Commitment

Since our founding in 2003, the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies has created programming, developed courses, organized conferences, and hosted community events to address the challenges described in this pledge. We take seriously our responsibility to promote a better understanding of Jewish Studies both on and off campus, and to encourage civil discussion of diverse topics within Jewish Studies.

October 2023:

The Center is heartbroken by the surge of violence in the Middle East, and extremely concerned for our extended community of students, alumni, and faculty currently in Israel. For those with friends and family in the region, please know that our thoughts are with you. We are reaching out to all our constituents to offer support and share in our combined grief. Please take care of yourselves in this stressful time and let us hope for better days ahead.  

Fall 2022:

In 2022-23, we are experiencing continued concerns about violence in Israel and Palestine, as well as renewed concern about the national rise in antisemitism. The antisemitic remarks by music artist Ye (Kanye West), and the hateful organizations that recently distributed antisemitic flyers in Raleigh, represent a larger problem of the normalization of hate speech that affects both Jews and non-Jews worldwide.

As teachers and researchers in Jewish Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, we are committed to offering programming for students, colleagues, and the public that will allow us all to learn more about current and historical events and improve our understanding of diverse cultural perspectives.

As teachers and researchers in Jewish Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, we are deeply concerned about hostility directed at Jews, Muslims, Blacks, Latinxs, Asian Americans, LGBTQ communities, refugees, immigrants, and other minorities in the United States and across the globe. Jewish history has taught us that when one group of people is singled out as dangerous and targeted, it constitutes a threat to all civil society.

As teachers and researchers in Jewish Studies at UNC Chapel Hill we are committed to speaking out when the lessons of Jewish history are relevant to the present. We therefore affirm the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies’ commitment to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for its faculty, students, staff, and community. We value the perspectives that diverse traditions and the free and open exchange of ideas bring to the academy.

May 2021: In light of current events, the Center has updated and re-committed to the following pledge. Since our founding in 2003, the Center has created student programming and offered dozens of new classes, as well as hosted many community events and academic conferences, that begin to address the problems described in this pledge and our responsibility to create programming that helps increase understanding and improve discussions.

June 2020: In light of recent tragic events, the Center is re-committed to the following pledge, which was initially drafted several years ago as worldwide incidents of hate became far too common and frequent. Since our founding in 2003, the Center has created student programming and offered dozens of new classes, as well as hosted many community events and academic conferences, that begin to address the problems described in this pledge and our responsibility to share historical lessons and speak out against intolerance. We will certainly continue to do so in the coming year and years. Moreover, we will be very active with the College’s educational and outreach plans.

June 2020:

A wave of hostility directed at refugees, immigrants, Muslims, Jews, African Americans, Latinxs, LGBTQ communities, and other minorities has become apparent in the United States and across the globe. As teachers and researchers in Jewish Studies at UNC Chapel Hill, we are committed to speaking out when the lessons of Jewish history are relevant to the present. Jewish history has taught us that when a group of people is singled out as dangerous and targeted—whether based on religion, national origin, citizenship status, race, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, sexual orientation, or veteran status—this constitutes a threat to all of civil society. We therefore affirm the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies’ commitment to fostering a welcoming and inclusive environment for its faculty, students, staff, and community and value the perspectives that diverse traditions and the free and open exchange of ideas bring to the academy.