CARTER APPEARANCE COSTING BRANDEIS MILLIONS IN DONATIONS

JEWISH WEEK - The Brandeis campus is reeling in the wake of former President Jimmy Carter's visit. Major donors to Brandeis University have informed the school they will no longer give it money in retaliation for its decision last month to host former President Jimmy Carter, a strong critic of Israel. The donors have notified the school in writing of their decisions — and specified Carter as the reason, said Stuart Eizenstat, a former aide to Carter during his presidency and a current trustee of Brandeis, one of the nation's premier Jewish institutions of higher learning. . . Brandeis history professor Jonathan Sarna, who maintains close ties with the administration, told The Jewish Week, "These were not people who send $5 to the university. These were major donors, and major potential donors. "I hope they'll calm down and change their views," Sarna said. . .

Kevin Montgomery, a student member of the faculty-student committee that brought Carter to Brandeis, related that the school's senior vice president for communications, Lorna Miles, told him in a meeting the week before Carter's appearance that the school had, at that point, already lost $5 million in donations. . .

At [a] faculty meeting, Susan Lanser a professor of English, complained, "I know many, many faculty who do not feel they can speak freely about the Middle East" in public forums. And in an interview with The Jewish Week, Mary Baine Campbell, another English professor, spoke of "the chilling effect of knowing one speaks about things unwelcome by the administration in charge of working conditions and pay. They could be angels. I don't know. It's a slightly chilled atmosphere."

This vexed aftermath contrasted sharply with the widely praised tenor of the event itself. The university audience of almost 2,000 received Carter with notable civility and even gave him several standing ovations. At the same time, student questioners challenged him with tough and critical queries. . .

"I think everyone was surprised at how well he was received," said Michael Berenbaum, a Holocaust scholar and historian unaffiliated with Brandeis. "That may be the most important part of the story. Instead of coming as partisans, they listened to Carter attentively, asked tough questions and gave him an audience. The Jewish community may have a more significant generation gap than they understand between what young people are prepared to hear and what older activists are prepared to hear."