Leon van Steensel

In 1933, Hitler purged Jews from German universities. An entire generation of brilliant Jewish scientists was lost to the country. Within a few years, Hitler had all but destroyed German academia, then the finest in the world. In 2026, there are no direct expulsions of Jewish scientists. No, of course not! We’re civilized today. But no matter: universities have created such a hostile environment for Jews that many leave of their own accord. As I have explicitly warned, Belgian universities are engaging in naked acts of ideological partisanship: they are boycotting the only Jewish state in the world for waging a defensive war; giving the blood libel of “genocide” their official stamp of approval; and awarding honorary doctorates to inveterate “antizionists” like @FranceskAlbs, who spreads constant lies about Israel and wouldn’t recognize antisemitism if it clobbered her over the head. And they do all of that under pressure from activists. This sends a very clear signal to people who believe in Jewish self-determination and Israel’s right to exist: you don’t belong here. Get out. As the activists themselves like to put it: “This is a Zionist-free campus.” Read this email I received from a Belgian Jewish physicist, and weep. *** Dear Maarten, I just wanted to send you an update, following my message to you from a year ago. We have decided to leave Melbourne and move back to Belgium in March 2027. Until about six months ago, I had a fairly clear idea of what I wanted to do when I returned: find a position at a Belgian university that would allow me to combine teaching with developing and applying mathematical models in physics, mathematical biology, or another field. This is what I enjoy doing, and what I am trained to do. But given everything that has happened over the past few years, and in particular what I have been seeing across the academic world, I have increasingly moved away from that plan. I just don’t feel at home anymore in that world. What you have written about your own departure from academia feels very familiar to me. My main frustration is not the fact that people at universities have opinions that differ from, or even strongly oppose, my own. That will be the case no matter where I work, and I think having one’s views discussed or even challenged is a great thing. What bothers me, rather, is universities adopting political positions as institutions. Individual academics having and expressing their political views is one thing. The university taking an institutional position is quite different. Two of the universities where I considered applying have recently awarded Francesca Albanese an honorary doctorate. I regard that as an institutional political statement, and one I cannot support. I wholeheartedly hope the Palestinian people will one day have a state of their own, with full self-determination and the same opportunities in life that we all deserve. I hope that Israelis and Palestinians will ultimately be able to live peacefully and constructively alongside one another. But I experience much of what is presented today as pro-Palestinian activism not as an argument for that future, but as a rejection of Israel’s right to exist. I find it difficult to feel comfortable being part of an institution that, in my view, associates itself with positions of that kind. More generally, I have little desire to be part of an academic environment in which I find myself constantly frustrated by what I experience as a very unequal treatment of Israel and Jews. Walking around campus and seeing posters everywhere about the so-called genocide in Gaza and calls for a boycott of Israel, while seeing virtually nothing about any other conflict in the world, as though this were the only or the  worst conflict on earth, only reinforces that feeling. I do not yet have a plan B for when I’m back home, but I’m sure I’ll figure something out. One of the main projects for the coming months will be to figure out what I want the next phase of my professional life to look like. I continue to read your pieces with great interest. It helps to know that I am not alone in these frustrations. And when I am back in Belgium, I’d very much like to go and grab a coffee together. Kind regards,