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The Charlotte Jewish News - October 2009 - Page 2 JEWISH FEDERATION NEWS ^ SAVE THE DATE: Dr. Daniel Gordis in person November 16 & 17. Read his most recent articie beiow: ^ ^ Neve Gordon Is Not the Problem ^ t t t i Daniel Gordis, The Jerusalem Post, September 2, 2009 Intentionally or not, Neve Gordon, senior lecturer and head of the Political Science Department at Ben-Gurion University, has unleashed a firestorm in Israeli academe. His recent op-ed in The Los Angeles Times declared that Israel is an apartheid state, and that it ought to be boycotted to “save Israel from itself.” Sensing a public relations debacle among their American supporters, the president and leadership of BGU distanced themselves from his comments and hinted that he ought to resign. Predictably, other Israeli academics leaped to Gordon’s defense. Most interesting, how ever, was the oufrage Gordon’s column has evoked among many American Jews. Some are so beside themselves that they are now threatening to withhold their financial support from the university. To be sure, Gordon’s argu ment is deeply flawed. He writes as if Israel sought or enjoys con- frolling the Palestinians, making no mention of the fact that it cap tured the West Bank in a defen sive war that it did not seek, or that more than once (most recently with Ehud Olmert’s election in 2006) Israelis have chosen leaders whose campaigns called for relinquishing those territories. Add to that his failure to admit that the Palestinians still refuse to recognize Israel’s right to exist and continue to call for its destruction, and one can appreciate the fiiry of Ben-Gurion University’s American supporters. The fury these American Jews are sud denly expressing illus trates how little these very supporters know about the system of higher edu cation in Israel to which they are so deeply committed. Is this real ly their first glimpse into the widespread and long-standing hostility of Israeli academe to Jewish statehood? Gordon has been espousing this viewpoint for years. He regularly writes for anti-Israel publications, holed up with Yasser Arafat during the siege of Ramallah, and has on more than one occasion likened Israel to Nazi Germany. But he’s always enjoyed the steadfast support of the university, to its very highest echelons. His views are widely held among his col leagues. Nor is BGU unique here. Coming to Gordon’s defense, Tel Aviv University professor Shlomo Sand stated oufright that Israeli universities are not Zionist institutions and should not be. They are about scholar ship, he insisted, not about the Jews or their state. There are non-Jews and non- Zionists at these universities, he Daniel Gordis Shabbat and Holiday Candle Lighting for September 2009 Friday, October 2, 6:49 PM Saturday, October 3, 7:43 PM Friday, October 9, 6:39 PM Saturday, October 10, 7:33 PM Friday, October 16, 6:30 PM Friday, October 23, 6:21 PM Friday, October 30, 6:13 PM The Charlotte Jewish News 5007 Providence Road, Suite 112 Charlotte, NC 28226 JEWISH^ FEDERATION 5 OF GREATER CHARLOTTE Phone (voice mail after office hours) Office 704-944-6765 FAX 704-365-4507 email: amontoni@shalomcharlotte.org An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation of Greater Charlotte Amy Krakovitz - Editor Advertising Sales Reps: Jodi Valenstein, 704-841-4040 & Rita Mond, 704-366-6632 CJN Editorial Board Chair - Bob Davis Members: Bob Abel, Evelyn Berger, Jeff Epstein, Ann Langman, Linda Levy The CJN does not assume responsibility for the quality or kasruth of any product or service advertised. Publishing of a paid political advertisement does not constitute an endorsement of any candidate, political party or position by this newspaper, the Federation or any employees. Published monthly except July claimed, and the universities must serve them no less than anyone else. And at Hebrew University, the crown jewel of Israeli academe, the long-term influence of the bina tionalists involved in the university’s found ing has also been well documented. Indeed, the only thing that is surprising about this latest turn of events is that American donors are sur prised. For, to those who know even a bit about Israeli academe, the anti-Israel posture of many departments is really yesterday’s news. The important question in all this is what American philan thropists who are committed to Zionism and to Israel’s higher education ought to do. Surely they can’t really