Indiana University Press Anti-Zionism on Campus: The University, Free Speech, and BDS (Studies in Antisemitism)

Many scholars have endured the struggle against rising anti-Israel sentiments on college and university campuses worldwide. This volume of personal essays documents and analyzes the deleterious impact of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement on the most cherished Western institutions. These essays illustrate how anti-Israelism corrodes the academy and its treasured ideals of free speech, civility, respectful discourse, and open research. Nearly every chapter attests to the blurred distinction between anti-Israelism and antisemitism, as well as to hostile learning climates where many Jewish students, staff, and faculty feel increasingly unwelcome and unsafe. Anti-Zionism on Campus provides a testament to the specific ways anti-Israelism manifests on campuses and considers how this chilling and disturbing trend can be combatted. Review Anti-Zionism on Campus is a tour de force. It accurately exposes the depth of anti-Israel bias on campuses (primarily in the U.S., but with several insightful chapters also focusing on the British, Australian, Canadian, and South African campus climate). It also underscores the high price and personal risk that comes with taking on this rising tide of anti-Zionism.-- "Legal Insurrection" Though these testimonials acknowledge that free academic inquiry can--and should--include criticism of any nation's policies, the writers make a persuasive case that the BDS movement is a dangerous amalgam of speech suppression and thinly veiled anti-Semitism. . . . Recommended.-- "Choice" About the Author Doron S. Ben-Atar is Professor of History at Fordham University and a playwright. In addition to publishing books and articles about early America, he authored, together with his mother, Roma Nutkiewicz Ben-Atar, What Time and Sadness Spared: Mother and Son Confront the Holocaust. He has, in recent years, turned his attention to the battles over Zionism in the American Jewish community with, among other writings, his satirical play Peace Warriors. Andrew Pessin is Professor of Philosophy at Connecticut College and Campus Bureau Editor of The Algemeiner. Author of many academic articles and books, a philosophy textbook, several philosophical books for the general reader, and two novels, his current research is focused on philosophical matters relevant both to Judaism and Israel.