Timely information. As students here, our education to prepare for students to be engaged citizens in the community and to recognize and direct the university of culture, identity and opinion. Both of these are on display this evening. This last idea, the respect for diversity of culture, identity and opinion needed more than ever in our society today. The response to books and the amazing turnout here by all of you for this important conversation show why. Available to personalize copies of her book at the back of the stage after discussion. If you dont have a copy yet, the bookshop will be selling them at that time. Thank you for visiting our campus this evening. Please welcome to the stage the president of the university to say a few remarks. [applause] good evening, everybody. Thank you for that introduction. As some of you may recall, just over a year ago today that we were gathered together in this chapter for a very similar purpose. A holocaust survivor came to pittsburgh from chicago to share her moving story. At that time, just one day after the shooting at tree of life, we were initially uncertain about whether it made sense to go ahead with the event. Inspired by the own determination to make the flight to pittsburgh just minutes after learning of the shooting, we decided together that we should meet, gather in this place and send a message that we are stronger than hate. When ion got the call last month from my friend at the Jewish Community center asking if we would host tonights event, the community and the Jewish Community being brought together and our friends across pittsburgh to a joy and explore again tonight how we can Work Together to fight hate. It is my honor to introduce our two special guest. A staff writer and editor for the opinion section of the New York Times. Is her first book as you know is fightrst book as you know is antisemitism. Before joining the times, barry worked for the wall street journal and was a senior editor. The premier jewish online magazine of ids, politics and culture. She regularly appears on shows like the view, morning shows, a graduate of columbia. Also the winner of the recent foundation 2018 prize which annually honors riders who best demonstrate the importance of freedom with originality, wit and eloquence. Vanity fair recently recognized barry as the time star opinion writer and the Jerusalem Post named her the seventh most influential jew in the world. Her parents, who i met this this evening, wanted to know who the other six were. [applause] most important for tonights event, barry is a proud member of the family. Her mother, aunt and sister are all graduates. She grew up as it as her backyard. [applause] our other guest this evening is mark. Mark joined the university of pittsburgh for a nine month stint as a visiting assistant professor in the school of law over 40 years ago and he has never left. [laughter] he had the honor to serve as dean of the school of law and as im sure youre all aware, 19 years in a very successful rain as chancellor of the university which he helped lead along with his partner here in pittsburgh. Now, chancellor, distinguished service professor, receiving many importantpo honors includig pittsburghs person of the year and a history maker by senator. He currently serves as chair of the institute of politics and director of the north thornburg forum on policy. A member of the small independent Committee Appointed by theat Jewish Federation and e aftermath of the attack. Actively engage in helping to create and lead new antihate initiatives. Please help me in joining them to our discussion. [applause] i see my teacher from middle school. Do you want to get her up on stage . [laughter] what a great crowd. So nice you are all here tonight. I want to begin by thankingre president fine hold and the entire Chatham University community for inviting us to be here on what has to be the most beautiful campuses in the world. [applause] chatham is a special place in every sense. We really are grateful for the hospitality that the university is extending tonight. As we walked across the campus tonight, i am sure most of us felt a combination of peace and calm. The constructive power of youthful energy. We all know, as david david said , it was just over a year ago and not very far from here at the tree of life synagogue that worshipers from three congregations were brutally attacked by an antisemi armed with an automatic weapon. I am not sure any event has ever had the impact on pittsburgh that that days attack did. I want to suggest on behalf of barry and david that we dedicate this program tonight to the victims of that attack and to the victims of antisemitism wherever they may be. And that we each take a moment tonight to think about how it is we may contribute to the fight that she has described in her very, very important book. This event attracted a capacity crowd and generated a waiting list. The twin attraction for the opportunity to welcome barry back home into learn more about the fight against antisemitism from her wellwritten, thoughtprovoking, bestsellingg book of that title. It is, either way, now ranked bw amazon as the topselling book in its category of discrimination and constitutional law. I fully intend to claim most of barrys time for myself. You all did have the chance to pick up audience question cards. Those cards will be collected in about 45 minutes and then passed up to me. We will make sure that we try to leave enough time to handle some questions that have been posed by the audience. I do also want to note that cspan is filming this program tonight and it will be shown as part of the tv Books Program at some later date. Behave yourselves, will you. We dont want you to create a bad impression of pittsburgh for the restt of the country. Even though this is an night that will be focused on your book, barry, i would like to begin with a somewhat different question hoping you wont consider it to be out of bounds. I want to go back to what was said about the ranking of the Jerusalem Post which listed you as the seventh most influential jew in the world in 20 night teen. For those of you that did not see the article, i want to add a little bit of context. I think there was only one american that was higher ranked. That was the u. S. Ambassador to israel. Provide some more color to this. Ivanka trump and Jared Kushner were ranked as a pair, 14. My grandma i rigged the list. Lets be honest. U. S. Supreme court justices. The notorious rvg were ranked eight teen, collectively. [laughter] Facebook Mark zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were ranked as a pair 35th. [laughter] the big question that i have on my mind, very, is it a blessing or a burden when your parents look at that list and say, well, thats great, barry, but you really should have ranked higher. I would like to thank my tiger mother and my dad who has been almost like a father to me. [laughter] my entire life is a blessing. My entire life would have been absolutely unimaginable