Open letter from Jewish faculty members at Duke University

We, the undersigned, are Jewish faculty members at Duke University. We include Democrats, Republicans and Independents. We include individuals that identify with the Orthodox, Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist movements, that do not affiliate with any established movement and that would describe their religious identifications and commitments in other ways. We include clergy, synagogue presidents, Israelis, products of Jewish day schools and leaders in our respective Jewish communities, and we include those with little activity and formal commitments to the Jewish world. We harbor honest disagreements about the Israel/Palestine conflict, Israel’s role in contemporary Jewish life and about the proper role for American foreign policy in the Middle East. But we unite to assert the following principles:

1) We believe that Duke University is a vibrant and hospitable place for Jewish life. We feel safe, welcomed, embraced and valued. We feel comfortable expressing our individual views on religion, politics, and the Israel/Palestine conflict with each other and with those around us. We regularly encounter disagreement when we express individual viewpoints that are connected to our religious and national identities and, in particular, when we convey our varying commitments concerning Israel and the Middle East. But we do not consider criticism of Israel to be inherent expressions of anti-Semitism. Most important, we are proud to be Jewish at Duke, and we revel in sustaining and growing the warm and supportive community that exists for all Jewish faculty, staff and students.
We reject any characterization of Duke – its administration, faculty, student body, campus leadership –as anti-Semitic. It is not.

2) We believe in academic freedom and in fostering a diversity of viewpoints. Intellectual freedom is the cornerstone for any academic and intellectual community dedicated to the promotion of science, truth and expression. We support each other’s research and intellectual pursuits even while we critique each other’s methodologies, normative assessments and conclusions. We believe that such mutual critiques are central to the academic endeavor. We decry criticisms of academic research that reflect dishonesty, mischaracterizations and resistance to factual realities.

3) We believe in religious and political pluralism, and we commit ourselves to building a nurturing educational environment in which all community members, especially students, have the support to explore their beliefs and express their views. We work on a daily basis to make Duke an inclusive environment that embraces cultural and intellectual diversity and that is hospitable to religious, ethnic, racial and sexual and gender minorities.
We believe that promoting acceptance and inclusivity is best pursued through direct communication and exchange with community members with different perspectives.

  

Lori S. Bennear

Juli Plant Grainger Associate Professor of Energy Economics and Policy

Nicholas School of the Environment

Harold U. Baranger

Professor of Physics

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

David Boyd

Hymowitz Family Professor of the Practice of Global Health

Duke Global Health Institute

Joel L. Fleishman

Professor of Law and Public Policy Studies

School of Law

Shai Ginsburg

Associate Professor

Chair of the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Anne Gordon

Clinical Professor of Law

School of Law

Sara Greene

Professor of Law

School of Law

Laurence R. Helfer

Harry R. Chadwick, Sr. Professor of Law

School of Law

Richard M. Jaffe

Professor of Religious Studies and Director of the Asian/Pacific Studies Institute

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Stephen Jaffe

Mary D.B.T. and James H. Semans Distinguished Professor of Music Composition

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Andrew Janiak

Professor of Philosophy

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Barbara C. Jentleson

Emerita Associate

Professor of the Practice

Program in Education

Bruce Jentleson

William Preston Few Distinguished Professor of Public Policy

Sanford School of Public Policy

Nathan Kalman-Lamb

Lecturing Fellow, Thompson Writing Program

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Nancy Kalow

Lecturing Fellow, Center for Documentary Studies

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Emily M. Klein

University Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences

Nicholas School of the Environment

Sally Kornbluth

Provost

Duke University

Peter Lange

Emeritus Provost and Emeritus Professor

Adam S. Levine

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Laura Lieber

Professor of Religious Studies, Professor of Classical Studies, and Professor of German

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Carol Meyers

Mary Grace Wilson Emerita Professor of Religious Studies

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Eric Meyers

Bernice and Morton Lerner Distinguished Emeritus Professor in Judaic Studies

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Simon Miles

Assistant Professor

Sanford School of Public Policy

Jeremy Mullem

Clinical Professor of Law

School of Law

Jerome Reichman

Bunyan S. Womble Professor of Law

School of Law

Barak Richman

Katharine T. Bartlett Professor of Law

Professor of Business Administration

School of Law

Laura Richman

Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences

Duke School of Medicine

Alex Rosenberg

R. Taylor Cole Distinguished Professor of Philosophy

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

David Schanzer

Professor of the Practice

Sanford School of Public Policy

Steven L. Schwarcz

Stanley A. Star Distinguished Professor of Law & Business

School of Law

Jennifer Siegel

Bruce R. Kuniholm Distinguished Professor of History and Public Policy

Sanford School of Public Policy

Neil Siegel

David W. Ichel Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science

School of Law

Rebecca Stein

Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology

Trinity College of Arts & Sciences

Marilyn J. Telen

Wellcome Professor of Medicine

School of Medicine

Avner Vengosh

Distinguished Professor of Environmental Quality

Nicholas School of the Environment

Erika Weinthal

Professor of Environmental Policy and Public Policy

Nicholas School of the Environment

Gavin Yamey

Professor of the Practice of Global Health & Public Policy

Duke Global Health Institute

Faculty members can add their signature to the letter at this link: https://duke.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_eVZUw60JQUIXQN0