Live from the Table: Antisemitism on Campus with Rabbi Jay Michaelson 

As a lawyer, I’m very glad to hear this guy is an ‘ex-lawyer’ … whatever that means

I'm a lawyer. It blows my mind how many people don't comprehend that every accused deserves a lawyer and that has NOTHING to do with the lawyer being 'pro-r#pe' or 'pro-crime' etc. 25 years ago it seemed like EVERYONE understood this. My brother is an ER doctor. He has treated several absolutely HORRIBLE people in his career. Among others one man who r#ped and murdered an 11 year old girl. Does this simpleton seriously contend eg college students would be unsafe around my brother because he treats criminals? I mean it's like the collective IQ in America has just plummeted in the last 25-30 years.

Rabbi Jay doesnt have a consistent argument here. Its a complete doublr standard

Everything depends on context. Saying "it depends on context" only on certain cituations that are politically expedient is a double standard

I was shocking when Noam said, and I’m paraphrasing, “it’s better to let 100 members of Hamas go free than to kill one innocent Palestinian.”

What about the kids this got accepted to Harvard and then they were caught on a private text that they posted racist memes. Their acceptance was overturned.

Congratulations for making it on to the BDS list for 2024 🤗🎉

I don't care so much about if it *does* violate campus policy on bullying and harassment as much as it *should.* Letter of the law vs spirit of the law. Imagine how different things would've been if just one of those presidents said "I don't think it violates the policy today but I'm willing to put together a task force that will investigate any potential gaps or areas that need improvement in our policy." Why was it so hard to even start there?

Laurence Tribe, the constitutional scholar and professor emeritus at Harvard Law School, said on social media that he was “no fan” of Ms. Stefanik. But, he added: “I’m with her here. Claudine Gay’s hesitant, formulaic, and bizarrely evasive answers were deeply troubling to me and many of my colleagues, students, and friends.”

harvard rescinded acceptance to students who wrote stupid things on social media but jay is saying that once they get accepted, they can say any hateful and stupid thing they want to? he isnt defending gay's plagiarism, but it was still a hit job? there are no standards

Children are raised with defense attorney parents. Are the children unsafe because their parent’s job is to defend criminals? If children can be raised with rape/molester/murder defending attorneys, surely college students can tolerate this profession in their dorm dean. Defending these criminals in no way indicates an attitude of leniency toward their crimes. This seems obvious to me, but then I didn’t go to Yale Law School...

You guys need more interviews with people like Rabbi Jay Michaelson. I've been to several of these protests mainly to see how everyone is acting. I have not seen violence, I've seen taunting, name calling but nothing more then that. I've seen more violence at hockey or basketball games, so I don't really see what people want, what protections are they looking for? Do they want their kids wrapped in bubble wrap, police protection 24/7, if that's the case then maybe more people should home school their kids or get their degrees online.

This Rabbis Harvey weinstein argument is such michegas

Interesting conversation. The guest is quite reasonable.

The question posed should have been about cross burning, marching with the confederate battle flags

Incitement of violence should not be protected speech. And is not.

Ya know.. This guy is great, but early on when he's defending the "context" part of the Harvard response, he really brushes past "Israel should be driven into the sea, all of them are murderers". If the same thing was said about Palestinians, if the question had been about Palestinians, I am CERTAIN the answer from Claudine Gay would NOT have been flubbed as awfully as it was. And if someone was a student on campus holding up a sign calling for Israel to genocide the Palestinians, they would be expelled. No doubt. However, nobody would do that, because for some reason, it's different. Even the way he phrased the point assumes that it would not be uncommon for soemthing like that to be said about Israelis. He knows very well, I'm sure, that the same would not be tolerated in a different direction, and at the very least it would be considersd harassment. Nobody can seriously be saying that were Palestinian students present and exposed to calls for their GENOCIDE it would not constitute harassment. I can't prove it, because no one does it. But I'm certain it wouldn't fly.