to my greatgrandparents. Or honestly even to my grandmother sitting in this front row and to whom this book is dedicated. Hi, graham. My inheritance was sort of unbelievable. Not in any financial sense. In the sense that i was born in this country, as i write in the book and sort of the golden age. I was born after the feminists broke down the barriers that were an obstacle really between my grandmother and her dreams. I think so much about what she would have been if she was born in my era. Another part is i was born in a country whose founders so fully understood the jewish story. Really, the israelite story. They saw themselves as new americans. Enacting a type of modernday exodus. That was also part of my inheritance. Then there was a fact that for my greatgrandparents generation were of the generation where you had to change her name in order to get a good job. You are not accepted at certain law firms. You had to build Hollywood Studios of your own. That was the world that i was sort of born into. In that sense, my whole whole life is a blessing. Being a sort of jewish role model in the world, the way i think about it is this. In judaism, what is the reason you wear a llama car your head. So you sort of live up to the obligations of what that means. O you model the kind of behavior that is worthy of being a jew in the world. I feel like i basically have the biggest one in the world stapled to my head at all times that can never come off. The blessing of that is that it made me, i think think a more conscientious and better person in the world. I am very aware that people are looking to me, what does a jew mean in this day and age . I take that obligation and that blessing really seriously. You do describe yourself in the book, not in terms of ray reviews who are high rankings, but instead say in a rather matter of fact way, i am an american, a jew, jew, a zionist and a proud daughter. What has it been to you to be a daughter of pittsburgh both in terms of the personal reactions to the attack to which we have referred and in terms of developing this sense of what it does mean to be a jew in the 21st century america. Being from pittsburgh has kind of meant everything to me. I did not realize it until i left. I thought it was normal the fact that my parents belonged to four or five different synagogues. It was normal for us to have a dinner with a very politically diverse and religiously diversep group of people. It was normal for us to go to a conservative synagogue where my sister and i were among the youngest readers. Then we would go to a much morem religious family for lunch. Only after that to go to the jcc to play basketball. That was normal for me. Pittsburgh, i think is a small enough community and its values are such that we dont stay inside the Jewish Community inside the lanes that we have two to find ourselves in. We reachh out across those barriers. It was only when i came to new york and went to college in new york that i realize that that was really, really exceptional. I saw this especially after the massacre at the tree of life and the reaction to it. The crossing of terriers did not just exist inside the small bubble, but went out far beyond that. To me, just a model of what solidarity looks like. The way we saw the muslim community. The christian community. The sports team of the city. Obviously, your work as a part of it. There was a real sense of unity and an attack on the Jewish Community of pittsburgh was an attack on everyone. I think that solidarity can be a model. Not just for america, but for the rest of the world. And then this sense of, you know , being infiltrated in the values of mr. Rogers neighborhood. Something i only realized after i left of how special that was. Looking for the helpers. Everything that he embodied on that show i feel was not just a lovely theory, but a reality, at i grew up. Ry, but a reality, at that is not to say there were not exceptions. Waiting for the school bus to the Jewish Day School with my sister casey. I will never forget the Catholic School bus driving by and kids hanging out the windows. I remember that. I remember being told in high school to pick up a penny because i was a jew. These things were footnotes to my experience growing appear. They seem a to me embarrassing r the people that were doing them. They were vestiges from an old world. Not at all the norm. You know, very grateful to be from here and to be from a place that just lives up to the things that everyone wrote about this community and the aftermath of the massacre. They were just true. The fact that they were true was a testament to the work that so many leaders and im seeing rabbi jamie and so many faces of people that have put in the kind of effort that was really showcased to the world. That did not come out of nowhere. Those relationships do not blossom overnight. They are the result of incredibly hard work and Relationship Building and trust building. That is a work of people in this room that i am indebted to and grateful for. The idea that your life has been a Blessing Comes through very purely in the book. You describe your own experiences and as you described the lessons that you learned from your grandparents and your parents. You also say, though, and you have this ability to use the english language in ways that are compellingly memorable. You say that in some senses, looking at the big picture, you now view your life as something of a holiday from history. What did you mean by that . It sounds depressing to put it this way, but i think it is true. Of course six months later which i had the honor. Today, 27yearold was arrested outside of denver colorado. Attempting to blow up a synagogue there. That reality that we are living in, that is a return to jewish history. Very rare exception. The jews have been kicking around. The norm has been forced to think about our security. An attack on a synagogue. The norm has been for us to walk around as a visible sign of our jewishness. . That is a norm of jewish history when i say im on a holiday from it, only to say i never thought about those things when i was growing up. That is unbelievable departure. A departure that says something unique about what america could be at its very best. I think that what we are living through now is a kind of disorienting, almost nauseating feeling that the world we inherited, certainly world that i inherited and my parents parents have spent their lives living in is no longer the world that i think will be the reality for the rest of our lives. That has to not just do with the american experience, but with the direction of where this country is going, at least at this moment. They are deeply, deeply interconnectedd. You also said something that had an ominous ring to it. Shared by many other people. Losing their instinct for danger what did you mean by that . What i mean is that the jews of europe had not ever been so lucky. They are always aware of the kinds of things that we have to be incredibly conscience of. The kind of