Campus Week: Anti-Semitism and the Birth of Jewish Studies

The 1960s were an exciting time to be a college student in America. But not for academic reasons. This was especially true at the University of Michigan, where I was a graduate student in 1962 and from 1964 to 1970. The Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements disrupted the “business as usual” atmosphere on campuses across the United States, none more so than at Michigan. Yet, as I look back at these tumultuous times, what I most remember are the wonderful friends I made, the tension and pressure I felt as I slogged along trying to finish my doctorate, and my frustration with the ambivalent attitudes toward Jewish identity and Jewish activism displayed by my Jewish peers and Jewish faculty members. Most especially, the opposition toward me and a few like-minded Jewish friends as we pushed for a Jewish studies program at the university.

The first time I encountered a reaction to my being Jewish was in a history master’s degree seminar in 1962. When the professor asked each of us what we planned on researching and writing about, my answer was “a history of the Jews in Detroit” (which later became the subject of my doctorate). The professor then asked me if I knew Yiddish. When I replied “yes,” I remember the look on the faces of the non-Jews in the class. It varied from surprise to open-mouthed astonishment. After all Rockaway is not exactly a well-known Jewish family name, and I didn’t look like the stereotypical image of the Jew. I didn’t sport side locks, or have a particularly long nose. The look on the faces of the few Jews in the class was something else. They all blushed. I wondered why they reacted in this way.

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