As anti-Semitism on US campuses rises, Jewish students refuse to remain silent - Dudi Caspi

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by Dudi Caspi

Threats, harassment, and grading discrimination – Jewish students in the US are increasingly plagued by incidents of anti-Jewish sentiment on campuses, coming from both pro-Palestine organizations and lecturers. The schools hide behind freedom of speech, and the students hope that President Trump's executive order will prove effective.

"Many Jewish students prefer not to externalize their religious identity," says Justin Feldman, 21, a political science and Middle East studies undergraduate student at UCLA. Feldman is the son of an Israeli mother and a Jewish-American father, born and raised in Los Angeles.

"Many of my friends would rather hide the Star of David medallion around their necks or they're simply afraid to disclose their family's affinity to Israel in private conversations, fearing that an anti-Israeli lecturer hears about it and they end up suffering for it academically. We find it difficult to recruit members for pro-Israel groups or for rallies we organize, because many of them think it's too big a risk." 

Last year, Feldman headed a pro-Israel student group supporting at the university, called "Student Supporting Israel," which has nine additional branches around the country.

UCLA is the most reputable academic institution on the West Coast, on a par with private East Coast Ivy League universities such as Yale and Harvard. But the fact that it stands in a city considered a bastion of democracy and liberalism does not shield it from anti-Semitism, which seems to be steadily rising across the US.

"The university is a place that on the one hand grants full religious freedom with regards to keeping Shabbat or holidays, but on the other hand, we keep running into countless problematic cases of anti-Semitism, where management was not involved enough," he said.

"I, for one, have been handling an issue that took place last May, when a lecturer from the University of San-Francisco, Rabab Abdulhadi, arrived as a guest-lecturer and claimed that Jews and Zionists support the racist nationalism of white supremacy.

"This statement generated interest from the local press, but Anthropology Professor Kyeyoung Park, who invited him, is refusing to apologize on her guest's behalf. One of the Jewish students who was required to be present in the lecture as it was actually part of a course she was taking that semester, filed a federal complaint against the university in October, over the fact they didn't take significant actions following that event."

Introduction to anti-Semitism

And this is only one example for the faculty of lecturers that provides a platform to such rhetoric of hate.

"Another example is a Pro-Palestinian conference that took place last November, organized by a group that systematically and blatantly protests any of our activities. They didn't allow any Jewish student near the area. The university promised not to provide any platform for anti-Semitic discourse, but videos from the conference show two speakers, Sameer El-Hato and Hatem Abudayyeh, known Hamas supporters that had been interrogated in the past over their involvement with a terrorist organizations, calling to starts an intifada"

Q: Has this become a routine?

"It's something that comes in waves," he said, adding that while verbal skirmishes are frequent, "Things rarely escalates to physical violence, but there's vandalism. Some mezuzahs have been torn from buildings and in the past, graffiti and swastikas were sprayed as well. This is a well-known phenomenon, but you don't even need to see the physical things. There are plenty of radical remarks, especially on social media, coming from entities who urge the annihilation of Israel while praising Neo-Nazi organizations."

Activists with the pro-Palestinian group Students for Justice in Palestine staging an anti-Israel protest on a UCLA campus (AMCHA)

Q: How does it affect Jewish Students' involvement in campus activities?

"Jewish students' attendance on campus in the group is limited. Only a third of them are involved in activities with Israeli or Jewish contexts, and even then, only a small number of them are active throughout the year. Their assumption is that it is an issue that can't be resolved in the first place, and they are in over their heads. They'd rather invest in other activities during their studies. I assume that it is a type of very common escapism at this point in life, not dealing with the hatred lurking out there.

"To those people, I say that nothing will change if we keep living in fear. I'm a member of the student council that regularly meets with executive management, and I'm the one who brings up the issue of anti-Semitism. I admit that I'm not always taken seriously, but being there already counts for something. Each one of us deserves to feel welcome."

Q: How do those executives respond?

"Our requests are repeatedly rejected claiming that this is not an across-the-board issue. We should run to the media in order to get some attention. I have friends who get booed and called out when they complain about being persecuted as Jews on campus.

"Management takes its time until it releases a statement about an event with an anti-Semitic context, and not once did they admit being aware of the fact that anti-Semitic figures also take part events where there is criticism against Israel. They usually dismiss our claims of discrimination using the excuse that the other side has also experienced this, and by that avoid confronting the allegations and offering solutions.

"To them, both sides are responsible, but to us, it's completely unfair – no one on our side has ever tried to stop or sabotage pro-Palestinian events, there is no ground for such claims."

Q: Who participates in those pro-Palestinian organizations?