conversations that are now normal in our community about hardening our synagogues. Do we have our guards at the doors of jewish schools on the Upper West Side of new york. This is a major departure. The instinct for danger. It is kind of a doubleedged sword. That instinct for danger. On the other hand, it is a constant reminder of who you are and what you are fighting for. I think that there is a sense that the american Jewish Community, because of the blessings of the fact that we have been so accepted is the b best experience in all of jewish history. It continues to be that way, even after trumps election and the attack of the past two years. I felt hundred still think we are the luckiest in history. We have yet to see what will happen. I think that part of the lessons of that experience has been a kind of complacency. Because we have been so accepted , we have had the privilege to forget who we are. I think part of what is happening right now is as we are besieged in a way we never have been, it is a scary thing because its a reminder of our difference. It is also an opportunity to understand what that difference is actually about. Who are we and what are we fighting for . I think i sort of naively and foolishly thought isnt it obvious what we are fighting for. At the forefront of who i am. I actually think that one of the things i have learned going all around the country and talking to people is i really think that the past year has sort of been a real awakening for people. When any minority is attacked, ory really when any part of yor identity or ideas for who you are, there is a sense of wanting to punch back and a sense of why are they attacking me. What is that quality in me. Do i want to cut off that part of myself to be accepted . Or do i want to dig deeper into who i am as a reaction to that attack. Anything good coming from this uncertain moment that we are in. All minorities finding themselves inut a very comfortae position given that we have a politics that is attacked decency to use it. Using it as an opportunity to understand the difference in what the difference can offer not just you, in a sense of your own life, but to the country. The last year has been a year of reflection and resolve. It is interesting to cure you say you have found that in many other parts of the country as you have been on this book show. You said we need to know who we are. Weay need to know what we are fighting against. St you made earlier reference to antijewish prejudice. Mention you had experienced as a child here in pittsburgh, you clearly experienced it as a young adult when you left pittsburgh. How do you distinguish between antijewish prejudice and anti semitism so that we do know what we are focusing on. Antijewish prejudice. Functioning as a kind of inconvenience. It is disgusting. It does not bc the jewish people and jewish civilization. It may mean i do not really want to jewish couple moving in next door. It is gross. All of us with think that that is appalling. It does not fundamentallyh threaten the lives of jews as i write in the book, it is the oldest Conspiracy Theory. It singles t out the quality. Any given society or civilization. That is why under the nazi regime, the ultimate race contaminate hers. The jews are the arch capitalist white supremacist far right. What are the jews . The jews are the people that appear to be white, but in but in fact, the greatest trick the devil has ever played. They are loyal to the black people in the brown people and the muslims w who they want to bring into this country. Of course the bully. Writing about that and the rest. On the far left i would say the way that this presents itself is on the far left, jewish power. Expressions of jewish power. The main expression of jewish power in the world today, needs to be disavowed. The far left increasingly asks which i know we will get into later. Antisemitism. We are never going to defeat it. It is never going away. Our greatest hope i think is to keep it at bay. Antisemitism in a way functions like a virus. A way that all of us have hundreds, thousands, may be maybe tens of thousands at any given moment. As long as we are physically healthy, those viruses just dont express themselves. I would say that to a society, a society that has a healthy social cultural system, antisemitism not to mention racism, other kinds kinds of bigotry kept at bay. A society in which the immune systems weekends. Right now in america, our society is incredibly weekends. It has just become more and more normative for antisemitism. Racism. Antiimmigrant bigotry and all of the rest. The language in your book is amazing when you talk about a morphing Conspiracy Theory. Of course, there are those of us who worry that conspiracy theories are replacing reality and a lot of corners of American Life today. Is that the kind of sign that our immune system is at risk and antisemitism in some of these other awful social problems may be on the rise . I think that that is a huge symptom of it. It is a very big problem when people who paddle in conspiracy theories are replaced with power in the white house. I dont think that it is possible to have the conversation without talking about the president. Someone smarter than me wrote he is also an antisemite without the jews. They meant that the president conspiracy theories such as, you know, who was to blame for the problems of the working man and woman in america. It is the elitist. It is the immigrants. Its the kind of politics that we jews are all too familiar with. It does not even need to single us out for it to be a siren song for racist and white supremacist it is not a coincidence that white supremacist like Richard Spencer were drawn to trumps banner. He placed, you know, resident resident net for people who already believe in a Conspiracy Theory about the world. In their theory about the world, there is a secret hand controlling the world. That secret hand is the jew. It is the globalist, the elitist, i could go on and on and on. They hear jew, jew, jew. That is why think it is so important to be very attuned to that kind of language. Especially when it is coming from places like the white house and members of congress on the other side of the aisle as well. In your book you talk about three strands of antisemitism. The far right, the far left and the problems with radical islam. Just to be clear, we are talking about right whiteut supremacist. Just now . I could go on for a while about this. Maybe i will. God for bid somebody would walk in this room, all of my money would be on the bet that that person was a white supremacist. Twenty years ago, i would not have said that. That has changed. Right now in this moment, that is very much the reality. Y when i fear for my own physical safety, that is who i most fear. Look at all the statistics. That is the reality. What white supremacist antisemitism does that is convenient, it announces itself. Walking into tree of life. He saido what he wanted to do. All jews must die. Then he went and tried to