HAFFS Response: Ethicist, Should I Let Go of My Zionist Friends?

This past week the Harvard community has been discussing an opinion piece that appeared in the Crimson in which an anti-Zionist student asked whether he should let go of a friend who supports Zionism, while noting that some of his Zionist friends had already done the same to him. There was a spirited response from Harvard Hillel.

All too often, members of the Harvard community treat the expression of views with which they disagree as a reason to cancel the person expressing those views.  We had thought that being a crossroad of ideas  implied a recognition that not all disagreement represent flawed moral character.

It’s important always to remember that a healthy society depends on our ability to argue without exile, to see one another first as human and not as pawns in the wars of ideology.  Our society depends on humility: the recognition that conviction, no matter how deep, does not guarantee correctness, and that moral certainty can easily turn into self-righteousness. Continuing a dialogue offers the possibility of convincing your counterpart that they may be wrong, of discovering that you, in fact, may be wrong, or, as is more likely, that each of you may be partly right.

When we shun those whom we believe to be wrong, we forfeit the very discipline that education is meant to teach, the capacity to stay in dialogue. When a disagreement becomes an excuse for cancelation and, humility fades, dialogue dies, and with it, the university’s purpose.