The “Faculty letter of support for the right to protest and dissent,” published May 3 in the Bowdoin Orient, purports to support students’ right to protest and the free expression of a wide range of viewpoints on campus. What it does not do is acknowledge the pain on all sides, the hostages who remain in captivity, the antisemitism of Students for Justice in Palestine chapters around the country, or student voices other than SJP voices.
To be clear, I fundamentally believe in students’ right to protest and dissent. However, many faculty signees of the letter might not realize that if one aligns oneself with SJP, one aligns oneself with other SJP chapters that support and chant phrases, such as “from the river to the sea,” “go back to Poland,” that many (but not all) Jews view as antisemitic. Through its very name and online presence, the Bowdoin SJP aligns itself with many SJP chapters that chant such phrases. For Jewish students, faculty and staff who find “from the river to the sea” antisemitic, the faculty letter is especially hard to read.
Faculty can choose to support their students’ right to protest and dissent while at the same time acknowledging the necessity of freeing Israeli hostages and the cessation of violence against Gaza.
Natasha Goldman, Ph.D.
Former lecturer, Bowdoin College and current visiting researcher, Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, Boston University
Brookline, Mass.
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