Students Speak Out About Anti-Semitism on University of California Campuses

Does the UC System Have an Anti-Semitism Problem?

Anthony Berteaux

The Times of Israel Blogs,  September 25 2015

 

It was her first week back at the University of California, San Diego, and Sara Ahdoot had already become the target of an anti-Semitic attack.

A psychology senior at UCSD, Ahdoot had planned to celebrate the start of her last year of undergraduate studies with a bang: by going out to a club. However, what was supposed to be a fun night out soon became a nightmare that many Jewish college students hope to never encounter. Shortly after arriving, Ahdoot noticed a familiar face — a male member of the pro-Palestinian group at her school, Students for Justice in Palestine. He noticed her too.

“I have felt uncomfortable around this student for the past two years and he saw me at a night club,” she recounted. “And after he saw me, he confronted me with nothing but hate and would not leave me alone.”

Throughout the night, Ahdoot was harassed about her Persian origins, yelled at and flipped off.

“They followed me, and called me by my first and last name. They were yelling that I was a ‘racist Zionist cow.’ I have never felt so unsafe in my life.”

Fearing that the attack would turn violent, she fled the club on the verge of tears. For her whole college career, Ahdoot was proud of her Judaism and her love for Israel — the Jewish state. She wore her Star of David necklace everywhere she went, letting the world know that she wasn’t ashamed of her identity, or her homeland.

And yet, the night after Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism, she experienced attacks from a fellow UCSD student that saw her identity and homeland as patently unacceptable. Ahdoot said, “I didn’t know anyone would actually come in my face or put me in danger until tonight. This problem is way more serious than I had imagined.”

The University of California’s Anti-Semitism Problem

Long-time examiners of anti-Semitism within the University of California system know that Ahdoot’s story is nothing new. Over the past academic year, Jewish students across the UC system have experienced an unsettling rise in anti-Semitic attacks on their identity. Just as the racism once manifested within Jim Crow laws has evolved and choked the basic equal protections enshrined in our criminal justice system, so too has anti-Semitism transformed and seeped its way through the bedrock of these universities. It has evolved to become as a new political anti-Semitism — the result of an overwhelming tide of anti-Israel activism on campuses that overstep reasonable criticism of Israel’s domestic policies into demonizing perceptions of Israel and those who call it home.

Yael Steinberg, an alumni of UC Davis is no stranger to this demonizing rhetoric when she encountered anti-Israel sentiment on campuses across the UC’s overstepping into anti-Semitism. “I have seen discussions of [boycotts against Israel] turn nasty — from describing Jews as ‘privileged’ and ‘rich,’ to calling Jews ‘baby killers’ and told to wipe the blood off their boots. It’s terrible. Jews on campus face this intolerance the most when in conjunction with discussions about Israel, which often crosses the line from debate into hate speech.”

Courageous University of California Student Speaks About Continuing Campus Anti-Semitism

Anti-Semitism at Cal

By Elijah Z. Granet Special to the Daily Cal

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

When a recent report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, dismissed claims that the university had failed to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism on campus, many thought that it could create a watershed moment for Berkeley.  Leading the fray was The Daily Californian, which made the almost Panglossian prediction that the report “could mark a new era for the campus community.”

Though I wish that the Daily Cal’s conclusion was correct, the fact is that the OCR’s conclusions are limited only to the legal matter of the university’s liability with regards to the civil rights of minority students. Although the OCR acknowledged the occurrence of hostile acts directed against Jews, they concluded that because there is no law compelling the university to prevent students from being personally offended or hurt, the university made no legal infractions. Indeed, for the OCR to have taken action, they would need evidence that the university had failed to stop direct coordinated actions against Jews.  Given that the issues faced by Jewish students come from a widespread general bias across the entire student body and not from a single organization, the OCR would never find Berkeley to be legally liable, no matter the degree of hostility faced by Jewish students.

However, as any Cal student or alum could likely confirm, Berkeley has chosen to commit itself to principles beyond the law. The university’s well-known dedication to protecting student rights and concern with matters of justice is at the very core of our identity.  These values, even if not made explicit in federal law, explicitly bar the actions that led to the legal complaint filed with the OCR. The report may legally exonerate Cal, but it does not excuse the university, faculty and students from the grave moral failing of our community in dealing with the baseless hatred in our midst.

