By now, we’ve all become used to hearing about the rancorous debate on our campuses over the existence of Israel. But it still shocks us when a variation on the same theme is played out at a school where one would expect the deepest appreciation of the importance of the creation of the Jewish state.
Brandeis, whose mission statement says it was “founded in 1948 as a nonsectarian university under the sponsorship of the American Jewish community to embody its highest ethical and cultural values and to express its gratitude to the United States through the traditional Jewish commitment to education,” is set to honor at its commencement a person who thinks Israel should not have been created and who is embarrassed by her very existence. This is now a source of controversy and discussion.
About ten years ago, Brandeis, trying so hard to be just like any other university, added shrimp to its dining hall menu. This non-kosher seafood is readily available anywhere food is sold, so this in-your-face move of adding a non-kosher food to a dining room that was at the very least kosher style up until that point was negative symbolism of the worst kind.
It was only a matter of time before the trivial moved to the substantive, and today’s shrimp is Tony Kushner, who is slated to receive an honorary degree at Brandeis’ commencement on May 21.
This is a man whose words about Israel and the Jewish people speak loudly for themselves.
“I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”–The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY (10/14/02)
Kushner: ” Establishing a state means f…ing people over. However, I think that people in the late 20th century or early 21st century – having seen the Holocaust, having seen the 20th century and all of its horrors – cannot be complacent in the face of that.”
Ha’aretz reporter: “But you are saying that the very creation of Israel as a Jewish state was not a good idea.”
Kushner:” I think it was a mistake.”
Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“I am not a Zionist, in case you haven’t noticed.” Kushner then cited “the shame of American Jews” for failing to “denounce Israel.”
Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)
“The existence of the state of Israel, because of the terrible way that the Palestinian people have been treated, is now in great peril and the world is in peril as a consequence of it. And we have now the spectacle of Jewish people all over the world, who in the past century had an absolutely magnificent tradition of rejecting barbarism and right-wing murderous politics, rallying behind Ariel Sharon who 10 years ago would never have been acceptable anywhere.”
In These Times interview (3/4/02)
“Israel is a foreign country. I am no more represented by Israel than I am by Italy.”
Ha’aretz (4/7/04)
“The Israeli-built security wall should come down, the homeland for the Palestinians should be built up, with a strictly enforced peace, not enforced by the Israel Defense Forces, but by the United Nations.”
Baltimore Jewish Times (6/4/04)
“I deplore the brutal and illegal tactics of the Israeli Defense Forces in the occupied territories. I deplore the occupation, the forced evacuations, the settlements, the refugee camps, the whole shameful history of the dreadful suffering of the Palestinian people; Jews, of all people, with our history of suffering, should refuse to treat our fellow human beings like that.”
London Times (5/7/02)
“[Israel is involved in] a deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people.”
New York Sun (10/4/02)
“To avoid facing up to such atrocity, to sustain the refusal of any Israeli share in culpability, Zionism has produced a long, shameful, and debilitating history of denial… ”
“Wrestling with Zion”- Introduction, p.5
And one more….in the book “Conversation” edited by Robert Vorlicky, Univ. Michigan Press 1998, pp 83-84, “The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community and Israel itself has got this disgraceful record….Israel is a creation of the U.S., bought and paid for…There are lots of beautiful little orange groves and olive groves which the Palestinians had before the Jews were there, and some very attractive European-looking cities, but there’s no real country there…”
[Thanks to CAMERA for gathering these quotations.]
Kushner, the scriptwriter for Steven Spielberg’s decline into moral equivalence, the film “Munich,” is, according to the Brandeis web site, being honored for his art. We don’t think much of his art or his acclaim which is for the most part based on his early 90’s epic, “Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia on National Themes,” which even its fans would have trouble claiming has anything to do with the American Jewish community’s “highest ethical and cultural values.”
For us it is the words of Louis D. Brandeis that echo, not those of Tony Kushner.
“The glorious past [of the Jews] can really live only if it becomes part of a glorious future; and to this end the Jewish home in Palestine is essential. We Jews of prosperous America above all need its inspiration.” (Menorah Journal, January 1915)
It is clear though that we and others are troubled when an avowed enemy of Israel is honored anywhere in academe, but are particularly distressed when it is at a place like Brandeis. But then again this is what happens when you put shrimp on the menu in the dining hall; the other non-kosher things and ideas aren’t far behind.

–nrg

Disagree with us? We’d be glad to know why. Email us at editorial@jewishledger.com
Disagree with Kushner being honored by Brandeis? Then let Brandeis President Jehuda Reinharz know about it.
Write: Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, MA 02454-9110
jreinharz @ brandeis.edu

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