Letter of Support from Jewish Faculty — Re-elect Terezia Zorić, UTFA President

2024 Letter of Support from Jewish Faculty & Librarians at U of T

We are Jewish faculty and librarians from across the University of Toronto’s campuses. We care deeply about UofT and our faculty association’s vital role in university life and work. Over the last few years, many of us have worked with Terezia and her team specifically around issues of academic freedom, climate justice, and members’ rights. Several of us have formally joined her Executive team to help further this important work.

We are writing specifically as Jewish faculty in support of the re-election of Terezia Zorić because again our views and interests have become issues of contention in the UTFA election for president. We reject spurious attempts to score political points by spreading false charges of antisemitism against Terezia and UTFA.

At an unbearably difficult time, Terezia and her team have prioritized heartfelt compassion and solidarity to all members while focussing significant effort on defending the University’s own Statement of Institutional Purpose, and the academic freedoms on which it pivots. Terezia and her team have worked to cultivate unity and common purpose in this work. Divisiveness will not make Jewish colleagues safer; only sustained work to build and strengthen bonds of solidarity between Jews and non-Jews alike will connect and protect all of us.

More widely, Terezia and her team have advocated effectively on vital issues, including workload, compensation, affordable and sustainable housing, climate justice, equity, health and safety and members’ rights. She has advanced our collective rights through bargaining, winning sector leading ATB increases, while also working to enhance active membership and democratic organization. Under her leadership, UTFA has fought salary discrimination, winning increases for female faculty and librarians, and leading efforts to identify and rectify race-based and other discriminatory pay gaps.

Signed,

Abigail B. Bakan, Social Justice Education, OISE

Joseph Berkovitz, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology

Lauren Bialystok, OISE and Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies

Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Global Development Studies (UTSC) & Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Eric Cazdyn, East Asian Studies, UTSG

Rebecca Comay, Philosophy, UTSG

Deborah Cowen, Geography & Planning, UTSG

Kyla Everall, University of Toronto Libraries

Harriet Friedmann, Professor Emerita of Sociology

Connie Guberman, Historical and Cultural Studies, UTSC

Ariel Katz, Faculty of Law

Richard Borshay Lee, University Professor Emeritus

Audrey Macklin, Faculty of Law

Max Mishler, History, UTSG

Alejandro I. Paz, Anthropology, UTSC

Scott Rayter, Sexual Diversity Studies/English

Keren Rice, Linguistics

E. Natalie Rothman, Historical and Cultural Studies (UTSC) & Graduate Department of History

David Schneiderman, Faculty of Law

Dana Seitler, Professor of English, Director, Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies

Gail Super, Department of Sociology, UTM

Judith Taylor, Women & Gender Studies Institute & Department of Sociology, UTSG

2022 Letter of Support from Jewish Faculty and Librarians at U of T

We are Jewish faculty from various faculties and departments across University of Toronto’s campuses. We care deeply about U of T and our faculty association’s central role in university life and work. We are writing specifically as Jewish faculty because our views and interests have become key issues of contention in the upcoming UTFA election for president. These views have been misrepresented and invoked to denigrate the incumbent.

We support the re-election of Terezia Zorić to serve as UTFA president.

Please see this open letter HERE

Abigail B. Bakan, Social Justice Education, OISE

Joseph Berkovitz, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology

Lauren Bialystok, OISE and Anne Tanenbaum Centre for Jewish Studies

Anne-Emanuelle Birn, Global Development Studies (UTSC) & Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Elise K. Burton, Institute for the History & Philosophy of Science & Technology

Eric Cazdyn, East Asian Studies

Rebecca Comay, Philosophy

Deborah Cowen, Geography & Planning, UTSG

Natalie Zemon Davis, History (retired)

Kyla Everall, University of Toronto Libraries

Harriet Friedmann, Professor Emerita of Sociology

Connie Guberman, Historical and Cultural Studies (UTSC)

Rick Halpern, Historical and Cultural Studies (UTSC) & Graduate Department of History

Ariel Katz, Faculty of Law

Richard Borshay Lee, University Professor Emeritus

Agi Lukacs, Sr. Lecturer at the Transitional Year Programme (retired)

Audrey Macklin, Director, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies & Faculty of Law

Alejandro I. Paz, Anthropology