Conservative backlash against Brown president's remarks not shared by all Jewish students

An accusation that Brown University President Christina Paxson deliberately omitted references to Jewish people in her remarks to students during a vigil this week for a Palestinian student shot in Vermont has attracted a wave of negative attention from conservative national media.

That outrage, however, is not shared by Jewish students and leaders who spoke to The Providence Journal.

What happened at the vigil?

Monday’s vigil was for Hisham Awartani, a junior at Brown who was one of three Palestinian young men shot on the evening of Saturday, Nov. 25, near the University of Vermont campus in Burlington in an attack police say may be a hate crime.

A copy of Paxson's prepared remarks for the vigil shows she was originally to say, “At a faculty meeting last month, I said that ‘Every student, faculty and staff member should be able to proudly wear a Star of David or don a keffiyeh on the Brown campus, or to cover their head with a hijab or yarmulke.’”

But after students began shouting at her and demanding Brown divest from investments that support Israel, she omitted the words “Star of David” and “yarmulke” from the prepared remarks, instead saying: “I was going to say that at a faculty meeting last month, I said that ‘Every student, faculty and staff member should be able to proudly don a keffiyeh on the Brown campus or to cover their head with a hijab.’”

Social media and conservative groups pick up on the change

Since the vigil, the National Review, The Washington Free Beacon, FOX News and The Daily Mail, conservative news organizations, have run stories pointing out the change.

The Daily Mail said Paxson “deliberately cut out the Jewish-related words from the speech.” The Free Beacon claimed she removed “criticism of antisemitism.”

Posts about the controversy on X, formerly known as Twitter, have garnered thousands of reactions, including comments saying it is an example of antisemitism and that Paxson should resign or be fired.

Earlier parts of the speech referenced attacks in Israel and Jewish people

Paxson, who is Jewish, did reference Jewish people earlier in her speech, saying “The drumbeat of news since that awful, horrible day in early October has been an incredible burden for everyone in this community to bear, learning about the suffering and deaths of so many Palestinian civilians, many of them children, following on the heels of horrific deaths and kidnappings of civilians in Israel,” she said. “No one in this region has been left unscarred and here in this country and even, sadly, on this campus, we’ve seen an increase of hate against Palestinians and Muslims and Jews and others.”

Brown spokesperson Brian Clark blamed the shouting by students for the change. “At the point students began to disrupt the remarks, President Paxson began to abbreviate them with the hope of being able to finish,” he said in an email.

Rabbi accuses conservative groups of stirring up controversy

Some members of Brown’s Jewish community expressed support for Paxson.

Rabbi Howard Voss-Altman of Temple Habonim in Barrington, whose daughter is a Brown student, said he doesn’t believe Paxson meant any ill will. “It was a mistake that could have been made,” he said.

Conservative groups are trying to stir up controversy to discredit left-wing institutions like Brown and divide the Jewish community to garner more votes for right-wing politicians, he said.

Rabbi Joshua Bolton, director of Brown RISD Hillel, said he had no opinion about why Paxson may have made the omission, but thinks she’s been a great champion of Brown’s Jewish community.

A number of people have reached out to Bolton about the change in wording. Some of them are upset, he said, but he hasn’t heard from any students or faculty who are.

Brown senior Theodore Horowitz, who was an author of a letter supporting Israel that has been signed by almost 1000 students and alumni, said Brown has a problem with antisemitism in the student body, but that he doesn’t fault Paxson for the change she made to her speech.

Senior Rachel Blumenstein, a co-author of that letter, said, “I’ve spoken with a bunch of other Jewish students about this. I really don’t think it was an antisemitic omission at all.”

“It’s always important to condemn all forms of hate, obviously including antisemitism,” she added, “but I think at a vigil specifically for a Palestinian student who was targeted for his identity, I honestly don’t think it’s necessary to include those Jewish symbols.”

Noble Brigham is a senior journalism student at Brown. Email him at noble_brigham@brown.edu

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Remarks by Brown's president called anti-semitic, but Jewish students don't agree