fbpx

Dear Chuck Schumer: Stop David Friedman

We represent a broad constituency of scholars of Jewish studies committed to the democratic values that gave rise to the United States of America. We are alarmed by the prospect that new administration may erode these values and are particularly troubled by a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed appointments. We write you today to register our concern about Mr. David Friedman’s nomination as our country’s Ambassador to the State of Israel.
[additional-authors]
January 13, 2017

Dear Senator Schumer,

We represent a broad constituency of scholars of Jewish studies committed to the democratic values that gave rise to the United States of America. We are alarmed by the prospect that new administration may erode these values and are particularly troubled by a number of President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed appointments. We write you today to register our concern about Mr. David Friedman’s nomination as our country’s Ambassador to the State of Israel.

Mr. Friedman has no diplomatic experience and has spoken in the most undiplomatic terms on issues about which we have scholarly expertise. He has written that members of J Street, a strong supporter of the two-state solution, are “worse than Kapos,” referring to the oft-reviled cell-block attendants in Nazi concentration camps. We were also alarmed to hear Mr. Friedman pro­claim that the Anti-Defamation League, one of the oldest and most venerable of American Jewish organizations, is comprised of a bunch of “morons” and that its director is outside of the Jewish communal mainstream. These outrageous claims attest to an absence of good judgment and lack of historical understanding. One expects to hear such language from anti-Semites, not a Jew who fashions himself a supporter of Israel, and cer­tainly not from a potential diplomat. Mr. Friedman’s comments cheapen the Holocaust and demon­strate his disdain for those who face discrimination.

Mr. Friedman’s rhetorical extremism is cause for grave concern on its own. But it is matched, if not super­seded, by the extremism of his positions on Israel, which demonstrate that he cannot be an impartial broker of peace or an effective diplomat. He is the president of a charity supporting Beit El, a radical West Bank settlement that hosts the far-right website Arutz Sheva, to which he himself has contributed. Of even greater concern, Mr. Friedman’s positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict place him to the far right even of the current Israeli govern­ment. He is opposed to a two-state solution, which has been America’s own policy for several decades. He favors annexation of the West Bank, in contravention of international law, the conse­quences of which would be the denial of the rights of Palestinians to self-determination and, if the Palestinians of the West Bank are not granted Israeli citizenship, the end of Israeli democracy.

The signers of this letter represent a diversity of views on Israeli and American politics. But we are united in our belief, drawn from the study of modern Jewish and Israeli history, that democracy is the best guarantee of equal rights for all, including Jews. We are concerned that the incoming administration, as reflected in this case in its nominee to the ambassadorship of Israel, does not hold to that basic truth. Mr. Friedman’s appointment, rather than promoting peaceful coexistence, will throw fuel on the fires of conflict in the Middle East with potentially catastrophic consequences.  Mindful of the abuses to which Jews and others have been subjected, we feel a sense of urgency in conveying to you our grave concern. Accordingly, we call on you and your colleagues to vote against this nomination.

Sincerely,

Anne Albert, University of Pennsylvania

Robert Alter, University of California, Berkeley

Ari Ariel, University of Iowa

Eugene M. Avrutin, University of Illinois

Beverly Bailis, Brooklyn College

Omer Bartov, Brown University

Maya Barzilai, University of Michigan

Albert Baumgarten, Bar Ilan University

Adam Becker, New York University

Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center

Mara Benjamin, St. Olaf College

Sarah Benor, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, LA

Joel Berkowitz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

David Biale, University of California, Davis

Jeffrey Blutinger, California State University, Long Beach

Ra'anan Boustan, Princeton University

Ross Brann, Cornell University

Benjamin Braude, Boston College

Francesca Bregoli, CUNY

Adriana Brodsky, St. Mary's College of Maryland

David Brodsky, Brooklyn College

Andrew Bush, Vassar College

Debra Caplan, Baruch College, CUNY

Jessica Carr, Lafayette College

Flora Cassen, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Bruno Chaouat, University of Minnesota

