With the advent of the war between Hamas and Israel on October 7, it has been an interesting time to be a Jewish university professor. Here, I want to share some thoughts as a faculty member, psychologist, and scholar interested in connections between psychology, religion, and the law.

Thoughts as a faculty member

As a faculty member, I have seen an inevitable but lamentable surge of anti-Israeli sentiment on campus. At a recent meeting of the faculty senate of my university Arizona State University, the ASU statement condemning terrorism and supporting Israel was displayed. Ours was one of the few universities to issue such a clear statement supporting the Israeli victims of rape, murder, and kidnapping, in the United States.

A few things were interesting. One: Many of my faculty colleagues, even the Jewish ones, were not aware of this statement. Two: One faculty senator thought the statement implied ASU’s support or condoning of the deaths of the many innocent Palestinians who are displaced and killed as a result of this conflict. This faculty member said if he were Jewish and if he were to go to synagogue, this kind of statement would make him feel vulnerable.

I am Jewish and I do go to synagogue. And let me tell you what it’s been like for most of my life. Even as an adolescent in the 1980s in Philadelphia, I remember my father, of blessed memory, carrying with him a weapon when we went to service. I remember in those days thinking that was paranoid and unnecessary. It’s his soul I pray for during memorial services, like during the Yom Kippur service I went to, not so long before the October 7 attacks.

I want my son to know enough about being Jewish and to similarly know how to pray for me when I am gone. But I wrestle with whether it is too dangerous to bring him to the synagogue. Myself, since 9/11, and the Tree of Life synagogue massacre, I sit in the synagogue with my back to the wall, and try to figure out how to have a good field of vision and be close enough to engage a shooter if one should enter the sanctuary, and go down fighting using the krav maga I have studied since a teenager.

Krav Maga is my sport of choice because krav maga, an Israeli martial art, teaches how to disarm attackers with knives, handguns, or long guns. This is what a Jew has to think about when they decide to take up a sport, not just what will help the chances of getting into Brandeis or Penn.

This is all very distracting and distressing and certainly does not contribute to a spiritual experience. When ASU supports Israel, this is what my colleague, who speculates about what it’s like to be Jewish and what it’s like to be in a synagogue, needs to know.

Thoughts as a psychologist

Another thing that strikes a nerve with me in the current university climate is zero-sum thinking. People seem to think that if one supports Israel and condemns terrorism, one is also expressing support for the displacement or losses suffered by innocent Palestinian civilians. Nothing in the ASU statement said any such thing. In fact, it lamented the loss of innocent lives.

As a psychologist, two related thoughts occur to me. First, people are drawn to cognitive simplicity and have trouble reconciling the complexity of holding multiple, seemingly contradictory ideas at once—such as condemning Hamas and terrorism, supporting Israeli people, having questions or criticism about the Israeli government, and mourning the loss of innocent Palestinians. It is worth reminding people that one can have all of these thoughts at once.

Then there is the related issue of empathy. Empathy, being moved by the suffering of others, is not a zero-sum game. One can have empathy for all innocent suffering people; righteous anger at terrorism does not mean a Jewish student or faculty member celebrates the suffering of innocent Palestinians. One can empathize with the suffering both of Israeli hostages and victims and their families, as well as for Palestinian civilians. I would like to hear as much about the Jewish victims as we do about the Palestinian victims of this war when I go to work.

Thoughts on free speech law

It has been interesting to work at a university when cancel culture started, and see myself and my colleagues tiptoe around issues of gender identity, race, and racism, for fear of offending people and getting fired, harassed, or assaulted. I am sometimes mystified and disillusioned when I hear anti-Israeli or anti-Semitic sentiments expressed publicly when similar comments about gender or race would have resulted in instant firing or cancellation.

Compounding this problem is the misunderstanding about free speech. One often hears that you cannot shout fire in a crowded theatre, or that hate speech is not constitutionally protected. In fact, neither of these is true. The most relevant precedent for this discussion is Brandenburg, which upheld the free speech and freedom of assembly rights of Nazis, so long as they were not inciting violence—saying things that are directed at and likely to incite imminent lawless action.

When people shout “from the river to the sea,” they are calling for the dissolution of the State of Israel, and perhaps even the genocidal extermination of the Jewish people. Perhaps I am in the minority of Jewish faculty, but I feel these kinds of statements—while deplorable—are constitutionally protected free speech, and I do not want to see students or colleagues who are expressing such statements be sanctioned or expelled, so long as they are not inciting violence. I think the whole point of a university is the vibrant discussion of opposing ideas, and you cannot have a university—or a democracy—without this.

It is an interesting thought experiment to wonder what would happen to a student or faculty member who expressed support for anti-Black or anti-gay movements, whether they incited violence, or not. And I hope university administrators can treat instances of anti-Semitism with the same standards and procedures with which they pursue and deal with other kinds of prejudice, and racial or ethnic discrimination.

However, people using this call to understand that they are not merely calling for Palestinian rights, but for the destruction of Israel. I could call on Jewish students to have thick skin, support one another, and use university and community resources to sanction students and groups who violate university policy or break the law.

Conclusion: Am Yisrael Chai

Am Yisrael Chai is an expression of solidarity with the Jewish people, that we still live, after being in exile for 2000 years.

Being a university faculty member is often a challenging and rewarding job, but recent events surely test the mental fortitude of our Jewish students and colleagues. My fervent hope is that the academy can weather the latest challenges to its ideals of free inquiry, civil discourse, and all of the psychological discomfort that comes from our colleagues and students not supporting us and Israel in the ways that would make us feel as valued as are members of other persecuted groups. I hope Jewish and non-Jewish students and university personnel can take heed of some of the complexities and feelings here and move forward in a way that reduces the feelings of fear and alienation many of our Jewish colleagues and students are feeling right now.