Daily Briefing:The Collapse of Academic Standards in Humanities and Social Sciences (July 12, 2019)

Jasbir Puar, for example, has recently published a book called The Right to Maim: Debility, Capacity, Disability (2017), in which she accuses Israel of deliberately and sadistically starving, maiming, and stunting the Palestinian population in order to achieve its “biopolitical goal” of breaking the bodies and spirit of the Palestinians to end their “resistance.” One reviewer called the book a modern “blood libel,” similar to the medieval accusations that Jews murdered Christian children in order to use their blood to make matzot. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]
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Nelson, Cary, Israel Denial. Anti-Zionism, Anti-Semitism, and the Faculty Campaign Against the Jewish State (Bloomington, University of Indiana Press, 2019), pp.425-7

We can…expect to see individual faculty, especially those wanting to win recognition based on original research, invent new and unpredictable ways of advancing BDS arguments and furthering the delegitimization of Israel.  Graduate students will be increasingly able to earn doctorates with explicitly anti-Zionist dissertations. The anti- Zionist faculty publications analyzed in Israel Denial display a number of consistent patterns that are both ideological and methodological.  The resulting prose is relentlessly polemical and accusatory, suffused with unqualified conviction. These projects are not conducted as traditional academic analyses that reach conclusions by comparing and contrasting different positions. There is no effort to weigh alternative views…These publications instruct the next generation of faculty members about how “research” can and should be conducted. That is good cause to be concerned about the BDS movement’s long-term influence….

Another message that BDS-allied faculty members send to their students is that faculty political activism is crucial to faculty authenticity…anti-Zionist faculty activism may be unique in combining a failure to adhere to ethical principles in both scholarly and active pursuits, most pointedly when the two enterprises intersect….

We can expect such activism to increase. The biased anti-Zionist pedagogical scene will also get worse before it gets better, if ever.  Barring some dramatic destructive action like a formal Israeli annexation of much of the West Bank, the larger academic disciplines with diverse memberships will likely continue to resist adopting academic boycotts, though maintaining that record will require vigilant monitoring, evaluation, and the hard work of responding.  Campus divestment resolutions meanwhile show no sign of abating, and anti-Zionist initiatives within the Protestant denominations will surely continue.  This is not a struggle with an end in sight…

[W]e can expect to see waning support for academic freedom, both within and outside the academy. In addition to the explicit contempt for and misrepresentation of academic freedom shown by BDS advocates, there is some frustration in the Jewish community with the anti-Zionist pedagogy and anti-Semitic hate speech that academic freedom protects.  Academic freedom oddly enough is at least somewhat imperiled from constituencies on opposite sides of debates over Israel.  We need to do everything we can to make it clear that academic freedom is the bedrock of higher education.  Its benefits vastly outweigh its costs. The defense of Israel’s fundamental right of existence is now linked to a defense of the academy’s guiding principles.  That includes the academy’s fundamental search for the truth.
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An Education Horror Show
Wall St. Journal, July 7, 2019

The National Education Association held its annual convention this past weekend, and the Democratic presidential candidates made their pilgrimage to promise the teachers union more money—and even more money. One word we didn’t hear on stage was “Providence,” as in the Rhode Island capital city whose public schools were recently exposed as a horror show of government and union neglect. Peeling lead paint, brown water, leaking sewage pipes, broken asbestos tiles, rodents, frigid and chaotic classrooms, and student failure were all documented in a 93-page review by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy. The review was conducted in May at the request of the Rhode Island education commissioner, and it deserves attention nationwide as an example of government failure.

“Very little visible student learning was going on in the majority of classrooms and schools we visited—most especially in the middle and high schools,” the report says. “Our review teams encountered many teachers and students who do not feel safe in school. There is widespread agreement that bullying, demeaning, and even physical violence are occurring within the school walls at very high levels.”

