Nazis Banned Books. We Shouldn’t.

Rabbi Jessica Kirschner and Laurie Hahn Tupper sent an email to the Jewish community at Stanford University yesterday. This email let students know about her Snapchat stories they were reading. my fight–Adolf Hitler’s manifesto.

Here is the full text of the email:

of stanford daily Students later reported reading my fight You didn’t post the photo on your Snapchat story, it was posted by another student. As of today, the Protected Identity Harm dashboard, which Stanford University aims to list all reported cases of discrimination, has not been updated to include this case.

We don’t know the story behind the image yet. It could have been used in class (HUMCORE 13 assigned the text last spring), or, as Fizz’s comment claims, it could be a joke by two students.

Even if the comments were true, the two girls’ holding up politically incorrect items as props doesn’t deserve widespread condemnation.Incident in which a student was disguised as reading a copy my fight Rather than (for many) joke show commentary on the Holocaust, the underlying problem is simply book ownership.of this particular copy my fight Read aloud in class, used for drunken photo ops, public outrage over ‘student reading’ my struggle” (To quote Rabbi Kirschner and Rabbi Hahn Tupper’s emails) Not worth it.

Whatever the background of the photo, the community’s reaction was against the university’s liberal values.Emails to the Jewish Students Association email list, protected identity breach case submissions, and denunciations added by the Jewish Students Association stanford daily Article about “Pictures of students reading” [Mein Kampf]reveals how quickly the Stanford community hops on the censorship train in the name of fighting oppression. of course Don’t spread the systematic message that “safety and belonging” should take precedence over academic freedom to read controversial books or personal freedom to make jokes out of place.

Students should be exposed to prohibited books and offensive thoughts. Because only working with thoughts outside your comfort zone can help strengthen your intellect. The ethos of ignoring rather than engaging with “offensive texts” drives students into a state of “disturbing” hypervulnerability (in the words of Rabbi Kirshner and Rabbi Hahn Tupper). An education that prioritizes student comfort over the pursuit of knowledge and complete understanding underestimates the student’s ability to tackle complex and sensitive topics. The ethos of ignoring sensitive texts patronizes students—those not exposed to the kind of dangerous ideas articulated in the book. my fight— can’t respond to them in the real world.

I myself am no stranger to copying banned books my fight i have my copy in my dorm room to kill a mockingbird In my childhood bedroom in my 6th grade English class. Friends of mine who have seen my copy of the former in my room have often made remarks about it, but these remarks are often buried by the fact that I am Jewish. But being Jewish should not be a condition for reading important historical texts.but my fight It conveys a hateful, genocidal message packed with bad writing, but this shouldn’t disqualify you from reading the book. my fight It’s worth reading because it exposes the mind of one of the 20th century’s most important figures, and helps readers understand the ideas that lead to violence when empowered.

Last spring I gave a presentation about Marinetti’s. Manifesto of Futurism—A document that inspired Hitler’s former political ally and fellow fascist Mussolini. After the presentation, a student asked me why I thought the manifesto was worth reading. I replied that if we ignore the ideologies we find problematic, we may lose sight of the grievances that make these ideologies attractive to many. Perhaps more importantly, we can learn to discuss dangerous ideologies and eliminate them only by fully understanding those arguments. is currently at an intellectual low point because it is labeled as “not interacting”.

Fortunately, many students seem to object to stories that students are simply reading. my fight constitutes an act of hatred against Jews.Fizz’s post you linked every day The article with the caption “I think this is one of the dumbest daily posts ever. ‘Students read history books’ has over 1,000 upvotes.”

Hopefully, this spirit of historical inquiry and academic freedom will spread to other areas of Stanford University.anyone who reads my fight Learn how speech repression is inextricably linked to fascist governments.extensive satire of every day This article demonstrates resistance to attacks on academic freedom and the freedom to read what you like.

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