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University of Illinois Professor Retiring Early Due to Antisemitism
(Chicago Tribune) Barbara J. Risman - I came to the University of Illinois at Chicago as head of sociology, expecting to spend the rest of my career here. I co-chaired the universitywide committee on faculty equity for more than a decade. Then came Oct. 7. Across the country, support for Palestinians quickly escalated into committing hate crimes against Jews. Just days after Hamas' terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, the faculty in women and gender studies and Black studies posted a joint statement with no mention of antisemitism, the terrorist killings or the hostages. Jewish and Israeli students were rendered invisible. Perhaps there is some legalistic "context" that allows for political rhetoric to support one group of students even while excluding others, at least when the "others" are Jews. UIC is a public university using tax dollars to educate future citizens. We shouldn't allow anyone with an anti-Zionist agenda to make UIC a hostile environment for Jewish, Israeli or Zionist faculty and students. I will retire before I intended to because UIC is no longer an institution comfortable for me, as a Jew who believes Israel has a right to exist. And to be clear, more than 80% of Jews in America share that belief. When university departments and programs publish statements implying support for the destruction of the state where more than half of all Jews alive today live, they have crossed the line from simple micro-aggressions against Jewish students and faculty to outright institutional antisemitism.