It is an incontrovertible fact that over the past several years, Jewish students at Berkeley have had to deal with numerous hate incidents, including verbal, written and physical assaults.  Jewish students have been called horrendous, unprintable things. They have been shoved and pushed. In campus housing, the past several years have seen repeated occurrences of swastikas and other anti-Semitic graffiti.

Are you still being told that things have gotten better for Jewish university Students? Have you been fooled!

New intifada on campuses abroad

They meet in small groups on campus; funded by foreign money. They understand that this method of operation gives them more influence than any act of physical violence would. They are young people who convince others; they are builders of public opinion. Step by step they take control of the leaderships of student unions and organizations; pro-Palestinian activists join extreme left-wingers in activism against Israeli elements.

This is the new intifada. You won’t hear about in the next news update; it is not an uprising within Israel’s borders, and it stopped being just about the settlements, occupation and peace treaties a long time ago. It is far away from us; it is influential, exhilarating; it speaks in a new, young language and has one goal: The annihilation of Israel as a Jewish state.

Campus Hatred

The battle for America / Tzipi Shmilovitz

Special: Israeli, Jewish students fighting back as hostility grows on leading campuses in America
Full Story

Anti-Israeli elements have reached the conclusion that burning an Israeli flag does not make for good photos. It is too extreme, too controversial, and too barbaric; it doesn’t do the job anymore; the world has changed. They found that burning the Zionist idea rather than the flag is much more effective.

Over the past few months this campaign has been taken to the next level. At the University of California public university system, at the University of California, San Diego, at Brooklyn College in New York, at Oxford University in Britain and on other campuses there are calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) against Israel, and activists also disrupt lectures of Israeli representatives – it is all part of a broad campaign to delegitimize Israel.

It is not coincidental that a significant part of the delegitimization campaign against Israel is talking place on campuses. The arena was carefully selected. Campuses have always been fertile ground for exchanging ideas, for activity aimed at fomenting social change and for calls for universal ideals because it is easier to plant the seeds of unruliness in the minds of 18 year olds, who are more open to innovative and revolutionary ideas. Within a decade millions of young, influential people within government, the economy, the arts, culture, the judicial system and research – those who have been inculcated with the anti-Israel idea – may adopt the notion that Israel does not have the right to exist as a Jewish state. ‘Why do the Jews need a state of their own?’ They will wonder.

University of California Campus Student Governments Endorse BDS Cancer on Three Campuses.

March 20, 2013 Three UC student governments endorse BDS By Jonah Lowenfeld http://www.jewishjournal.com/ los_angeles/article/three_uc_student_governments_endorse_bds/

In the first two weeks of March, student governments at two University of California campuses — UC Riverside and UC San Diego (UCSD) — voted to approve resolutions urging their campus administrations and the University of California as a whole to divest from companies doing business in the West Bank.The resolutions, both of which passed by significant margins, came just a few months after the student government at UC Irvine voted unanimously to approve a similar measure. And, according to pro-Israel activists, divestment measures are in the works at two other public universities in Southern California. The approved resolutions urge the University of California, and the administrations of each of the individual campuses, to divest from companies with business interests that either assist in or profit from Israel’s presence in the West Bank. The measures are unlikely to force the individual campuses or the UC to take any action because of a UC policy limiting such action, but their passage has nonetheless proved disconcerting for pro-Israel students on those campuses. “As a result of this bill, Jews, Israelis and their friends have been alienated from the rest of the student population,” Jacqueline Zelener, co-president of Highlanders for Israel, the pro-Israel student group at UC Riverside, wrote in an e-mail. The BDS movement — the initials stand for advocacy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel — has become well known in recent years, and resolutions urging divestment from companies doing business with Israel have come before student governments at California universities before. In 2010, UC Berkeley’s student government approved a resolution urging divestment from two companies that supply Israel with war materials, however the UC Berkeley student body president later vetoed the resolution. Earlier this month, Stanford University’s undergraduate student government voted against a divestment bill that targeted companies doing business with Israel. Unlike at Stanford, where debate over the divestment bill lasted for multiple weeks before a vote was taken, pro-Israel students at UC Riverside only learned about the proposed resolution on their campus the night before the Associated Students of UC Riverside (ASUCR) voted on it. They [the resolution’s backers] kept it very secret from anyone who might have even been the slightest bit neutral or in the opposition,” said Danny Leserman, a business economics major at UC Riverside, who serves as president of Hillel and co-president of Highlanders for Israel.

Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You. Anti-Israel and Anti-Semitic Cancer Now Appears On Most University of California Campuses

Jewish at U.C. — the real report, by the students themselves

Thursday, October 18, 2012 | by dan pine– Jewish Weekly

They called Tammuz Dubnov a liar. Right to his face.

The 17-year-old sophomore was standing in U.C. Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza alongside other students defending Israel.

Therefore, reasoned the pro-Palestinian protestors, Dubnov, who was born in Israel, must be a liar. “I stayed calm,” he recalled of the incident last spring. “They don’t actually know what they’re talking about.”

U.C. Berkeley, like any university, is a bastion of free speech, a testament to the power of the First Amendment and fundamental American values. At the same time, U.C. campuses have long been the sites of verbal attacks against Israel and, occasionally, Jews.

Divestment resolutions, heckling of Israeli speakers, “Israel Apartheid Week,” calls for academic boycotts of Israel and ethnic slurs — as well as an occasional swastika scrawled here or carved there — have become part of university life.

Where have you been the past 10 years?

On February 12, 2008, the Orange County Independent Task Force completed a year-long investigation at the University of California, Irvine ( UCI). Over 80 hours of interviews, as well as, documents, written complaints and numerous visits to the campus were used in the compilation of the subsequent Findings and Recommendations. Among the reports findings were that ” acts of anti-Semitism are real and well documented. Jewish students have been harassed. Hate speech has been unrelenting

Though the report was widely distributed and copies sent to the highest echelons of the University of California, it was roundly ignored. In our view,  University Of California officials, including UC President Mark Yudof, have failed to adequately address anti-semitic hate speech and harassment on it’s campuses. Now, 4 1/2 years after the release of the Findings and Recommendations  and at least 10 years since the beginning of the problems, we read the following editorial.  What took so long?–  OCITF
______________________________________________________________________________

Protests must not stray into anti-Semitism

Richard D. Barton* Published 6:35 p.m., * Thursday, August 23, 2012 *San Fransisco Chronicle

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/opinion/openforum/article/Protests-must-not-stray-into-anti-Semitism-3811364.php#ixzz24zg8svCc

F or the past decade, a movement of protest against Israel, its policies and Zionism has occupied a central place on University of California and other college and university campuses. The nature of the messages embodied in that movement has drawn tremendous attention and study.

Israel “Apartheid” weeks, mock checkpoints in which students carry fake automatic weapons and portray Israeli soldiers indiscriminately targeting Palestinians, cartoons and other depictions of Israelis as Nazis, and speakers which routinely accuse Israel of genocide, ethnic cleansing and other crimes are the hallmarks of the protests.

In many instances, traditional anti-Semitic themes of Jewish control of the media and U.S. government are advanced as explanations for U.S. support of Israel and the plight of the Palestinians.

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

Calif lawmakers denounce anti-Semitism in colleges – San Jose Mercury News

 

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.

More doubletalk from UC President Mark Yudof….Yudof: “I remain a strong supporter of the Olive tree Initiative”

On June 28 2010 a Letter  signed by OC Task Force and 11 Organizations was went to  to UC President Yudof concerning, among other things, the alarming rise of anti-semitic rhetoric and physical and verbal aggression. In a very public and dismissive response in July 6, 2010 issue of the L A Times , Yudoff called that letter  a “dishearteningly ill-informed rush to judgment…” The following letter, copied to the Orange County Independent Task force on Anti-Semitism, is President Yudofs response to a recent petition from over 5,000 individials expressing  concern over the rising tide of anti-Semitic acts on the UC campuses: (Click) UC President Yudofs response to Jewish Community concerns

SEE ALSO:

Dear University of California President Yudof: Thanks for nothing!

Letter from UC Irvine Student to President Yudof concerning November 4th Presentation

Yudoff: “Whenever one of these vile acts occurs, we will act”… Will the regents continue to “act” like they are doing something or will they actualy do something about it?

