After Reversal, Honor Is Likely for Kushner

[oberliner]

Under mounting pressure, the City University of New York board of trustees moved on Friday to reverse its decision earlier this week to withhold an honorary degree from the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Tony Kushner because of one trustee’s concerns about Mr. Kushner’s views regarding Israel.

Benno C. Schmidt Jr., chairman of the CUNY board since 2003, said in a statement that he believed the board had “made a mistake of principle, and not merely of policy,” in failing to approve the degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at its meeting on Monday. Mr. Schmidt scheduled a meeting for this coming Monday of the board’s seven-member executive committee, which has the power to reconsider any board decision that is detrimental to the university.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/07/nyregion/after-reversal-honor-is-likely-for-kushner.html

[Ken Burch]

1. Good for them. Thanks for posting this.

Perhaps this will lead to some "Glasnost" on this issue.

[oberliner]

2. I think it will

Well chosen language there.

[oberliner]

3. Transcript of CUNY Trustee’s Speech on Kushner Award

The Board of Trustees of the City University of New York has set off an intense debate following its decision to block an honorary degree for the playwright Tony Kushner.

The decision on Monday came after one of the trustees, Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld, claimed that Mr. Kushner held views that were unfairly critical of Israel. Here is a transcript of the speech Mr. Wiesenfeld delivered before the board took a vote on the honorary degree.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/transcript-of-cuny-trustees-speech-on-kushner-award/?partner=rss&emc=rss

[oberliner]

4. The Mindset Of Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld

To say I am embarrassed to be defending Tony Kushner is an understatement. I was one of very few gay men with HIV who found Angels in America to be pretentious, boring propaganda, and like most propaganda, endless and laden with stereotypes and cartoon figures. In the internecine fights in the gay movement in the 1990s, we were on opposite sides. I'd rather have pins stuck in my eyes than attend his new play, ominously titled "The Intelligent Homosexual's Guide to Capitalism and Socialism With a Key to the Scriptures," which like other Important Plays, clocks in at four hours. His sad attempt to exonerate traitors like the Rosenbergs was once perverse; now it just seems at odds with reality. I have no beef with him personally, I should add, although after writing all that, he may feel somewhat differently toward me.

Nonetheless, I really despise the way he has been used by an extremist who has no business being on any board at CUNY. It's only about an honorary degree, and Kushner must be able to wallpaper his living room with them by now. But it's also about a mindset and an argument that truly need to be debunked and tackled and refuted.

The argument is that any criticism of Israel is extremist and a function of anti-Semitism if you are a goy and self-hatred if you are Jewish.

Given the growing religious radicalism in Israel, its corrupting refusal to give up land conquered in war, its insistence on populating that land with its own people, and its brutal bombardment of Gaza two and a half years ago ... how on earth can criticism of these actions and policies be self-evidently motivated by anti-Semitism or extremism?

http://andrewsullivan.thedailybeast.com/2011/05/the-mind-of-jeffrey-s-wiesenfeld.html

[oberliner]

5. Andrew Sullivan owes Yitzhak Shamir an apology

Andrew Sullivan, weighing in on the Tony Kushner-CUNY-Jeffrey Wiesenfeld controversy, makes claims today about Yitzhak Shamir, the former prime minister, that struck me as odd.

Sullivan is decrying Wiesenfeld's dehumanization of the Palestinians (which we cover here -- Wiesenfeld later tried to nuance it.)

The Daily Beast blogger is trying to make the case that Jews can be as racist as anyone else (which of course is true), but I suppose he hopes to show how institutionalized it is, so he needs an ex-PM.

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2011/05/06/3087593/andrew-sullivan-owes-yitzhak-shamir-an-apology

Not all that surprised to see this little exchange.

[oberliner]

6. After Kushner Stumble, CUNY Tries to Dust Itself Off

Having embarrassed themselves more than was absolutely necessary in the eyes of many New Yorkers, trustees of the City University of New York are gathering Monday evening to undo the damage.

The issue is an honorary doctorate that a university campus, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, wanted to give to the playwright Tony Kushner.

Out of nowhere, the university’s board of trustees blocked the honor last week after hearing one of its members carry on about how Mr. Kushner was not sufficiently pro-Israel — at least as defined by this trustee, Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld.

