Sept. 18, 2024

As Coordinator of the Judaic Studies Program, Distinguished Professor at the University of Manitoba, Professor of Anthropology, and Co-Director of the Near Eastern and Biblical Archaeology of Lab at St. Paul’s College, I feel compelled to make a submission to University of Manitoba (UofM) regarding the issue of freedom of expression on our campus and how it has been twisted to become a tool of persecution.

In all my years at the UofM (since 1989),  I have never before seen such a surge in antisemitic rhetoric on campus by faculty and students that has made Jewish/Zionist students feel not only uncomfortable, but unsafe. Further, I have also never seen such complacency on the part of the administration to reign in the extremist antisemitic behaviour on campus. It feels as if the administration is afraid of doing anything, so nothing gets done. No self-respecting Jew or Israeli feels safe as a result.

Freedom of expression includes the right to wear religious symbols as a form of self-expression. However, since the war in Gaza, I am aware of many Jewish students who feel not only uncomfortable , but also unsafe wearing a Magen David (Star of David), a kippa (head covering), a Chai (Hebrew symbol for life), or related Jewish symbols. This ought to deeply concern the administration of the UofM,  as Jews, who form a small minority of the student body, ought to be able to wear their religious symbols like other students. Judaism was the first monotheistic religion in the world, and yet today on the UofM campus, Jews are hiding who they are. Jews at the UofM have made many contributions to the university across the entire gamut of disciplines (including the social sciences, humanities, sciences, arts, medicine, and law) and administration (including former presidents, deans, etc.) for the betterment of the UofM community and humanity in general. (Note that Jews have the most  Nobel Prize Winners in the world on a per capita basis.)

EDI policies have traditionally ignored Jews, despite the fact that they are the most persecuted minority in Canada (after the indigenous peoples). They wrongly identify Jews as “colonizers” and “oppressors”, and not “indigenous” to the Land of Israel. Further, Jews are wrongly defined by EDI policies as “white” when in fact over 50% of the Jews living in the modern State of Israel are Sephardim and Mizrachim, who are clearly not white and who were ethnically cleansed out of the surrounding Arab lands and were given refuge in Israel.

 As a Professor of Anthropology and someone who is deeply familiar with archaeological and biological evidence for Jewish indigeneity, I can say with certainty that Jews are in fact “indigenous” to the Land of Israel. They have lived there continuously for over 3200 years (since 1200 BCE), and were in the region for several hundred years before then - since at least 1800 BCE (or 3800 years ago). In fact, we (the Jews) were there long before the Arabs ever appeared on the scene in Israel and neighbouring lands by over 1700 years.

It was so terribly wrong that UofM allowed an encampment on the Quad for months with a sign about “decolonizing”Palestine, intimidating Jewish students and faculty, suggesting that Jews are “colonizers”, thereby encouraging the UM community to deny their connection to their ancestral homeland, and holding them up to hatred. Note, that we had a Temple in Jerusalem long before such time as any Arab lived in the area.

The language of the Jewish people is Hebrew, an indigenous language that has been spoken for thousands of years, since Biblical times. Yet, Jews do not feel comfortable and safe speaking the Hebrew language on the UofM campus. If you asked most Jews and Israelis on campus whether they feel safe in speaking Hebrew in front of others, the answer increasingly will be “no”. In that sense, their freedom of expression is severely impacted.

I define myself as a Zionist, meaning someone who believes in the right of the Jewish people, as with any other people, to live in their ancestral homeland. I am 70 years old. When I retire, will their be another Zionist Professor to replace me? Likely not, since many departments (particularly English) of the UofM are openly anti-Zionist and anti-Israel and to the best of my knowledge do not seem to have hired Jews who define themselves as Zionist (although studies show that the vast majority of Jews are Zionist) The lack of Jewish professors who define themselves as Zionist will only accelerate the phenomenon of Jewish students hiding their identity on campus. Thus they will feel less and less able to freely express their identity and their connection to Israel.

A Jewish student on campus recently complained to the UofM administration that a pro-Palestinian student was wearing clothing that said “Intifada”. This term is an incitement to violence against Jews and Israelis. The two Palestinian intifadas in recent years  involved clear targeted violence towards Israeli Jews and many were in fact murdered by terrorist activity in the intifadas. The UofM administrator informed the student who made the complaint that it was ok for the student in question to wear clothing that said “Intifada.” – it was their right as part of their freedom of expression. If a Jewish student wore clothing that said “kill the arabs”, then the administration would immediately take action agains the Jewish student. This double standard prevents honest freedom of expression that heals rather than encourages violence. The UofM ought to rethink this decision and educate its administrators, especially those that think of Jews as only “white Europeans”. Allowing freedom of expression that can reasonably be interpreted as a call to violence ought to be limited by the UofM. By allowing this kind of behaviour to take place on campus, the UofM promotes a hostile environment for Jews/Israelis/Zionists on campus.

A good example of the bias existing at the UofM is that it put out a statement that indicated Ms. Vivian Silver (a Jewish/Israeli UofM alumnus living in Israel) had died. In fact, this statement twisted the reality of her death as she was murdered by Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists from Gaza in her home in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. She worked her entire life for peace with the Palestinians, but was murdered by them along with thousands of other Israelis on that and other days. Instead, the UofM chose to make it sound as if she died of natural causes, rather than clearly come out and state that she was murdered byHamas terrorists, even though Hamas is defined as a terror group in Canada. Freedom of expression ought to mean that the UofM speaks in a manner that is at least factual and not twisted by some incoherent sense of neutrality. The administration of the UofM needs to speak with greater moral clarity than it did with Vivian Silver.

On Sept. 19, we celebrate our distinguished alumni. Would not the UofM administration consider an important advocate for Israeli-Palestinian peace such as Vivian Silver? Instead, it trivialized her life’s work and neutralised her horrific murder.

Sincerely yours,

Haskel J. Greenfield, PhD,

University of Manitoba Distinguished Professor