"Ironically, Muslim or students with Arabic affinities are hardly involved in these organizations. We are talking about white Americans identifying with the radical Left, who have decided that their protest tactics are threatening Jews. At times, students of other ethnic backgrounds attend, like South-East Asia, for example. Palestinian students are the minority in those organizations."

Anti-Semitic displays at UCLA are just one example of the troubling spike in anti-Semitic incidents in higher education institutes across the US. In the last five years, more than 3,000 cases of varying severity have been reported, including harassment, protests or anti-Semitic remarks from lecturers and protestors.

A report published by AMCHA organization last September points to a sharp, 70% increase in anti-Semitic cases in 2018 compared to the previous year. Incidents, where Jewish students or Israel supporters were accused of racism or genocide, rose by 147%, and the number of attempts to expel Jewish students from campus activities has doubled.

The report also shows a spike in BDS activity, which has been responsible for 86% of cases involving the harassment of Jewish students and calling for an academic boycott on Israel.

"We publish details on any anti-Semitic incident that meets the definition of the American State Department as such," explains AMCHA's founder, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer to Hebrew Studies in University of California in Santa Cruz.

Said definition was "drafted along with an international task force for Holocaust remembrance. It defines anti-Semitic incidents as those that can be perceived as a rhetorical or physical display of hatred toward Jewish people or their property."

AMCHA's has been issuing its report since 2015. It also documents incidents in an online database, including footage, in order to provide the victims with information on what transpires on campuses across America and to serve as an informal testimony that sheds light on the severity of the situation.

"Every year we analyze the data in an attempt to segment changing trends, and the first conclusion is a rise in anti-Semitism. Three years ago, we saw how displays of swastikas and malicious graffiti rapidly increased around the time of and after the presidential elections. In 2017, we saw more use of Nazi rhetoric, and a year later, there was a rise in incidents targeting people who supported Israel or Zionism."

AMCHA's founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin (Screenshot)

Rose Rothstein, the founder and CEO of StandWithUs, says that "some campuses have more problems than others and some don't experience it at all, but generally, an organization called Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is linked to the rise in anti-Semitism. SJP denies the very existence of Israel and targets anyone who supports Israel, meaning, any Jew."

StandWithUs was established 18 years ago in the wake of the Second Intifada. According to its website, "It is an international and non-partisan Israel education organization that inspires and educates people of all ages and backgrounds, challenges misinformation and fights anti-Semitism."

"This organization's strategy is instilling their ideology against Israel and Zionism, and create a permanent situation of hate. They have learned that they should use words in order to create an anti-Israeli discourse, rhetoric of collective hatred to the 'other', which is an ancient tactic. Mostly, we don't see the bigger picture in media coverage, so that presenting a false situation where Israel kills innocent people, without referring to the activity of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, is a simplistic and incorrect situation that works in their favor," Rothstein said.

Q: Why do they focus on university campuses?

"They believe it's a potential platform for recruiting young adults who are still, and they appeal to them under the guise of social justice. They are convinced that this is the right way to behave toward Israel, aka the 'enemy,' and prepare the means to fuel the hate.

"Campus is also a primed arena for protests, gatherings and calls to action. They also use the tactic of agenda hijacking, meaning taking advantage of high-profile social and political topics and force Israel into the conversation sans any real grounds. The simplicity of it is what makes it so dangerous.

"Simultaneously, they recruit lecturers that share their ideology. This ostensibly validates their position, which in turn influences students. On the other hand, professors who support Israel are often afraid to express themselves so as not to be targeted themselves,'

"In addition, they adopt new methods to harass Jewish students. For instance, professors declining to write recommendation letters after graduation and ahead of [applications to] masters' programs or job interviews; canceling student delegations to Israel such as 'Taglit' [Birthright], and even claiming that Israel has a direct connection to police brutality in America.

"But it is important to note that, if in the past students who experienced anti-Semitism didn't receive any response, the more prevalent anti-Semitism becomes on campuses the bigger the need for the issue to be addressed outside the university walls. There are people to help them raise awareness of the issue," she explained.

Q: Why don't the universities themselves get involved?

"Management has the responsibility to guarantee the safety and security of all students, but when it comes to Israel there's a double standard because management feels that censuring pro-Palestinian groups would result in charges against them for not enabling freedom of speech.

"They don't make the distinction that this is about the rhetoric of hate, and they feel uncomfortable being perceived as supporting Israel. It is not freedom of speech to call to for an intifada or to harass all Zionists. Imagine if the words 'Jews' or 'Israel supporters' were replaced by 'women' or 'Afro-Americans'? That wouldn't be tolerated and would be addressed on the spot.

"As long as they [management] don't take sides, the situation will only get worse. The Palestinian organizations are a ticking time bomb with a clear, far-reaching strategy, there is no supervision," she warned.

