Not in my name (Update)

It is a strange time to be Jewish in America. Government censors purport to be protecting us by trying to silence speech that they regard as antisemitic (which usually means critical of Israel and Israeli policy). Universities are targeting and punishing speakers and speech in the name of protecting Jewish students, at the cost of intellectual and academic freedom. Leading Jewish organizations (especially ones that rhyme with Panty Exclamation Teague") welcome anyone who supports the Netanyahu government, including when they make Nazi salutes or spread false claims that Leo Frank framing a Black man.

And it is a feeding frenzy across the ideological spectrum. As Democrats begin to fear a loss of Jewish support, they see the need to "do something" to show that they will protect Jews, even from imaginary or overstated threats. And so Democrats in the Democratically dominated Connecticut has introduced a bill targeting antisemitism (and anti-Islam bias, but let's not kid ourselves) on all campuses in the state.

Update: I guess I should add stripping funding from a university because it did not do more to restrict speech that certain people do not like.

This will not end well for Jews, because it never does. And we are foolish to pretend otherwise just because we like where the winds blow in the moment.

My son is a 1st-year at a school in Connecticut. People on campus sent out the bat signal for students to make themselves heard at a hearing today. He nabbed a speaking slot. His comments are after the jump.

My name is Reuben Wasserman, I am from Miami, Florida, and I am a first year student at Wesleyan University. I OPPOSE SB 980 An Act Improving Safety on the Campuses of Institutions of Higher Education.

When I was applying to colleges just last fall, I was constantly asked by my peers which Florida universities I was applying to, just in case I decided to stay close to home. My answer was simple: none. I refused to apply to any universities in Florida largely because of the student repression and attacks on academic freedom occurring on those campuses. I knew about those policies all too well; my parents are both professors at a public Florida university. I saw firsthand the impacts that increased state scrutiny had on their classes, conferences, and on students and faculty alike. I watched these anti-free speech measures create an atmosphere of fear not only on college campuses but extending off campus as well. When I was admitted to Wesleyan, I saw not only the chance to attend a college I enjoyed but a chance to escape student and faculty repression. This measure destroys my chance at that. And the worst part? It destroys this chance in the name of my protection.

I proudly identify as Jewish. My father started wearing a yarmulke after the horrific Tree of Life shooting in a show of resistance to antisemitic violence and rhetoric. I watched my peers in middle school do Heil Hitler as a joke and a sneer at me and my three other Jewish classmates. I am very familiar with what antisemitism looks like. It’s impacted me, it’s impacted my family, and most of all it’s impacted my community for centuries. So I will not let this bill speak for me as not only a Jewish person but a Jewish student in Connecticut. This bill does not protect me. Banning speech will never protect me. Controlling what we discuss in the classroom and on campus will never protect me. The surveillance that this bill enacts ensures that the freedom of speech and academic freedom of my peers and professors is at best discouraged and at worst outright punished.

I want to remind you again: I’ve seen this all before in Florida. The laws with similar intentions passed by the Florida state legislature did not reduce antisemitism. Virulent antisemites like the Proud Boys still exist at home. I still received jeers as an openly Jewish student in high school. Instead of protecting me, the Florida laws created a culture of fear in which those very discriminatory actions thrived. That culture did not protect me as a Jewish person, nor will protect me in Connecticut this time around. As a Floridian, as a Jewish person, and as a Connecticut college student, I urge you to vote NO on SB 980. It will not protect me. It already hasn’t.