The board’s action touched off gales of outrage from those New Yorkers who felt that Mr. Kushner, along with concepts of fair play and free expression, had been mugged. After all, he was to be honored as a giant of the American theater, they said; instead, he was punished because his politics did not meet the standards set by one trustee.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/09/clyde-haberman-the-day/?partner=rss&emc=rss

[oberliner]

7. Tony Kushner and the corporatisation of CUNY

On Monday evening, 9 May 2011, CUNY reversed its earlier decision to withhold an honorary degree from Tony Kushner after trustee Jeffrey Wiesenfeld had argued the playwright was too critical of Israel. Despite the controversy, Kushner has reportedly said he will accept the award. Photograph: Jeff Chiu/AP

The taboo surrounding critical discussion of Israel in the United States never ceases to amaze me. But when the Board of Trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY) recently decided not to grant an honorary degree to Pulitzer-Prize winning playwright Tony Kushner because of his views on Israel, it felt personal.

Three months ago, I found myself at the center of a similar controversy over my appointment to teach a course in Middle East Politics at Brooklyn College, a CUNY school. Lacking any evidence to support the charge, a local politician described me as "pro-suicide bomber" and pressed for my dismissal. Within 48 hours and before I had held a single session of the course, the college administration intervened to cancel my appointment. My case set off a groundswell of support from academics and activists around the world and Brooklyn College eventually reinstated me just in time for classes to begin.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/10/tony-kushner-new-york

[oberliner]

8. It's official: CUNY Authorizes Honorary Degree for Tony Kushner

The Executive Committee of the board of the City University of New York voted Monday evening to authorize the John Jay College of Criminal Justice to award an honorary degree to Tony Kushner, reversing a controversial board decision of a week ago. The previous vote -- prompted by a single trustee who said Kushner was anti-Israel -- angered many faculty members and other artists and intellectuals who said that Kushner's views on Israel were irrelevant to the reason he was being honored (as a playwright) and that the trustee had distorted Kushner's views. Many faculty members also criticized other CUNY officials for remaining silent while Kushner was attacked at the meeting.

At Monday night's meeting, Matthew Goldstein, the chancellor of CUNY, offered a strong endorsement of honoring Kushner. "As anyone who has experienced Mr. Kushner’s work knows, he is not afraid to provoke, to reveal emotion at the gut level, but always to the higher purpose of creating for audiences the chorus of voices and complexity of intent that define our collective humanity," Goldstein said. "His expression is grounded in compassion, empathy, and intellectual rigor. In the spirit of all great artists, he challenges orthodoxy, confronts assumptions, and tests certainties, and, in so doing, ignites our imaginations, illuminates issues and ideas, and expands our vision — whether or not we agree with him, whether or not we take exception to some of his conclusions. I believe that in many ways this is also the highest ideal of the university — a search for knowledge and understanding that values questions, dialogue, and dissent."

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/05/10/qt

[oberliner]

9. Kushner Debacle Won’t Be the Last of Its Kind

Now that trustees of the City University of New York have done their best to put the Tony Kushner debacle behind them, New Yorkers can rest assured that artistry will never again be put to a political litmus test and that people in positions of authority will never shrink from speaking up when they sense an injustice.

Right?

How else is that question to be answered except with two positives that form a negative: Yeah, right.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/05/10/kushner-debacle-wont-be-the-last-of-its-kind/?partner=rss&emc=rss

[oberliner]

10. Literary Smackdown: Tony Kushner vs. CUNY

One has to imagine that CUNY faculty and administrators are grateful that it’s nearly summer vacation. The current academic year has been a difficult one, with a wave of controversies centered around the murky overlap of intellectualism, free speech, and popular—and unpopular—opinion, all within the confines of a publicly funded university system. In September, it was the assigning to freshman of Moustafa Bayoumi’s book “How Does It Feel To Be A Problem? Being Young and Arab in America,” which was decried by alums as anti-Israel indoctrination. In January, it was the views of Professor Kristofer Petersen-Overton, who was hired to teach Middle Eastern politics, removed by the CUNY board for his views on Israel (a New York politician labeled him a “pro-suicide bomber”), and eventually reinstated.

tonyKushner.jpgAnd now it’s Tony Kushner, the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright sitting at the center of the biggest controversy of all (the past week’s media firestorm has been pretty hard to miss). Kushner was slated to receive an honorary degree from John Jay College in June, but when the decision was brought before the CUNY Board of Trustees last week, objections from a single, vocal board member led the committee to table the nomination, which was, according to a CUNY vice chancellor, the first time they’ve done so since 1961.

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2011/05/literary-smackdown-tony-kushner-vs-cuny-1.html#ixzz1M3knpLrt

Lots of great ink on this.

Hope folks appreciate the updates!