Depends on the context… I will find some insignificant aspect and use that as context

I feel like they both set out principles and then don't stay consistent with their own principles in this discussion

Unbelievable. My dad was a lawyer and defended some scumbags. He didn’t do it for fame or money. He did it because he believed in America. This guy is ruined.

Lots of lefty jews had a wake up call on oct 7th. Not this guy, still living in lala land.

14:19 so if it was a murder you wouldn't feel safe?!?! Thats ridiculous

15:00 into this, goes off the rails when guest is...arguing that the entire adversarial justice system needs to silo defense attorneys into "intolerables" outside the courtroom. He thereby can't possibly be taken seriously; literally, defense attorneys are "messiahs" for bringing the justice system into balance. Even the offered example of Michaelson's dormitory confrontation, was borderline hypersensitive (eggshell skull): the existence of foul opinion doesn't require coddling protection for anyone young or old. Toughen up and learn in the real world.

This is a great podcast, very different from a lot of the stuff out there. Noam does a great job

This is crazy. The guest suggests that someone should be judged based on a case he took as a lawyer and have job repercussions based on the premise that female students in the dorm couldn’t feel safe with him, when we have no information about what his actual views on sexual harassment are. Then, that same guest says that it doesn’t matter that Jews actually feel unsafe living in a dorm with people whose views we actually know because every day, they make them 100% clear and known by calling to “globalize the intifada” - which has the specific meaning of calling for violence against Jews throughout the globe. So too bad for the Jews because the people who want them harmed are students? What about the professors who march along with the students and likely taught them the hate in the first place? Nothing should happen to them either? And the president of the university is responsible for the safety of all the students. But she’s not in their dorm, so again, sorry Jews? It’s absurd. It’s an immoral conclusion following from illogical reasoning.

1:04:58 not true. Tucker has a much larger platform on X

35:23 he was already a dorm counselor before the whole MeToo movement, so you can't argue they felt unsafe, this was a purge of powerful men!

He doesn’t want to lose his bullshit role at CNN. He’s rationalizing. He’s either weak on logic or he’s just an opportunist.

Long Live, Chris Rufo

This guy is so weasely...it's sad

"Ethnic Cleansing is not Genocide" this Noam dude is out of his fucking mind

Wait, what's going on here! The guest is consistently saying really weird stuff. I kind of went to his defense in response to some other comments, but now every subject you guys talk about he says really weird stuff! I'm dubious. Thinking about what an awesome conversation this is and wondering why he said so much weird stuff, is he a plant! Did you and him plan on him saying all this weird stuff so you could have an awesome podcast? I kept making excuses for him, and then I get to the part where he tried to say it matters what the motives were for scrutinizing Claudine Gay. I think this dude is some kind of computer generated AI person you programmed to awkwardly try to defend screwball ideas. Okay maybe I don't really think that. Even some of the stuff I could make sense of with charitable interpretation, like the idea to make a judgment call about who to put in charge of a college dorm, he didn't explain very well and I had to do all the work myself with charitable interpretation. This dude is a weird dude. I like him though.

jay....you dont speak for all of american jewry jstreet does not speak for all american jewry when you opine about anything...it is your opinion alone

Noam, you're right here and I disagree with you plenty. This guy is good at talking. But he's missing your points.

Why not hold Israel to this civic standard?

38": clearly Rabbi outpaces the host on debating qualities.

Noam (or whoever deals with the comments) I have a question, do you think Finklestein is being sincere with all the wild shit he says? I’ve gotten kind of obsessed with him and it’s just all so wild, I’m really curious to hear what someone thinks who’s actually met him. I’ve read a bunch out of several of his books and the footnotes mostly seem like utter hogwash. Hope you’re well, good shabbos!

