The following letter was written and submitted by Professor Andrew Pessin and is in response to the Faculty and Staff Statement of Solidarity with Student Protestors:
Dear Conn College students,
It is a sad day when some 90 Conn College faculty members can publicly sign a statement accusing Jews of “Jewish supremacy”; Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels would be proud to see his trope so widely adopted. What’s next? Deciding that the Nazis were right after all in pursuing the Holocaust?
Never mind that the one sliver of a Jewish state (32 of which would fit inside Texas!) and its 7 million Jews is massively dwarfed by the 460 million Arabs in 20-plus Arab states and the 2 billion Muslims in the 50-plus Muslim states, most of which actively seek to destroy the one tiny Jewish state in the name of Muslim Arab supremacy (read Hamas’s (never renounced) charter!); and that this tiny state is currently under active attack from Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and of course nuclear-approaching Iran. And lest you think that those actors attack Israel in the name of “human rights,” consider that not one of them provides human rights even to its own citizens. As protestors cheered the recent Houthi attacks, the Houthis announced they were crucifying gay men; at least Iran only publicly hangs their gays. Yet somehow the Jews and their little state are the problem.
It is also sad, even tragic, that such educated people can proffer such absolutely terrible advice. But happily we do have some dissenting opinions here, if only as small a minority as the Jews themselves are, perhaps to help you figure out, of course, your own thoughts on the matter.
In general I believe it is inappropriate for a mob of faculty to promote their opinions to you this way. There is a bullying process that goes into acquiring signatures that is inconducive to free and open inquiry. This document may also make some of you uncomfortable, and feel unsafe in the classrooms of those who signed it. Are these professors looking at their Jewish students, thinking about those Jews and their evil Jewish supremacy? How could you object to or protest this statement, and expect to prosper in that professor’s class, under the threat of the professor’s grade? For that reason alone I register my objection to it. (I only share my opinion here in response, having failed to persuade my colleagues to desist from their disgraceful action and unable to let it go uncontested.)
The encampments the statement endorses are not a matter of “free speech.” There are many permissible venues and manners of expression, which many of these same people have been taking voluminous advantage of for the past seven months. These encampments violate numerous campus regulations and sometimes local laws, and create enormously unsafe environments for all parties, not to mention significant destruction of lawns and other property. They also massively infringe upon the rights of other members of the community. Your right to free speech is not a right to commandeer a space, destroy property and occupy buildings, threaten and intimidate others, and inflict your opinions upon people who don’t wish to hear them. Nor does it entitle you to disrupt the activities of others, block their access to campus spaces including libraries, and prevent them from obtaining the education they are paying enormous amounts of money for. These are not activities protected by the First Amendment. These are crimes punishable by law.
Perhaps you support the cause. But just because you think your cause is just doesn’t warrant your breaking the rules, rules you agreed to follow when you matriculated and which actually protect everybody including you. Those who endorse this statement apparently think the rules don’t apply to them and their cause. Well, if they don’t apply to them and their cause then they won’t apply to anyone else and their cause, and we descend into anarchy. We are seeing literally out of control situations on numerous campuses, including many incidents of physical violence. Just this week at UCLA a Jewish woman was beaten unconscious and a Jewish man was chased down and tased. These encampments are anything but peaceful, in manner or in content. We shouldn’t want that here, or anywhere, if we believe in genuine free speech and actual education. You wouldn’t accept the Proud Boys behaving on a campus this way, or the KKK, or the Westboro Baptist Church, and you shouldn’t accept anyone behaving this way, much less behave that way yourself.
For those reasons alone you should distance yourself from this statement.
But there are also the deeper concerns.
In my view the statement depends on, and propagates, repulsive antisemitic lies. The Elders-of-Zion-style antisemitic accusation of “Jewish supremacy” is only the most blatant. The inflammatory lie that Israel is perpetrating a “genocide,” much less an “ongoing” one, is in fact equally vile. “Genocide” is what Hamas explicitly seeks (read their charter!) and repeatedly attempts to perpetrate. In contrast, in an act of anti-genocide, Israel is attempting to remove the relentless genocidal threat on its borders and rescue its hostages, fighting a just war using just means. The massive measures the IDF takes to minimize civilian casualties while targeting militants—far more than any other army in the world—are widely documented, as is the massive quantity of humanitarian aid provided. (It is literally unprecedented for a state to provide such aid to its enemy during a war.) This statement revoltingly takes Israel’s efforts to defend Jews from genocide and converts it into a Jewish effort to perpetrate genocide—thus dehumanizing Israelis and legitimizing those actually pursuing the genocide against the Jews. Here both Orwell and Goebbels would be proud.
