Monday, November 01, 2004

Their schools are like ours 

An ex-pat teaching at Oxbridge writes of his experiences with anti-Semitism:

I have been shocked to discover that anti-American sentiment -- clearly intensified by the Iraq war -- is often laced with the kind of subtle, dinner-party anti-Semitism that once pervaded Ivy League universities at home, and that hostility toward Israel, the United States, and Jews -- across space and time -- often get jumbled into one general argument.

Even in polite conversation one is apt to hear smart people speculating about the pervasive influence that Jews exercise over the American media and foreign-policy
establishment.

I am pleased to report, however, that I've heard more of this from adults than from students. Perhaps the younger generation shares a broader outlook, rooted in a more cosmopolitan university culture. Or maybe we're just teaching them well.

All of that makes it dicey, at times, to be teaching abroad.

It can be dicier than that, even here.

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