from:	Now! <bringkfirhome@gmail.com>
to:	jeph@umd.edu,
Now! <bringkfirhome@gmail.com>
date:	Nov 22, 2023, 6:38 PM
subject:	Re: Statement on student advocacy related to Palestine

Dear Dr. Peller Hallett (I apologize if I do not use the correct last name),

Thank you very much for the rapid reply. I note your email is addressed to
the entire Department, and, I feel, I have to do the same. There is a number
of points in your email I need to clarify first.

1. > Since I have become a target of public antiSemitic attacks over the past
   > few years,

I am sorry, saddened, and surprised to read this. I was not aware of anti-Semitism
in the University of Maryland College Park. Did you complain? To whom? What was the
outcome?

2. > I speak up and speak out constantly against antisemitism in all
   > its varieties, most recently that voiced against Jews on US college campuses since
   > October 7 in the wake of the barbaric attacks on innocent Israeli citizens by
   > the terrorists of Hamas.

Could you please direct me to the relevant material? Any papers, speeches,
presentations?

3. > who has published widely on the Jewish classicists who fled Nazi-dominated
   > Europe.

Could you please direct me to these publications?

4. > I played no role in the writing of the WGSS  statement to which you refer,
   > had no idea it even existed

How come? The statement opens with "We, the faculty..." This clearly indicates
that the entire Department you affiliated with is behind the document. Was the
statement discussed by the Department before it was put on public display? Was
the statement voted on? What was the vote tally? Who is the person responsible
for Department's website maintenance and update?

5. > have serious objections to what it said

How these objections expressed themselves? Did you make them in writing?
verbally? to whom? when?

6. > I do not understand why you feel it necessary to reprimand some, but not
   > all, of the WGSS faculty

Dear Dr. Peller Hallett, I am not in a position to reprimand any WGSS faculty
member. You all are grown up academics enjoying free speech, academic freedom,
and self governance. The faculty members are  entitled to their opinions. To
the best of my knowledge I emailed to everyone listed as faculty
on the Department's website https://wgss.umd.edu/ at the day my email went out.
If you know anyone I missed, please provide the names, and I will be happy
to forward my email to the faculty members I inadvertently missed.

7. > even if the chair has not yet responded to your email, why mention the ARHU
   > Dean,

The Chair is the person overall responsible for the Department. Until today
Dr. Atanasoski remains silent. The next step, communication with the Department,
included the Dean who also happens to be your Department faculty member.
As a person responsible for the College (your Department included) Dr. Shonekan
is probably the best qualified faculty member to respond to my email. I am
disappointed by her silence.

8. > especially if you have not contacted her personally?

I believe in open public diplomacy.

9. > Nor do I understand why you chose to send this message of reprimand to me
   > and apparently not my two non-Jewish Classics colleagues

I am a bit surprised by the way the sentence is worded. I take "they will not be
judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character" literally,
and do not pay attention to the color of the skin, religion, or ethnicity you
concerned about, but rather look at the content. Please provide the names of the
colleagues I missed. If they are on the faculty list, I will be happy to email them.

10. > How can we all move forward, together, on reaching consensus as concerned
    > Americans about how to achieve justice and peace in the Middle East

Don't you feel we, as Americans, will be better off first focusing on our own
problems? Poverty, crime, antisemitism, islamophobia, education, infrastructure,
and the list is going on, and on, and on....

11. > I look forward to hearing from you and about the organization you evidently
    > represent.

I am disappointed to see my suggestion "to post an appeal for a safe return
of all hostages taken by Hamas, and a speedy end of hostilities" on your Department
website went unnoticed. If this kind of statement, in your judgment, does not belong
on a university website, then I have a personal invitation for you. I invite you to
participate and help promote the *http://www.seatsofhope.net* campaign. I hope as
long as deep in the heart, the soul of a Jew yearns the invitation will be accepted.
Will you accept it?

Enjoy the Thanksgiving,

Jacob Kogan