Julia Cohen, Vanderbilt University

Steven M. Cohen, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion

Alon Confino, University of Virginia/Ben-Gurion University

Jessica Cooperman, Muhlenberg College

Lila Corwin Berman, Temple University

Max Daniel, UCLA

Galeet Dardashti, New York University

Natalie Zemon Davis, Princeton University

Carolyn Dean, Yale University

Evelyn Dean-Olmsted, University of Puerto Rico

Rachel Deblinger, UC Santa Cruz

Lois Dubin, Smith College

Glenn Dynner, Sarah Lawrence College

John Efron, UC Berkeley

Jodi Eichler-Levine, Lehigh University

Susan Einbinder, University of Connecticut

Ellen Eisenberg, Willamette University

Todd Endelman, University of Michigan

Marc Michael Epstein, Vassar College

Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan State University

Reuven Firestone, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, LA

Arnold Franklin, Queens College, CUNY

Joshua Furman, Rice University

Alexandra Garbarini, Williams College

Gary Gilbert, Claremont McKenna College

Maja Gildin Zuckerman, Independent scholar

Sharon Gillerman, Hebrew Union College

Amelia Glaser, UC San Diego

Erin Graff Zivin, University of Southern California

Denise Grollmus, University of Washington

Atina Grossmann, Cooper Union

Karen Grumberg, University of Texas, Austin

Aaron Hahn Tapper, University of San Francisco

Sarah Hammerschlag, University of Chicago

Alma Heckman, UC Santa Cruz

Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College

Ari Joskowicz, Vanderbilt University

Jonathan Judaken, Rhodes College

Daniel Judson, Hebrew College

Ava Kahn, Independent scholar

Brett Kaplan, University of Illinois

Marion Kaplan, New York University

Ruth Karras, University of Minnesota

Emily Katz, Duke University

Ari Kelman, Stanford University

Shaul Kelner, Vanderbilt University

Shira Kohn, CUNY Brooklyn College

Oren Kosansky, Lewis & Clark College

Rachel Kranson, University of Pittsburgh

Chana Kronfeld, UC Berkeley

Paul Lerner, University of Southern California

Mark Leuchter, Temple University

Laura Levitt, Temple University

Lital Levy, Princeton University

Jason Lustig, UCLA

Barbara Mann, Jewish Theological Seminary

Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California

Devi Mays, University of Michigan

Yitzhak Melamed, Johns Hopkins University

Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan

Regina Morantz-Sanchez, University of Michigan

David N. Myers, UCLA

Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Louisville

Anne Perez, UC Davis

Shachar Pinsker, University of Michigan

Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota

Todd Presner, UCLA

Elliot Ratzman, Swarthmore College

Bryan Roby, University of Michigan

Monique Rodrigues Balbuena, University of Oregon

Naama Rokem, University of Chicago

Sara Ronis, St. Mary's University, Texas

Kate Rosenblatt, University of Michigan

Nora Rubel, University of Rochester

Gwen Satran

Allison Schachter, Vanderbilt University

Joshua Shanes, College of Charleston

David Shneer, University of Colorado

Jeffrey Shoulson, University of Connecticut

Amy Simon, Michigan State University

Neta Stahl, Johns Hopkins University

Ronit Stahl, University of Pennsylvania

Deborah Starr, Cornell University

Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan

Agnes Veto, Vassar College

Dov Waxman, Northeastern University

David Weinfeld, Virginia Commonwealth University

Steve Weitzman, University of Pennsylvania

Beth Wenger, University of Pennsylvania

Matthew Williams, Stanford University

Rebecca Winer, Villanova University

Diane Wolfthal, Rice University

Saul Zaritt, Harvard University

Steven Zipperstein, Stanford University

Did you enjoy this article?
You'll love our roundtable.

Editor's Picks

Latest Articles

More news and opinions than at a
Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.

More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.