Dear Editor,
The Daily recently reported that Northwestern’s administration is threatening to cut students off from financial aid, on-campus housing and affiliation with the University unless they complete a training module presenting a distorted and partisan version of the history of Israel and Palestine. Created by the Jewish United Fund specifically for NU, the antisemitism module advances as fact a deeply contested political narrative.
As faculty charged with the education of our students, we denounce this requirement as a violation of the University’s professed commitment to free expression and the free exchange of ideas. By imposing a politicized curriculum, the administration has overstepped its role and usurped faculty authority over teaching. The module amounts to propaganda, conveying that certain actions of the state of Israel cannot be opposed, delegitimizing dissent and chilling debate.
Faculty were offered a different anti-bias curriculum and only learned of the student training through alarmed students. The student module contains serious errors of commission and omission that faculty with relevant expertise reject. Presenting such partisan material without space for questioning is antithetical to the critical inquiry we cultivate.
Two examples illustrate the problems. The claim that “Jews are from Israel” erases centuries of Jewish life around the world and plays into antisemitic stereotypes that diaspora Jews are disloyal, while the accompanying map erases Palestinians. Equally disturbing, the module conflates criticism of Israel with antisemitism, equating “anti-Israel activists” with a former Ku Klux Klan leader and suggesting that criticism of Israel will not be tolerated.
NU should not outsource education to a partisan political organization, nor threaten students with loss of aid or housing to enforce it. The administration must withdraw the module and replace it with accurate and unbiased education about antisemitism.
To our students: your resistance matters. You are right to refuse this training, and we stand with you in demanding a university worthy of your commitment to truth and justice.
Sincerely,
Michael Peshkin, Professor, Mechanical Engineering
Elizabeth Shakman Hurd, Professor, Religious Studies and Political Science
Michael Peshkin is a professor of mechanical engineering at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. He can be reached at [email protected]. Elizabeth Shakman Hurd is a professor of religious studies and political science at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. She can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected]. The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.
