Still, unbroken silence from Clinton on Yom HaZikaron
("There is nothing new," on Yom HaZikaron, a good day for silence) Updated 5.1.25
Dear David:
I'm briefly silent on Yom HaShoah, not so briefly on Yom HaZikaron, starting tonight, because while I am lucky to have dodged the typhoon of grief of the latter, two friends have lost sons or brothers---over the last 50 years, one, a brother in 1967, before I met her, the other lost a son in Gaza, the day after my birthday in 2023.
It is one thing to endure the silence of a living child; there will be an end; however, it is a different life in Hell when a death cult takes away hope. Perspective does not excuse my stupidity, and I am acutely aware of my own, but I have become intolerant of others close to me who cannot defeat their anchors, such as your Board and President. Also:
It is not ludicrous to believe that there may be no midterm election.
It's not ridiculous to think that our brave election lawyers are in peril.
It is no longer paranoid to think that Waldheim's and Ezra Pound's descendants are as ascendant in our country as they may be on your Board.
Why someone wants to keep being stupid, that is, what your opponents want you to be, is hard to process.
Not you. Too many of your colleagues, some of our alumni, and undergraduates, too--even some of my classmates think rape, execution and kidnapping is justifiable as many Trustees see sufficient distance between Hamas and Walheim and Pound.
I ask myself: What did Hamilton mean to me? Was it the swastikas left on my desk calendar? The hockey player calling me a kike, then being shocked by my violence? No — it was refining my dinner table training on asking the right question, and not holding back my asks because I want to be liked, or thought to be neurotypically polite and deferential.
Most know who decorated my calendar. And, everyone knows whose head I broke the chair over. Everyone in your boardroom knows what Adyn Brenden meant with his swastikas and scribble "Kill All the Jews--wherever they are," but somehow they see space between Adyn Brenden, Kurt Waldheim, and Ezra Pound.
The right question is: What are you willing to do next? ("Do not try, just do")
If Dr. Tepper wishes to defend pure evil by his silence--let him. The Oneida County DA will deal with Adyn Brenden as best his legal tools will currently allow. The masked cowards in kaffiyehs chanting support for the murders at the Nova party is not a problem for Israel---it is a profound issue in not condemning death cults for anyone who leads our College.
If our Trustees spokesperson wishes to claim she graduated from Hamilton, while claiming in 2018 "there was nothing new" about Kurt Waldheim's anti-semitism, he was not an anti-Nazi--it is not a problem for Israel--it is a profound issue not condemning a man who knew that his affiliated death cult, who wore Death's Head on their cover's visor, and participated in the hunt for Salonika's Jews and Yugoslav partisans and helping our Honoree's boss. This man, Alexander Loehr, was convicted as a war criminal and executed.
So, Waldheim was an aide to an executed war criminal, but never accused of being one.
Got it.
Of particular note was Kurt Waldheim's involvement in the 1942 massacre of Yugoslav partisans in Kozara and the 1943 deportation of Jews from Salonika, the historical name for Thessaloniki, Greece. Waldheim's commanding officer, General Alexander Loehr, had presented him the War Merit Cross, First Class, with Swords in 1945. Loehr was executed for war crimes two years later. Do you know what Loehr decorated Waldheim for?
You can decorate a former Brown Shirt for his role in the execution by the Germans, leaving their bodies displayed on wooden gallows along the road between Kostajnica and Banja Luka. But he was not a war criminal.
Notre Dsme Trustees agree, including one of your fellow investment bank CEOs who wrote to me “not for me.”
So, Hamas was not the first death cult.
Sue Skerritt thought she was right in 2018 — there is nothing new (under the sun), including death cults. However, it was an anchor bias — some college presidents might call this "context."
So, what are you willing to do next?
I can wait out your silence on the laundry list below, and publish the threatening C&D letter to Rabbi Waks, but can Hamilton wait out Dr. Tepper's silence on Hamas?
Shimon [ben Gamliel] lived in the first century C.BE., was the son of Rabban Gamliel the Elder whose teaching was given in Pirke Avot 1:16, and was the grandfather of Rabban Shimon ben Gamliel whose teaching follows in 1:18. This Shimon ben Gamliel was nasi ("head") of the Sanhedrin at the time of the first revolt against Rome. It is thought that he died before the revolt was put down in 70 C.E. The manner of his death is not clear. Some scholars maintain that the Roman authorities executed him; others hold that the Zealots killed him.
Rabbi Shlomo Ibn Gabirol:
"In seeking wisdom, the first step is silence, the second listening, the third remembering, the fourth practicing, and the fifth teaching others."
(יג) רַבִּי עֲקִיבָא אוֹמֵר. סְיָג לַחָכְמָה, שְׁתִיקָה:
Pirkei Avot 3:13: Rabbi Akiva says: A safeguarding fence around wisdom is silence.
