I accept Steve’s amendment to the paragraph in my post about UCLA:
It is true that Jews were central to the Nazi attack on universities and on everything in society; I did not mean to suggest otherwise. (One reason the Holocaust is not a generalized assault on many groups is that the Jews were the central obsession; the Nazis dragged other groups along). Saying the Nazi attack on universities was not “exclusively” about the Jews better captures what I tried to say.
My broader point stands: The Nazis destroyed their universities through many efforts and tactics aside from or in addition to excluding Jews (even if Judenhaase was the main tactic and even it was the primary motivator). By making the Nazi example only about Jews (as opposed to state diktat) in his 2024 remarks, Frenk missed the bigger picture and, potentially, the current threat of government attempting to control who and what teaches and is taught. Which is why I fear how willing or able UCLA will be to hold the line.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on August 3, 2025 at 08:52 AM