In an era when institutions of higher learning too often surrender to pressure from extremists, it is refreshing indeed that the Manhattan-based Union Theological Seminary (UTS), one of America’s leading institutions for training Protestant clergy, last week stood up against the radicals.
The trouble began when a campus group, “Students for a Liberated Palestine,” joined with an organization called “Queer Muslims of NYC” to plan an event at the seminary featuring Dr. Mohamed Abdou, an open supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah
The organizers announced that Abdou would speak about “decolonial organizing lessons from Gaza’s warrior mujahideen.”
The Washington Free Beacon exposed the plans for the event, and the UTS administration reportedly was flooded with telephone calls and emails expressing outrage.
At this point in the story, the typical response of university administrators would be to wrap themselves in platitudes about free speech, and allow the Hamas supporter to use their campus as a vehicle for espousing violence and hatred.
But this was not a matter of free speech. Nobody is denying Abdou the right to say whatever he wants. The question was whether the Union Theological Seminary, a private institution, was obliged to give him a platform.
The president of UTS, Dr. Serene Jones, courageously answered that question with a resounding “No!”
“Upon becoming aware of the unacceptable imagery and rhetoric used to promote the event and its ties to violence, I revoked approval,” Dr. Jones said in a statement. Abdou’s “violent and hateful rhetoric” is “in complete contradiction of UTS’s values.” Amen!
We are disappointed that major Jewish and Zionist organizations did not speak out on this matter. It’s their job to protest when Israel-bashers are given legitimacy and prominent platforms.
We are, however, glad to note that the David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies strongly protested against the planned event. The Wyman Institute has an interesting connection to the Union Theological Seminary; some years ago, they co-sponsored a conference at UTS to remember Christian and Jewish seminary students who spoke out against the Holocaust.
One of those who spoke out then was J. Herbert Brautigam, Jr., the UTS student body president. Speaking to his fellow students in 1943, Brautigam decried the fact that while millions of European Jews were being “deliberately murdered,” many church leaders in the United States were afflicted with “a kind of moral paralysis” and would only mutter “hollow tones of moral generalities” about the plight of the Jews.
When the plans for the Abdou event became known last week, the Wyman Institute’s director, Dr. Rafael Medoff, wrote to the UTS leadership: “Surely J. Herbert Brautigam, Jr., who spoke out forcefully against the mass murder of Jews—and the moral paralysis that afflicted many Christians—in the 1940s, would have been appalled by the moral paralysis reflected in the decision to authorize a platform today for someone who supports the mass murder of Jews.”
We are pleased that Dr. Jones agreed, and we salute her bravery for standing up to the mob.
