Kushner’s Honorary Degree

I do not know how closely people have been following the Jeffrey Wiesenfeld affair at City University in New York (CUNY) pertaining to the awarding of an honorary degree to the playwright Tony Kushner.     I thought it would be worth my while to rethink the case based on the vote to grant him the honorary degree and to share  some of my thoughts with you.

As I reviewed some of the available  material, I could not help but strengthen my previous conclusions that that which people  should really be concerned with is not whether Tony Kushner is awarded an honorary degree but with the level of antisemitism that is growing in American colleges and universities,  particularly at two components of CUNY, i.e., City College and Brooklyn College – my alma mater, and the role people such as Tony Kushner may be playing in bringing about this uncivilized behavior.

The four institutions of higher learning (City College of New York, Brooklyn College, Queens College and Hunter College) that were originally amalgamated into CUNY developed great reputations because of the Jews (along with others) who attended, taught and did research there.  I specifically mention Jews only because the Wiesenfeld/Kushner controversy revolves around a Jewish issue.  At one time these institutions had huge Jewish student populations and a very large number of Jewish faculty.  The Jewish students, like their gentile counterparts, were primarily from immigrant homes.  Ditto for the faculty.  The influence of Islam in making these institutions great was virtually imperceptible.

Let us not forget, at least in the case of the Jews, that these city institutions were tuition free and represented some of the very few institutions in the United States where Jews could obtain a higher education.  Other prestigious institutions throughout the country - particularly the Ivy League schools – had strict quota systems which greatly limited Jewish enrollments.  The historic irony of this, I will have to leave for another day.

Following WW II, when American businesses expanded and the need for brain power exploded, the previous hate-based barriers to  opportunity began to crumble.   Because of the high quality of the faculty of the New York City colleges and the will of their students to succeed, there resulted an unprecedented success for the sons and daughters of the immigrant populations, particularly for the Jews for whom the obstacle of antisemitism was always present, although just beginning to abate.  The influence of these institutions spread throughout the USA and throughout the world.  Their fame as quality institutions was widely acknowledged.

Ironically, these prestigious institutions of higher learning are now slowly being destroyed not because Jews are attending, teaching and doing research there – but because there are Jews there and because there is the state of Israel: in other words, they are being destroyed, in part, because of the longest and greatest hate, antisemitism – that which Harry Golden referred to as the one great constant in Western civilization.

Just like elsewhere throughout the last two thousand year history of the world, uncivilized individuals would rather destroy the advancement of society just so they could assuage their religiously derived and religiously supported hatred.  For centuries it was Christian hatred against the Jew, which still exists, but, because of changing demographics in the modern world, more and more it has become based on the  Koranic teachings to subjugate and destroy all persons who hold to non-Muslim beliefs, with specific mention of Jews.

The people engineering this destruction are primarily Muslims backed by Muslim wealth from throughout the world and aided and abetted by people of  the political left, and the self-hating Jews (who, in all likelihood, are also part of the political left).  They are destroying these once great institutions by attacking Jews instead of honoring them for continuing the great tradition of those Jews who preceded them in helping to make these institutions as great and prestigious as they were and who, themselves, were responsible for contributing greatly to advancing the health, wealth and welfare of society.

In recent years and for several reasons there has been forthcoming a view that we are witnessing the decline of America as a world leader.  If one requires further proof of the growing awareness of the decline of the USA as a society, one need to look no further than what is happening on our college and university campuses today.      Some will be quick to point to the political left, the rise of PC, etc.  In part that is true.  Another part pertains to events occurring since the late 1950s and 1960s, i.e.,  the growing influence of Muslim money in directly or indirectly supporting these and other groups – not just on the campuses but also elsewhere in society – as part of the campaign to delegitimize and destroy Israel.  I had to fight this anti-Israel/antisemitic movement when I first arrived at the combined Purdue University and Indiana University campus in Fort Wayne in 1968.  Unfortunately, today we are witnessing the success of the destructive influence of the relentless campaign against Jews and Israel by Arab/Muslim money with complicity of the media as demonstrated by the growing number of physical attacks on Jewish students and the failure of stupid, spineless administrators to acknowledge and deal with the situation.  There is much more that I could say about this subject but will not at this time.

