LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CAMPUS AS BATTLEGROUND
HADASSAH MAGAZINE DIGITAL NEWS
As an engaged alumna of Tufts, I was surprised to read in “Battling Antisemitism on Campus” (January/ February 2022 issue) that the university would be anything but fully supportive of its Jewish students. I credit Tufts with my love of Judaism that ultimately flowered into my second career as a rabbi. Tufts in the 1970s welcomed the Somerville Havurah to campus. I experienced the spirituality of the High Holidays in a way I had not done so before. Rabbi Arthur Green opened my eyes to the riches that Judaism had to offer, including the philosophy of Abraham Joshua Heschel and the world of Jewish mysticism. So did professor and former provost Sol Gittleman, whose long career at Tufts was built around teaching Yiddish culture, Eastern European Jewish life and the rise of Hitler and Nazism to undergraduates. The findings of Tufts’ Ad Hoc Committee on Antisemitism, released last month, reassured me that the administration is acutely aware of the issue of antisemitism on campus and is actively working to keep Tufts a place where all students can flourish. Jill Goldstein Hackell, M.D. New City, N.Y. While encouraging brave students to fight back and self-organize, these same students need strong, sustained external support. A largely heretofore untapped alumni cohort could be another potent counterforce. Alums for Campus Fairness, with some 50 chapters nationwide and growing, aims to fill that void by seeking to inform and involve alumni in fighting antisemitism and promoting a safe campus environment for all students. Richard D. Wilkins Syracuse, N.Y.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU! We value your interest in Hadassah Magazine and welcome hearing from you about the content of the magazine. Please email letters to the editor to letters@hadassah.org. To read more letters, visit us online at hadassahmagazine.org. MARCH/APRIL 2022
If you’re not already receiving Hadassah’s digital newsletter, sign up for the newly redesigned monthly email at hadassahmagazine.org/newsletter-signup. Now, we also are offering an online, flip-through version of the print issue. The March/April 2022 edition can be found at hadassahmagazine.org/ issue/march-april-2022. When my son went to college 15 years ago, he also experienced antisemitism. His answer was to start a Jewish show on the college radio station. However, he realized that the answer to anti-Israel sentiment, for him, was to make aliyah. He now lives in Israel with his wife (a life member of Hadassah) and three children. Alan Levitt Brooklyn, N.Y.
PRECIOUS FAMILY RECORDS As a result of reading the item about the Arolsen Archives in the January/February issue (“Never Forget That #everynamecounts”), I went online to that database and was able to access my parents’ registration forms and marriage certificate, both issued in a displaced persons camp after World War II. I was born in that camp. Since I was 11 when my mother died, I didn’t know enough to ask her for such records. As I have gotten older, any historical document that relates to my family has become dear to me. Marcia Bodenstein Brooklyn, N.Y.
ANTISEMITISM AS VIRUS I would like to commend student Everett Rattray for her essay “Speaking Up Against Antisemitism and More” (January/February). Her advocacy and the work of other young people offer hope for increased awareness. Also impressive was President Rhoda Smolow’s column, “Combating a Deadly Social Virus.” Her use of “virus” to represent the spread of antisemitism is especially topical. Two recent news items come to mind: the act of terror at the synagogue in Colleyville, Texas—a painful, and thank God not deadly, reminder of the Tree of Life synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh; and Senator Charles Schumer’s account of his January 6, 2021, experience inside the United States Capitol. Sen. Schumer has
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