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America --The malaise behind CUNY`s affront to Tony Kushner
Sarah Wildman--May 6.2011
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/06/tony-kushner-israel

Jewish playwright Tony Kushner`s honorary degree from City University of New York has been blocked by pro-Israeli activist Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, a university trustee. Photograph: Brendan Mcdermid/Reuters

Tony Kushner may be many things. An American playwright. An instigator. A prodder. A gay man. A Jew. What he is not is an antisemite. What he is not is an Israel-basher. Does he question Israeli policy? He does. And in the new Jew v Jew world of American Jewish discourse, those questions are tantamount to dismissing the state in its entirety. As a result, a reputation has been slandered and all nuance in this conversation has, yet again, has been set aside.

On 2 May, the City University of New York`s board of trustees voted not to proceed with the award of an honorary degree to Kushner – an honorific that was to be given during this month`s commencement address at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. It was the first time in 50 years that CUNY had chosen to withhold a degree from a candidate whose name had come before the board. At issue was not Kushner`s long list of accomplishments – the playwright who penned the Pulitzer Prize winning Angels in America, Perestroika and Homebody Kabul, among many, many others, is more than worthy. Instead, the concern raised, and flamed, by one trustee – Jeffrey S Weisenfeld – came regarding Kushner`s position on Israel. Weisenfeld stated that Kushner had called Israel`s Palestinian policy in the 1948 war as one of `ethnic cleansing`, claimed the playwright had supported a boycott of Israel, declared he had criticised the Israeli defence force. In an open letter to the university board of trustees, Kushner called Weisenfeld`s successful attack a `grotesque caricature` of his position `concocted out of three contextless quotes`.

And then, as only he can, Kushner took apart their criticism. (He was not, he has repeatedly pointed out, invited to defend his case before the board).

`My questions and reservations regarding the founding of the state of Israel are connected to my conviction, drawn from my reading of American history, that democratic government must be free of ethnic or religious affiliation, and that the solution to the problems of oppressed minorities are to be found in pluralist democracy. I am very proud of being Jewish, and discussing this issue publicly has been hard; but I believe in the absolute good of public debate, and I feel that silence on the part of Jews who have questions is injurious to the life of the Jewish people. My opinion about the wisdom of the creation of a Jewish state has never been expressed in any form without a strong statement of support for Israel`s right to exist, and my ardent wish that it continue to do so, something Mr Weisenfeld conveniently left out of his remarks.`

He went on to say that his position regarding the forced removal of Palestinians in 1948 was formed by reading renowned Israeli historian Benny Morris, and that:

`My outrage, my grief, my terror, my moments of despair – regarding the ongoing horror in the Middle East, the brunt of which has been born by the Palestinian people, but which has also cost Israelis dearly and which endangers their existence, are shared by many Jews, in Israel, in the US and around the world. My despair is kept in check by my ongoing belief in and commitment to a negotiated conclusion to the Palestinian-Israeli crisis.`

Like many American Jews, Kushner is in the midst of a process, and is engaged in a thoughtful, nuanced, painful conversation with his colleagues, his family, his friends about the nature of democracy, the future of Zionism, and the context in which the state of Israel might finally make peace with the Palestinians. He is affiliated with a half dozen Jewish organisations in New York. He is on the advisory board of the Jewish Voices for Peace; but while some on the board have called for a boycott of Israel, he has not, and he does not believe in disinvestment.

And yet, the very fact that he has had to spell this out is a travesty. Is Jewish heritage and fealty to the Jewish state a monolith? Is there one means of living Jewishly in diaspora? One means of respecting the state of Israel? The idea that one`s relationship to Israel must be uniformly unquestioning is in and of itself the gravest of errors; it is one that will further marginalise and divide a community that is increasingly at war with itself.

Like Peter Beinart`s seminal essay in the New York Review of Books, which pointed out to Jewish leadership that the youth of the Jewish community is betwixt and between, bothered and confused, nurtured with beliefs in social justice but encouraged not to question Israel, and thus were turning away from the state, the disenchantment of Tony Kushner will be seen as another deep fissure in an increasingly fractured community. Rather than embracing debate on the future of the state of Israel, there are those in the community who would like to shut down conversation. These are the same voices that have pointed fingers at J Street, the new Jewish pro-Israel lobbying organisation that questions the actions of Israel with regard to the Arab minority – and which has called this week`s decision of CUNY`s board of trustees `misguided`.

And yet the oddest, most disturbing, aspect of this tempest in a Manhattan teapot, is that CUNY isn`t, ostensibly, a Jewish institution. It is a centre for higher learning, a place for debate, for raising consciousness, not for dictating the terms of discourse. Division of opinion, one might think, should be debated, if not celebrated, as opposed to quashed. Thirty years ago, CUNY finally apologised to faculty dismissed during the McCarthy era. Will they be forced to do the same for Tony Kushner?
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