World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder today commended the 100 US universities that have publicly denounced the American Studies Association (ASA) boycott of Israel. “It is heartening that the leaders of so many great American universities have stepped forward to condemn the ASA’s discriminatory and pernicious assault on Israel and academic freedom,” Lauder said. “This resounding response shows that American society is united in rejecting the Orwellian anti-Semitism that underlies such unfair efforts to single out the Jewish state for opprobrium.”
Lauder also thanked the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations for its recent letter urging the university presidents to disassociate their schools from the ASA and to remove any funding designated for the association. Lauder is a former chairman of the Presidents Conference.
Under Lauder’s leadership, the WJC last summer launched its Global Campus Initiative (GCI) in order to counter Boycott, Divestment and Sanction (BDS) campaigns and other attempts to delegitmize Israel in university environments around the world. The GCI, a joint project with the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) and the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS), held sessions in Jerusalem on December 30, at which 100 student activists heard speakers and shared knowledge about the best ways to counteract the campus campaigns to vilify the Jewish state.
As of January 1, the presidents or chancellors of 100 American universities and colleges, including such prestigious campuses as Harvard, Columbia, Brown, MIT, University of Michigan, and Georgetown, have rejected the ASA boycott. Also opposing the boycott are the Association of American Universities, which represents 62 institutions in America and Canada, and the 48,000 member American Association of University Professors. The ASA, a 5,000-member association of academics who teach American studies, announced the passage of its anti-Israel boycott resolution on December 16.