As Jewish historians, we see only one path forward — Trump must be removed from office
People pass signs of support near the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. on January 10, 2021. By ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/Getty Images
As scholars of Jewish studies, we are deeply attuned to the convulsions of modern history. We are also cautious about making historical analogies that smooth over the rough crevices of the past. And yet, after witnessing Wednesday’s attempted putsch at the Capitol, it is impossible not to be reminded of the grave dangers of complicity, both active and passive, with an unhinged and egomaniacal autocrat. We know well how such forms of complicity proved deadly to Jews in the 20th century.
On Wednesday, an unruly mob, animated both by anti-democratic sensibilities and white supremacy, marched through the halls of the Capitol with a confederate flag, set up a noose across from the Capitol and donned shirts mocking the Holocaust. They ransacked offices, defaced the rotunda, occupied the congressional chambers and took selfies to normalize their hatred inside our nation’s greatest edifice of democracy.
The fact is that members of Congress, law enforcement officials and the rioters themselves all bear degrees of responsibility for yesterday’s travesty. Of course, the chief culprit is Donald J. Trump, who long ago abdicated any meaningful commitment to the presidential oath of office “to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.” His incitement of the angry mob warrants immediate removal from office, either through impeachment or enactment of the 25th Amendment.
Furthermore, it would be an abdication of responsibility not to censure those Senators and Congresspeople who so recklessly perpetuated the lie of a stolen election that has shaken the foundations of American democracy to the core. And it is necessary to investigate the manifold failures of the various law enforcement agencies in Washington to anticipate the angry mob and prevent it from breaking into the Capitol.
We know well how lethal it can be to fail to call out complicity with corrupt and immoral regimes. We know how dangerous it is to ignore the steep erosion of democratic values and principles in this country over the past four years. And we condemn — in the strongest possible terms — the culture of violence and hate that white supremacy has produced in this country. The time has come to restore legitimacy to government and the rule of law by holding to account those responsible for yesterday’s violent insurrection.
Signed,
David N. Myers, UCLA
Todd Presner, UCLA
Mara Benjamin, Mount Holyoke College
Lila Corwin Berman, Temple University
Corinne Blackmer, Southern Connecticut State University
Barry Trachtenberg, Wake Forest University
Beth Wenger, University of Pennsylvania
Miriam Mora, Independent Scholar
Ra’anan Boustan, Princeton University
Joshua Shanes, College of Charleston
Hasia Diner, New York University
Ross Brann, Cornell University
Susannah Heschel, Dartmouth College
Rachel Deblinger, UCLA
Andrea Lieber, Dickinson College
Martin Kavka, Florida State University
Devi Mays, University of Michigan
Jonathan Judaken, Rhodes College
David Teutsch, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College
Jessica Cooperman, Muhlenberg College
Robert Weinberg, Swarthmore College
Rachel Baum, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Pamela Nadell, American University
Hannah Greene, New York University
Rachel Rafeal Neis, University of Michigan
Kirsten Fermaglich, Michigan State University
Jeffrey Veidlinger, University of Michigan
Nora Rubel, University of Rochester
Sebastian Wogenstein, University of Connecticut
Douglas Morris, Independent Scholar
Darcy Buerkle, Smith College
Anita Norich, University of Michigan
Daniel Schwartz, George Washington University
Mir Yarfitz, Wake Forest University
Gail Reimer, Jewish Women’s Archive
Dov Weiss, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Benjamin Schreier, Pennsylvania State University
Hartley Lachter, Lehigh University
Elliot Ratzman, Grinnell College
Jonathan Boyarin, Cornell University
Krista Dalton, Kenyon College
Mark Bauman, Atlanta Metropolitan State College
Susan Einbinder, University of Connecticut
Jessica Andruss, University of Virginia
Ronald Bayor, Georgia Tech
Irene Tucker, University of California, Irvine
Diane Wolfthal, Rice University
Lital Levy, Princeton University
Geoffrey Claussen, Elon University
Barbara Mann, Jewish Theological Seminary
Deborah Hertz, University of California, San Diego
Lawrence Rosenwald, Wellesley College
Francesca Bregoli, City University of New York
Camille Shira Angel, University of San Francisco
David Fishman, Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Marc Caplan, Dartmouth College
Nadia Malinovich, CNRS Research University (France)
Alma Heckman, University of California, Santa Cruz
Sarah Willen, University of Connecticut
Miriam Udel, Emory University
Sam Shuman, University of Michigan
Shaul Magid, Dartmouth College
Ruth Tsoffar, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Bruce Rosenstock, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Elissa Sampson, Cornell
Aaron Hahn Tapper, University of San Francisco
Erin Graff Zivin, University of Southern California
