Dear Doug,

All day I was hoping we had it wron—hat this “program” for Saturday is a mistake, another Wesleyan, another time. Now, we are faced with a great sullying of our collective mission as a community of learning. What is scheduled is nothing less than naked hatred of Jews and misinformation about Israel. As a historian, you know that we cannot ignore the context of the “text”: the groups affiliated with the speakers and their funding is known for anti-Semitic work. In light of the rising hate crimes in the United States and abroa—hat is Wesleyan doing? Why are we giving space, voice and legitimacy to acts of vicious defamation? Just last week, we heard a young German-born scholar give a talk about the new anti-Semitism. Wesleyan students asked explicitly whether anti-Zionism is always/invariably anti-Semitic? This thoughtful Cambridge-trained historian gave the tough answer: “Sure, in the abstract, anti-Zionism can be distinguished from Jew hatred. In fact, in our current historical circumstances it is not very likely.” He concluded by begging students to avert the tragic possibility that the State of Israel will cease to exist in our lifetime. The students there were shocke—nd sobered. It was the first of a very long overdue campus discussion of rising anti-Semitism. And now, this! To call Saturday’s program “free speech” is to lace its vindictive mission with a human rights agend—hich is brutally challenged daily by terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere.

As a China historia— see echoes of the student-propelled violence of the Cultural Revolution. Wesleyan is already soiled by an undercurrent of anti-intellectualism. Solid, tough-minded learning is seen as “elite” somehow. As the daughter of survivors of the Holocaust, I shudder to think that the educational institution that I have built for three decades could be filled with such hate of who I am, and what I stand for. Doug, we have a weighty task ahead. If we cannot clarify what is truly at stake here, as Bill Firshein asks, Wesleyan will become known as the place where lies and truth are all the same. I hope there is tim—nd some avenu—or preventing disaster.