I strongly disagree with Jay Michaelson's dismissal of student behavior because "kids say crazy things". He's ignoring the fact that universities are primarily structured to be safe spaces for professors (not students) who prefer the stability and comfort of a controlled academic environment compared to the ruthless, unpredictable capitalist career path. The lack of response by university officials to calls for intifada is simply because administrators and professors themselves were not triggered by it so they've dismissed concerns of the students who did feel threatened. Jay Michaelson really exemplified this by his dismissal of the effects these protests had on the majority of students who are not fanatical. This is also why academics like Michaelson are so quick to attempt to dismiss the plagiarism controversy as it is a direct hit on their safe space and they will respond to that much more forcefully than calls for Israel to be exterminated. The insane attempts by the NY Times and university academics to rephrase and redefine plagiarism was downright comical and desperate.

Norm - many, many students have been disciplined, threatened or expelled for questioning left wing orthodoxy. You shouldn't have accepted this false claim by your guest.

And today on the Genocide justification and weaponized anti-semetism show...

I don't understand why you think there is an existential threat from Hamas. In my view Israel has already achieved its aim of detterance, over half of Gaza has been demolished. Hamas is not an existential threat. The only reason oct 7th happened was because of the military intelligence's hubris. Right now the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is far more pertinent. Israel will cease to exist via losing all moral support , as it should, if they allow disease/starvation to spread and kill hundreds of thousands.

