To the Editor:
Maria Di Mento’s article, “The Push to Get More Big Donors to Give to Fight the Spread of Antisemitism” (Sept. 6), painted an encouraging picture of efforts to generate philanthropic support for advancing the human rights and welfare of Jewish people.
Universities particularly have a key role to play in the fight against anti-Jewish prejudice and bigotry. At the University of California, Berkeley, where I work, the Antisemitism Education Initiative teaches students, faculty, and community members about antisemitism, and provides resources to counter its pernicious effects. That includes workshops, online modules used during student orientations, on-campus speakers, and more.
But Berkeley and universities nationwide can do more to effectively address the concerns of Jewish faculty, staff, and students, and to provide a more welcoming and inclusive environment to Jewish individuals and campus communities. In Berkeley’s case, that means substantially scaling up the Antisemitism Education Initiative so it can reach more people and create lasting change. Doing that will require more philanthropic resources, along with support from the university. Still, Berkeley’s program demonstrates how donors can back university efforts to proactively address antisemitism.
I urge philanthropists contributing to universities and those concerned about rising antisemitism and discrimination to dramatically expand resources to enable more effective, sustainable, and proactive allyship with Jewish communities. Such support is critical to overall efforts to advance human rights and freedom for all.
Noam Schimmel
Lecturer, International and Area Studies
University of California, Berkeley