kill as many jews as he possibly could. The one thing that is sort of helpful when it comes to antisemitism from the right is it is extremely blunt and it announces itself in language that we dont need to have a debate about. We can all acknowledge that that is what it appears to be. All of us know from our greatgrandparents experience in europe where that kind of thing can lead to. F antisemitism from the left is something different. I said many times in public that it is more insidious. Not that it is a greater danger, it is just it is more insidious in the sense that can get smuggled into the mainstream. Let me explain to you how that works. Antisemitism from the far right announces itself. Coming close to us in language that is very familiar to American Jewish tongues and to the tongues of all good liberals and progressives. It says we want social justice. We want to fight antiracism. We want a universal motherhood of. Man. What antisemitism from the far left requires is what do i mean by that . You can live in a jewish body. No problem. Tl that is required of you is that you need to publicly disavow jewish culture, jewish ideas, jewish particularism, jewish power, jewishh statehood and whatever the is and is whatever the new line is and is constantly moving. What does it look like. It looks like the spanish exposition. Of course they are emptied. In the soviet union, it looks like disavowing belief in god. Again, you can live as a jewish body, but not a jewish soul. It looks like you can be a jew. You just have to convert into jewish powerlessness byav disavowing the state and disavowing the jewish liberation and selfdetermination. Again, it is not seeking dead jews. In that sense, less less than a threat. It marginalizes the jews. It is much more institutional. If you want to see what antisemitism looks like, not someone Walking Around with a gun. At least not yet. What it looks like is jews being told as they were at the university of virginia after the walk shouting jews will not replace us, a Student Coalition formed to fight whites the premises. They were told you cannot be a member of this group. Even though the people marching with the tiki torches were in the polo shirts were saying jews will not replace us. They were told you cannot join the Minority Coalition to fight White Supremacy. How is that. How is that possible. If you believe that the jews are sort of handmaiden of White Supremacy because they supporte the state of israel. A giant lie is being told. The state of israel is a white supremacist project. I can explainhr more about thatn a second. One is being hurt physically. The other threat is being converted into white supremacist smeared as white supremacist by people on the far left. I do not think it is a coincidence that every committee i go to, people come up to me and they talk about how they feel so politically homeless in our community right now. I think that there is very good reason and that. A double edge problem that we are facing. We are not sure enough on either side of the position. It is an enormous problem we are facing. It is a huge problem. I am glad you were so clear about that. Such a difference between marginalizing and murder. It is, at this point, in your analysis, that some of your friends stop. They say, are you suggesting that there is kind of an equivalence between the antisemitism of the right and the antisemitism on the left. Not an equivalent. They are different. They threaten us in different ways. A member of antifascist committee. The committee was made up of the most celebrated yiddish prudish riders playwrights directors of the time. They wereti used as windowdressg by stalin. Look at all these jews surrounding me. The famous line once he came around to the fact that indeed not killing us physically. Ultimately, along with 27 others who seem self murdered on the night of the murdered poet. If we look at our history, there is, many of us are most familiar with the holocaust. That is the worst massacre and tragedy that is ever befallen the jewish people. The fest station on the history of the holocaust which makes good sense. Jewish hatred. Again, not genocidal at first. Jewish civilization by other means. You see it very clearly if you look at the history of the jews. And then u under the soviet uni. I am not today suggesting that we are in either of those places. On either extreme. But i think that it is important to be aware that both of those things are very, very old old. They are not new. I think, also, the criticism, you framed it in a really nice way. A a tremendous amount of criticism saying i am soft on White Supremacy. I just want to be very clear. I dont know how anyone from this community or anyone paying attention could not be absolutely terrified about White Supremacy in this country and the horrifiche effect that it could have on innocent people who are just trying to go to synagogue and pray. I just want to be very clear that i am very, very serious about that threat. I also think that given my position, which is an elder millennial at the New York Times as someone that identifies as a liberal that i have a special obligation to callout antisemitism from the far left and sounded the alarm early before it becomes too late in that regard. I there is something much more seeing antisemitism n the left. Ce of American Jews vote for democrats. Overwhelming number of us identified as liberals or progressives. When we see antisemitism come from the far right, that was already not us. Not of our tribe. When you see it coming from inside, the thing that you ythought was your own. I think that there was a reason that many themselves are hesitant to look at it. What does it mean if it is not across the road. Sitting at your kitchen table. How do you confront that. That is actually the problem when i talk to jews all over the country. Actually more pressing in their daily lives. The antisemitism that is more pressing is the sense that they need to be increasingly closeted about different aspects of their jewish identity. The white supremacist that wants to murder them, ultimately, that is the job of security and Law Enforcement to protect us from those people. There is not that much that we can actually do about it other than fighting bigotry and White Supremacy. That actual antisemites that most people that are jews that are confronting in their daily lives is antisemitism from the far left. Something that is taking place in this country as well as in europe. Very much so. Every place i go, at the end of the night after people have had a glass of wine, they come up to me and they make a confession. They tell me, and this has happened with everyone, yoga instructors, food critics, lawyers, you name it. They tell me they are closeted weird they are not closeted in their Sexual Orientation or their gender identity. They are closeted in their support. I am not talking about support for the netanyahu government. Everyone i talk to, critical of the government policy. Nothing to do with Israeli