Dear Chancellor Diermeier:

On October 7, Hamas terrorists tortured, raped, and murdered at least 1,200 men, women, and children in Israel. It was the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust and it has profoundly impacted Vanderbilt’s Jewish community, including the alumni who write to you today. Your initial response was grossly insensitive and deeply disturbing. While we were relieved to see you issue a better statement two weeks later, our community needs more than words as the aftereffects spill over onto campus. Vanderbilt must define and denounce antisemitism and take meaningful action to protect Jewish students.

In the wake of October 7 and Israel’s subsequent war against Hamas, Vanderbilt’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) received official permission to display graphic imagery including bloody body bags on Rand Yard, along with signage accusing Israel of "genocide." These displays were designed to make Jewish students feel unsafe and you allowed them to be placed a few yards from the Ben Schulman Center for Jewish Life. SJP openly supports terrorism and celebrates the 10/7 massacre of Jews. This organization calls for the destruction of the Jewish State - and all the Jews in it - “from the river to the sea.”  

We understand you endeavor to maintain institutional neutrality on controversial issues unrelated to the core mission and functioning of the university. This is a laudable goal, as are your related commitments to open forums and civil discourse. Surely you must acknowledge that antisemitism and racism of any kind run counter to the core mission and functioning of the university.

The Vanderbilt Student Handbook explicitly prohibits discrimination and discriminatory harassment based on, among other things, race, religion, or national or ethnic origin. By failing to define antisemitism, you effectively give license to all manner of discrimination and discriminatory harassment against Jewish or Israeli students. This ambiguity does not serve anyone, including passionate anti-Israel students who wish to make their voices heard without crossing the line to antisemitic rhetoric because they simply do not know where the line is.

Thankfully there is an internationally-accepted working definition of antisemitism from the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. It has been embraced by the United States, the European Union, dozens of countries, and thousands of institutions around the world. Last year, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee signed a bill into law formally adopting IHRA on the state level and authorizing schools to utilize the definition for this very purpose.

Vanderbilt must unequivocally denounce antisemitism, adopt the IHRA working definition, and commit to meaningful collaboration with the Jewish community, such as participation in Hillel International’s Campus Climate Initiative.

Refusing to define and denounce antisemitism at a time when antisemitic hate crimes are rising in our state and across the country is a moral failure. An institution that enables antisemitism can be neither principled nor neutral.