Some should stay silent. Others should teach. First, listen.
Cordially,
(((Philippe du Col)))
©Philippe du Col, 2025
Here: Archive of past poems, essays, and excerpts
Sat, Apr 26, 11:45 AM (2 days ago)to david.m.solomon,
Dear David:
Doing nothing is an action. And, according to the most intelligent woman I know, often the best thing to do, as if you did not know this.
However, in the wake of the October 7th massacre, our College's Administration said little, and did nothing to stem the worst onslaught of antisemitsm in America, not just by allowing the college to continue honoring its banner antisemites Waldheim and Pound with honorary degrees but not responding to an "Opinion" letter in the Spectator that almost glorified Hamas.
Now, our president signs off on a letter, “A Call for Constructive Engagement,” and protests the Trump administration's use of federal funds to exert control over institutions of higher education. The timing of this is unimaginable, and it's hard to fathom being sanctioned by our Board.
The College was not one of the 60 colleges on the DOJ target list. Do you think silence is your affirmation of the truth of the rest? Congratulations, Steve, just put a bull's eye on the Hill:
Two omitted questions:
How many of the 350 Jewish students at Hamilton have transferred out?
What is the application number and yield for Jewish admissions?
David, it is none of my business to ask you about your faith, and frankly, your taste in music, either. You know this:
In America, Jews are facing the most hostile atmosphere in living memory. According to data gathered and published last week by the Anti-Defamation League, there were a whopping 9,354 antisemitic incidents during 2024, the highest ever recorded in its annual audit. That marked a 5% rise in 2023 and an 893% rise over the past decade. In 2015, one year after another bitter war in Gaza triggered by relentless Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli communities in the south, the ADL recorded 942 incidents. At the time, it seemed like an unprecedented challenge. Now, it feels like a pittance.
Remember, Adyn Brenden did not criticize Israel; he advocated for a Jew-hunt on the Hill. He still publishes on Twitter.
But Steve Tepper is concerned enough about "over-reach."
Hurrah! Carissima! Steve's priorities need to be re-examined.
Here is the personal:
Dick Tantillo needs to deny he contacted Jed Kass, at minimum. Otherwise, any prudent and rational person would consider this a response that unmasked. Dick's mission, either self-appointed or not, was to humiliate Jed, your daughter's classmate publicly. It failed, but the collateral damage involved his more religious classmate, Luis Serota, who graduated from the Heschel school.
Please send me the Gordon Freshman Poetry Prize poems, including those of each winner, and then have Dick issue a denial that he precluded my access. David, as founder of the Prize and a poet, I deserve access, and not surreptitiously.
After that, whether or not you can choose to either reattach yourself to the burden of making amends to me and my family, and some semblance of respect for Jewish alumni, we can have a civil conversation about any portrayal of my College as anti-Semitic, which it is not. It may have a surplus of anti-Semitic Trustees and is led not as well as other NESCAC colleges, while portraying itself as better than others because it “knows thyself.”
It does not.
Doing nothing is an action.
It does not, and I see things differently. The College is not anti-Semitic; it is a safe harbor for anti-Semites. This is not a recent occurrence.
We have not discussed whether Hamilton has filed any Hate Crime charges against Adyn Brenden, nor asked the Oneida County DA to do so. While this claim is unlikely to prevail, it would make a strong statement about the College's desire to have more Jewish applicants and fewer outgoing transfers.
So, your silence sends a loud message, David. And Steve Tepper's public statements do as well.
Doing nothing is an action.
Do not neglect that, unlike most other antisemitism on college campuses reported by the ADL below in the JTA, Brenden's was directed at Jews, not Zionism or Israel. This escalates our discussion because Brenden does not concern himself with Gaza. He is the anti-Semite in our midst. As are the C&D minions and certain Trustees, who want us to forget about him because he draws attention to your love affair with Kurt Waldheim and Ezra Pound, and more.
Adyn Brenden wanted to kill our children on campus and has hired a gun rights lawyer to defend himself while he still publishes on Twitter. There is a message there, but I haven't deciphered it. However, I'm sure Mr. Brenden and his counsel will let us know in the Oneida County Courthouse.
Doing nothing is an action.
Hamilton's weak response to Adyn Brenden ought to scare away any Jewish parent.
Why does it not?
How many of the 350 Jewish students at Hamilton have transferred out?
What is the application number and yield for Jewish admissions?
Follow the money, David. Ask Eric Schwartz, John Townsend, and Charlie Svenson if that is in my skill set, although I am only an aging poet with an ailing heart and a brain tumor. I survived the first one in 1986, as Charlie and JT recall, so I will survive this one too.
