Academia, Racial, and Social Justice, and Abrahamic Coexistence

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/reorient.7.2.0198
• Pages: 198-201
• Published date: 14 December 2022
• Date: 14 December 2022
• Author: Sa’ed Atshan

www.plutojournals.com/reorient

Emory University

ACADEMIA, RACIAL, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE,

AND ABRAHAMIC COEXISTENCE

Sa’ed Atshan

As I write this essay reflecting on Dr Atalia Omer’s brilliant, and deeply princi-

pled, Days of Awe: Reimagining Jewishness in Solidarity with Palestinians, a peti-

tion is circulating among academics that touches on issues at the heart of Omer’s

book. Over 600 scholars of Jewish and/or Israeli Studies have now signed the

petition in support of Dr Liora Halperin, Associate Professor of International

Studies, History, and Jewish Studies at the University of Washington. This came

after news broke that the University of Washington had stripped Halperin of her

endowed Chair in Israel Studies, as a result of objections from a right-wing donor.

This donor expressed disapproval of Halperin’s critiques of the Israeli state, and

therefore pressed for the return of the five million dollars she had provided for the

Chair. Fortunately, Halperin retains her tenured professorship, and will continue

her outstanding research, teaching, and service. But her allies insist that the uni-

versity must honor the commitment they made to her chair and the resources that

came with it.

This recent major controversy within the Jewish and Israel Studies worlds is

merely the latest among a long history. Consider a different case from December

2020. The Forward (formerly known as the Jewish Daily Forward) reported

on the standoff between Dr Marc Dollinger, Professor of Jewish Studies at San

Francisco State University, and Brandeis University Press. After the murder of

George Floyd earlier that year, Dollinger wrote an updated preface for his 2018

book, Black Power, Jewish Politics: Reinventing the Alliance in the 1960s. The

preface included Dollinger’s statement on the increasing integration of white

Jewish-American citizens in the United States and their consciousness of how that

“reinforced elements of white supremacy in their own lived experience”. Brandeis

University Press then received complaints about Dollinger’s words, and engaged

the author so that he could edit the preface in order to print the new edition. He

declined out of principle and the two parties decided to part ways, with Dollinger

seeking a different publisher for his widely read book.

While these cases are high-profile and visible, and many are not, Halperin

and Dollinger’s experiences are nonetheless emblematic of the pressures that

DOI:10.13169/reorient.7.2.0198