California Assembly resolution urges California colleges and universities to fight anti-Semitism

 
By HANNAH DREIER Associated Press

Posted: 08/28/2012 03:03:50 PM PDT August 29, 2012 12:55 AM GMT Updated: 08/28/2012 05:55:45 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO, Calif.—An Assembly resolution urging California colleges and universities to squelch nascent anti-Semitism also encouraged educators to crack down on demonstrations against Israel, angering advocates for Muslim students.

With no debate, lawmakers on Tuesday approved a resolution that encourages university leaders to combat a wide array of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel actions.

“California schools need to recognize that anti-Semitism is still a very real issue on college campuses around the state—it did not disappear with the end of World War II,” said Assemblywoman Linda Halderman, R-Fresno, the resolution’s author.

Most of the incidents of anti-Semitism the resolution cited are related to the Israel-Palestine debate. These include instances of protesters comparing Israeli police to Nazis and urging support for Hamas.

The resolution, which is purely symbolic and does not carry policy implications, also condemns the suggestion that Israel is a “racist” state and that Jews “wield excessive power over American foreign policy.” The resolution characterizes the student campaign to pressure the University of California system to divest from Israel as anti-Semitic, and applauds university leaders’ refusal to consider it. Continue reading

Jewish Michigan college student had his jaw broken and mouth stapled shut in a vicious beating

‘I’ve never heard of anything so horrific,’ says father of MSU student who was brutally attacked

By Tammy Stables Battaglia Detroit Free Press

A 19-year-old Michigan State University student is recovering at home in Oakland County today after surgery overnight for a broken jaw his family says stems from a brutal hate crime. Police, however, said it did not appear to be a hate crime.

Two men at a party early Sunday attacked Zachary Tennen, a journalism sophomore at MSU, after asking whether he was Jewish,his mother and father, Tina and Bruce Tennen, said today.

They raised their arms in a Nazi salute, chanting “Heil Hitler” and then knocked Tennen unconscious, she said. Continue reading