Celia Gurevitch Jewish Community Library

Tomorrow is Election Day. I encourage all reads to participate in the democratic process and get out and vote.

The library doesn’t have too many books directly related to politics, beyond the Middle East region. The only book I found that relates to this topic within the US was titled “The uncivil university; Politics and propaganda in American education,” written by Gary A. Tobin, Aryeh K. Weinberg and Jenna Ferer. The book deals with how anti-Semitism is (still or again) present on American college campuses. A 31 page long executive summary (PDF) of the book is available from The Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Or you can just read the short official description to decide whether this is something you are interested in.

The American university is suffering from a moral crisis unseen since the great social upheavals of the 1960s. In the name of academic freedom, the core values of higher education—honest scholarship, unbiased research, and diversity of thought and person—have been corrupted by an academy more interested in preserving its privileges than in protecting its own integrity. Aided and enabled, sometimes unwittingly, by faculty, administrators, trustees, philanthropists, and even the government of the United States, the American university has lost its civility.

Nowhere is this loss more apparent than in the rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism on college campuses. The UnCivil University, the first volume in the series, Politics & Propaganda in American Education, documents the alarming rise in bigotry and bullying in the academy. Using a range of evidence, from first-hand accounts of intimidation of students by anti-Israel professors to anti-Semitic articles in student newspapers and marginalization of pro-Israel scholars, The UnCivil University exposes the unspoken world of double standards, bureaucratic paralysis, and abdication of leadership that not only allows but often supports a vocal minority of extremists on campus.

The UnCivil University tells a cautionary tale for all readers, whatever their background, of how higher education, an institution so touted for its open-mindedness, has become a prime vehicle for politically motivated prejudice. With millions of students passing through American universities each year, an attack against some should be of concern to all.

Please vote tomorrow.