Black college slams UK boycott against Israel

New Orleans College president: We detest efforts to silence free expression
Yaakov Lappin

The president of one of America's best known African-American colleges has added her voice to the chorus of condemnations coming from the US of the academic boycott against Israel being waged by Britain's main academic union, the University College Union (UCU).

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In a letter sent this week to an American-Jewish leader, Marvalene Hughes said: "It has come to my attention that an effort is underway to boycott Israeli academics. We find such efforts antithetical to the values of academic freedom and civility. Dillard University is an historical Black University that unequivocally detests the effort to silence, isolate, discount and ignore academic values of free expression and open discourse."

Hughes's letter was addressed to Rabbi Marc Schneier, President of The Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, who responded by saying: "We are encouraged by President Hughes' strong, principled position, similar to the one taken recently by Columbia University's President. We are certain that the ideologues behind this effort in the UK will think twice about their totally unacceptable initiative when they see where mainstream America, represented by Dillard University and others, stand on this issue."

'We're going through very serious changes'

Speaking to Ynetnews, Rabbi Schneier said the American Jewish community is reaching out to other ethnic groups in the US as part of an effort to battle the boycott.

"We have learned that we can't fight our battles alone, especially in this day and age - we need friends, we need alliances," Schneier said. "The American Jewish community has a great tradition of coalition building, and when it comes to protecting the State of Israel, this is not exclusively a Jewish issue, nor only a Jewish concern. We need to reach out to our friends," he added.

"Just as we were there to champion the civil rights of blacks, today African Americans need to champion the civil rights of Jews as well," Schneier said, adding: "In terms of my own activities, this call has resonated and I think that what the president of Dillard did is very much a response to this call."

He added that he began the Foundation of Ethnic Understanding in the late 1980s due to a recognition of rapidly changing demographic patterns in the United States.

"It is only a matter of time before the African-American, Latin-American, and Asian-American populations will constitute a majority of the US. And my concern is how is this going to impact the American Jewish community and the State of Israel?" Schneier said.

"At this rate, in 20 years, the US congress will be anywhere from a quarter to a third minority (based). New York City will be 50 percent Hispanic. We're going through some very serious demographic changes in the US. And it’s very clear to me from a political and social point of view that this will be a great challenge," he added.

"If we don't begin planting seeds now for what will be the US in 25 years, the Jewish community could wake up to very difficult situation," Schneier said.