Government policy. They have a deep and profound and very real sense. I know its real because i talk to the people that come out of the closet and then end up losing social status and friends and sometimes jobs because of it. Theyre worried that in expressing support in any way for the jewish state that they are therefore aligned with a white colonial settler enterprise. They are increasingly hiding their support for the state of israel. I mean, it is right to exist. Its right to protect itself. Protecting more than 6 million jews. More than half of whom are jews of middle eastern and north african dissent. That is very sort of ace line position. Becoming something that is increasingly unacceptable on the far left. The ideal that it is racism. Taking increasing hold. Sh first, something that only took old that places where i went to college and other campuses across the country. I thought when i was a student, maybe this is a little bit of excessive student politics and it will fade away as i make my way into the real world, but, in fact, the opposite has happened. It is normative on campuses in this country for people to believe that zionism is a racist ideology. Israel itself was born that can never be overcome. The only way to fix it is for israel itself to be erased. When you are marinating in those ideas on College Campuses and then you go off and become a lawyer, dr. Or or a member of congress, you become an editor at a newspaper, those are the ideas that you take with you. I have seen the way that they have moved hearing very much that some College Campuses. A methodical political into the mainstream. Now they are democratic members of congress who proudly support the sanctioned movement against israel. That movement, many liberals i talked to, very wellintentioned people believe that that movement is just about ending the occupation of the palestinians in the west bank. That is a lie. That is not what that movement is about. What the founders of it saying consistently say day today. About the racing any jewish state between the jordan river and the mediterranean state. What does that mean. What does that actually look like. Another genocide frankly against the jewish people. I do not see how that is it antisemitisms. You can be an antizionist if you are in and anarchists. A removal for 3000 people that are in this country. Never talking about erasing the border between india and pakistan. All of the other states. Drawn by imperial european power they are only talking about erasing one of those things. They dress it up and really lovely language about liberal democracy that is great in theory. If you just look at the reality of the middle east, if you look at what is happening right now to the kurds without our support, if you look at what has happened, frankly, the christians, who have now experienced a total exile from the middle east, there will not be christians in the middle east 10 years from now. It is what happened to jamaal that day that all of us were so disgusted and horrified by tiered it is unfortunate that it is true that in order from minorities to be protected in that region they need an army to survive. Thank god the jewish people and the state of israel have one of them. I just want to say one last thing on this. I think that there is a lot of revisionist history happening on the far left including inside the Jewish Community which basically imagines a past in europe in which we were powerless and overprotected. That never existed ever. Ever in jewish history. I will always take the bargain of what it means even with its work and even with the horrible decisions that come with that power to jewish powerlessness. We see very clearly what that leads to. Leads to. What you said about the middle east is frightening. N some of the specifics that you share in the book, really lead a person to stop and say, is this really so. Is it so bad you cannot even confront this . First, you do point out in history that muslim lands were traditionally more friendly to jews than christian countries were. And then you say that the muslim world is almost due free. On the verge of becoming christian free. The examples that you give, less than 20 jews in egypt, egypt, five in iraq, one, who you name, in afghanistan. A lot of profiles written about this one guy. You did not have to go and track him down. On the other hand, in talking about europe, the numbers are staggering, too. You report that there are now 26 million muslims in europe. A number that is growing dramatically. 1. 4 million jews. You do talk about the jewish experience in europe and compare it to the jewish experience in america today. Maybe you could Say Something about that. Om sure. Huge topic. What i will say from the start is that i had honestly hope to avoid writing the chapter in this book about radical islam. The reason for that is that muslim communities for sure in this country, but also in europe, they themselves faced incredible discrimination. I am low to be in any way contributing to the kind of xena phobia and discrimination that they experience. When i think about muslim integration to europe, i think about the boy in the red tshirt from syria who was playing with his family. We all knew his name for a minute and then all of the rest of the sadness happen and we forgot it. For a moment, we all knew that boys name. He was fleeing genocide with his family when his lifeless body washed up on that beach. I think about muslim refugees fleeing the middle east into europe, that is who i think of. I think deeply about jewish obligation to protect the stranger and to embrace the stranger. We ourselves were strangers in the land of egypt. That is where i am coming from. Morally and ethically. Politics is something that is a little bit more complicated. One of the problems is that, if we are honest and we look at the numbers, the uncomfortable reality is a lot of the physical violence taking place against jews in cities like arlington paris are being carried out by young muslim men from these countries. If we look at what happened in pittsburgh, and attack by a 20yearold refugee from syria. Thank god he was not able to come to fruition. I think we need to be honest about the fact that when people cross borders, they do not check the ideas that they were raised with at the border of a country. People are streaming in two a lot of these countries with very dangerous ideas. Not just about the jews, but the place of women. The place of gay people in society and all of the rest. It is a very complicated problem i think because it is so uncomfortable to look at it, again, just to go back to the white supremacist thing, it is easier. That is a cleaner case. The person that is a white supremacist is not someone who has also been victimized in their life. What does it mean when someone who themselves is a victim becomes a victimizer. Much more complicated case. I think, in this sense, not to go back to trump, but i think it is a useful example. Myag colleague wrote a column a few years