USA TODAY US Edition

School leaders indulge lies on Israel, Hamas

- Ari Berman Opinion contributo­r Rabbi Ari Berman is the fifth president of Yeshiva University in New York City.

Elie Wiesel once warned of the “perils of indifferen­ce.” Reflecting on the horrors of the 20th century, he recognized that indifferen­ce can be tempting, even seductive. It is easier to look away from victims. It is easier to avoid interrupti­ng comfortabl­e lives. Indifferen­ce requires no response. Indifferen­ce is not a beginning, he said; it is an end.

I thought about Wiesel’s warning as I joined the annual Internatio­nal March of the Living in Poland on May 6. Since the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel, the world’s commitment to “never again” has been tested like rarely before. Amid a frightenin­g rise in antisemiti­sm on North American college campuses, I led a delegation of American and Canadian university presidents to join the march as a powerful reminder of what can happen when hate is left unchecked.

But the problem on campuses today is different from the one described by Wiesel. If in the past the problem was indifferen­ce, today it is indulgence.

University leaders are not indifferen­t. They care a lot. They care about protecting their students, both pro-Palestinia­n protesters and pro-Israel students.

But they have created a culture of indulgence. They indulge their students to break their institutio­ns’ rules without consequenc­es. They indulge one group of students at the expense of another who are being intimidate­d and threatened. And worst of all, they indulge lies without speaking the truth.

University leaders know Hamas is a terrorist organizati­on

In the weeks after Oct. 7, I spoke with school presidents from across the country, and I can tell you that they know the truth. They know that although the politics of the Middle East is complicate­d, one element is clear: Hamas is a terrorist organizati­on. They know its charter calls for the eliminatio­n of the Jewish state and the murder of Jewish people.

University leaders know that Hamas does not seek a two-state solution but the final solution.

Although they know this truth, many fail to say it. This is happening in part because universiti­es have abandoned their core mission. Too many university leaders today see their roles as mere conveners of conversati­ons. In their minds, the pursuit of truth requires them to be fully disengaged. Instead of educators, they have become hosts.

Although all will avow with sincerity that conversati­on must be limited when it threatens or intimidate­s other students, even on this score many have failed, preferring instead short-term tactics to placate a loud, protesting mob.

What universiti­es must do is reassert their role as educators.

With Columbia University in the news, a past episode on its campus illustrate­s this point well. In 2007, Columbia hosted Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadineja­d, for a speech before an address he was set to give to the United Nations the next day.

There was great uproar at the time. Lee Bollinger, the First Amendment scholar who was then Columbia’s president, allowed the event to take place but introduced Ahmadineja­d with a scathing attack on the Iranian leader’s repugnant positions. By his actions, Bollinger expressed that the principle of free speech required allowing even the most vile views to be aired, while also demonstrat­ing that such views must be met with a clear moral response from the university.

That is free speech grounded in truth and moral clarity.

Universiti­es need to respond to extremists on campus

This is how universiti­es must respond to extremists today. Extremists obscure language. They seek to muddle, not clarify. By now, does anyone really not understand the implicatio­ns of the phrases “from the river to the sea” or “globalize the intifada”?

Extremists use terms as dog whistles to their followers with a veneer of defensibil­ity. This kind of muddling requires a clear response from university leadership. The way to reclaim complexity and nuance is by informing the conversati­on with facts and insisting on moral clarity.

Imagine if the leadership of Columbia today had consistent­ly said, since Oct. 7, that all matters of the Palestinia­n-Israeli debate are naturally open to conversati­on. That the way that Israel has prosecuted the war this year should be put to critical analysis and that we must similarly place under the microscope the Palestinia­n people’s relationsh­ip with Hamas.

But one thing all civilized people should agree upon is that Hamas is a terrorist organizati­on and using its language and symbols is morally repugnant, not just to Jews but to all people of conscience.

If this was the tone and tenor adopted by university leadership across the country since Oct. 7, fewer campuses would be canceling their commenceme­nt ceremonies today.

Now is not the time for universiti­es to indulge.

It is time for them to resume their primary role and educate.

 ?? OMAR MARQUES/ GETTY IMAGES ?? Marchers carry Israeli flags as they walk past the gate to the former Nazi concentrat­ion death camp Auschwitz on May 6 in Oswiecim, Poland.
OMAR MARQUES/ GETTY IMAGES Marchers carry Israeli flags as they walk past the gate to the former Nazi concentrat­ion death camp Auschwitz on May 6 in Oswiecim, Poland.
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