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Jimmy Carter Awarded Yeshiva University Prize

And nothing bad happened

by
Natalie Schachar
April 11, 2013
Former US president Jimmy Carter.(AMRO MARAGHI/AFP/Getty Images)
Former US president Jimmy Carter.(AMRO MARAGHI/AFP/Getty Images)

After a maelstrom of criticism from Yeshiva University alumni, Jimmy Carter received the International Advocate for Peace Award from Cardozo Law School’s Journal of Conflict Resolution without incident. When Carter was first announced as the award’s recipient, graduate students threatened to block his entrance to the award’s ceremony and Alan Dershowitz issued a routine oratory duel challenge to the former president.

At The Scroll, we, too, noted his laudable outspokenness on gender equality, poverty, the guinea worm, and a host of other issues, but questioned the decision to honor Carter as an unbiased symbol of conflict resolution.

The university rightly recognized the diversity of opinion on the matter though, and the only people outside the event turned out to be five Jimmy Carter supporters who had come to protest any protesters of the event, lest they show up.

Natalie Schachar is an editorial intern at Tablet. A recent graduate of Barnard College, she has written for the Times of Israel, The Atlantic, The Argentina Independent and Lilith Magazine.