Hamilton's Chaplaincy, Adyn Brenden, Dunning-Kruger and NYS Hate Crime Law 485.05 Amendment
"Such a deep legacy of a particular faith tradition is difficult to overcome." Updated January 3, 2025.
Dear Dr. Tepper and Mr. Solomon:
“Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But, conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right”
― Martin Luther King Jr.
Which one are you not?
"Such a deep legacy of a particular faith tradition is difficult to overcome. Our semester system still revolves around assuring that students will be home in time for the celebration of Christmas, while Jewish high holidays and the holy month of Ramadan have no impact on our academic calendar." ---An excerpt written by your former Chaplain (and C&D) from the College website.
Now I understand.
My Dad missed this in 1973, and I missed it in 2012. Boosha, shame on me.
We cannot outrun our history. I will let the ten others know what they already know, but there is more afoot in early 2025:
Does the College plan to ask the Oneida County DA to charge Adyn Brenden with a hate crime under NYS Hate Crime Law 485.05?
Does the College plan to seek enforcement of the new NYS Hate Crime Law when Bill A2139 by Assemblyman Charles Lavine is passed in 2025? At Adyn Brenden's January 28th hearing?
Doing so would speak loudly to Jewish students, parents, and prospective Jewish college applicants.
The Oneida County DA is unlikely to escalate the prosecution of Adyn Brenden’s actions to an NYS Hate Crime without the College's urging. “Kill All the Jews wherever they are” was Adyn’s mens rea, his intent to harm other Jews on campus. It was not the SJP’s aphorism: “Globalize the Intifada.”
The Trustees and College Staff's self-care for Hamilton’s present and future Jewish students might contradict the College's history and not be in the economic interest of the Town of Kirkland and the Village of Clinton.
Assessing the economic issues affecting Clinton and the Town of Kirkland is not tricky; most facts are in the public domain. The impact of the College’s 350 Jewish students is quantifiable.
“Crystal ball gazers eat glass,” so here is the most likely scenario:
Knowing that Clinton’s mayor has a close relationship with the College, the Oneida County ADA will likely bury the "E" felony charge and proffer a misdemeanor, blaming "mental health" issues, which is a convenient lawyer's mask for antisemitism.
Antisemitism is not in the DSM-V. Nor are most anti-semites mentally ill. Recall Elie Wiesel’s definition of an anti-Semite as someone “who hates us [Jews] before we were born.” It is not the IHRA definition.
Furthermore, the DA will not add a superseding NYS Hate Crime indictment despite the Lavine Amendment on the floor of the Assembly and Senate, excerpted above. The Mayor of Clinton has close ties to Hamilton’s C&D department. The future economic viability of the Chabad of Clinton and the NYS $10MM grant to Clinton by Governor Hochul, who has close political ties to Chabad, all point to Adyn Brenden earning leniency and likely probation at his January 28th hearing.
More importantly, this excerpt from the College’s Chaplaincy website above defines our college's history for prospective students and their parents and represents its core values.
According to Rabbi Didy Waks' Chabad of Clinton website, Hamilton has 350 Jewish students. Rabbi Waks keeps careful records, which I know firsthand because I have excerpts from my Chabad file (Chabad does that on college campus outreach ) and from my conversations first-hand with Rabbi Waks. So, I know two things: there are many more of us than in the 1970s, and we are still second-class citizens in the view of the Chaplaincy statement you endorse and openly disclose on your website.
Your staff and several trustees have tried to mask this view poorly for decades.
Many classmates and alumni from my era share the Chaplain's worldview: outsiders are tolerated, but the College is "our place." Look at the Chaplain's words.
I felt this acutely when one of my College "friends" wrote to me before the October 7th massacre, on the eve of a previous Yom Kippur, explaining to me: "Kurt Waldheim likely helped the Jews during WW2, and that was why he was never prosecuted for war crimes," with his stupid written statement qualifying for the first rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club ("The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger Club. People miss that."-David Dunning). My classmate believes this with all his intellectual prowess; otherwise, why write this to a Jewish classmate at dusk before High Holy Day?
A single Dunning-Kruger moment does not define an antisemite.
In the interest of "scholarship," the College even sponsored an event at Hamilton by visiting Professor Andrew Porwancher, who "made a case" that Alexander Hamilton was born and raised a Jew, saying:
“And to my mind, it’s strange believability that a Jewish school in this particular time and place would have taken a child unless they considered that child to be one of their own.”
He referred to Alexander Hamilton's attendance at a Jewish day school, Nevis, because Hamilton was not baptized.
“I would not argue that we can say without a shred of doubt that Alexander Hamilton was a Jew...But what I am comfortable saying is that the evidence we do have is more consistent with the theory that he’s Jewish in childhood than the theory that he is Christian.”
Not “without a shred of doubt.”
The College, too, uses the Dunning-Kruger effect well. Thankfully, your former Chaplain was not persuaded by Dr. Porwancher's scholarship, which could be one reason Dr. Tepper made him the former Chaplain. The Faculty is not sympathetic to that decision, and College Presidents come and go, but a College Faculty has an embedded interest in the school's future.