Dear Jay, If you are this unable to hide your irritation, condescension and dismissiveness, seeming boredom, etc. and want to be let off without a word for saying over and over again that you need specific examples and then dismissing them because you aren’t familiar with them (and won’t - or can’t? - engage with them in good faith, treating them at least as hypotheticals), you should watch the podcasts you agreed to beyond a little more before going on them, maybe. You came across as really disrespectful, bored, and frankly like you actively looked down on Noam, and I’d like to be able to expect better from people who agree to be on this show in general, and especially from a rabbi. And finally, if absolutely nothing else, maybe when you’re making plans with friends, don’t make them for right after a podcast that’s going to be seen by thousands of people, just in case it goes over/there are tech issues/whatever might come up. It’s disrespectful to everyone, from the viewers of the podcast as well as the host, to your friends, who (even if nobody else knows who they are) will be aware that you used them as your reason to be noticeably disengaged, to the point that you’re frequently interrupting the host or gliding past actually answering questions by talking about being late to meet them, going so far as to call the host out for “making [you] late to meet [them],” as the host is passionately and in good faith trying to engage with you on issues that are really important and extremely hard to grapple with emotionally, which I would expect that - especially as a rabbi! - you would want to give some wisdom on or at least show more compassion for, especially when you’re being asked clarifying questions about things you said that someone who is taking you seriously has every reason to want to understand better. When you weren’t talking about being late, you were either taking issue with one or two specific words and using them to only partially respond to things you were being asked, while at other times dismissing valid questions or challenges to things you had said as getting into the weeds, which you seem to be applying was not a useful thing in those instances, for complaining about getting into semantics, which I guess is only okay when you’re doing it, then? Honestly, I felt kind of bad for Noam, who I really thought was trying to get to the heart of some issues with you, and especially at the end, was practically having to beg you to just finish the interview without leaving a bunch of things you had said unexplained and questions you’d been asked unanswered, so unless there was a really special event with your friends that could not have been scheduled another day and couldn’t start late or before you got there, it seems like if they are just relatively decent people, they would want you to speak your mind clearly and without rushing or providing needed context, etc. In order to get your points across fully. I cannot imagine wanting a friend to do differently myself, and as someone who worked in the entertainment industry for most of my life and has had friends working in just about every kind of media, this is not something I am saying hypothetically without any experience to back it up. I’ve had people meet me late or even cancel for issues that came up with recordings or performances about things that were much less consequential than what is being talked about here, and it’s just never been a thing that I can even imagine wanting them to make a big deal out of, let alone make the audience aware. It’s just bad form, and uncomfortable for everyone. I know this podcast doesn’t have the viewership of CNN, but the people who are watching an episode like this are likely to mostly be people who care very much about the content, as I do, and I’m sure I’m not the only person who considers themselves a progressive Zionist who has been lost in all this, and was actively looking forward to an episode with a Rabbi. And, since he came up, I am a big fan of Coleman Hughes as well, and have never seen him be anything other than the epitome of professionalism, here and elsewhere. He carries it with him wherever he appears, at least as far as I’ve seen, and on an issue so important to so many Jews, I would really hope that a rabbi could shoot for the same. Thanks, Z To Noam - I found myself feeling both exasperated and protective on your behalf as I watched this, as the degree to which it was clear that you were really trying to talk about some difficult things without skirting around issues that are really uncomfortable became more and more evident as time went on, and I did not feel like you were treated with the respect you deserved, nor that the topic was treated with the respect it deserved, and while I know you are almost always extremely sincere about asking people if they will come back to discuss things some more, in this case, I hope you will think on it, allow yourself to feel some sadness that it didn’t go the way anyone might have hoped, and then just move on. I’m sure there are some wonderful rabbis who could really devote their attention to both you and the topic at hand, and answer with passion, grace, or both, speak with sincere intention when asked things, as well as asking you things in return that might be challenging, but never in a “gotcha moment” kind of way, or anything like that. I can’t speak for other viewers, but I couldn’t care less if your guests are on CNN or whatever else, as long as they bring well thought-out points of conversation and a commitment to good faith discussion all the way through. All of this really made me miss Perielle (sorry I don’y know the spelling!) even more than usual, as while I think she is delightful and always brings a lot to the episodes that she is on, despite the fact that I sometimes get a little peeved when it feels like she is treated dismissively even at times where she clearly feels strongly about things and isn’t just goofing around, one of the many things I enjoy about her is that sometimes she is willing to take up to speak up when it feels like everyone else is willing to just take sh** from whomever, especially with things like ad hominem attacks, evasive or well-spun answers, or just general disrespect being shown to you or anyone else, and I feel like maybe her particularly excellent way of calling that stuff out could have been useful at times today. I really hope she gets well soon, and when she does, that she will be on the show more often. I think she has more insight to offer than anyone really realizes - maybe even her - and sometimes the schtick of making fun of her feels like it goes a bit far when she has a real point to make, honestly, but even still, I think each of you makes the other even more enjoyable and I’d love to see more in the future, including on episodes like this where she could remind people to check themselves a bit if their attitudes are less than ideal. P.S. I really sympathized with you when you said you found it difficult to discuss how you felt about all this with people because most people don’t even know or want to hear anything beyond whatever box they put Zionists in, or whatever the exact phrase you used was. sorry my memory isn’t better for quoting it directly, but I felt very clearly at the time that you were speaking to an experience that many, many Jews who have been left-leaning their whole lives are grappling with these days, myself certainly among them. Thank you for speaking to that truth. It can be a very lonely and alienating thing, and I have been blocked or unfriended or whatever else by various people that I thought I was on good terms with, without even being given a chance to explain a cursory overview of my beliefs, nor how wrenching it is to try to come up with solutions knowing that unless something changes drastically, there simply aren’t any that don’t have some kind of horrible outcome, while we are all already dealing with the horrors that have happened already. It’s the kind of thing that makes me wish I had a Rabbi to turn to, and it made today’s guest so frustrating; if there is wisdom to be had here, I cannot find it, and I would hope that a Rabbi would be able to at least speak to some of it in a way that could help me find additional perspective. Anyway, I’m sorry this is so long; I’ve decided not to comment a few too many times on other videos, I think, and whether this was just the tipping point regardless or whether the disappointment of it being a rabbi is what did it, I finally felt like I should speak my mind. thanks for making one of the only things I can watch these days without feeling like I’m going crazy.

This guy sucks. He probably doesn't even believe that Moses was a real person.