The prospect of fewer Jews at Hamilton is an economic event for the College's budget, the Town of Kirkland, and Oneida County seems born out, especially considering Dick's actions and his relationship to the town's Mayor, and the easily calculable impact on the local economy from 350 Jewish students and their parents--better explained in my essay here, and in the attached public letter dated January 6, 2025:
"Adyn Brenden and The Economics of enforcing NYS Hate Crime Law 485.05 Amendment v. Hamilton's "Cease and Desist" Letter to Chabad of Hamilton."
I sent the letter to Dr Tepper and you, and copied the Oneida County DA, before Mr. Brenden waived his right to the grand jury under the advice of his gun rights advocate lawyer.
"Antisemitic incidents in the United States increased once again in 2024, the Anti-Defamation League reported, reaching a new all-time high and providing the latest indicator of a continued surge in antisemitism following Oct. 7, 2023.
The report, released Tuesday, recorded 9,354 antisemitic incidents across the country, marking a 5% increase from the previous year. That figure is almost 10 times the number recorded a decade ago, in 2014. Tuesday’s report found that antisemitic assaults, vandalism, and harassment all rose year over year, while the use of antisemitic propaganda fell.
For the first time since the ADL began publishing the audits in 1979, a majority of all incidents were related to Israel or Zionism. Half took place at anti-Israel rallies."
So, let's be quiet and hope the storm passes.?Or, let's hope I forget something someday, which the cognitive neurologist at NYU Langone deems unlikely, or have a cardiac event after my recent surgery.
Doing nothing is an action.
First, Dick ought to apologize for his role in dragging Jed and Luis in front of the Honor Court as shields from my pen, as Hamas has done to its innocents. Or, let him deny it, as I have asked for two years.
Then, I might take my foot off the gas long enough for you to reform your Board with graduates who have an ethical backbone sufficient to protect the 350 Jews that our community needs.
After my cardiac rehabilitation is complete, I plan to join the local Ironman team at Tommy Bernstein's gym at Chelsea Piers and complete my Aikido test in Paris. If Svenson can get his Black Belt and watch birds, I can do the same and grow my roses. So, the rumors of my demise are premature.
I am owed a private explanation for Dick's and other's behavior instead of my wider publication of my own documented version.
Doing nothing is an action.Carissima!
Cordially
"Toute vérité n'est pas bonne à dire."
Dr Tepper:
Your silence is loud. So far, so good. POTUS hasn't found us, and I pledge not to help him do so. This week, where our traditions intersect, it seems like a good day to speak truth to power, as Michael Roth did a few days ago.
After reading Michael Roth's essay "Trump is selling Jews a Dangerous Lie" in the NY Times a few days ago, what prospective parent, or in my case, Jewish grandparent, does not wonder:
Are Jews welcome at Hamilton College as they are at Wesleyan?
It's too bad you and the College need to lie so low and don't have the credibility or the pattern of actionto have written what President Roth penned.
I'm asking for my 20-something Israeli granddaughter visiting here for a year because when she is off work, we plan to visit colleges other than ones that employ people who persecuted her uncle, who has read:
“The Palestinians are suffering"-your quote
C&D’s cease and desist letter to “Chabad of Hamilton"-signed by a Hamilton V.P.(a Chabad whose affiliate was supposed to host Itamar Ben-Gvir on his visit to Brooklyn)
Kurt Waldheim and Ezra Pound Honorary degree correspondence (1)
Sue Skerrit’s statement on behalf of the Board in the 2018 Spectator "Trustees Uphold Honorary Degree to former UN Secretsry with Hidden Nazi Past" on Waldheim.
Hamilton's statements about Adyn Brenden (who continues to publish on X/Twitter, while under indictment)
The Spectator's unanswered essay on international sympathy for Hamas (1)
A Poetry Prize where the College does not permit its Jewish founder to see the poems.
The departure of your Jewish chaplains and the gossip about them by the Chabad of Clinton rabbi
I omit the fictional personal attacks on me and my family as a point of argument, and she is unaware.
With confidence, I know you will remain silent, as you did before October 7th and after, because your actions, and inaction, compared to those of your colleague in Middletown, say all Shoshanna, Jed, and I need to know. Or, any Jewish parent on a tour of the NESCAC and Ivy League schools.
Plus, Wesleyan's Shapiro Writing Center (John is married to my synagogue's former President) hired Merve Emre from Oxford as the Shapiro-Silverberg Creative Writing Fellow. Professor, what do you have for a budding writer?
A Poetry Prize where the College does not permit its Jewish founder to see the poems. "We grow too soon oldt, and too late schmardt," the Amish purportedly say.
B’Shalom.
From The New York Times:
Trump Is Selling Jews a Dangerous Lie
Antisemitism is real. But the enemy of our enemy is not necessarily our friend.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/07/opinion/trump-jewish-antisemitism-wesleyan.html?smid=em-share