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 But it is matched, if not superseded, by the extremism of his positions on Israel, which demonstrate that he cannot be an impartial broker of peace or an effective diplomat.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