ago. Trump shows thews way. The purpose was trump shows the way. When trump is cruel we need to be kind. When trump is in decent we need to be decent. I think the same is true when it comes to the way that trump attacks and criticizes his political enemy. Trump criticizes based on their gender. Based on their religion. Based on their color. That is appalling. We should never participate in that kind of behavior. That does not mean that i cannot criticize for her embrace of the movement. In fact, it is my job to do that. I will never stop doing that. [applause] it is difficult and it has to be done very sensitively because this person is herself the victim of bigotry. I just think that we need to be very, very conscious about criticizing people not based on their identity and criticizing people based on their ideas. The president shows the way in that regard. I think that i know the answer to this question, but since you have brought up the president , he takes the position that because of his support for israel, jews who vote for democrats im guessing you do not subscribe to that position. I dont. As the daughter of a trump curious individual sitting in the front room, by curious [laughter] my mother actually helped to make sure he would not vote for the president. [laughter] [applause] that is how seriously we took the election. I am not doubting him. He wrote about it in the book. Look. I think that barry forgot this was going on cspan. I did. [laughter] when i talked about the president , i had the best possible arguments for some embrace of him. From someone who is in my own family. I think that that is really important to keep me honest. I am really proud to be from a family like this. Something, i think it has become pretty impossible for people to talk to each other across the political divide. I think one of the blessings they grow up with was the fact that we talked and debated about ideas every night. That was completely normal. I think it armed me in a really positive way for this very tribal polarized moment we are living in. For everyone living in this audience that is watching, i praise you. As for the president , and i lost track of your question, but i think it was about his israel policy. My answer to this is pretty straightforward. Maybe it will be satisfying to some people in the room that like the president. I, also, you know, trump likes mcdonalds. I also likes mcdonalds. Trump moved the embassy to jerusalem. I supported that. He can be wrong about many things and write about others. I supported the fact that the president and this administration acknowledged that the goal on heights is an official part of israel. It will never fall into the hands of genocide bashar alassad. I am happy about that. As i said before in other situations, i just do not think that any policy is worth the price of what this president is doing to this country and doing, frankly, to americas reputation in the world. [applause] i am only smiling because my mom is applauding very loudly. Look. As we know too well, policies can be undone weird what cannot be undone, george will put it the best, trump is ringing bells that cannot be on wrong. Stoking a kind of civil war in this country. Turning americans against each other. Some of us are more americans than others. Some of us have a kind of provisional citizenship. These are deeply unamerican, deeply jewish ideas and i just cannot be a part of any project that participates in that kind of politics. It is the art of the deal but on a global scale. Alliances do not matter to him. He does not understand it. I really believe that. What kind of chaos can that lead to . I mean, that, to me the thing that happened with the kurds i think should be clarified moment for anyone thinking about possibly supporting this president because of the good policies that he has had visavis israel. That is how Little Alliance and loyalty means to this person for he has no sense of what those things mean and i just really hope that it was a wakeup call, dad. [laughter] the last chapter of your book is entitled how to fight. I think we should get to that last chapter. As i told you when we were talking before the program i thought that that chapter was a little bit duplicitous loosely structured because there were all these subsections and they were not numbered. Being a math major i went and counted them and there were close to 30 different suggestions for how to fight effectively. Obviously, we cant deal with all of them tonight but i thought one of the most interesting things about that chapter was your discussion of this short paper that had been written by a graduate of columbia. How reading that really caused you to reevaluate your own strategies and you want to talk about that. It was an essay by the name of my book called how to fight antisemitism. It was written by, i think he is a philosopher or maybe identifies as applicable scientists, his name is and i recommend you all look up his work. He is a professor in israel and moved to israel after graduate school at columbia. He wrote on the occasion of a very wellknown anti summit known as jeffreys who spoke on campus and wrote in a fit of incredible passion and position about the bureaucratic Institutional Response he saw to the fact that this man came to campus. The bureaucratic Institutional Response was we need to put out an oped, have a protest and he said he wrote these words which rang in my ears from the moment i read that which was if someone calls you a pig do you stand on the Street Corner with a sign insisting you are not a pig. In other words, he felt, and i agree, that the right response ultimately to antisemitism is not to become an anti anti semite, it is not to identify ourselves based on those who hate us. That makes us into objects, honestly rather than human beings. The right response to antisemitism is to dig in to the wellsprings of who we are and he talks and he quoted a lot of people in that essay. One of the ones he quoted was the novelist walker percy. Walker percy talks about where are the moabites . Where are the hittites . All of these groups that were powerful groups in the bible no longer exist. And yet, we, the israelites who then became the jewish people somehow we exist, somehow honestly, if you look at it one of the most unlikely stories in Human History that we still exist. That the most week, reviled people that suffered so many centuries of persecution of oppression, discrimination, genocide, not only have we survived but we have thrived and we have renewed ourselves and honestly, we renewed ourselves often in times of our weakest moment. The most important book, other than the jewish bible, was written in the babylonian exile. Often times in our moments of greatest weakness, our sense of renewal and so, i just fundamentally resonated with his posture. It shifted me from a mentality that i would say when i was an activist in college, from a mentality of defensiveness to a mentality of affirmation, from crouching to pride, from a sense that