Saratoga, N.Y. - In case you missed it, the Jewish News Syndicate published the following article today.
By Emily Goldberg
'On May 14, someone created a document, which came to list 83 faculty members at Yeshiva University, decrying the school’s decision to confer its highest honor, a presidential medallion, on Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) at the university’s graduation ceremony on Thursday.
“In Judaism, truth—emet—is recognized as a sacred principle, woven into the fabric of ethical conduct and moral leadership,” wrote the professors, many of them at Yeshiva’s graduate schools and some of them anonymous. “According to the Talmud, it is the very seal of the divine.”
“To award Stefanik the presidential medallion is, effectively, to endorse dishonesty, an act that runs counter to the Jewish values of integrity and righteousness that Yeshiva professes to uphold,” they added.
On Thursday, the morning after a gunman killed two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, Stefanik indeed received the award at Yeshiva’s 94th commencement, which was held at Louis Armstrong Stadium, at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, in Queens, N.Y.
Ari Berman, president of the university, commended Stefanik, who has been one of the leading voices in Congress denouncing Jew-hatred on campuses, particularly Harvard University’s, for her strong leadership. “You understand that neutrality in the face of evil is complicity,” he said. “Because you refuse to stay silent, you became one of the fiercest defenders of the Jewish people in American public life today.”
“You remind us that true allies do not waiver with political wins but rise with moral resolve,” Berman said. Stefanik told the crowd that defending Jews “was a moral question, not a political one.”
The congresswoman drew overwhelming cheers and applause from the audience, including graduates, as she recounted asking university presidents tough questions about whether calling for genocide of all Jews runs afoul of their codes of conduct.
“One after the other after the other answered, ‘It depends on the context,’” she told graduates and other guests. “Let me tell you. It does not depend on the context.”Stefanik said that she was honored to receive the award from an institution that she said she admires “deeply.”
“It is humbling to be associated with those recipients, who have led with moral clarity, served this institution with distinction and have used their gifts to defend our most precious ally, Israel,” Stefanik said. “In a world today where we have seen grave depravity and atrocities against the Jewish people, the world desperately needs to hear leaders with moral clarity.”
A larger problem, Rachel Goldberg-Polin, whose son Hersh Goldberg-Polin was murdered in Hamas captivity and whose body was recovered and laid to rest in September 2024, delivered a commencement address and was conferred an honorary doctorate.
“Thank you for being with us and with all the hostage families since day one,” Goldberg-Polin said, pausing briefly to cry. “You looked at what connects us. You said, ‘Your agony is my agony. Your pain is my pain. Your son is my mother’s son, and so your son is my brother.”
“We people, we are not what we say, we are not what we think, and we are not even what we believe,” she said. “In this life, we are what we do.”
In honor of Hersh’s memory, Berman announced that Yeshiva had created an Or Shel Hersh award—meaning “Hersh’s light”—to be given to two graduating students annually to honor those who embody Hersh’s character and value of bringing people together and seeing the good in others.
In their letter denouncing Yeshiva’s senior leaders for opting to “politicize this meaningful occasion,” the professors stated that Stefanik was one of the Republican House members to support overturning the 2020 U.S. presidential election and that she referred to those arrested after the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol as “hostages.”
The term “hostages” is one that “we have all come to feel acutely should be reserved for actual cases of abduction and not applied to legitimate criminal prosecutions,” they wrote.
Morton Klein, national president of the Zionist Organization of America, told JNS that it is a “frightening disgrace” that “leftwing, ignorant” people at Yeshiva “would condemn a person, Rep. Elise Stefanik, who is a giant in the fight against Jew-hatred and Israel-bashing.”
“At a time of rising and dangerous antisemitism, these YU teachers should be applauding and praising Stefanik for being a titan in the fight against our enemies, not opposing her,” Klein told JNS.
A Yeshiva spokesperson, who declined to be named, told JNS that Stefanik is “a staunch supporter of the State of Israel, a champion in the fight against hate in America and the leading congressional voice in holding universities accountable for unconscionable expressions of antisemitism on college campuses.”
“Yeshiva University is honored to present its presidential medallion of global leadership to Congresswoman Stefanik,” the spokesperson told JNS.
Caleb Gitlitz, of Baltimore, who graduated in January with a psychology degree and participated in commencement on Thursday, told JNS that Stefanik “works tirelessly” for the rights of Jews and Americans to live peacefully and freely.
“We, as the flagship Jewish university who take deep pride and gratitude in our American roots and identities as well, are so grateful for Congresswoman Stefanik and all she does,” Gitlitz said, “and take tremendous pride in bestowing her this prestigious honor and listening to her impeccable address to us at our commencement ceremony.”
David Benhamu, of New York, who majored in physics and attended graduation on Thursday, told JNS that the professors “overreacted” in their letter. He noted that Yeshiva gave its highest honor last year to Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.), who received a standing ovation for removing his Harvard robe hood and stating that his alma mater failed to properly respond to rising Jew-hatred on campus after Oct. 7.
“The same award was given last year to Sen. John Federman, yet you heard no uproar about the political differences between him and many of the faculty and students,” he told JNS.
“The honor of receiving the medallion isn’t about accepting and approving every policy that a politician believes in, but rather recognizing something that they did that we are especially grateful for,” Benhamu said.
“This year, for Stefanik, it was in appreciation of her continuing to combat antisemitism across American life, especially on college campuses,” he said.
Benhamu told JNS that Stefanik’s commencement speech focused more on how proud she is to fight for Jews than about her politics. He added that he believes that Stefanik “clearly” supports democracy, no matter what the professors wrote.
“This whole boycotting of political figures, which is clearly one-sided, I might add, speaks to a larger problem we are seeing in our country,” Benhamu said. “People are too invested in politics and in which ‘side’ they are on.”
“They can’t recognize something positive someone did if that person doesn’t agree with them on all other issues,” he said.
“Yes, we may disagree on a lot of things, but in the end, what matters is that we can appreciate each other for the positive work we agree on, respect each other in the rest where we disagree and come together as one united country,” he added.'
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