Barbara J. Risman felt that the atmosphere among University of Illinois faculty after October 7 was too much for her to bear as a Jew. Her colleagues secretly tell her she’s right
"Prof. Barbara J. Risman never expected to retire early from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a place she’s called her “beloved academic home” for the past 17 years.
A College of Arts & Sciences distinguished professor of sociology, Risman was committed to the university’s social justice mission. But after the October 7 Hamas onslaught on southern Israel, both subtle and overt displays of anti-Israel and antisemitic behavior have gripped the campus to the point that Risman finds she no longer recognizes the institution.
"Risman, who spent more than 10 years co-chairing the university-wide committee on faculty equity and once enjoyed a longstanding affiliation with the Department of Women and Gender Studies, recently penned an opinion piece for The Chicago Tribune about her experience.
“UIC is no longer an institution comfortable for me, as a Jew who believes Israel has a right to exist,” Risman said, adding that according to the American Jewish Committee, more than 80 percent of Jews in America share her belief. “When university departments and programs publish statements implying support for the destruction of the state where more than half of all Jews alive today live, they have crossed the line from simple micro-aggressions against Jewish students and faculty to outright institutional antisemitism,” Risman wrote in her op-ed." . . .
"There was no mention of antisemitism, the terrorist killings, or the 252 hostages taken, she said.
“When it comes to Jews, they do not care. Antisemitism is not considered one of those ‘isms’ the university has to be concerned about,” Risman said"
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