives, blind Jew hatred is
almost the foregone conclusion.
Academia has always been a welcome home to an intellectual �elite� that
are unable to make meaningful contributions to a market economy. Their
talents are marketable, in a way, only at an institution that demands
merely the regurgitation of information � if not for the fact that it
would be impossible to charge $70,000 per year for a YouTube education,
these skills are even less relevant to a market economy today. And so
universities are especially attractive to a subset of adults whose
skill set grows ever less marketable by the day. By definition, these
are the folks most drawn to grievances and jealousy. Outside of the
bubble of intellectual elitism, they have no way of supporting
themselves. It is hard to make money in an office when your subject
matter expertise is �oppression.�
As I pointed to the Kippah on my head, my neck still stinging from
having been clawed earlier by a student who called me a �white devil,�
I recalled why a Kippah was so important to me. I do not wear it for a
religious purpose. I wear it as an act of pride and identification. In
response to two rank anti-Semitic episodes at the 2018 Olympics, I was
the first to wear a Kippah in Olympic competition. Jew hatred seeks to
dehumanize, delegitimize, and intimidate Jews. But more than anything,
it seeks to eradicate Jewish identity. That is the one constant of all
forms of Jew hatred � the end goal is always a �final solution.� Being
rid of Jews. And in some ways these protests have succeeded in their
intent. It takes a lot to shock me � but seeing a Columbia student
remove his Kippah before exiting the subway tunnel at the site of the
protests left a mark that is truly difficult to put into words.
In the past six months, I have set up picnic tables in parks in New
York and across North America to engage in a dialogue with folks and to
debate. I have shown up to many protests. What I have observed is
obscene. A complete subversion of Western values encouraged by the very
�oppression-Olympics� loving faculty that have stoked hatred and
division amongst our youth for decades. Chants of �death to America�
are routine. �Go back to Poland� is shouted by the same �tolerant�
young adults who champion unfettered migration. International students
lead chants in Arabic about violent, terrorist action to topple the
�Zionist� regime, which by extension includes the United States which,
they say, is �controlled by the Jews.�
Many of the protesters have no idea what their demands are. All they
know is they stand on the �side of justice� and where they stand for
justice, all means of fighting evil are therefore acceptable, even
violence. When I was shoved to the ground and kicked I have no doubt
that whoever assaulted me believed that such action, while illegal,
vile, and hateful was striking a blow against injustice. To strike me,
a visibly Jewish man, was to strike against the evil they had been told
I represented. The West needs to be aware of the implications of this
mentality, for Western values have made the United States and other
countries like it far more successful than those without those values.
Eventually, these students, and those who come after them, will view a
blow to Western values and structures as a blow for �justice.�
In a few weeks, these protests will be no more. The privileged students
will return home for the summer without consequences for their actions,
and this moment will die down. But the environment at the institutions
will remain. The noxious atmosphere of grievance ideology that always
views Jews as an oppressor will persist. Make no mistake � this is not
a �sudden explosion.� This is systemic. Pervasive. It will take much
time and spine to root out. And if the past six months are any
indication, we will not succeed.
: A.J. Edelman is an Israeli Olympian and captain of Israel�s Edelman
: Bobsled Team, a mixed Jewish/Druze team training for the 2026 Olympic
: Games ranked 3rd on the North American Circuit. When not sliding down
: mountains he is a writer and commentator.
-- Let's go Brandon!
Re: Civility Project ends