This discussion plays out at least weekly in the comment sections at Israel National News, which I visit daily (actually 24/6, as they say). The consensus is that the solution is simple: send your kids to Israeli schools, and all will be well.
This raises a question. Which is preferable: 1) Tel Aviv U, Hebrew U, Ben Gurion U on the one hand, versus 2) Yeshiva U in America on the other?
I don't want to shield Jewish students from secular knowledge; such shielding implies a lack of confidence in one's own values. On the other hand, American and Israeli schools seem to be permeated by cultural Marxism - critical social justice.
This past year, we have seen graphically the hostility of academia towards the survival of our little minority, and the success of our little decolonization project. Israel's "occupation" of 0.02% of the world's land mass (outside Antarctica) is still too oppressive to the supporters of Hamas.
It is hard to admit the truth, but I am an American Jewish college professor past middle age; I minored in philosophy and learned that the seal of HaShem is truth. Here is the truth.
Western civilization is committing suicide. Most academic institutions are poisonous: again, not because they convey "forbidden" secular ideas, but because they close minds with their dogmatic religion that is plainly hostile to evidence and reason. The id is the new idol. Violence against the innocent is deemed authentic and admirable. Hatred of one's own civilization is the sign that death is imminent.
We must prepare for a long dark age in the West. I am cautiously hopeful that Israel and eastern Europe will survive this era of destruction, with HaShem's help.
Excellent essay. This issue is of great interest to me, even though I do not have kids and most likely never will. However: " .... or establish our own elite institutions that reflect our values and heritage." I was shocked to hear that even Brandeis University has had to deal with such an enemy within; and recently Baruch College has been targeted by the Hamas mob. I don't know much about Baruch College but I have to assume it has some Jewish lineage, just based on the name. Then there are schools that have always had strong Jewish communities: UCLA, USC, Michigan, Northwestern, Cornell, to name a few, that are now infested by antisemitic cretins, including professors and admins. I am as shocked as anyone that the cultural rot is so deep at so many previously respectable institutions. So it seems even when we create or own institutions or establish a robust, generational presence at others, this enemy comes for us.
Some schools clearly are beyond hope and should be permanently given up on (Columbia, UC Berkeley, Brown, Harvard, etc.) but I think the problem is at every so-called "elite" university. It's like a virus; a mass delusion.
I set up a recurring monthly donation to Hillel. I don't know what else to do.
This discussion plays out at least weekly in the comment sections at Israel National News, which I visit daily (actually 24/6, as they say). The consensus is that the solution is simple: send your kids to Israeli schools, and all will be well.
This raises a question. Which is preferable: 1) Tel Aviv U, Hebrew U, Ben Gurion U on the one hand, versus 2) Yeshiva U in America on the other?
I don't want to shield Jewish students from secular knowledge; such shielding implies a lack of confidence in one's own values. On the other hand, American and Israeli schools seem to be permeated by cultural Marxism - critical social justice.
This past year, we have seen graphically the hostility of academia towards the survival of our little minority, and the success of our little decolonization project. Israel's "occupation" of 0.02% of the world's land mass (outside Antarctica) is still too oppressive to the supporters of Hamas.
It is hard to admit the truth, but I am an American Jewish college professor past middle age; I minored in philosophy and learned that the seal of HaShem is truth. Here is the truth.
Western civilization is committing suicide. Most academic institutions are poisonous: again, not because they convey "forbidden" secular ideas, but because they close minds with their dogmatic religion that is plainly hostile to evidence and reason. The id is the new idol. Violence against the innocent is deemed authentic and admirable. Hatred of one's own civilization is the sign that death is imminent.
We must prepare for a long dark age in the West. I am cautiously hopeful that Israel and eastern Europe will survive this era of destruction, with HaShem's help.
Chodesh tov.
Excellent essay. This issue is of great interest to me, even though I do not have kids and most likely never will. However: " .... or establish our own elite institutions that reflect our values and heritage." I was shocked to hear that even Brandeis University has had to deal with such an enemy within; and recently Baruch College has been targeted by the Hamas mob. I don't know much about Baruch College but I have to assume it has some Jewish lineage, just based on the name. Then there are schools that have always had strong Jewish communities: UCLA, USC, Michigan, Northwestern, Cornell, to name a few, that are now infested by antisemitic cretins, including professors and admins. I am as shocked as anyone that the cultural rot is so deep at so many previously respectable institutions. So it seems even when we create or own institutions or establish a robust, generational presence at others, this enemy comes for us.
Some schools clearly are beyond hope and should be permanently given up on (Columbia, UC Berkeley, Brown, Harvard, etc.) but I think the problem is at every so-called "elite" university. It's like a virus; a mass delusion.
I set up a recurring monthly donation to Hillel. I don't know what else to do.