Israel Matzav

Shocker: Support for Wiesenfeld from academia

The only place from which I expected less support than among academics for Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, in his dispute over Tony Kushner's honorary degree from City University of New York, was from Hollywood. Now that Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, (SPME) a group which represents 55,000 scholars, researchers and students on 3,500 campuses across the world, has come out in Wiesenfeld's favor, will Hollywood and the theater be far behind?

But now, finally, a group has dared to stand up to be counted.

Before this letter was released, those scholars who did not agree with the glamorization of Kushner as the victim and the demonization of Wiesenfeld as the bully kept silent as did the entire organized Jewish world.

This battle for the soul of the Western campus is part of the larger battle for western civilization which is currently under profound attack. Proponents of hate speech and Big Lies are demanding academic freedom and free speech rights while, at the same time, they are denying these same rights to anyone who tells the truth about Israel (if it happens to be positive), or about Islam (if it happens to be negative).

I am reprinting this letter in full here. I hope that other journalists and bloggers will print it and perhaps also interview the spokesmen for SPME: Board member Awi Fedegruen (af7@columbia.edu) and Director Dr. Sam Edelman (spmeexecdir@gmail.com).

Here is the text of the letter:

Read it all.

Labels: City University of New York, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, Scholars for Middle East Peace, Tony Kushner

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:39 AM