My letter to Jewish freshers: be brave and stay open-minded

What, you may ask, qualifies me to do this? I am one of the very few Jewish university leaders. I am the president (vice-chancellor) of a large University of London institution and have spent much of my career in the UK’s leading universities. This gives me a particular vantage point. And, in any case, when did a professor ever need an excuse to give advice?

You will, I am certain, have a fantastic time at university. You will learn a great deal. A lot about your subject, even more about yourself. You will work hard, fail and succeed, try new things, make friends, and possibly fall in love. University will change you, if you let it. I advise you do.

In the process you will confront questions about your Jewish identity. This will be the first opportunity for you, as an independent adult, to establish what role your Jewish identity will play, and how it will shape your life and relationships. Some Jewish students choose to step back from that identity, or to express it less overtly. Others find comfort in their Judaism, amid the many personal changes that being at university brings about. There are many choices that lie between those poles. Every Jewish adult forms their own relationship with Judaism, one way or another; you will find your way too.

And now the more difficult part. If you grow up in London, or perhaps Manchester, in a large Jewish community, in a Jewish milieu, in a cosmopolitan city, it may not be until university that you discover just how much of a minority you are. You know it, but do not know it, simultaneously. You may not fully understand how strange your Jewish identity is to students brought up elsewhere and in other cultures. Your identity is not simply something you negotiate on your own – the environment in which this process takes place is shaped by the perceptions and identities of others.

Universities bring together a broad span of the population, nationally and internationally. You will encounter racism, it is not widespread, but these encounters are not uncommon either. Fed by ignorance, deeply unpleasant ideas about Jews persist and are given currency by social media. This is profoundly disturbing but is not confined to university. It is your right to hold those who express those views directly and personally to account. In this you should expect the support of your university and your fellow students. Use the means made available to you with precision and persistence. Determination rather than anxiety is the proper response and will be effective.

The protests on campuses opposing Israel’s policies and actions can be intrusive and upsetting, but are largely ineffectual, and peripheral to university life. The political alignments on which they rest are fragile. A proper response, recognising the range of views within the Jewish community and beyond, is through argument and education. You can challenge the protests, poster by poster, sticker by sticker, meeting by meeting. This will require some courage. You are not obliged to undertake this challenge yourself, but you should strongly consider lending your support to those who are willing to step up. Universities cannot, as institutions, play a part in the politics of this, but they must enable challenge. There are many academics who will stand alongside you, exercising their academic freedom. I count myself among them.

Undoubtedly, the hardest issue is where antisemitism and opposition to Israel converge. This convergence is rooted in the belief that Jews alone should be denied the right to national self-determination. Many of the arguments put forward by protesters are coloured by ancient lies about Jews and buttressed by ignorance. This must be called out, and the obligation to do so in this case falls upon all of us, students, academics and the wider community. You, in particular, cannot avoid it; it is a generational challenge.

I do not want to prime you (whatever your political inclinations) to come to university feeling immediately under attack, on the contrary. Yes, antisemitism is a reality but the world of different perspectives that you will encounter is one of the great gifts of the environment you will find at university.

You should, of course, be prepared to defend yourself against prejudice and hold your ground on identity and culture, but you should not presume prejudice on the part of those who view the politics of the Middle East differently to you.

Universities remain what they always have been: wonderful, liberating places of growth and opportunity. You will enjoy yourself; I wish you well.

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Yours,

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Anthony

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Professor Sir Anthony Finkelstein

President, City University