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Some Ivy League Presidents Never Watched Fiddler On the Roof
And it shows.
For those who didn’t tune into the recent Congressional hearing on campus anti-Semitism heard ‘round the world, it’s been impossible to miss the post-event media coverage and social media chatter.
Some audiences were willing to tolerate the squirming, cringe-worthy scene in which three Ivy League presidents watched each other, in agonizing succession, fail to state that calling for the genocide of Jewish people was against university policy, and were rewarded with clarity about on-campus anti-Semitism.
It starts at the top.
That presidents of three of the most prestigious universities in the country found themselves unable to condemn calls for genocide against Jews on campus demonstrated a complete lack of understanding about genocides, what they are, why they happen, and, most importantly, how they begin.
Genocides do not begin with the government. They don’t begin with Ivy League university presidents handing down official edicts.
Genocides start with ordinary people.
One screening of Fiddler On the Roof could have told MIT, Harvard, and UPenn leadership everything they needed to know about how genocides get started.