And, when one brave university trustee speaks out in defense of values, quality of scholarship and character while acknowledging the antisocial situation, he is the one who becomes vilified and demonized.

I do not doubt that a prevailing view amongst the political left  is that there is an ongoing witch hunt against anyone who dares criticize Israel.  The J streeters and Kushner, aided and abetted by the political left, of whom they are part, claim this to be true.  However, unlike the magic mirror of the evil queen in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the mirror these people peer into reflects not truth, but  only a hate-based distorted and perverted history, which, through sophistry, is disguised as reality.  Kushner et al remind me of Creationists battling evolution.

Kushner represents a growing view, irrespective of its veracity, in the left leaning community that Israel engaged in ethnic cleansing when the state was first formed.  It makes no difference to these critics that there was a war and that this war started long before the formation of the state of Israel.  It makes no difference to them who fired the first shot.  It makes no difference to them that the Arabs left their villages at the request of their leaders so as to be out of the way of the Arab armies as they come in to destroy the Jews and push them into the sea.  It makes no difference to them that Golda Meir and David Ben Gurion went amongst the Arabs and begged them to stay and help build the new State.

It makes no difference to these critics that the Arab/Muslim people people were promised that after their armies were victorious they would be permitted to return and take the Jewish lands, homes and possessions for their own.  It may be true that during this war, some Arabs may have been pushed out of their villages – undoubtedly this was done for strategic purposes.  Let us not forget the alternative: had the Arabs been victorious there would not have been displacement of Jews but rather a mass slaughter of Jews – Arab/Muslim version of ethnic cleansing.  These Arab/Muslims learned their lessons well – not that they really had to be taught – from the Grand Mufti who sat at Hitler’s right hand during WW II.

Let us not forget that the 1948 Arab-Israeli War was a war of survival for the Jewish people some of whom already escaped or survived the most horrific attempt of ethnic cleansing in the history of the world.

It seems as if all Kushner and these Israeli critics want to know or think is that the Jews, after the 1948 war, would not let these Arabs return to their villages.  Ergo, the charge of ethnic cleansing.  But, is this truly ethnic cleansing?  Think of what those pejorative words connote.  Those derisive words unconscionably  tie the Jews of Israel together with Hitler, who did real ethnic cleansing.  And, this linking of the Israelis (Jews) to Hitler has been on ongoing aim of Arab/Muslim propaganda and, since after the 1967 Six Day War, it also became the aim of the political left.  The purpose being to delegitimize and destroy the state of Israel.  But if Israel is truly guilty of real ethnic cleansing then how come there are so many Arabs in Israel today with a rapidly growing population and that Arabs are  members of the Knesset?  How come Israel is not engaged in “ethnic cleansing” today?  The truth is that Kushner and his cohorts did not tell the truth to the public.  Israel never engaged in “ethnic cleansing.”

How come Kushner and these great critics of Israel do not criticize Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Yemen, the so-called “Palestinians” of ethnic cleansing?  In Saudi Arabia there are no churches or synagogues and no non- Muslim is permitted to take up permanent residence there.  No Jew is permitted to live in “Palestinian” territory.  The idea of a Jew holding any public office, let alone an elected position, in any of these countries is laughable.  Let us not forget that which initiated Bin Laden’s movement was the fact that Saudi Arabia was permitting American bases (non-Muslims) on holy Arab soil.  Today, there are no American bases there.

In the eyes of Kushner and the other critics of Israel, only Israel has to be not just Kosher but Glatt Kosher – in every way that they arbitrarily decide is socially, politically and morally important and correct, irrespective of its consequences to Israeli citizens or the Jews of the world – else Israel has no right to exist.   These are standards to which no other country in the world is held, even those with the most heinous civil rights records.

Despite Kushner’s claim of being pro-Israel, his deliberate but false use of such a horrific term as ethnic cleansing, with all of it negative connotations, is a clear indication that he is anti-Israel/antisemitic.  That Kushner, in being self-serving, is being disingenuous and less than truthful can be seen from the fact that he had previously said that creating the state of Israel was a mistake.

Jeffrey Wiesenfeld was the evil queen’s mirror; he made Kushner and the rest of society confront truth and reality.  However, by so doing, Wiesenfeld was going against a popular culture in which disinformation, distortion of news, manufactured news along with photo shopped pictures, outright lies by the media are offered to the public as fact so as to support an ancient, religiously based hatred of Jews.

It was inevitable that Kushner, despite Wiesenfeld’s objection, would have an affirmative vote to have the honorary degree conferred on him.

Kushner is a famous playwright who happens to be gay and left oriented in his his political philosophy.  To maintain his leftist credentials, Kushner tears reason and facts from his mind so as to adhere to the demands of current leftist ideology of anti-Israel/antisemitism.

Does Kushner really deserve the honorary degree?

After looking at some of his work, I cannot help but wonder how much of his fame – including the Pulitzer Prize – is due to his talent and art as it is to political correctness and Kushner’s politically correct positions amongst a certain segment of society.

As to who is awarded an honorary depends on what purposes the degree is supposed to serve, i.e., what is the message the university is trying to send and what it hopes to attain by awarding the degree to a specific person and the specific criteria that a candidate would have to meet in order to be considered for the honor.  In all the materials concerning the Kushner case that I read, no one person cited specific criteria.  After all, an honorary degree has no real value other than bringing attention to the institution  awarding the degree with the hope of attracting donations from alumni and others while inflating the ego of the recipient.

Having spent a major portion of my professional life as an academician, I can say that one aim of awarding honorary degrees is to introduce students to people whose behavior and accomplishments are worthy of emulation.  Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, acting as an honest and interested trustee who is trying to safeguard the reputation of the institution on whose board he sits, raised the very legitimate issue of a person’s total character as being worthy of consideration in making decisions as to who should receive an honorary degree.   For acting responsibly, by questioning Kushner’s total character and quality of scholarship, Wiesenfeld has been subject to a horrendous barrage of unfair and unnecessary criticism.

To counter Wiesenfeld and to mitigate the damaging effects of Kushner’s anti-Israel stance, based on faulty logic and facts, the recommendation had been made to divorce Kushner’s talent from any of his political views, especially those pertaining to Israel.  However, that is a specious argument since Kushner’s writings, dealing with homosexual life, in themselves are very political.  The issue dies from lack of credibility.

Attempting to make Kushner Kosher reminded me of the treatment of Martin Heidegger after WW II.  Martin Heidegger was lauded for his contributions to philosophy but, for a period of time following WWII, he was denied opportunity to teach or hold university positions because he was an active member of the Nazi Party and supported Hitler.  (As an aside: no one suggested denying Kushner any opportunities.)

However, Heidegger was later resurrected when the Allies engaged in a program of denazification - a process of ridding all aspects of German and Austrian society of National Socialist ideology: denazification involved removing people from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering impotent organizations associated with Nazism.  With the onset of Cold War, the creation of West Germany and the needs of the West of German scientists and engineers, denazification eventually was abandoned.  Disgustingly, Heidegger was essentially exonerated by one of the most powerful methods of political expediency, lying.  He was considered to have been an individual who was just caught up with the emotions of the time and who just went along with the crowd without doing any independent, critical thinking.  By the use of such logic Heidegger, a highly educated and trained professional philosopher who made the conscious and educated decision to join the Nazi Party and support Hitler, was reduced to being a non-thinking, emotionally driven robot and thereby cleansed of his sins and free to resume his professorial career.

In Kushner’s case, Wiesenfeld was correct in making political considerations and character part of the equation in determining who gets an honorary degree.  Tony Kushner is not an honest man worthy of emulation and, therefore, was not deserving of an honorary degree. Shame on those trustees who voted aye.