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I graduated from SU in 1970 and taught Modern Jewish History at Syracuse University, twice in 1972-1973 and again in spring 1986. I wrote two articles on the history of antisemitism at SU published in the 1980s.

Recently, reports documented continuing antisemitism at universities with the administrators doing little to deal with it at Columbia, Stanford and the City University of New York, for example. The lack of action at Harvard has become synonymous with antisemitism in higher education. In addition to the harassment and targeting of Jewish students, antisemitism has expanded to harassment of and demands to ban Jewish organizations, like Hillel, from colleges.

From the administrative perspective, some colleges are dropping courses with Jewish content. Here at Russell Sage College, in Albany and Troy, I have been fighting the college administration since February to keep my fall course Final Solution and Genocide on the books.

Jews need to stand up and shout at the neo-Nazis in higher education and file antisemitism complaints with New York state and the United States Department of Education as I have done.

Going public is the only way to shame the antisemites in academia. In my case, 15 Republican state senators and one Democratic assemblyman came to my aid, forcing the president of Russell Sage to commit to letting my class on antisemitism, Holocaust and Genocide go on.

My message to the Jewish students and faculty at SU is to not be quiet. Document and expose the antisemitic behavior you experience, and if you can, go outside of SU to publicize antisemitic actions or the failure of college administrators to act. Exposing the truth to the light of public disclosure has a remarkable effect on college administrators.

Harvey Strum, B.A. History and International Relations, ‘70, Masters in Public Administration, ‘76, Ph.D. History, ‘78, SU Instructor 1981 to 1987

Dr. Strum can be reached at strumh@hotmail.com or strumh@sage.edu.

Published on October 9, 2024 at 12:34 am