A group of around 30 professors from the University of Pennsylvania boarded an El Al flight to Israel on New Year’s Day to support their Israeli colleagues and students who have been coping with the trauma of October 7. This is the first high-level faculty solidarity mission from Ivy League universities since the massacre.
President Isaac Herzog was the first to welcome them at his residence on Tuesday, the first day of the mission. The group is returning to the US on Thursday evening.
“Academic communities are incredibly small, tight-knit families that span the globe,” said Michael Kahana, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Psychology and one of the two organizers of the mission.
“When the horrific trauma of October 7 struck the Israeli academic community, people awaited words of comfort from their close colleagues and friends, but for many, those words did not come.” For that reason, they decided to plan the trip.
Co-organizer Peter Decherney, Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Endowed Term Professor in the Humanities and Professor of Cinema and Media Studies, concurred. “Academic knowledge communities transcend wars and political conflict. We wanted to do what we do often: engage with our colleagues and learn from each other’s experiences,” he said.
Incidentally, Kahana survived the first major Hamas terror attack in October 1994 in Jerusalem. This year, Decherney left Israel on October 6 after visiting for a week.
The itinerary includes meetings with Herzog and other senior dignitaries; meetings with families of hostages; visits to Israeli universities and hospitals; and a trip to the South, including the city of Sderot, the destroyed kibbutzim Be’eri and Kfar Aza, and the site of the Nova music festival – which all border Gaza.
DESPITE THE antisemitism that has been rampant on US campuses in recent years and even more so since October 7 – including, of course, the University of Pennsylvania, whose president resigned last month after evading a question at a congressional hearing as to whether students who called for the genocide of Jews should be punished – the mission is not about antisemitism.
Rather, it is one of solidarity with Israeli professors and students who, along with the rest of the country, have been suffering since the barbaric massacre and hostage-taking almost three months ago. The mission was undertaken by the professors and not by the university.
“By canceling our plans for New Year’s and jumping on an airplane to bear witness to the enduring trauma, we sought to bear comfort to our brothers and sisters in Israel and to more fully absorb the depth of this trauma,” Kahana told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday evening at a dinner reception at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel.
“Of course, US campus antisemitism is a serious issue that is on many people’s minds,” he said. “In my department, I have never experienced antisemitism, but the hate speech that I have heard on campus has been utterly shocking. What troubles me is not that a small number of people spout vicious hatred; rather, it is why the silent majority finds it so difficult to condemn such speech when they hear it.
“Today was the first day of our mission, and most of us have not slept in 36 hours or more,” Kahana said. “I expect that we will learn a great deal over the coming 48 hours and come back to campus with a deeper understanding of the challenges facing the academic community in Israel and Israeli society more broadly.
“What has been most striking to me up to this point,” he added, “is the enthusiasm with which our mission has been embraced by government and academic leaders in Israel, including President Herzog.”
At the dinner, several professors described their admiration for Israel’s resilience, noting that the remarkable innovation at its universities has continued even during wartime.
Plans to tackle campus antisemitism
ON NOVEMBER 1, UPenn announced its Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism, focusing on three action areas: safety and security, engagement, and education. According to the announcement, the university will also address other forms of hate, including Islamophobia.
Asked if he is hopeful this plan will succeed, Decherney told the Post, “This is a tough problem that’s 3,000 years old. Penn, I think, is trying hard to understand what’s going on and to take steps to combat it. It’s going to be a long process. I think they’re committed to investing in ways that could make a difference.”
He noted that many of the professors who came to Israel did not know each other beforehand, even though they had all expressed support for Israel. He is also optimistic that professors at other universities will take similar steps. “A lot of universities are going to follow us. We’ve heard from Harvard, USC Tufts, and other universities that want to form similar missions,” he said.
Law School Professor Claire Finkelstein said, “Many of us felt it was critical to understand Israel’s situation first-hand, by speaking in person to government officials, legal advisers, hostage family members, trauma experts, and our Israeli and Arab counterparts in the academic community, as well as by visiting the sites of the worst atrocities. We are particularly grateful that so many who serve in critical positions of public responsibility were willing to take the time at this moment of crisis to help educate the members of our group.”
“Many of us have relationships with our Israeli colleagues and we are looking to double our efforts to build stronger and new partnerships at this time,” commented Lou Soslowsky, professor of orthopedic surgery and bioengineering.
Ed George, professor emeritus of statistics, said, “We are also here to bear witness to the atrocities of October 7.”
YAIR JABLINOWITZ, sales and marketing manager at Jerusalem-based Israel Destination, which organized the UPenn mission, is currently serving in the IDF reserves. He spoke to the Post on the way back to his army base.
“On October 7, for everyone here in Israel, our lives changed for the worse – including, of course, for those who work in tourism, as we do. On October 7, at 11:30 a.m., I was already with my unit. But on my way – it was Shabbat and [the Jewish holiday of] Simchat Torah – I was thinking of all these groups we had to cancel,” he recalled.
“The following day, we canceled over 20 groups,” Jablinowitz said. “This was supposed to be a great year for tourism, and obviously, that all went down the trap. But just a few weeks after that, we were starting to get all these calls from different communities, schools and people saying, ‘We can’t just stay on the sidelines while you guys are in a war. We want to come to Israel.’
We said, ‘You guys are crazy. You’re not coming to Israel. It’s insane what’s going on here. Rockets are flying in the air. You’re not coming. We’re not taking responsibility.’ They said, ‘Listen, we know we’re crazy. We’re coming. We just need your help – so make it happen.’
“Since then,” he continued, “we have brought over 25 missions to Israel. Just this week, we had five missions. I would say that the pinnacle is Penn University. We brought Young Israel, schools, different delegations, and organizations. The majority are Jewish, from what I see in my field of tourism.
“Some other groups have just approached us, like some Evangelical megachurches that, hopefully, we’ll bring in the coming weeks,” the Israel Destination sales and marketing manager said.
I’ll just say something interesting. On October 7, we had a megachurch called Oak Pointe from Michigan. We brought them here from the 2nd to the 11th of October. As you can imagine, mid-trip, suddenly a war erupts. They are all Christians. For some, it was their first time in Israel.
“Needless to say, we had to adjust and shift everything, change the schedule – and, first of all, make sure that they were safe and out of harm’s way,” Jablinowitz said. “We kept them in the hotel for the coming days and brought speakers to them until we knew what was happening.
“As time progressed, we were able to take them out a little – to the Old City and some other places in Jerusalem – but it was a crazy situation, and there were no flights out. Somehow, we were able to bring them to Jordan. They took a flight from Amman back to Chicago. That was our last Christian group during or before the war.”
As for the UPenn mission, it is much appreciated. “We all know the story of how college campuses in general in the US, which used to be places of tolerance, have now become places of tolerance – for most people, except for Jewish people and those who support Israel,” he said.