Zahava Feldstein
Moment, Nov. 25, 2024
“I learned that the European white supremacy from which colonialism, racism and Nazism arose had solidified its antisemitic core hundreds of years prior. A hatred of Jews was built into dominant European ideas about the world and structures of power well before either 1492 or 1619.”
“Zionists are the in-group upon which white supremacy depends.”
This is what a Stanford dean told me while giving me her feedback on a curriculum I was developing for Jewish high school students. She suggested that I frame Zionism for them as a white supremacist project.
I had already encountered a pervasive environment of antisemitism from classmates in my program, a collaboration between Stanford’s Graduate School of Education and its Jewish studies program. After these and other comments, it became clear to me that faculty and administrators were also fostering that environment.
The consequence? Whereas before Stanford’s Graduate School of Education (GSE) had one Jewish studies student enrolled in the 2023 PhD cohort, or year, now it will have none. I have decided to drop out. Stanford University and its community members proved uninterested, on countless occasions, in providing me the opportunity as a Jewish student to learn, succeed and engage in a scholarly community.
Another dean told me that I needed to take accountability and “accept blame” for creating situations that encouraged antisemitic behaviors and comments.
My decision arrived as a final act in a long opera of antisemitic incidents and behavior directed toward me from every echelon in the Stanford community, from students to professors to leadership. …SOURCE
Zahava Feldstein is a southern-raised Jewish American memoirist and currently works as a research consultant for the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy.