When, fifty years ago, the institution that has become Roger Williams University decided to break with the YMCA and chart its own independent course, a new name was needed. In a stroke of marketing genius someone suggested “Roger Williams Jr. College.” Brilliant! In a single stroke the fledgling institution acquired an aura of antiquity and and a philosophy to live by. Williams in 1643 obtained a Charter for his colony of “the Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay” open to all religions and the Indians were to be treated fairly, their lands purchased, not stolen. A better name could not have been appropriated.
Recently, however some students calling themselves the College Republicans began printing a scurrilous broadside they called The Hawk’s Right Eye. It spewed forth attacks on gays, Muslims, and women in what I only hoped was failed sophomoric humor. (Funding for this rag came from outside sources, not University funds.) Then the students went farther. They offered a cash prize to the author of the best essay on the subject “Why I am proud to be white.” (The Republican Party, both nationally and locally had had enough. Each condemned the students and refused to allow them to use the name Republican or any symbols of the Republican Party.)
The University, hearing the rumble of the ground as Roger Williams rolled over in his grave, condemned the contest as an outrage against the principles upon which the university rested. Mass meetings were held where people expressed their views. The president ordered the creation of an on-line journal called “Journal of Civil Discourse” and initiated a distinguished lecturer series with the theme of “reason and respect.” In time the crisis past.
Now it’s Brandeis University’s turn to be placed under the microscope. By 1948 it was already old news that the best American universities had quotas that discriminated against even the best American Jewish students. Just as physicians in the same situation founded their own hospitals, and just as Jews who were excluded from country clubs and hotels created their own, so American Jews created a non-sectarian university where Jewish students could receive an education on a par with the Ivies. What to name this new institution? Well in a stroke of marketing genius it was decided name the school after Louis D. Brandeis who its website describes as: “the distinguished associate justice of the United States Supreme Court [who] reflects the ideals of academic excellence and social justice.” What this too brief biography fails to mention is that justice Brandeis was the president of the Zionist Organization of America. Surely, though, this was one of the important considerations in selecting the name. Just as the name Roger Williams evokes fairness, openness, non-discrimination, evoking Brandeis represents American Jewish ideals including the idea that there should be a Jewish State of Israel supported by American Jewry.
But of late, this ideal has withered. The current president of the university, Jehuda Reinharz has chosen in his inaugural remarks (1995) to define the mission of the university as resting “on four solid pillars: dedication to academic excellence, non-sectarianism, a commitment to social action, and continuous sponsorship the by Jewish community.” What? That’s it? That’s our duty, to fork out dough and shut up? I think not.
Recently Brandeis has done two things that outrage the sentiments of many Jews. This is their right, of course. As an academic institution of the highest caliber it is obligated to present views both popular and fringe. At its upcoming graduation the university will grant an honorary degree to playwright Tony Kushner and its commencement speaker will be His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal heir apparent of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. That Kushner deserves recognition for his distinguished literary career is beyond question. But the Zionist Organization (justice Brandeis’ old group, you will recall) protests. They quote Kushner as having said that “The biggest supporters of Israel are the most repulsive members of the Jewish community and Israel itself has got this disgraceful record. Israel is a creation of the U.S., bought and paid for.” I will spare you the rest. But note, the sound you hear is of Louis Brandeis rolling over in his grave. President Reinharz comments that Kushner is getting the award for his literary merits, that there is no political test for the honor. What else would you expect him to say?
And then there’s the Palestinian art exhibit on campus. But that’s a story for another time.
That rumble you hear…
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