Letters
"…so one-sided it falls off my bookshelf."

Troubling allegations
I received an e-mail yesterday detailing a number of quite vicious anti-Jewish incidents which allegedly took place at the University quite recently. These include: a Jewish senior being told by a University-appointed preceptor that he couldn't be bothered reading her B.A. paper because it focused on topics relating to Judaism and Zionism; fliers in a dorm posted to publicize a pro-Israel rally defaced with obscenities; professors of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations who suggest there can be no legitimate Zionist perspective for the birth of Israel; in general, a growing air of frantic hostility toward Israel, Israelis, and Jews in general; and jokes about Auschwitz on a humanities department listserv.

That events like these should take place in any "community of scholars" would be disturbing. That they should take place at this great seat of learning, the University which I have loved, supported, and boasted of for fully 50 years, is much more than that. It is a tragic betrayal of a tradition that extends more than 100 years, through Robert M. Hutchins, chancellor in my day, to William Rainey Harper, our first president.

I would like to know what actions the University is taking and intends to take to deal with this vile scourge.

Harvey J. Feldman, AB'51, AM'54
Arlington, Virginia

For more on this issue, please see "Chicago Journal" and "From the President".-Ed.