Dear Chancellor Mnookin, Provost Isbell, and Members of the Board of Trustees,

Hundreds of University of Wisconsin, Madison students, staff and faculty presented the administration with a letter urging the university to choose a narrow definition of antisemitism. The letter was signed by faculty, staff, and students “concerned about the growing trend to treat criticism of the policies and practices of the state of Israel or of the ideology of Zionism as evidence of antisemitism." Criticism of Israeli policies and practices and antizionism are two very different things, which the writers conflate because they know antizionism, the movement to eradicate the world’s only Jewish country, is indefensible. As activist Hen Mazzig says, “Zionism is simply the belief that Jews should have their own nation, self-governance, and self-determination in their indigenous homeland, Israel.” It says nothing about supporting a particular politician or policy or whether Palestinians achieve statehood next door. While the word “Zionism” originally referred to a political movement, Diaspora Jews had been longing to return ever since their expulsion from Israel. For thousands of years, Jews, Am Yisrael, the people of Israel, have prayed facing Jerusalem, ended seders with “Next year in Jerusalem!” and read the sacred words of King David in Hebrew: “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning.” Zionism as a political movement ended when its goals were achieved with the re-establishment of Israel in 1948. Zionism today refers to Israel’s right to exist as a country. Antizionism is the movement to destroy it, and deny Jews the right to self-determination in their native homeland. Achieving this would require unspeakable violence and result in the ethnic cleansing of Jews from Israel, as has already happened in every other Muslim-majority country in the Middle East. It is inherently antisemitic.

“If criticism of Israel is defined as antisemitic speech, then we will silence all critique of that state.” Luckily, it isn’t. The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism (IHRA) explicitly says, “Criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.” [1] Protesters and scholars should not be criticized for disagreeing with Israeli policy or expressing dislike for a politician - and they aren’t. What they ARE being criticized for is hypocrisy - singling out and demonizing Israel while ignoring jihadist violence, the persecution of Uyghurs, etc - holding it to different standards than any other country, threatening and harassing Jewish and Israeli students, and encouraging violence against them. The students that have faced actual disciplinary consequences have been punished for breaking rules, such as destroying university property, disrupting classes and events, and physically assaulting students and staff members.

“Many Jews and Israelis are non-Zionist or even anti-Zionist….” No, they’re not. This is an oft-repeated lie from anti-Israel activists, who tokenize a small number of radical Jews and people pretending to be Jews to whitewash the antisemitism of their movement. The statistics are very clear: 85% of American Jewish adults believe it is important for the U.S. to support Israel. [2] 79% of American Jews support the Jewish National Fund, and 70% say that antizionism is always inherently antisemitic. Jonathan Schulman, the Jewish Majority’s executive director, said, “American Jews share a strong and consistent stance against anti-Zionists as well as a deep concern over rising antisemitism and the tactics used by organizations like JVP.” [3]

“It is not Islamophobic or evidence of anti-Muslim bigotry to criticize or even condemn Islamism or self-declared Islamic governments like Iran and Pakistan.” While presented as a fair-minded concession intended to bolster their case that demonizing Israel isn’t antisemitic, the choice of words is strategic. Islamism and Zionism are in no way parallel; Islamism is the fundamentalist movement behind terrorist groups like Hamas, ISIS, Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, with whom the US is currently at war. Zionism is Israel’s right to exist, and Israel is the world’s only Jewish state. Condemning the Islamic Regime of Iran (which the US government does regularly) and Pakistan may be acceptable to them, but there are 50 majority-Muslim countries in the world, 26 of which enshrine Islam as the state religion. A parallel to antizionism would require demanding that all of them be destroyed. Islam is a religion; Judaism is a tribe, with indigenous origins in Israel and shared ethnic ancestry. To draw a fair comparison, the writers would have to say that Muslims and Arabs shouldn’t have sovereignty anywhere, including Mecca, which non-Muslims are literally forbidden to visit. Do you think it’s a coincidence that they didn’t list calling to destroy Mecca as an acceptable option?

While they encourage you to narrow the definition of antisemitism, the writers aim to broaden protections for Muslim and Arab students, saying acknowledging antizionism as antisemitic “breeds anti-Muslim bigotry and Islamophobia. Far too often, speech against Israel is immediately presumed to support terrorism and violence, reviving Islamophobic tropes about Muslims as violent people.” They claim that students “are being attacked simply because of statements against Israel.” While they fail to provide examples, the protests at UW that led Jewish students to request the university adopt IHRA included messages explicitly endorsing the terrorist groups Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas and chants of “Israel is not real!” and “Zionists are Nazis!” If students don’t want to be perceived as terrorism supporters, they shouldn’t carry banners saying, “Glory to the Resistance!” as UW encampment protesters did last year. If they don’t want to be perceived as antisemites, the answer is to stop insulting and encouraging violence against the vast majority of Jews, not telling Jews they’re wrong about their own experience. The onus is not on Jewish students to accept harassment and threats that would be shut down immediately if aimed at any other minority group, or to deny reality. We strongly agree with then-senior Ben Newman that, “The university, as it would for other kinds of hateful speech, needs to use its power of moral suasion, and IHRA can help them do that.” [4]

“The public sphere has muddied the waters with competing definitions of antisemitism....This leaves American colleges and universities to brave this tough question on our own.” No, it doesn’t. The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitism is the most widely used definition of antisemitism in the world, has broad bipartisan support, and is the only definition accepted by mainstream Jewish organizations. In a letter to Congress, the heads of the sixteen top Jewish advocacy organizations in the United States wrote, “Endorsement of an alternative definition would undo years of international cooperation and progress in identifying and combating antisemitism and would only create confusion and unequal standards. While the IHRA definition has been adopted by the U.S. and dozens of U.S. allies, these alternatives have, for good reason, garnered no support….More importantly, adoption of any alternate definition of antisemitism would undermine efforts to protect Jewish communities.” [5]

Chancellor Mnookin, please understand that a close connection to Israel has been part of Jewish religious and ethnic identity for thousands of years, and anti-Israel activists have no right to rewrite history, speak for us, or tell us we’re wrong about our own experience. Antizionism is antisemitism, and UW’s guidelines must acknowledge that. The time to adopt IHRA is now.

Sincerely,

[1] https://holocaustremembrance.com/resources/working-definition-antisemitism
[2] https://www.algemeiner.com/2025/02/12/vast-majority-us-jews-reject-jewish-voice-peace-other-anti-zionist-groups-polling-data-shows/
[3] https://www.ajc.org/news/ajc-survey-shows-american-jews-are-deeply-and-increasingly-connected-to-israel
[4] https://www.dailycardinal.com/article/2024/05/jewish-student-group-meets-with-uw-madison-administrators-to-present-requests-regarding-library-mall-encampment-and-campus-antisemitism
[5] https://cdn.fedweb.org/fed-1/1/IHRA%20Letter.pdf