The intellectual rot at the University of Michigan starts in the faculty lounge.
During last weekend’s commencement ceremony, history professor Derek Peterson, speaking in his role as outgoing chair of the Faculty Senate and Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, deviated from script to deliver a tribute to the pro-Palestinian activists who have made life miserable for Jewish students.
Peterson told the graduates to sing the university’s fight song Hail to the Victors! in honor of the anti-Israel protesters.
“Sing for the pro-Palestinian student activists, who have over these past two years opened our hearts to the injustice and inhumanity of Israel’s war in Gaza,” Peterson said.
He compared the militants to past generations of justice seekers, including suffragettes, members of the Black Action Movement and, ironically, early battlers against campus antisemitism.
“The greatness of this institution does not only rest on the shoulders and on the accomplishments of our student athletes, who deserve all the congratulations we can offer them,” Peterson said. “The greatness of this university rests also on the courage and the conviction of student activists who have pushed this university down the path towards justice.”
Peterson chided the university board for not declaring Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, and refusing to divest in Israel.
The remarks infuriated the Jewish community and others who have condemned the activists for holding American Jewish students accountable for the actions of the Israeli government. In other words, for being antisemites.
“I can take your shallow criticism of the Board of Regents for historical events,” Regent Carl Meyers wrote to Peterson. “But the real victims of your inappropriate comments were the students and their families. You used them in a gratuitous way for your own self-gratification.”
UM Interim President Domenico Grasso apologized on behalf of the university in a public letter.
The Chair’s remarks were expected to be congratulatory, not a platform for personal or political expression,” Grasso wrote. “Introducing such commentary in this setting was inappropriate and did not align with the purpose of the occasion
The letter offered the assurance that Peterson’s views aren’t representative of the faculty as a whole. Maybe, maybe not.
More than 1,000 professors and instructors signed on to a letter demanding that Grasso rescind his apology and affirming Peterson’s attack on Israel, calling his remarks “thoughtful, informed, instructive, and ethically rich.” They also accused the president of violating the principle of institutional neutrality. And they chided the university board for not declaring Israel’s war in Gaza a genocide, and refusing to divest in Israel.
The activists at UM were not merely engaged in an exercise of free speech. They intentionally targeted Jewish students for harassment, stalking them across the campus and intimidating those who displayed visible symbols of their faith.
Jewish students make up roughly 15% of UM’s enrollment. Two of its board members are Jewish, and a considerable amount of its financial support comes from Jewish donors. If Jews can’t feel safe at UM, where can they?
Incredibly, Jewish parents continue to send their students to UM, a university that employs such a large number of faculty members who are openly hostile to the Jewish state. And UM’s broad network of Jewish alumni and donors continue to send their checks to support a school that perpetuates a mindset that puts the well-being of Jews everywhere at risk.
I’m not among those who believe Peterson should have been censored. His open disregard for the safety of his Jewish students, and the applause it is receiving from so many other professors, is useful in exposing UM’s moral bankruptcy.
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This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Finley: Hostility toward Jews at UM starts with faculty
Reporting by Nolan Finley, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
