Timely information. As students here, our education to prepare for students to be engaged citizens in the community and to recognize and direct the university of culture, identity and opinion. Both of these are on display this evening. This last idea, the respect for diversity of culture, identity and opinion needed more than ever in our society today. The response to books and the amazing turnout here by all of you for this important conversation show why. Available to personalize copies of her book at the back of the stage after discussion. If you dont have a copy yet, the bookshop will be selling them at that time. Thank you for visiting our campus this evening. Please welcome to the stage the president of the university to say a few remarks. [applause] good evening, everybody. Thank you for that introduction. As some of you may recall, just over a year ago today that we were gathered together in this chapter for a very similar purpose. A holocaust survivor came to pittsburgh from chicago to share her moving story. At that time, just one day after the shooting at tree of life, we were initially uncertain about whether it made sense to go ahead with the event. Inspired by the own determination to make the flight to pittsburgh just minutes after learning of the shooting, we decided together that we should meet, gather in this place and send a message that we are stronger than hate. When ion got the call last month from my friend at the Jewish Community center asking if we would host tonights event, the community and the Jewish Community being brought together and our friends across pittsburgh to a joy and explore again tonight how we can Work Together to fight hate. It is my honor to introduce our two special guest. A staff writer and editor for the opinion section of the New York Times. Is her first book as you know is fightrst book as you know is antisemitism. Before joining the times, barry worked for the wall street journal and was a senior editor. The premier jewish online magazine of ids, politics and culture. She regularly appears on shows like the view, morning shows, a graduate of columbia. Also the winner of the recent foundation 2018 prize which annually honors riders who best demonstrate the importance of freedom with originality, wit and eloquence. Vanity fair recently recognized barry as the time star opinion writer and the Jerusalem Post named her the seventh most influential jew in the world. Her parents, who i met this this evening, wanted to know who the other six were. [applause] most important for tonights event, barry is a proud member of the family. Her mother, aunt and sister are all graduates. She grew up as it as her backyard. [applause] our other guest this evening is mark. Mark joined the university of pittsburgh for a nine month stint as a visiting assistant professor in the school of law over 40 years ago and he has never left. [laughter] he had the honor to serve as dean of the school of law and as im sure youre all aware, 19 years in a very successful rain as chancellor of the university which he helped lead along with his partner here in pittsburgh. Now, chancellor, distinguished service professor, receiving many importantpo honors includig pittsburghs person of the year and a history maker by senator. He currently serves as chair of the institute of politics and director of the north thornburg forum on policy. A member of the small independent Committee Appointed by theat Jewish Federation and e aftermath of the attack. Actively engage in helping to create and lead new antihate initiatives. Please help me in joining them to our discussion. [applause] i see my teacher from middle school. Do you want to get her up on stage . [laughter] what a great crowd. So nice you are all here tonight. I want to begin by thankingre president fine hold and the entire Chatham University community for inviting us to be here on what has to be the most beautiful campuses in the world. [applause] chatham is a special place in every sense. We really are grateful for the hospitality that the university is extending tonight. As we walked across the campus tonight, i am sure most of us felt a combination of peace and calm. The constructive power of youthful energy. We all know, as david david said , it was just over a year ago and not very far from here at the tree of life synagogue that worshipers from three congregations were brutally attacked by an antisemi armed with an automatic weapon. I am not sure any event has ever had the impact on pittsburgh that that days attack did. I want to suggest on behalf of barry and david that we dedicate this program tonight to the victims of that attack and to the victims of antisemitism wherever they may be. And that we each take a moment tonight to think about how it is we may contribute to the fight that she has described in her very, very important book. This event attracted a capacity crowd and generated a waiting list. The twin attraction for the opportunity to welcome barry back home into learn more about the fight against antisemitism from her wellwritten, thoughtprovoking, bestsellingg book of that title. It is, either way, now ranked bw amazon as the topselling book in its category of discrimination and constitutional law. I fully intend to claim most of barrys time for myself. You all did have the chance to pick up audience question cards. Those cards will be collected in about 45 minutes and then passed up to me. We will make sure that we try to leave enough time to handle some questions that have been posed by the audience. I do also want to note that cspan is filming this program tonight and it will be shown as part of the tv Books Program at some later date. Behave yourselves, will you. We dont want you to create a bad impression of pittsburgh for the restt of the country. Even though this is an night that will be focused on your book, barry, i would like to begin with a somewhat different question hoping you wont consider it to be out of bounds. I want to go back to what was said about the ranking of the Jerusalem Post which listed you as the seventh most influential jew in the world in 20 night teen. For those of you that did not see the article, i want