Lois Dubin, Smith College
Emil Kerenji, Independent Scholar
Cheryl Greenberg, Trinity College
Schneur Newfield, Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)
Jacob Labendz, Youngstown State University
Joel Gereboff, Arizona State University
Jeffrey Grossman, University of Virginia
Kate Rosenblatt, Emory University
Brett Kaplan, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
Shaul Kelner, Vanderbilt University
Ashley Walters, College of Charleston
Marion Kaplan, New York University
Joel Berkowitz, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
David Biale, University of California, Davis
Talya Fishman, University of Pennsylvania
Nathaniel Berman, Brown University
Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University
Ronnie Grinberg, University of Oklahoma
Jeffrey Blutinger, California State University Long Beach
Sarah Zarrow, Western Washington University
Marjorie N. Feld, Babson College
Riv-Ellen Prell, University of Minnesota
Libby Garland, Kingsborough Community College (CUNY)
Liora Halperin, University of Washington
Jason Lustig, University of Texas at Austin
Sasha Senderovich, University of Washington
Michael Rothberg, UCLA
Diane Wolf, University of California, Davis
Karen Grumberg, University of Texas at Austin
Elissa Bemporad, Queens College and The Graduate Center (CUNY)
Ofer Ashkenazi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Ava Kahn, Chayes Productions
Ilana Abramovitch, Borough of Manhattan Community College (CUNY)
Ari Y Kelman, Stanford University
Oren Kroll-Zeldin, University of San Francisco
Alexis Herr, University of San Francisco
Amie Espen Dowling, University of San Francisco
Susanne Hoelscher, University of San Francisco
Camille Shira Angel, University of San Francisco
Judith Gerson, Rutgers University
Karla Goldman, University of Michigan
Laura Levitt, Temple University
Dov Waxman, UCLA
Sarah Anne Minkin, University of California, Berkeley
Zohar Weiman-Kelman, Ben Gurion University
Amanda Ruppenthal Stein, Carroll University
Elliot Neaman, University of San Francisco
Sander Gilman, Emory University
Michal Raucher, Rutgers University
Shawn Landres, Jumpstart Labs
Todd Endelman, University of Michigan
Katherine Sorrels, University of Cincinnati
Jonathan Krasner, Brandeis University
Tim Langille, Arizona State University
Camille Shira Angel, University of San Francisco
Paula Birnbaum, University of San Francisco
Jessica Marglin, University of Southern California
Sarah Benor, Hebrew Union College
Deborah Dash Moore, University of Michigan
Diana Linden, Independent Scholar
Sandra Fox, Stanford University
Shana Sippy, Centre College
Dalit Gvirtsman, University of San Francisco
Dina Rosenfeld, NYU
Adrienne Krone, Allegheny College
Mark Baker, Monash University
Paula Sanders, Rice University
Leslie Morris, University of Minnesota
Maya Soifer Irish, Rice University
Alexandra Zirkle, University at Buffalo
Tally Amir, Boston University
Atina Grossmann, Cooper Union
Shirley Idelson, Brandeis University
Keren McGinity, Hadassah-Brandeis Institute
Curtis Hutt, University of Nebraska at Omaha
Paula Sanders, Rice University
Brian Ogren, Rice University
Julie Harris, Independent Scholar
Glenn Dynner, Sarah Lawrence College
Susan Shapiro, The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Zachary Braiterman, Syracuse University
ChaeRan Freeze, Brandeis University
Jack Jacobs, John Jay College and the Graduate Center (CUNY)
Debra Schultz, CUNY
Eugene Sheppard, Brandeis University
Yair Mintzker, Princeton University
Leslie Morris, University of Minnesota
Golan Moskowitz, Tulane University
Marsha Rozenblit, University of Maryland
Mira Sucharov, Carleton University
Harry Kashdan, The Ohio State University
Adam Shear, University of Pittsburgh
Judith Steinhoff, University of Houston
Jessica Carr, Lafayette College
Shari Rabin, Oberlin College
Elias Sacks, University of Colorado Boulder
Andrew Bush, Vassar College
Alyssa Henning, Independent Scholar
Arlene Stein, Rutgers University
Lori Gemeiner Bihler, Framingham State University
Bernard Levinson, University of Minnesota
Noam Sienna, University of St. Thomas
Colby Townsend, Indiana University Bloomington
Shana Minkin, University of the South
Ranen Omer-Sherman, University of Louisville
Michael Rom, University of Cape Town
Ashley Bacchi, Starr King School for the Ministry
Eva Mroczek, University of California, Davis
Leah Garrett, Hunter College, CUNY
Karen Auerbach, University of North Carolina
Julia Watts Belser, Georgetown University
Claire Sufrin, Northwestern University
Joel Rubin, Associate Professor, McIntire Department of Music, University of Virginia
Marc Dollinger, San Francisco State University
Avinoam Patt, University of Connecticut
Robin Doroshow, Jewish Historical Society of the Upper Midwest
David Zvi Kalman, Shalom Hartman Institute of North America
Tracy M. Lemos, University of Western Ontario
Michael DeVries, Azusa Pacific University
Neta Stahl, Johns Hopkins University
Philip Yoo, The University of Texas at Austin
Nick Underwood, The College of Idaho
Sarah Stein, UCLA
Joshua Furman, Rice University
Deb Donig, Cal Poly
Laura Yares, Michigan State
William Plevan, Gratz College
Rachel Kranson, University of Pittsburgh
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