Perhaps I shouldn’t have been, but I was shocked by Christopher Connell ’71’s casual remark, almost in passing, about the “rise of antisemitism on campuses.” This is how a highly inflammatory and problematic opinion becomes established “fact.” Are college campuses suddenly swarming with antisemites? As an active participant in the Palestinian encampment at Princeton last spring, I saw no antisemitism at all, just protest against Israeli policies in Gaza and American support for same. The historical record belies those who automatically see antisemitism in criticism of Israel. From the beginnings of the Zionist movement, some of the biggest supporters of Israel have been antisemitic. Arthur Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration, to give just one, but very consequential, example, was afraid of eastern European Jews migrating en masse to Britain. Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was well aware of this. He wrote in his diaries: “the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” It is long past time for people to educate themselves about the relationship between support for Israel and antisemitism.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have been, but I was shocked by Christopher Connell ’71’s casual remark, almost in passing, about the “rise of antisemitism on campuses.” This is how a highly inflammatory and problematic opinion becomes established “fact.” Are college campuses suddenly swarming with antisemites? As an active participant in the Palestinian encampment at Princeton last spring, I saw no antisemitism at all, just protest against Israeli policies in Gaza and American support for same. The historical record belies those who automatically see antisemitism in criticism of Israel. From the beginnings of the Zionist movement, some of the biggest supporters of Israel have been antisemitic. Arthur Balfour, the author of the Balfour Declaration, to give just one, but very consequential, example, was afraid of eastern European Jews migrating en masse to Britain. Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, was well aware of this. He wrote in his diaries: “the anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” It is long past time for people to educate themselves about the relationship between support for Israel and antisemitism.