'An important yet exhausting dialogue'

"We have a good relationship with the management, and everybody wants to make sure that freedom of speech applies to everyone, but there's no doubt that this is a complicated, sometimes exhausting dialogue", admits Rabbi Aharon Lerner, who chairs the Hillel extension at UCLA. The organization, represented in over 550 universities and colleges in North America and across the world, holds various traditional and cultural activities for the Jewish community.

Jewish students at the University of California at Independence Day event ( HILLEL UCLA(

"Our organization is a second home to more than 3,000 students who are away from their own homes, and most of the complaints we get involved incidents where their Israeli connection is mentioned. More and more professors, who don't really like Israel, insert political opinions into academia and simply by expressing themselves offensively towards an entire community in class, they create an unpleasant environment for the students.

"We can also see a spike in aggressive tactics," he continued. "The SJP is doing everything in its power to disrupt events with a Jewish or Zionist character. They deny Israel's right to exist and claim that it is a hostile, evil country. If you repeat the same things over and over again, eventually, it will gain followers who believe what you say. It doesn't matter if it's a lie.

"Even when they invite a guest speaker who expresses him or herself radically or violently, eventually, by law, they every right to do so. Management can't avoid this problem."

The students, he said, are frustrated, "but I wouldn't say they're walking around feeling constantly threatened. It's not on a level of physical violence or altercations, and that's an important distinction to make. Nevertheless, these are upsetting experiences, especially when they involve lecturers. Because if a student faces a professor who holds controversial opinions, they don't not dare argue for fear it would affect their grades. This is the main fear I come across, and that, in and of itself, is unacceptable," he said.

UCLA's response to these claims said that "discrimination and harassment undermine our commitment to an equal academic environment and are prohibited by university policy. As university Chancellor Gene Block says time and again, there is no room for anti-Semitism and racism at UCLA. The university also maintains an equally strong commitment to freedom of speech and freedom of information, that stands as the foundation upon which our calling for teaching and discovery is based. It is especially important when people disagree on the facts and their significance. These are commitments that are sometimes difficult to agree with, but we must always do the best we can."

Three weeks ago, US President Donald Trump signed the Executive Order on Combating Anti-Semitism that defines Judaism as a nationality, not just a religion, as a means to include anti-Semitism as discrimination rooted in ethnicity as prohibited by the Civil Rights Law, by which educational institutions that receive federal aid are obligated to abide.

Jonathan Karten, an Economy and Psychology student at Columbia University in New York became the first to press charges under the new executive order.

"Thanks to this order, support to complaints about anti-Semitism will be provided, because more often than not Jewish and Israeli students are the target of discrimination and persecution," he said. Karten.

"Politics is an excuse, and students and Jewish faculty members at Columbia University and across the US deserve to study and work in an environment free of discrimination and anti-Jewish deflection."

Jonathan Karten (Screenshot)

Recalling various anti-Semitic incidents he witnessed, Karten said that "allegedly, there are semantic differences between anti-Semitic, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionist expressions. Many of those who oppose Israel believe, for example, that Zionism is colonialism, and it's not anti-Semitism per-se. You won't see skinheads on campus, although swastikas did deface a Jewish lecturer's office last year."

According to Karten, a fellow student recently submitted a paper on terrorist attacks by the Palestinian Liberation Organization "and his lecturer disqualified it because he called the PLO a terrorist group rather than 'freedom fighters'. There are, on the other hand, pro-Israel lecturers who are afraid to come forward for fear it could cost them their jobs, their tenure. It's been like this on campuses across the state."

Slogan-based ignorance

Most recently, New York University made headlines when the Department of Education informed it that the Civil Rights Division, a unit of the Department of Justice, opened a formal investigation following complaints of an alleged hostile environment for Jewish students.

Here too, SJP seems to be leading the charge.

In one of the incidents that made headline in April 2018, SJP activists disrupted the annual event hosted by Realize Israel – an NYU pro-Israel student group – to the tune of a physical altercation with one of the students. The SJP protest then turned even more aggressive pro-Palestinian activists burned Israeli flags.

The activist who burned flags was arrested by campus police, but the university took disciplinary action against only two of the activists.

The frustration over the university's lacking response grew last spring when the SJP received the university chancellor's community service award. The move prompted Realize Israel to file a lawsuit against the university for allowing expression of anti-Semitism on campus and causing a hostile, dangerous academic environment.

Ben Newhouse, an undergraduate for economics and accounting at NYU, says that management does, in fact, respond in a timely manner to claims of anti-Semitism, but such incidents keep repeating themselves

"The president of the university was very clear in his objection to BDS, and for the most part they issue a press release, but I would expect them to take faster, firmer stand. It doesn't have to come to a situation where they are pressured into getting involved.

