On the background of a craven shameful decision to exclude Ayaan Hirsi Ali (her statement) from receiving recognition for her human rights work on behalf of Muslim women, here is a formation of the true Brandeis outlook:
According to Brandeis Zionism was not inconsistent with American patriotism. Multiple loyalties were only objectionable if they are inconsistent in their core values. According to Brandeis every Irishman who supported home rule of Ireland was a better American for doing so as was every Jew who supported a Jewish homeland in Palestine. The reason there was no inconsistency between loyalty to America and Jewry was because “brotherhood of man” was a key American ideal as it is and was for two and a half thousand years for the Jewish people. The brotherhood of man was a concept which Brandeis placed at the heart of the American Republic.
Since, according to Brandeis, this was a key value of the Jewish people, Jews were well suited immigrants for America. Brandeis also believed that Jews shared the American goal of social justice. Since Zionism was the ultimate expression of Jews of these values, Jewish nationalism was no threat to the American nation. Because of these shared core values loyalty to America demanded that each Jew become a Zionist as the ennobling effect of striving for Zionism would benefit the best in each Jew. Hence Brandeis turned his previous position against hyphenated-Americanism and against national identification on its head.
Brandeis U. cannot follow through on that conceptualization anymore.
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