President Obama did it. British Prime Minister David Cameron did it, too. So did Pope Francis.

Macy’s did it. My greengrocer and bakery have done it.

Even the president of Iran (yes, Iran), Hassan Rouhani, did it!

But not Bowdoin. Another year without the smallest of greeting or acknowledgment of the Jewish New Year 5776 anywhere on Bowdoin media.

I’ve known every Bowdoin president since Spike Coles. Not one of them, including a crypto-Jewish one, has ever torn the curtain of laïcité by writing a greeting to Bowdoin’s Jewish students, faculty or alums.

And yet, there’ve been plenty of “Merry Christmases” and “Happy holidays” (which are really Merry Christmas, since Hanukkah is a minor Jewish holiday).

Instead of this sense of impropriety about acknowledging one of the world’s great religions (the Catholic Church’s “elder brother,” per Pope John Paul II), I would much rather a celebration of all religions: Baha’i, Muslim, Congregationalist, Hindu – the whole batch.

Instead of some pseudo-homogeneous blending of traditions, why not recognize and affirm the differences, and not just in some club or association? Why not have it start at the top?

Wouldn’t that be far more relevant to a real “liberal arts” experience than the pious recitations of the writings of Presidents Joseph McKeen, William Hyde, et al.?

Isn’t there room for it on the front page of Bowdoin’s student newspaper, the Orient, somewhere between “sustainable agriculture” and class change deadlines?

This ridiculous restraint begins here and then contributes to the outrageous Students for Justice in Palestine referendum on a boycott of Israeli academic institutions

One would have thought the lesson had been learned 80 years ago – but no. Maybe it hasn’t been taught right?

Isaac Lagnado

Class of 1971, Bowdoin College

New York

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