believe that uni versities will suddenly silence their professors or terminate tenure. What, then, are the options? These philanthropists ought to look close to home for their answers. For many of America’s great universities developed from an entirely different tradi tion. Woodrow Wilson, as presi dent of Princeton, spoke unabashedly of “Princeton in the nation’s service.” Columbia College instituted its now-classic core curriculum as an explicit defense of Western civilization. Neither Princeton nor Columbia, like many other great American liberal arts colleges, saw any conflict between superb scholar ship and inclusiveness on the one hand, and devotion to coun try and one’s own civilization on the other. Is it at all surprising that these colleges have produced an abun dance of America’s great lead ers? Israeli education needs more support from American Jews, not less. Rather than withholding their funds, a much more useful response would be to channel their support and their knowl edge to create an Israeli version of the “college in the service of the nation.” How? Those American philanthro pists currently wringing their hands probably have no idea that Israel has not a single liberal arts college to its name. Typical Israeli undergraduates get none of the curricular breadth that an American education usually requires, and as a result, they know almost nothing about Western civilization, the majesty of Jewish intellectual history or even the competing philosophic currents inside Zionism. In today’s Israel, the People of the Book do not even read their own books. When they read or hear someone like Neve Gordon, nothing in their education has given them the tools to evaluate what he says, or to take him on. They are helpless. Today’s narrow model of edu cation, in which students essen- Dr. Daniel Gordis Two dates to choose from Monday, November 16: 7 PM at St. Albans Episcopal, Davidson, NC - or - Tuesday, November 17: 7:30 PM at Temple Israel Topic: Saving Israel - How the Jewish People Can Win a War that May Never End. Free and open to the community. Call the Federation office at 704-944-6757 for more information. tially study only one discipline, produces excellence, but excel lence as technocrats. It does not produce the broadly read, intel lectually nuanced people that the Jewish state so desperately needs. Without dramatic change, Israeli universities will produce only more Neve Gordons - scholars of varying quality, who feel no love for the very country that has saved their people. If it learned from American educa tion, Israel might actually begin to cultivate a new wave of lead ership, and with it, a generation of Israelis who actually love their nation. Dr Gordon is correct - Israel needs to be saved from itself What Israel needs now is a re conceived notion of the educated Israeli. It needs a liberal arts college, and the young people prepared to speak constructively about Jewish sovereignty, its chal lenges, its failures and its future that only that kind of college can produce. A century ago, who could have imagined that the Jewish state would one day have a world-class army but a failing, collapsing educational system? Whether or not American Jews have the foresight to use their philanthropy to promote genuine change in Israeli academe still remains to be seen. But if they do. Neve Gordon’s op-ed may ironically have goaded both Israel and the American Jewish community into taking the first steps needed to begin to save the Jewish state. ^ Daniel Gordis (www.daniel- gordis.org) is Senior Vice President of the Shalem Center in Jerusalem. He is the author, most recently, of “Saving Israel: How the Jewish People Can Win a War That May Never End” (John Wiley & Sons, 2009) i i i i i i i i i i i i CONTENTS Federation News PP- 2-4 Jewish Community Center pp. 20, 21 Youth PP- 5, 7 Dining Out p. 24 Community News .. .pp. 9-12,16-18 Jewish Family Services p. 25 Project Noah pp. 14,15 Levine-Sklut Judaic Library p. 25 Women’s Page p. 18 Schools pp. 26, 27 Synagogues and Congregations pp. 19, 22, 23 Mazel Tov p. 27 I would like to make a contribution to demonstrate my support of The Chariotte Jewish News. Name Phone ( ) Address City State Zip Enclosed in my check for $. $18.00 Basic Annual Subscription $25.00 Friend $50.00 Patron $100.00 Grand Patron Other Mail to: The Charlotte Jewish News Voluntary Subscription Appeal 5007 Providence Road Charlotte, Nc 28226
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