Jay Greene on Anti-Semitic Leanings Among College Diversity Administrators

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

According to Hillel International, there were 244 anti-Semitic incidents at American campuses reported during the 2020-2021 school year. That’s up from 181 incidents the year before, perhaps an especially significant increase given that many students did not convene in person, but instead attended classes online in 2020. In light of such a trend, one might hope that the ballooning number of academic administrators hired by colleges and universities to foster a welcoming atmosphere for students of diverse backgrounds would be sensitive to anti-Semitic attitudes. But, according to a new report, a great many university officers seemingly hired to combat anti-Semitic discrimination sympathize with anti-Semitism themselves.

The author of that report, Jay Greene, joins this week's podcast. He analyzed the public Twitter feeds of hundreds of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) professionals at 65 different universities and found that, of their over 600 tweets about Israel, 96% of them were critical. That in itself might not constitute anti-Semitism. But, as Greene explains in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, neither does it inspire confidence in how those who are charged with handling anti-Semitic concerns on campus might approach them.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hillel International, a cultural home for Jewish students and a center for Jewish programming
0:14.0	on a great many college campuses notes that there were, on campuses throughout the country,
0:20.9	244 anti-Semitic incidents reported during the 2020-2020 school year.
0:27.5	That's an increase from 181 incidents the year before.
0:32.3	And of course, remember, 2020-2020 was mostly online.
0:36.9	Whereas the previous year with fewer incidents, that's when students were mostly on campus for in-person instruction.
0:43.6	In light of that increase, you might hope that the ballooning number of academic administrators hired by colleges and universities at virtually every level throughout the United States.
0:55.3	Administrators who are dedicated to fostering and preserving a welcoming atmosphere
1:00.7	for an ever-widening diversity of students, you might think that these administrators would be
1:06.5	sensitive to anti-Semitic attitudes. You might think that universities would take the view,
1:11.7	that it would be good if the women and men hired to minister to the needs and emotional
1:16.5	comfort and physical safety of its Jewish students would have some sympathy with Jewish students.
1:22.8	You might think that, but according to a new survey, you'd be wrong.
1:26.5	Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host,
1:28.9	Jonathan Silver. My guest this week is a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, Jay Green.
1:35.1	He's the co-author of a new report, inclusion delusion, the anti-Semitism of diversity, equity,
1:40.7	and inclusion staff at universities. The authors of the report searched the Twitter
1:45.5	feeds of some 741 DEI, that is, diversity, equity, and inclusion, some 741 DEI professionals
1:55.3	at 65 different universities, and then, as we'll discuss, they analyze what they found.
2:01.8	The report compares each accounts attention to, and then, as we'll discuss, they analyze what they found. The report compares each accounts attention to and judgment of Israel with its statements about China. It found that
2:08.8	there were 633 tweets about the Jewish state, and only 216 about China, and that of those
2:16.1	633 tweets about Israel, 605 of them, that is 96% of them, were critical.
	...

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