Opinion

An Open Letter to a former ASA president

Following the decision by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli universities and academics, Professor Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies at Wesleyan University, wrote the following letter to Stanford University Professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin, who served as ASA president from 2004-2005.  It should be noted that Fishkin has publicly voiced her strong opposition to the ASA resolution and was part of a group of eight former ASA presidents who sent an open letter to ASA members opposing the move.

 

Dear Professor Fisher Fishkin,

As a Stanford Ph.D. and China historian, I am outraged by your Association’s decision. Having written extensively about the Cultural Revolution and the Holocaust, I find it important that intellectuals take risks for the sake of truth and conscience. The false equivalence between Israel and colonialism or apartheid is motivated by naked anti-Semitism. You write about chutzpa and women. It is time to show chutzpa and courage as well, to defend Israel and the Jewish people in this time of wrongful accusation. I hope you will yet find the voice of your own conscience.

 

Dr. Vera Schwarcz, Freeman Professor of East Asian Studies

Wesleyan University, Middletown

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