i am unbelievably proud to be a part of jewish history and be a tiny link in the jewish story. I mean, that is what that essay did for me. It did a another thing which is it was a very short essay, like 1500 words, but what it did was remind me how much an essay, even a short one, can totally change your mind. In a way not that the essay itself but the very things i read in college shifted my mind and helped me realize that wor words, words matter. Words change peoples lives and peoples minds. People often ask me, what do you do and that is what i am trying to do, if i can do in a column or a few columns or over the course of my career what that when essay did for me, its amazing and a huge success. Rightdoublequote that essay in length and his name is and you should look him up. In the one recommendation you make in the last chapter that we should return to even youve touched on it a bit basically, to follow the lead [inaudible], would you like to Say Something more . Yes, also, are we collecting questions . I never got questions. Pass them up. My sister casey can go around and collect them. Its a family affair, what can i tell you. [laughter] follow the lead of pittsburgh. I was so moved, i was flying in and watch the video later and then i was here for a whole week following the attack. The fact that [inaudible] was recited with all the leaders like 30, 40, 50 religious leaders on stage and the fact that the prayer was recited was our prayer in our language that to me is solidarity. But i mean by that is it allows us to be our full selves, which i think allows other communities to be there. As well. The other example i will never forget is when david, editor of the post gazette, printed the words and aramaic on the front page of the paper. Danny schiff, one of the rabbis here wrote an amazing column and i know youre a fan of his, two, mark, about what that meant and he in a moment of tragedy i think he had a way of framing that in such an elevated optimistic way which is to sa say this is paraphrasing him at first glance what happened at tree of life was familiar in jewish history. It was another program, and Art Community suffered so many programs we dont run with the name of them anymore. But if you took one step further and looked a little bit closer it was actually a radical departure from jewish history because the fact of the matter and this is still the truth and to many other places in europe specifically that when the jews are set upon the surrounding communities either looks away or participates in the attack. In pittsburgh the opposite happened. All of these other people stood up with us, this really understanding that an attack on us was an attack on them and their values, too. That, to be, the fact that with such a visceral reaction to meet such a good sign of the health of this community and city. I think that can be a model for other places. I will just say well, maybe we can get to other questions. I got a bundle of questions that are related. First, there is astute observation looking around this room that it is an older audience and how is it that we reach young people and educate them to the things we are discussing tonight . The counterpoint is this question im going to college next year, how can i fight antisemitism on campus and support israel on campus . Thank you for that question whoever asked it. The first thing i will say and maybe its not pleasing is i dont want young people to be thinking about this. I do not. I want young people to be thinking about getting fluent in hebrew. I want young people in our communities to think about watching [inaudible] and watching. [speaking in native language] google all these things. They are great. I want you to think about going to the jcc and playing basketball or taking a class or going to making Hebrew School or interesting and better and not turning young people off. That is the job of young people in our jewish communities. Its not to think about the people that want to do them harm. That would be a real tragedy, honestly, thats where young people in our community had to focus on but its our job to think about that. Its our job to think about how to keep them safe and make a world for them where this is not what they focus on. The question of the young person going to campus next year well, not to plug it but read my book because i talked directly to you and i will say one of the things that has been most moving for me about promoting this book and going on the road is the young people i meet. People in the millennial generation and the generation younger than us, i think it is a den the, i cant keep track anymore but they get a bad rap for being apathetic and not caring and i find it to be the opposite. They are my heroes and when i hear about the kind of ways that they are standing up for Jewish Values and israel fundamentally on College Campuses im absolutely blown away. Its very important for young people going to college to have a sense of who you are and their profound pride in your inheritance. I do and i think people often ask me how do i withstand really the pretty vicious things people say about me on the internet. The truth is that noise really falls away from me when im focused on who i am, who i speak for, where i am coming from, what my ancestors did to allow for me to have this life and what im fighting for. I would say if you are clear on those things and hopefully you are but if not i can recommend books for you that arent about antisemitism but about jewish history and jewish ideas and jewish culture and literature. You will be in a really good place and be able to stand absolutely anything thrown your way. You mentioned the internet and there is a topic you address in the book that we did not get to tonight. What is the role in the internet as you see it . I think it is hugely significant. I dont actually think we talked about the internet enough and the fact that we are living through a total revolution, a total revolution in the amount of information you are expected to assimilate and in the way we are all now connected to each other and in the fact that viral is viral for a reason for its morality. Its a disease, in a way that gets spread. I think that weve just begun to sort of appreciate it. The fact of the matter is to find other White Supremacists you used to have to go out of your house and go find a kkk meeting or find other likeminded victims. Nowadays you dont have to do that. You can sit in your basement without any kind of shame because no one is watching you and you can find other people who validate your bigotry online. The question of what we are supposed to do about it is, i think, one of the most huge and pressing questions facing us but i think the internet is enormously important. I will recommend another book on this. The writer from the new yorker, Andrew Merritt has a book called antisocial all about the far right, all to write web and those characters where people are more interested in it. Have you gone to any College Campuses where