No surprise, then, that only 5% of Providence eighth graders on average scored proficient in math in the 2015 through 2017 school years. That compares to 21.3% in Newark, N.J., where students have similar socioeconomic backgrounds. Low-income students in Worcester, Mass., not far away, were twice as proficient as those in Providence.

“Teachers did not press students to become engaged with the mathematics instruction, resulting in a variety of student off-task behavior: chatting with peers, checking phones, staring into space, or, in some cases, taking phone calls and watching YouTube videos,” the report says. Student performance actually drops the longer students spend in Providence schools. Proficiency in English fell from 18.7% of students in fifth grade to only 8.5% in eighth.

One student reported that “my best teacher’s desk was urinated on, and nothing happened.” Another noted a teacher “was choked by a student in front of the whole class. Everybody was traumatized, but nothing happened.” One district leader observed, “the students run the buildings.”

One culprit are policies that discourage student discipline. Rhode Island Democrats in 2016 passed legislation backed by the American Civil Liberties Union that limits school suspensions, which progressives claim discriminate against minorities. Teachers are reluctant to punish students, and violence and misconduct make it harder to retain good teachers.

The reviewers also note that collective-bargaining agreements limit the ability of school principals to fire lousy teachers. “In the case of an abusive teacher, s/he is placed on unpaid administrative leave but then ‘lawyers up’ through the union and ultimately returns to the classroom,” one principal noted. … [To read the full article, click the following LINK – Ed.]

It is a delight to recommend, with great enthusiasm,  CIJR’s summer Interns, Jacques Chitayat and Jonathan Wasserlauf.  Working with these able and committed young scholar-writers has been a pleasure and an honor, and it is good to see that they both feel that their exposure to the Institute’s independent, academic pro-Israel research and advocacy has been a useful learning experience for them.

We look forward to their ongoing involvement in pro-Israel work and wish them’ every success in their future academic, and intellectual-professional, endeavors.
  Prof. Frederick Krantz

JACQUES CHITAYAT

As I approach the end of my internship at the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR), realize how this experience has, by enhancing my professional skills, served me well in the future. Thanks to the help of my colleagues, my writing style has consistently improved: as time went by, I was writing better articles, delivering my arguments with more impact and efficiency. This internship was an excellent introduction to the world of research and journalism and helped me put what I had learned in my Political Science studies to good use. Even as an intern, the position I had in this organization was an important one: not only was my role crucial in online promotion and content creation, but my opinion was always heard and considered during Board meetings.

I spent two months in a very friendly atmosphere, where each colleague was helping the other. What made the experience interesting was that I had a great deal of freedom to write about what interested me, as I was often encouraged to pitch ideas for articles. I also had the opportunity to discover fascinating books, authors and websites that I would not have been exposed to in university or in my daily life. It felt great to be an advocate for Israel, with my articles being read by followers on the internet. During this very enjoyable and valuable experience, the weeks went by quickly.
JONATHAN WASSERLAUF

CIJR, the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, is by far the best, and most pro-Israel and pro-Jewish work environment I ever had the opportunity to work in.  Aside from writing articles and publishing on CIJR’s Isranet website (Isranet.org), I was able to experience working with and being mentored by journalists, professors, historians, lawyers, and political scientists, among other pro-Israel professionals.

As a Poli-Sci Major, and a Grad student, I can vouch for the comfortable and constructive work environment CIJR provided me throughout my internship.  While giving a detailed account of my time here would be way too lengthy, I believe that my work was not only valuable but valued.  I felt appreciated and was even invited to sit in with professors from Concordia University, Université de Montréal, McGill University, as well as other respected businessmen and professionals in the community at their bi-weekly meetings.

Thank you CIJR, for the greatest advocacy experience — I cannot wait to work together again in the future.
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The Friday French-language briefing can be found here:
Communiqué: Malgré l’ire des Palestiniens,Arabes ne Cachent plus leur Désir de Normaliser Leurs Relations avec Israël 

CIJR wishes all our friends and supporters Shabbat Shalom!