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Fighting Anti-Semitism at Harvard

(New York Jewish Week) Rachel Fish - I helped organize a group of Harvard students who spoke out against hate speech in the Middle East and, thanks to the support of the community, our efforts resulted in shutting down an Arab League think tank that distributes hate speech against Americans and Jews. The Harvard Divinity School - my school - had accepted a $2.5 million endowment from Sheik Zayed, ruler of the United Arab Emirates. Zayed funds a UAE think tank of the Arab League called the Zayed Center that disseminates anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism throughout the Islamic world. Just as Harvard would refuse funds from a Ku Klux Klan financier, the university should also reject the hate money of the sheik. After an aggressive media campaign brought the issue to the mainstream media, and after thousands signed a Web-based petition, the UAE president shut down the Zayed Center. There are several important lessons here. The first is that hate funded by Arab leaders or anyone else can and must be countered. This is a victory for people of conscience of all faiths and backgrounds. We should never ignore, rationalize, or underestimate hate speech. The second lesson is that many people shrink from these battles. It's sad and a little frightening to experience the indifference toward Jewish concerns and Jewish students that so many Harvard professors and the dean of the divinity school exhibited. Ultimately, a willingness to stand up and speak up can make a difference. We won the battle through persistent campaigning, good research, and community support. It is unfortunate that the responsibility to wage a campaign against the Zayed Center's hate speech should have fallen on a small group of divinity school students, but it did. American moral leaders and human rights groups should live up to their own standards. There can be no free pass for incitement of hatred and genocide. Hatred is a weapon of mass destruction. A few weeks ago, Sheik Zayed explained that once it came to his attention that the center had "engaged in a discourse that starkly contradicted the principles of interfaith tolerance, directives were issued for the immediate closure of the center." I hope other Arab leaders will follow his example and understand that demonizing Americans and Jews is unacceptable and intolerable.
2003-10-03 00:00:00
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