In Toronto recently, a Jewish woman received her MA from the University of Toronto with a thesis entitled:
The Victimhood of the Powerful:
White Jews, Zionism and the Racism of Hegemonic Holocaust Education
(available at https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/24619/1/Peto_Jennifer_201006_MA_thesis.pdf)
The woman, Jennifer Peto, is a member of "Jews Against Israel Apartheid" and the basic contention of her thesis is that Jews, in their own interest, attempt to maintain a world perception that they are subject to anti-Semitism, thus discriminated against and persecuted, although they really are not, in fact are now persecutors.
As you can imagine, the Jewish community responded negatively to this both in terms of the statements of Ms. Peto and in regard to the University of Toronto for giving this document a sense of legitimacy as an academic work. In the future, I hope to publish an article reflecting my views on this matter but I thought it would be interesting to offer to the blog readership the opportunity to review the thesis on their own and to develop their own opinions. The question is not just whether Ms. Peto is correct or not, but whether her arguments even have enough academic and/or intellectual muscle to be voiced and recognized as deserving of a graduate degree.
Rabbi Ben Hecht
1 comment:
I am non-Jewish and not familiar with the Israeli-Palestinian affairs. I read this thesis and it struck me as a poorly written, argued, often going off-topic term paper. I agree with the question stated by Rabbi Ben Hecht and I say she could be very wrong in what she argues for but could have done a much better job doing so. It is amusing this psychotic rambling was recognized as worthy of a degree of any kind. It also reflects poorly on her academic advisor, basic mistakes were not corrected.
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