How Academics Can Show Support for Israel at Graduation Ceremonies

Last year, as the 2023-2024 academic year came to an end, I was feeling fortunate to be teaching at the Rochester Institute of Technology, a school that had successfully stopped the anti-Israel madness that had taken over much of academia. Since several friends had children who were completing their degrees, I decided to attend the graduation ceremony, something I hadn't done since the pandemic.

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But marching in an academic ceremony posed a problem since faculty are expected to wear their academic regalia. My New York University doctoral robe stands out in a crowd. It is purple (for the NYU Violets, truly a fearsome mascot) with black panels bearing 2 badges with the school's symbol and the year 1831 denoting its founding year. But as an NYU alumnus who is somewhere between disillusioned and disgusted with my alma mater, I have lost the pride I once felt wearing it.

NYU has been on a downward spiral in the last two decades, becoming a hub of anti-Israel activism. With its Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, Iranian Studies Initiative, and Middle East and Islamic Studies department, NYU is the embodiment of the Palestinization of academia. In 2020, after it had become clear that NYU had turned against Israel in every conceivable way, I began referring to it as the Gaza of Greenwich Village.

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I could have rented a plain black doctoral robe and blended in with the crowd, but instead I chose to wear my outfit, after making a minor alteration signifying my feelings about NYU by attaching a 2" x 3" Israeli flag over one of the torch badges. Call it restorative justice.

I considered using hook-and-loop tape to secure it, but in order to make it more permanent, I sewed it on. I was ready for the ceremony.

When the chair of my department couldn't attend the ceremony and asked for volunteers to take his place, I offered to fill in.

In the end, I was tasked with walking in the procession, leading the English majors on stage, and then shaking their hands while giving them their "diplomas" (faux leather slip covers with a letter indicating that their actual diplomas would arrive soon).

Considering all the garish outfits academics wear at convocations, a minor alteration such as mine probably went largely unnoticed. From those who did notice, I received a few evil-eyed glares, but no one said anything negative to me. In fact, the feedback was overwhelmingly positive – quite a few thumbs up, a couple high fives, and many knowing smiles. One colleague hugged me with tears in her eyes.

I later wondered what would have happened if I had worn the outfit to an NYU graduation, or an Ivy League graduation.

RIT has no Middle East studies department and no SJP chapter. Very few of the faculty are in favor of eliminating Israel and promoting Hamas. According to the AMCHA Anti-Zionist Barometer, RIT has a nearly perfect record of 0 or "Negligible" with "Little to no anti-Zionist faculty presence/activity found." It has no "Faculty for Justice in Palestine" (FJP) chapter, has issued no FJP statements, and held no FJP activities. No departments have issued statements condemning or calling for an academic boycott of Israel. The only stain on its otherwise-perfect record comes from five faculty members who have "endorsed a publicly-accessible statement or petition in support of an academic boycott of Israel."

By contrast, NYU is at the top of the AMCHA barometer, listed as the number 1 anti-Zionist campus in America, with the highest possible score of 5 or "Extreme." It has a chapter of "Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine," has held 30 FJP events and issued 14 FJP statements. Worst of all, NYU has 127 faculty boycotters (the most of any school on the barometer), making the NYU motto Perstare et Praestare ("To Persevere and Excel") true but bitterly ironic.

Academics of America, if you have ever felt shame over how your profession has responded to October 7...

If you oppose an Intifada in America...

If you believe the terrorist organization Hamas must be annihilated...

If you believe Israel has a right to exist...

In short, if you are not a fashionable anti-Zionist...

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Then I invite you to join me this graduation season by attaching an Israeli flag to your doctoral robe – on the left side, over your heart. Be part of a silent, dignified response to the last two years of protests, demonstrations, encampments, and intimidation masquerading as righteousness and protected under the aegis of academic freedom. Use your academic freedom to let the Mahmoud Khalils, Joseph Massads, and Bassam Haddads of the world know that you stand with Israel and against Hamas.

The more severe the anti-Zionism on your campus, the more courage it will take, but that's where it is needed the most. And the more anti-Zionist the school where you earned your Ph.D., the better your robe will look.

An Israeli flag will help remove some of the antisemitic stink from a Yale University doctoral robe. The blue-on-blue color scheme looks good too.

Original Image: Hstoops, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

An Israeli flag will help restore some dignity to a Harvard University robe, which even Harvard's president would probably agree is necessary.

Original Image: Hstoops, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

It stands out nicely on an orange Princeton University robe.

Original Image: Hstoops, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

And it matches perfectly with a baby blue Columbia University robe, where it is probably needed the most.

Original Image: Hstoops, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Send a photo of yourself in your properly-altered doctoral outfit, to aj@investigativeproject.org the Investigative Project on Terrorism and we'll put it on our website. Extra points for photos from the ceremony.

And congratulations on completing the 2024-2025 academic year and standing up to the mob.

Chief IPT Political Correspondent A.J. Caschetta is a principal lecturer at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a fellow at Campus Watch, a project of the Middle East Forum where he is also a Milstein fellow.