Dear Chairman Schmidt and Chancellor Goldstein,
I am a Jew who is deeply committed to American democracy, the integrity of public education and to Israel as the State of the Jewish people. I am deeply disheartened by the decision of the CUNY Board of Trustees to let the ideology of a single trustee persuade CUNY to deny the candidacy of Tony Kushner from consideration for an honorary doctorate.
Tony Kushner, with whom I do not always agree, has expressed opinions on Israel and the Israel/Palestinian struggles that are well within the American and Jewish range of views that comprise the democratic consensus on these important matters.
CUNY, an admirable public American university, should be an upholder of democratic values, including those of freedom of speech and thought as well as the importance of diversity in public expression of all kinds.
CUNY is important to American public education, to New York City’s history and values and to the Jewish community. It long has been a haven to those who held unpopular views, many of them Jewish academics and scholars.
It is contrary to your practiced ideals, to CUNY’s dedication to critical thinking and to CUNY’s honorable history to deny an honorary degree to a great playwright and thinker such as Tony Kushner. My own undergraduate college, Brandeis University, bestowed an honorary doctorate on Tony Kushner. As you know, Brandeis is a Jewish sponsored institution that takes seriously its commitment to academic excellence, to the highest American educational ideals and to the welfare of the Jewish community.
I ask you please to not allow CUNY’s academic decision making to be guided by a particular trustee’s ideology. It is deeply disturbing and contrary to all that we expect of our respected academic institutions. I ask you to rededicate CUNY to its most cherished ideals. Please assert your influence to change this decision of the Trustees and restore CUNY’s reputation. New Yorkers of good will are counting on you.