to add a little bit of context. I think there was only one american that was higher ranked. That was the u. S. Ambassador to israel. Provide some more color to this. Ivanka trump and Jared Kushner were ranked as a pair, 14. My grandma i rigged the list. Lets be honest. U. S. Supreme court justices. The notorious rvg were ranked eight teen, collectively. [laughter] Facebook Mark zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg were ranked as a pair 35th. [laughter] the big question that i have on my mind, very, is it a blessing or a burden when your parents look at that list and say, well, thats great, barry, but you really should have ranked higher. I would like to thank my tiger mother and my dad who has been almost like a father to me. [laughter] my entire life is a blessing. My entire life would have been absolutely unimaginable to my greatgrandparents. Or honestly even to my grandmother sitting in this front row and to whom this book is dedicated. Hi, graham. My inheritance was sort of unbelievable. Not in any financial sense. In the sense that i was born in this country, as i write in the book and sort of the golden age. I was born after the feminists broke down the barriers that were an obstacle really between my grandmother and her dreams. I think so much about what she would have been if she was born in my era. Another part is i was born in a country whose founders so fully understood the jewish story. Really, the israelite story. They saw themselves as new americans. Enacting a type of modernday exodus. That was also part of my inheritance. Then there was a fact that for my greatgrandparents generation were of the generation where you had to change her name in order to get a good job. You are not accepted at certain law firms. You had to build Hollywood Studios of your own. That was the world that i was sort of born into. In that sense, my whole whole life is a blessing. Being a sort of jewish role model in the world, the way i think about it is this. In judaism, what is the reason you wear a llama car your head. So you sort of live up to the obligations of what that means. O you model the kind of behavior that is worthy of being a jew in the world. I feel like i basically have the biggest one in the world stapled to my head at all times that can never come off. The blessing of that is that it made me, i think think a more conscientious and better person in the world. I am very aware that people are looking to me, what does a jew mean in this day and age . I take that obligation and that blessing really seriously. You do describe yourself in the book, not in terms of ray reviews who are high rankings, but instead say in a rather matter of fact way, i am an american, a jew, jew, a zionist and a proud daughter. What has it been to you to be a daughter of pittsburgh both in terms of the personal reactions to the attack to which we have referred and in terms of developing this sense of what it does mean to be a jew in the 21st century america. Being from pittsburgh has kind of meant everything to me. I did not realize it until i left. I thought it was normal the fact that my parents belonged to four or five different synagogues. It was normal for us to have a dinner with a very politically diverse and religiously diversep group of people. It was normal for us to go to a conservative synagogue where my sister and i were among the youngest readers. Then we would go to a much morem religious family for lunch. Only after that to go to the jcc to play basketball. That was normal for me. Pittsburgh, i think is a small enough community and its values are such that we dont stay inside the Jewish Community inside the lanes that we have two to find ourselves in. We reachh out across those barriers. It was only when i came to new york and went to college in new york that i realize that that was really, really exceptional. I saw this especially after the massacre at the tree of life and the reaction to it. The crossing of terriers did not just exist inside the small bubble, but went out far beyond that. To me, just a model of what solidarity looks like. The way we saw the muslim community. The christian community. The sports team of the city. Obviously, your work as a part of it. There was a real sense of unity and an attack on the Jewish Community of pittsburgh was an attack on everyone. I think that solidarity can be a model. Not just for america, but for the rest of the world. And then this sense of, you know , being infiltrated in the values of mr. Rogers neighborhood. Something i only realized after i left of how special that was. Looking for the helpers. Everything that he embodied on that show i feel was not just a lovely theory, but a reality, at i grew up. Ry, but a reality, at that is not to say there were not exceptions. Waiting for the school bus to the Jewish Day School with my sister casey. I will never forget the Catholic School bus driving by and kids hanging out the windows. I remember that. I remember being told in high school to pick up a penny because i was a jew. These things were footnotes to my experience growing appear. They seem a to me embarrassing r the people that were doing them. They were vestiges from an old world. Not at all the norm. You know, very grateful to be from here and to be from a place that just lives up to the things that everyone wrote about this community and the aftermath of the massacre. They were just true. The fact that they were true was a testament to the work that so many leaders and im seeing rabbi jamie and so many faces of people that have put in the kind of effort that was really showcased to the world. That did not come out of nowhere. Those relationships do not blossom overnight. They are the result of incredibly hard work and Relationship Building and trust building. That is a work of people in this room that i am indebted to and grateful for. The idea that your life has been a Blessing Comes through very purely in the book. You describe your own experiences and as you described the lessons that you learned from your grandparents and your parents. You also say, though, and you have this ability to use the english language in ways that are compellingly