There’s more, and I can document and defend everything above in detail, but you get the point. For those interested I have produced a much longer, more detailed response to the Statement, available on request.
Happy to engage in good-faith conversation with anyone so interested.
Andrew Pessin
Professor of Philosophy
apessin@conncoll.edu
This mob attack on Professor Pessin is a disgrace!
Thank you Professor Pessin. It is difficult to understand how so many professors who teach in your college can be so gullible. I feel bad for students of these professors as many will suspect that these professors who know so little about what is going on in the Middle East (and the entire world) may also not be very knowledgeable about the subjects that they teach.
Stay strong Professor Pessin.
Thank you for standing up for the Jewish community. Nowadays too many academics are allowing these children in need of guidance to bulldoze them. College was created for the purpose of academics educating the youth. You are continuing to do that, unlike so many educators across the US who are just acquiescing. If other academics do not take responsibility for educating our youth like you have, then the future of our country is dire indeed.
*This is a letter from a University teacher that needs our help desperately! Please read his letter below and leave a comment on the link below:*
Thank you so much for this — you’ve no idea how much it means since, indeed, I am alone in the darkness surrounded by baying hyenas coming from every direction, and literally the only person willing to speak up. Already I have been attacked several times, last week by a student led defamatory campaign to get me fired and this weekend by chalkings saying “Fuck Pessin” (attached). My complaints to the administration have been met by inaction. There was a rally yesterday and the haters are making growing demands including for divestment. They claim the deans and the trustees are negotiating with them and sympathetic. An encampment is not far off.
Kudos to you for everything you are doing — this is an emergency and we need all hands on deck. If you were so inclined to leave comments (or ask people to leave comments) both on the repulsive faculty letter and my response to it (if you haven’t already) that would be helpful:
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/02/faculty-statement-of-solidarity-with-student-protestors/
https://thecollegevoice.org/2024/05/04/professor-andrew-pessin-registers-objection-to-faculty-and-staff-solidarity-statement/
I don’t know what to do other than keep speaking up — I’m a minority, and only a handful of students have reached out to me so I’m rather at a loss.
glad to be in touch —
Andrew
Andrew Pessin
Professor of Philosophy, Connecticut College
Thank you professor your support and your words!
In these troubling times nice to hear a voice of reason and clarity.
Thank you for staying strong and standing up for moral rightness and goodness and!!!
Thank you for standing strong on the right side of humanity! You are brave to stand against these hate-filled people and I wishe there were more people like you in the world!
Thank you for the courage to stand up to the haters and anarchists. It is horrible that you and students in your university are experiencing this. We commend your actions! Stay strong!
Thank you for standing up for truth and against hate! You have my wholehearted support and gratitude!
The lies, distortion , mob violence & complicity of universities is truly horrifying. It is clear that the most “educated “ amongst us do not know history and refuse to learn from history. So grateful for the voices that stand up to the ignorance and hate at great personal expense.
Thank you for your strength and courage!
Thank you professor for standing up in public to denounce this shameful moment in history.
The time has come to root out where this poison is coming from, and find the antidote.
Our youth are being told things that are not true, and with zero context.
Before Oct 7 and the surge of information since, there were maybe 1-2% of people who knew anything about the situation in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, and the over arching themes. Suddenly everyone thinks they know the whole story.
I’m a 5th generation Zionist decended of the first Zionist revolutionaries of the Vilno ghetto. I’ve studied the situation, I’ve sought information since I was a young girl in high school, just becoming aware of my own family’s deep and long history. To see people who just entered the arena screaming like hyenas and intimidating and harming perceived Zionists is Earth shattering. This has become a mountain that we must traverse.
