The College Fix

Rabbi says Oberlin College is heading to another ‘costly lawsuit’ much like its $36 million one with Gibson’s Bakery

Oberlin College students can learn about “Jews and Power” this spring in a four-credit course.

“Popular conceptions” of “Jews and power” can focus on “sympathetic accounts” that “view Jews as perennial victims,” the course description states.

Or the conceptions can focus on a “hostile/antisemitic” view that “Jews” are “overly or preternaturally powerful,” according to the course description at the private Ohio college.

Instead, this class will “complicate that bipolar framework by exploring a more diverse range of encounters between Jews and power from antiquity to the present,” the course description states.

Matthew Berkman, a Jewish Studies professor, will teach the course.

He did not respond to an email and phone call from The College Fix in the past several weeks that asked for his motivation behind the class and for a syllabus.

In addition, Berkman (pictured) is set to teach a course titled “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict” this semester. He has been affiliated, including as an organizer, with Jewish Voice for Peace, which tends to support pro-Palestinian efforts and oppose Israel.

Spokeswoman Andrea also did not respond to an email and phone call in the past several weeks.

An Orthodox rabbi criticized the course in emailed comments to The Fix.

He also brought up the lawsuit the college lost to local Gibson’s Bakery after school officials falsely maligned it as racist after a family member and employee stopped three black students who were stealing alcohol.

“Oberlin recently got a $36 million lesson in how using DEI to decide what is or isn’t racism and bigotry is a bad idea, yet it is setting itself up for another costly lawsuit,” Rabbi Yaakov Menken told The Fix via email.

“The belief that Jews operate as a single, hostile unit, disloyal to society and manipulating others to serve their own ends, is a telltale sign of antisemitic bias,” Rabbi Menken said.

“In accordance with annals of Jew-hatred, the course takes for granted that ‘Jews’ can be seen as a block, who have a ‘relationship’ with power that is somehow different than that of the Irish, Italian, or even German communities,” Menken said.

Menken suggests the course will create an unwelcoming environment for Jewish students attending the college.

“If it is not cancelled, the university is directly responsible for creating a hostile environment on campus, making a mockery of its obligations under Title VI,” Menken, executive vice president of the Coalition for Jewish Values, told The Fix.

Referencing the new presidential administration, Menken said the Title VI problems are “something that legislators and the Trump Administration should consider seriously before sending further tax dollars to Oberlin.”

Professor Berkman, who will teach the course, has a history of activism and association with anti-Israel groups, according to the pro-Israel group Canary Mission.

For example, Berkman has been a member of Jewish Voice for Peace in Philadelphia, lobbying in support of “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions.”

He also said during a 2017 rally it remained “taboo” to criticize Israel, even in “liberal society.”

“In 2017, Berkman participated in two anti-Israel rallies that were organized by JVP Philly,” Canary Mission reported.

He has his doctorate in political science from the University of Pennsylvania. While there, he wrote his dissertation on “Coercive Consensus: Jewish Federations, Ethnic Representation, and the Roots of American Pro-Israel Politics,” according to his curriculum vitae.

Other courses taught at Oberlin include “Jewish Identity and American Politics,” “Antisemitism and White Supremacy,” and “Zionisms,” according to his CV.

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IMAGE: Jewish Voice for Peace Philadelphia/Facebook

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