memorable. You say that in some senses, looking at the big picture, you now view your life as something of a holiday from history. What did you mean by that . It sounds depressing to put it this way, but i think it is true. Of course six months later which i had the honor. Today, 27yearold was arrested outside of denver colorado. Attempting to blow up a synagogue there. That reality that we are living in, that is a return to jewish history. Very rare exception. The jews have been kicking around. The norm has been forced to think about our security. An attack on a synagogue. The norm has been for us to walk around as a visible sign of our jewishness. . That is a norm of jewish history when i say im on a holiday from it, only to say i never thought about those things when i was growing up. That is unbelievable departure. A departure that says something unique about what america could be at its very best. I think that what we are living through now is a kind of disorienting, almost nauseating feeling that the world we inherited, certainly world that i inherited and my parents parents have spent their lives living in is no longer the world that i think will be the reality for the rest of our lives. That has to not just do with the american experience, but with the direction of where this country is going, at least at this moment. They are deeply, deeply interconnectedd. You also said something that had an ominous ring to it. Shared by many other people. Losing their instinct for danger what did you mean by that . What i mean is that the jews of europe had not ever been so lucky. They are always aware of the kinds of things that we have to be incredibly conscience of. The kind of conversations that are now normal in our community about hardening our synagogues. Do we have our guards at the doors of jewish schools on the Upper West Side of new york. This is a major departure. The instinct for danger. It is kind of a doubleedged sword. That instinct for danger. On the other hand, it is a constant reminder of who you are and what you are fighting for. I think that there is a sense that the american Jewish Community, because of the blessings of the fact that we have been so accepted is the b best experience in all of jewish history. It continues to be that way, even after trumps election and the attack of the past two years. I felt hundred still think we are the luckiest in history. We have yet to see what will happen. I think that part of the lessons of that experience has been a kind of complacency. Because we have been so accepted , we have had the privilege to forget who we are. I think part of what is happening right now is as we are besieged in a way we never have been, it is a scary thing because its a reminder of our difference. It is also an opportunity to understand what that difference is actually about. Who are we and what are we fighting for . I think i sort of naively and foolishly thought isnt it obvious what we are fighting for. At the forefront of who i am. I actually think that one of the things i have learned going all around the country and talking to people is i really think that the past year has sort of been a real awakening for people. When any minority is attacked, ory really when any part of yor identity or ideas for who you are, there is a sense of wanting to punch back and a sense of why are they attacking me. What is that quality in me. Do i want to cut off that part of myself to be accepted . Or do i want to dig deeper into who i am as a reaction to that attack. Anything good coming from this uncertain moment that we are in. All minorities finding themselves inut a very comfortae position given that we have a politics that is attacked decency to use it. Using it as an opportunity to understand the difference in what the difference can offer not just you, in a sense of your own life, but to the country. The last year has been a year of reflection and resolve. It is interesting to cure you say you have found that in many other parts of the country as you have been on this book show. You said we need to know who we are. Weay need to know what we are fighting against. St you made earlier reference to antijewish prejudice. Mention you had experienced as a child here in pittsburgh, you clearly experienced it as a young adult when you left pittsburgh. How do you distinguish between antijewish prejudice and anti semitism so that we do know what we are focusing on. Antijewish prejudice. Functioning as a kind of inconvenience. It is disgusting. It does not bc the jewish people and jewish civilization. It may mean i do not really want to jewish couple moving in next door. It is gross. All of us with think that that is appalling. It does not fundamentallyh threaten the lives of jews as i write in the book, it is the oldest Conspiracy Theory. It singles t out the quality. Any given society or civilization. That is why under the nazi regime, the ultimate race contaminate hers. The jews are the arch capitalist white supremacist far right. What are the jews . The jews are the people that appear to be white, but in but in fact, the greatest trick the devil has ever played. They are loyal to the black people in the brown people and the muslims w who they want to bring into this country. Of course the bully. Writing about that and the rest. On the far left i would say the way that this presents itself is on the far left, jewish power. Expressions of jewish power. The main expression of jewish power in the world today, needs to be disavowed. The far left increasingly asks which i know we will get into later. Antisemitism. We are never going to defeat it. It is never going away. Our greatest hope i think is to keep it at bay. Antisemitism in a way functions like a virus. A way that all of us have hundreds, thousands, may be maybe tens of thousands at any given moment. As long as we are physically healthy, those viruses just dont express themselves. I would say that to a society, a society that has a healthy social cultural system, antisemitism not to mention racism, other kinds kinds of bigotry kept at bay. A society in which the immune systems weekends. Right now in america, our society is incredibly weekends. It has ju