Silencing voices like mine, and Palestinians’ who want peace is disturbing, and goes against American values to hold civil debates.
Thank you professor for standing up and speaking out!!
Thank you Professor Pessin for your strength and courage in standing against these vile ‘protests’.
Thank you for your strength and courage! Please continue to speak up!
👏 👏 louder for those in the back!
Thank you for wading through the antisemitism and propaganda that is being pumped into our universities and shedding light on what is true and ethical. It’s absolutely disturbing what’s going on in the educational institutions, and reading your words is like taking a breath of fresh air.
Thank you for continuing to speak out against the hate. There is no other minority that would be forced to withstand this type of bigotry and danger and at the same time be gaslit when we can out what we so plainly see. Please do not be silent. These encampments promote hate not peace. And peace is the only thing we should be striving for.
This should not be allowed. As a retired Ass’t Dean, I’m horrified the administration hasn’t been more proactive in making safety a priority. NO ONE should be subjected to this & certainly not from a group involved in a national movement with ties to questionable groups. Researchers & certainly research institutions have the skills and resources to combat the disinformation, confirm truthful information & participate in civil debate. That this is not happening makes them look negligent.
Please don’t stop trying to do the right thing!
Thank you so much, Professor Pessin. I am sure it’s taken a lot of courage for you to stand up to the mob mentality and the haters. The college needs to take action to protect and support you. And it needs to take a principled stand to stop the intimidation and the hatred and restore the college to a place of learning and dialog.
You are not alone. Thank you, Professor Pessin
You are doing the right thing! Stay strong and keep speaking out! Call police when you are assaulted. Document everything that is happening including the inactions of the university. Build a case and file a lawsuit against the school you are in. It sounds like unlawful things are happening. We are with you!!
Professor Pessin – it’s a doggy-dog world, but it’s good to know that one of those dogs is a good guy like you.
I’ll be damned, it’s nice to hear from an academic with some sense for a change…
Thank you so much Dr. Pessin for your voice and your words. People need you at this time and at our college campuses. If these so-called students would only follow the money. They would know that they are being supported by Terrorist organizations. (I hope they wake up before it is too late for Israel and America!
Bravo for your courage!
Please don’t stop fighting for what is right and true. Your words are needed in this troubling time when the youth of our country is being brainwashed to appreciate terror. Please stay safe.
Thank you so much for speaking the truth bravely. You are not alone.
Thank you, Professor Pessin, for your courage to speak and stand for the truth. It’s scary how even supposed learned professors at institutions of higher learning have no idea what the words “genocide” and “zionist” truly mean, but are willing to weaponize them against others, spreading propaganda from known terrorist organizations. Your voice is needed now more than ever. You are not alone, and are very much appreciated.
Thank you for your courage to publicize the truth. All of need to realize that these groups start with demonizing Israel, but they won’t and don’t stop there. They hate America and Western values. We need more people like Professor Pessin, who stands up for good over evil.
Thank you, Professor Pessin, for being brave, speaking up and standing up against evil.
Thank you Professor for your moral courage. You are an inspiration
Stay strong and thank you for your courage! Hate speech is not free speech.
Thank you for your support and speaking out so eloquently.
Thank you Professor. No truer words have been spoken.
Our country, even the world is so full of hate and anger. I am not sure how we will recover.
I applaud your courage to speak up and thank you for sharing.
Am Chai Israel!
N Soussan
Thank you for being a legend!
Wow. Thank you Professor Pessin for being brave enough to stand your ground. Please never stop standing with Israel, no matter what horrendous pressure is put on you. You have no idea how much it means to the Jewish community to know that you are with us!
Thank you for speaking up and speaking the truth!
Kol Hakavod to Professor Pessin for standing up for morality! Stay strong!
Articulate and true and brave. Thank you! A voice of reason and morals.
Thank you Professor Pessin
100% agree with you and stand with you against faculty and all staff from all campuses signing such usually hateful and antisemitic letters.
Let me know how I can help!
Thank you. I am just hearing about all of this and finding it terrifying that my Jewish child has signed up to take classes from someone who signed this document.
Thank you so much for standing up to this mob!