you have been protested . Not yet. Im waiting. I was sort of hoping there would be something tonight but i guess not. [laughter] no, its interesting. I recently spoke to a very prominent person at an Important University who admitted to me they had not yet invited me because they were scared about exactly that. I have my lines prepared, if that happens. You know, i think that protests outside of an event makes sense to me. One thing that is very worrying to me is the fact that nowadays anyone that is not a progressive down the line cant seem to get through an event on a College Campus without getting shouted down. That trend is really worrying to meet. Colleges and universities should be in the business of challenging people and debate and the practice of liberal arts and what is that about . That is about being able to hear other opinions and the ability to be able to check to see if your mind works by changing it and one of the things that worries me is when i see not even conservatives, although obviously conservatives and right wingers should have a right to speak on College Campus but even normal liberals were getting shouted down by people who deem them not to be liberal enough and that is something that is concerning to me and part of the topic of my next book. [laughter] we are all waiting. It is election day here tomorrow and there are no questions about the local elections for you. Im super aware. What does this centerleft zionist to do if sanders or warren gets the democratic nomination . Great question. Who asked that . No relation to be. [laughter] thats a question i get in every community i go to. I dont have a great answer for you. I think that is what is so worrying is that its evident to me that the Political Center has fallen away. I will stay here, i can never vote for bernie sanders. I could also never vote for donald trump. I dont know enough yet, ill be honest, about elizabeth warren. Im looking into her policies and the people that advise her but that question really captures where a lot of people in our communities by themselves which is in a center that has fallen away and wondering what is the more palatable choice. I imagine lots of other people in this room couldve answered that question. More longterm what we can do is hope help support democrats that are trying to hold on to the Political Center. There are lots of them and right now they still have the majority of the vote in the majority of the vote. Bds contingent of the Democratic Party does not but what worries me is what worries you is that when i see where the trendlines are going and where the base is and certainly where young people are being an anti zionist is now a normal plank of political progressiveness. You support raising them in wage and legalizing marijuana and oh, by the way you support erasing one state that belongs to the world. Many do it believe not because their antisemites at all but because that is becoming a normative plank of that worldview. I think we need to fight that at a root level. We really need to throw our support behind people that are making the case and theres a great guy in the Staten Island doing that and i can point to a lot of other examples but our job is to support moderate democrats that do fundamentally support israel and thank god there is still a lot of them. You make a distinction between antijewish discrimination and antisemitism. Isnt discrimination the first step toward fullblown anti semitism since ideas that dehumanize the jewish people lead to violent action . Yes but i am drawing a distinction between the boy that told me to pick up pennies and between an organized politic aligned against the jewish people which is different. One, yes, they are connected and yes, one leads to the other but i think that the second is something that im just more focus on but yes, of course they are connected and of course, the person that walked into the tree of life did not start off as a violent White Supremacists but he started off as a bigot who used only his words on the internet and then morphed into that. I take the point. Near the end of the first chapter of your book you say this is a book for everyone, jew or gentile, who loves freedom and seeks to protect it. It is for anyone jew or gentile who cannot look away from what is brewing in this country and in the world and wants to do something about it. As you know because i shared it with you a few weeks ago i received a message from a prominent leader of the Jewish Community here who was communicating with a group that is involved in anti hate initiatives but he began by saying before getting into the heart of this message i want to give a shout out to bari weiss, her book titled how to fight antisemitism is easily the most important book that i have read in a long time. [applause] i dont claim leadership in any community but i can say that i read barrys book three times and you know it better than me, i know you do. Ive got the paper clips highlighting to prove it. [laughter] i learned something every time i read the book and that really does take us back to where we started with your parents saying your number seven on the list but you really should have been higher. When your dad, who is returning into a costar in this pogrom, learned that i had read your book three times he sent me a message and said you really think that reading my daughters book three times is enough . [laughter] i dont know whether it was enough or not but what is clear tonight is that pittsburgh cant get enough of you. [applause] though the topic was a serious one i hope this was a successful homecoming for you and as you can tell from the reactions of the people in the room we really do applaud all of your great accomplishments and your many important contributions of impact and we look forward to continuing to read what you write in columns or in books and are glad you are a proud daughter of pittsburgh. Thank you so much. [applause] thank you. You do not need to stand up. I just want to thank all of you so much for coming. Ive been in a lot of fancy places in the past year and there is nowhere i would rather be than in this room with all of you. I just am so touched to see so many of you here and i really hope you know that this message of following the lead of what our community here has modeled is one i take everywhere i go come. Everywhere. I really am just so, so proud to be from this community and really grateful. Thank you all for coming. [applause] [inaudible conversations] you are watching book tv on cspan2. For complete Television Schedule visit booktv. Org. You can also follow along by the scenes on social media booktvla on twitter, instagram and facebook. A very warm welcome to the first lecture of the general society, labor, literature and landmark lecture series. I am karen taylor, pogrom director of the general society. The laboret, literature and landmark lectures are supported in part by public funds from the new york city depart
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