"In addition, 53 student organizations at NYU, social circles of groups such as Afro-Americans, Hispanic, Asians or other minority groups signed a pledge not to cooperate with pro-Israeli groups," he continued. "This is an agenda the SJP has instilled in those groups and among the Democrat-Socialist Students Organization, the Libertarians and even in an organization that supports promoting dialogue between Muslims and Christians. In all of these groups, members must ban pro-Israeli groups, and no one in management looks at them for it."

Q: Do you think those who support the boycott of Israel are versed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

"A recent study by the University of Berkley found that 75% of the students who claim to adamantly oppose Israeli policy and support pro-Palestinian organizations don't even know to find Israel on a map – the best 25% of them could do was say it was somewhere around the center of the Middle East."

Newhouse maintains that "There's a lot of ignorance on campuses and most people who claim that the subject is close to their hearts don't know the meaning behind the slogans they've heard. There are simplistic assumptions that they recite, that Israel is an 'occupying power' and that the Palestinians are the victims; black and white, good versus evil. They assume that every minority group is always in the right, and don't really know what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is about."

New York University said in a statement: "No government investigation has been called and any claim that the university is less concerned or is not supportive of the Jewish community is untrue, unfair, and disregards its record. The university and its president have rejected and condemned attempts to dismiss pro-Israeli groups, and have adamantly, continuously and publicly expressed complete and utter objection to the BDS movement both on NYU premises and elsewhere."

NYU, the statement continued, "is the only one university in the US to have opened its own, designated academic campus in Israel, completely rejected all calls to shut it down and remains committed to it."

Dr. Charles Asher Small (Screenshot)

The Jewish students who spoke with Israel Hayom are part of the CAMERA Foundation's class of 2020. CAMERA, known in Israel for "Perspective," a website that monitors local media with the aim of ensuring accurate and balanced media coverage with respect to Israel and the Middle East, helps the students participating in its annual program with contacting the relevant spokespeople, organizing events, fundraising for on-campus groups, and dealing with unbalanced media coverage of the academic sphere.

Dr. Charles Asher Small is the founder and director of the Institute for the Study of Global Anti-Semitism and Policy, which began its activity in 2006 at Yale  University and is hailed as the first international interdisciplinary research center dedicated to studying anti-Semitism with a contemporary focus.

"Anti-Semitism is on the rise worldwide, as a derivative of the global financial crisis, mass migration and an overall sense of instability, which are all expressed in hating the 'other' and in radical nationalism, mainly in Europe and North America," he told Israel Hayom.

"The political discourse has changed, and we live in a volatile reality. Israel has become a political weapon at the hand of Republicans and Democrats touting various positions, and there are even expressions of anti-Semitism in Congress that are being ignored.

"Jewish Senator Bernie Sanders [D-Vt.], for instance, uses Linda Sarsour – a pro-Palestinian activist affiliated with radical Islam – as an advisor. That's an unthinkable appointment. On the other hand, you have the radical Right, staunch Trump supporters, many of whom are professed anti-Semites.

Linda Sarsour

"What people need to understand is that history has proven that anti-Semitism begins with Jews, but doesn't stop there. Any display of hate and intolerance towards minorities is a warning sign and a threat to human rights," he said.

Q: What do you think about the similarity between the rise of anti-Semitism now and the rise of Fascism in the 1930s?

 "I don't like comparisons between factors that led to WWII and this is a problematic comparison. But there is definitely a troubling acceleration in the spreading of anti-Semitism. Historically, this is attributed to the Right, but the Left, while it does nothing to encourages violence, also supports it by covering for radical Islam.

"There's a counterproductive, almost childish debate in the US about who is to blame for it, the Left or the Right, this party or that party. We have to move forward from it."

Q: Can the universities be held responsible?

"Academia must deal with one question: How can it be that an anti-democratic and anti-Western organization that challenges freedom of speech, gets a platform like campuses for its activity? At the end of the day, this [JSP] is a radical movement supported by the Muslim Brotherhood, which is essentially given influence over academic institutions with no one to oppose or supervise them."

"We can't maintain that there are no practical tools to deal with it. Anyone who comes across this organization has to understand what stands behind it, ask what their ideological sources are and how they treat women, homosexuals, sectoral or national groups like the Kurds. There's a genocide taking place in Syria and everyone is busy with Israel? That's preposterous!"

Dudi Caspi

Source: https://www.israelhayom.com/2020/02/16/as-anti-semitism-on-us-campuses-rises-jewish-students-refuse-to-remain-silent/

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