Letters
The new George Wallaces of academia
Sixty-two years ago, the then Governor of Alabama, George Wallace, stood in a University of Alabama doorway to block Black students from entering. He claimed to defend states’ rights and preserve segregation. But history remembers him as a coward resisting justice.
Today, elite universities echo that same cowardice. This time, the students being harassed and excluded are Jews, and instead of offering protection, universities are hiding behind legal teams and vague principles — pushing back against federal efforts to uphold civil rights.
Harvard’s lawyers recently argued that “no university can allow itself to be taken over by the federal government.” But they’ve allowed masked mobs shouting genocidal slogans to take over. They tolerate professors who justify terror and administrators who duck behind legalese as Jewish students are singled out and vilified.
This isn’t about Gaza or Israeli policy. It’s about Jewish identity. No one would tolerate this if Black students were being targeted. Imagine Trump trying to protect Black students from KKK-style intimidation — and Harvard refusing to help. Unthinkable. Yet that is what’s happening now with Jewish students.
Harvard’s interim president, Alan Garber — himself Jewish — remains passive as his campus grows more hostile. Some Jewish leaders, like Senator Schumer, claim Trump is “weaponizing” antisemitism. But Trump isn’t inventing antisemitism — he’s responding to it.
What are universities really afraid of? That Trump will ban legacy admissions? No — he wants to stop admitting radicalized foreign students on academic visas who glorify terror and preach hate.
That’s not authoritarianism. That’s common sense.
Eisenhower sent troops to Little Rock. Bobby Kennedy fought segregation. Trump is stepping in because universities won’t.
Jewish students shouldn’t need federal protection at Harvard. But they do. The new George Wallaces aren’t in Alabama. They’re on Ivy League payrolls — standing in the way of justice once again.
Stuart Goldberg
Surfside, FL
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