The Trajectory of Anti-Zionism into Higher Education: From the USSR to the USA

This course sets the stage for exploring the danger of ideology and propaganda becoming normalized in Higher Education. Higher Education was the primary vehicle for increasing professional opportunity and increasing social mobility for Soviet Jewry. The normalization of ideology and propaganda into Soviet Higher Education negatively impacted the lives of Soviet Jewry. Today, the normalization of antisemitism and anti-Zionism into American Higher education undermines Jewish identity and Jewish safety as well as well as denies the legitimacy of the Jewish State, the right of Jewish self-determination, and portrayal of Israel, Zionism, and Jews as the racist, militaristic, and the primary source of global ills. 

Under both Lenin and Stalin the nation-building process included a specific role for Soviet Higher Education. Higher Education aimed at molding a new intelligentsia, and a new communist culture refashioning education to ensure that any and all forms of “bourgeoise thinking” as well competing perspectives against Marxism-Leninism, were removed moved and replaced by a new ideology and collective culture and consciousness referred to as the “New Soviet Man”.  To ensure ideological and political opposition were silenced, Lenin employed deportation, ethnic cleansing, and massive arrests of intellectuals trained under tsarism. Higher Education, for Lenin, was inseparable from politics, activism, and specialized studies of applied Marxism-Leninism to humanities, social science, and the hard sciences.

As early as 1907, Lenin argues that language is to be used as a political weapon; his political culture sets the stage for a new type of political antisemitism that eventually penetrates mainstream culture; 

Session 1: Session one examines this process through an examination of three politicized  institutions of Soviet Higher Education institutions:  the Sverslov Communist University, the Institute of Red Professors, and the Communist Academy. This examination enables us to understand how Marxist-Leninism ideology and propaganda can establish the meaning of “truth”, “facts” and “acceptable” educational perspectives. 

Session 2: Soviet Higher Education under Stalin: Stalinism and the Liquidation of Jewish culture, religion, and nationalism

Session two will examine Stalin’s understanding of Soviet Higher Education through his distinctive political ideology of the Communist Party State. Unlike Lenin whose objective was an international revolution of workers, Stalin viewed “internationalism” as a dangerous vehicle threat to the Soviet state as it  by encouraged   the entrance of “foreign” ideas and outside in influences into Soviet Union. To control this from occurring Stalinism asserts that the Communist Revolution will happen only in the USSR; all foreign ideas and nationalisms were declared illegal and illegitimate; and daily life would be controlled by the ideology and institutions of the Communist Party.

Session two examines the impact of Stalinism on Higher Education and Jewish life. Particular attention will be given to the Soviet Communist Party’s total control over Higher Education including; hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions; curriculum development based on Communist Party ideology; entrance examinations; dissertation review committees; and the development of quota systems; the termination of professional autonomy for academic associations.  Exclusionary entrance exams reserved just for Jewish students, made entry into top universities especially in math and physics and advanced degrees in the social sciences, very difficult.

A primary political objective regarding Jews under Stalin was “assimilation” which required Jewish identity, religion, culture and language to be erased and replaced by a secular Russian identity. This objective was promoted by prohibiting Hebrew as a recognized language; closure of Hebrew publication houses; reconfiguration of Yiddish culture and language to reflect the denationalization of Jewish culture and heritage; closing Rabbinic seminaries, synagogues; and schools; prohibiting Zionism and Zionist organization; and discontinuing social relationships with the Jewish diaspora community. 

Session 3 : THIRD WORLDISM 1944-1980: The transit of antisemitic,  anti-Zionist , and anti-American ideology and propaganda into American Culture and Discourse

Beginning with the Bandung Conference of 1955, new political and revolutionary  narratives emphasizing  anti-racism, anti-colonialism, and anti-imperialism, enter the global arena. Referred to as “Third Worldism” the focus of international affairs turned to “National Liberation and Resistance Movements “in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Reflecting the impact of the civil rights movement, anti-Vietnam War protests, feminism and an overall sense that American institutions were incapable of solving historic injustices, the new narratives of Third Worldism found a receptive audience among American radicals and members of the New Left political movement. An examination of the impact of Third Worldism is critical to understanding contemporary antisemitism and anti-Zionism in America Culture and  American Higher Education.  

Session three examines the Ideology and propaganda of Third Worldism in terms of planting the seeds for two opposing ideological frameworks of nationalism which evolve into two opposing social movements. The first is “Palestinianization”  where  Palestinian nationalism  is promoted as positive and moral by moving Palestinian nationalism from the periphery of global politics into transnational primetime as a victim of Israeli oppression and American hegemonic policies.  The second is  Anti-Israelism and  anti-Zionism falsely accusing Israel  of being illegitimate, imperialistic, and  oppressive and Zionism, its nationalism, as a racist force of evil supported by American hegemonic domestic policies.  Thus, echoing Lenin and Stalin, Third Worldism claims there are “good “and “bad “nationalisms, with a national “we” set against the image of “the Jews”.

How did Third Worldism and these two opposing ideologies enter American politics and culture?  Unlike Soviet  ideology and propaganda which is a reflection of “top down control”, Third Worldism presents itself at the grassroots level as part of the global “people’s war”. As a transnational movement it understands that the struggles against racism and American hegemony are taking place at the local and neighborhood level. This recognition serves as the “entry point” of Third Worldism into American politics and culture.  

90 minute session

Session 4 : The normalization of Anti-Israelism, Anti-Zionism, and Antisemitism into American Higher  Education. 

From 1960-present American Higher Education becomes a primary institution transmitting both antisemitism and anti-Zionism in pedagogy, research, and professional academic associations. Particular attention will be given to the examining how two opposing ideologies, Palestinian nationalism and Anti-Zionism are normalized in Black Studies, Multiculturalism, and Women’s Studies. The impact of this process threatens democracy, Jewish identity and safety, and undermines the standards of American Higher Education.

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