January 31, 2017
As Jewish Studies faculty at UCLA, we condemn the recent Executive Order by President Trump to deny access to immigrants and refugees from seven, predominantly Muslim countries. As scholars of the Jewish past, we know all too well what the consequences have been when Jews have been denied entry to countries merely on the basis of their religious or ethnic identity. We also remember well that the United States, in a number of dark points in its twentieth-century history, denied entry to Jews fleeing oppression. In light of that past, we are especially mindful of the dangers when our country, founded on the principles of liberty and justice for all, engages in discriminatory practices against select groups, whether based on religion, nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, sexuality, or anything else. We call on the President of the United States to rescind this Executive Order immediately and to cease any discriminatory practices and inflammatory rhetoric directed against Muslim citizens, residents, and visitors to the United States.
Signed:
Carol Bakhos, Professor of Ancient Judaism and Jewish Studies, UCLA
Aomar Boum, Associate Professor of Anthropology, UCLA
Lia Brozgal, Associate Professor of French and Francophone Studies, UCLA
Jessica Goldberg, Associate Professor of History, UCLA
David G. Hirsch, Librarian for Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies, Charles E. Young Research LIbrary, UCLA
Mark Kligman, Professor of Ethnomusicology and Musicology, UCLA Mickey Katz Endowed Chair in Jewish Music
Daniel Stein Kokin, Viterbi Visiting Professor of Mediterranean Jewish Studies, UCLA
Caroline Luce, Ross Postdoctoral Fellow, Leve Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA
Aliza Luft, Assistant Professor of Sociology, UCLA
David N. Myers, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Professor of Jewish History, UCLA
Todd Samuel Presner, Sady and Ludwig Kahn Director, UCLA Alan D. Leve Center for Jewish Studies, Professor Germanic Languages, UCLA
Michael Rothberg, 1939 Society Samuel Goetz Chair in Holocaust Studies and Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UCLA
Yona Sabar, Professor of Hebrew and Aramaic, UCLA
Susan Slyomovics, Distinguished Professor of Anthropology and Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Saba Soomekh, Associate Director of Research, Leve Center for Jewish Studies, UCLA
Sarah Abrevaya Stein, Professor of History and Maurice Amado Chair in Sephardic Studies, UCLA