Dear Letter to the Editor:
The group of Columbia and Barnard professors who allege that" anti Zionism should not be equated with anti Semitism" are totally unfamiliar with Judaism and the history of the Jewish people. ("Faculty Denounces Class Disruption and Hate Speech at Recent Protest").
Judaism exists SOLELY within the four squares of the 3500 year old Jewish Bible aka the Old Testament. That 3500 year old Jewish Bible has only ONE foundational narrative: the Jewish people's Return to Zion -- what today is Israel. It is not complicated. Zionism has been Judaism for 3500 years. That is why Jerusalem is mentioned 659 times in the Jewish Bible. That is why for 2000 years at the conclusion of every Passover Seder Jews stand and loudly and proudly pray the ultimate Zionist prayer: " Next Year in Jerusalem!"
Last year New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote in a similar vein:
"Whatever else it is, Jewish nationalism — that is, Zionism — is the oldest continuous anticolonial movement in history, starting well before the Romans sought to de-Judaize the area by calling their Levantine colony Palestina. Hanukkah, the festival of lights, is one such reminder, celebrating the recovery of Jerusalem from colonizing Greeks in the second century B.C.E."("Settler Colonialism: A Guide for the Sincere", Bret Stephens, NY Times, 2/6/24)."
Finally, Professor Cary Nelson of the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign and former president of the American Association of University Professors recently made clear that anti Zionism is antisemitism:
" In the contemporary world, the phenomenon of fierce and unrelenting BDS anti-Zionism constitutes antisemitism’s new face, its political and social cover, its facilitator and enabler. .It also supplies devotees of anti-Zionism with a rationale and reliable mechanism for rationalization and self-deception. Channeling objections to 'injustice', it allows anti-Zionism to be fueled not just with moral righteousness but with rage . Anti-Zionism is the new mask of the world’s oldest hatred”. (“Hate Speech and Academic Freedom: The Antisemitic Assault on Basic Principles,” Cary Nelson, 2024, pages 114 to 115).
For these Columbia and Barnard professors to write that " antiZionism should not be equated with antisemitism" is a " principle" is as antisemitic as claiming that the Nuremberg Laws of 1935 were " principles".
Richard Sherman, Florida
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