Oberlin College isn’t just another liberal arts school where students are pressuring the powers that be to divest from companies that do business with Israel. It’s also the liberal arts school Lena Dunham graduated from—and where the characters on “Girls” supposedly forged their friendship.
While processing the recent news out of Oberlin, where the Student Senate approved a resolution calling the college to divest from six companies that do business in the West Bank, Gaza, and eastern Jerusalem, we couldn’t help but wonder how Hannah Horvath would feel about the whole thing.
Maybe she would back the Free Palestine group that presented the resolution to the Student Senate. It’s also possible she’d stand with the pro-Israel camp.
The prospect that seems most likely, though, is that Hannah would be so busy texting a picture of a worrisome rash to her mom while simultaneously trying to figure out which shorts-halter top combination to wear that she would miss the news altogether.
She’d hear about it from a keffiyah-clad Oberlin alum she takes home one night, who mentions how glad he is that their alma mater gets the moral problems involved with “profiting from the occupation.” Hannah would pretend to know all about it, but she’d have no real interest in getting into it until it seemed like he might be flirting with Marnie, at which point she’d disagree with him vehemently. Once he fell asleep she’d spend an hour obsessing over whether or not she should get rid of her seltzer maker, manufactured by SodaStream–one of the companies on the divestment list. Then she’d Google her rash.
Thank goodness Dunham is far more thoughtful than the fictional version of herself. When racist and anti-semitic graffiti was discovered on the Oberlin campus in March, Dunham Tweeted: “Hey Obies, remember the beautiful, inclusive and downright revolutionary history of the place you call home. Protect each other.”
We hope that if she weighs in on the latest Oberlin issue it’ll be something along those lines and not at all Hannah-esque. And that she really does have a SodaStream. Those things are the best.
Help ensure Jewish news remains accessible to all. Your donation to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency powers the trusted journalism that has connected Jewish communities worldwide for more than 100 years. With your help, JTA can continue to deliver vital news and insights. Donate today.