I leave it to you to judge the intent of that moment in the College's history.
It was a Dunning-Kruger moment because, according to Professor David Dunning:
"there are those people out there who are stupid and don’t realize they are stupid.
Now, those people may exist, and the work isn’t about that. It’s about the fact that this is a phenomenon that visits all of us sooner or later. Some of us are a little more flamboyant about it. Some of us aren’t. But not knowing the scope of your own ignorance is part of the human condition. The problem with it is we see it in other people, and we don’t see it in ourselves.
The first rule of the Dunning-Kruger Club is you don’t know you’re a member of the Dunning-Kruger Club. People miss that."
I received the former Chaplain's communications with Rabbi Waks and those from your Syracuse-based IP lawyer regarding the C&D IP "issue" concerning his use of “Chabad of Hamilton.” I was also sent communications from the Chaplaincy, which I have not published.
C&D office denied the Chabad Rabbi (emissary) the IP release needed to use "Chabad of Hamilton," yet the College’s senior management showed up during the rededication of the new Richard Sands Chabad of Clinton House. Kumbaya.
It is almost an SNL episode that loses its humor when one considers the profound economic matter, especially the financial contributions of 350 Jewish students and their parents to the College budget and the Town of Kirkland/Village of Clinton economy.
However, my Class is "over the Hill," and there were only 9 Jews in the Class of 1978 out of about 210 men, and one transferred out after freshman year, not the current 15% Jewish student level that the Adyn Brendens and the SJP endanger.
Who is going to protect your Jewish students from more Dunning-Kruger moments?
From Adyn Brenden copycats?
From pro-Hamas SJP?
When will incoming President Trump shift enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act from the DOE to the DOJ?
Rabbi and Rebbetzin Waks? Governor Hochul? The DOE? Marc Kasowitz (2)? The Oneida County DA?
Waldheim, Pound, Andrew Porwancher, SJP and Adyn Brenden.
What is next?
From your website (verbatim):
"The beginnings of Hamilton College were embedded in a Protestant Christian religious vision. Presbyterian missionary Rev. Samuel Kirkland invested his life in bringing a Christian worldview and practice to Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) Indians, particularly the Oneida tribe of that confederacy. Kirkland partnered with Chief John Skenandoa, an influential leader of the Oneidas and a convert to Christianity, and together they developed an educational institution, established for young men of both white European and Haudenosaunee heritage.
In 1793 the Hamilton-Oneida Academy was born, and nineteen years later, Hamilton College was created, as the Regents of NY State put it, “by engrafting” the College onto the Academy. As was the case for many educational institutions of higher learning at the time, the curriculum focused on preparing students for Protestant ministry. Every president of the College through the first decade of the 20th century was theologically trained and ordained for ministry in the Protestant tradition. Mandatory chapel persisted into the 1960s and was, of course, based on a Protestant model.
Such a deep legacy of a particular faith tradition is difficult to overcome. Our semester system still revolves around assuring that students will be home in time for the celebration of Christmas, while Jewish high holidays and the holy month of Ramadan have no impact on our academic calendar.
Our celebrated 3-story chapel, the most apparent physical manifestation of our Protestant heritage, has become the logo for our college.
Beginning with accommodations for Catholic students, Hamilton College began broadening its sense of religious pluralism in the 1960s and expanding its support for students of various religious backgrounds, including Judaism, Islam, and Zen Buddhism, all of which are supported by the chaplaincy, housed on the third floor of the chapel building. Today, the chaplaincy is committed to religious pluralism and promoting knowledge about and engagement with all traditions represented in our campus community."
--Source: Hamilton College About Us - History of Hamilton College & Chaplaincy - Hamilton College
Truth.
Will there be a superseded indictment for Adyn Brenden under NYS Hate Crime Law 485.05? Have you made the case for one?
I am aware that the NYS Assembly is considering Bill A1862 by Assemblyman Charles Lavine, (D-13), which would be under Section Four:
"Section Four of this bill would amend section 485.05 of the penal law,
to provide that in addition to any other hate crime, any person who
commits an act of anti-Semitism, that incites, causes or results in any
act of violence, or injury to a person, or the damage to or destruction
of real or personal property, shall be deemed to constitute a hate crime
under the hate crime provisions of the penal law."It is not in the best economic interest of either Hamilton College, its Chaplain, or the Village of Clinton, which is inextricably linked to Adyn Brenden, for Adyn Brenden to be prosecuted for a Hate Crime.
Nice work, Mr. Solomon and Dr.Tepper. It's not as smooth as Stanford's history of itself (1) (attached), but you are succeeding harder without saying:
"It's in the Air." (1)(3)
A Happy and Healthy New Year to you both.
Cordially,
(((Walter Kass))) H'78 P'16
©Philippe du Col, 2025 🍊
Nota Bene:
1. "It's in the Air": Stanford Report on Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias attached
2. Kasowitz NYU complaint attached
3. Adyn Brenden & Partners: The Board ("Know Thyself"), you and Stanford: We Know You