“University administrators would do well to read the writing on their campuses’ bathroom walls”

UC Berkeley student:  “I don’t feel safe”

In May 2010 over 63 UC Irvine  faculty members issued a public statement saying in part: “Some community members, students, and faculty indeed feel intimidated, and at times even unsafe.”

Sign the Petition to UC President Mark Yudof

Dear Task Force friends,

As a follow-up to last  year’s letter to UC President Mark Yudof, which 12 organizations  — including  your own — signed, my colleague Dr. Leila Beckwith and I have recently posted  another on-line letterto President Yudof, urging him to forcefully and  promptly address the problem of the harassment and intimidation of Jewish students on UC campuses.  We are hoping that thousands of Jewish community members will join us in signing this follow-up letter.

Could you please forward the following to your email subscribers?

Many thanks,

Tammi

Dear Jewish Community of California,

Bigotry against Jewish students has occurred on University of California campuses over many years and on many campuses.  Jewish students have been subjected to: swastikas; acts of physical aggression; speakers, films and exhibits that use anti-Semitic imagery and discourse; speakers that praise and encourage support for terrorist organizations; the organized disruption of events sponsored by Jewish student groups; and most recently the promotion of student senate resolutions for divestment from Israel that seek to demonize and delegitimize the Jewish State.

Last May, more than 700 Jewish UC students signed a petition expressing outrage at anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery on their campuses.  They asserted that these incidents are as offensive and hurtful to Jewish students as a “Compton cookout” or a noose are to African American students. In addition, dozens of Jewish students from three different UC campuses, who responded to an on-line questionnaire, described feeling harassed and intimidated by the promotion of hatred against the Jewish State and of Jews.  Almost all of the students felt that the administrators on their campuses did not treat Jewish concerns as sensitively as they did the concerns of other minorities such as African Americans and Latinos.

In June 2010, leaders of 12 Jewish organizations, including the Orthodox Union and the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, wrote to UC President Mark Yudof, expressing their concerns about the hostile environment faced by Jewish students on UC campuses, and calling on him to address this serious problem immediately.  President Yudof responded by asking Jewish leaders to have patience and faith in the newly-established Advisory Councils on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion. Over the last year, however, these Advisory Councils have failed to address, or even acknowledge, the problem of anti-Semitism on UC campuses.  In fact, the aims and actions of the Advisory Councils since their inception, as revealed by documents released under a  Freedom of Information request, show that Jewish students are not a focus at all.

Is The University of California Revising its Policies in Wake of Berkeley Student’s Lawsuit?

———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Student Affairs <studentaffairs@uci.edu>
Date: Tue, Mar 8, 2011 at 7:31 PM
Subject: Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations, and Students
To: Multiple recipients of list <all-grad@nextday.oac.uci.edu>

Dear Student,

The University of California Office of the President has made two revisions to the Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations, and Students to address student conduct matters.  The new policy language reads:

Section 102.24: Conduct, where the actor means to communicate a serious expression of intent to terrorize, or acts in reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing, one or more University students, faculty, or staff.  ‘Terrorize’ means to cause a reasonable person to fear bodily harm or death, perpetrated by the actor or those acting under his/her control. ‘Reckless disregard’ means consciously disregarding a substantial risk.  This section applies without regard to whether the conduct is motivated by race, ethnicity, personal animosity, or other reasons.  This section does not apply to conduct that constitutes the lawful defense of oneself, of another, or of property.

Another “training” session for California anti-Israel divestment petition. This time at UC Berkeley

BDS (Boycott Divest Sanction) Movement. Is there any difference?

(Thanks to Tammi Benjamin for forwarding the following  information to OCITF)

Training for CA Divestment Petition Signature Collection Wed 9/29 at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM 78 Barrows Hall, UC Berkeley

We will be conducting training for petition circulators to collect signatures on the CA citizen’s initiative 10-0020, divesting state pension funds from companies enabling Israeli apartheid.

ZOA: Yudof response to 12 organizations June 28, 2010 letter “dismissive and insulting in tone.”

The  Zionist Organization of America’s July 26, 2010 letter, copied to the  the Governor, U C Board of Regents and members of congress,  also expressed concern that the U. C. advisory council members  “lacked expertise” in confronting and combating anti-Semitism.  The letter also suggests that at least two members are “the wrong choice” .  To read the ZOA letter click here

To read U C President Yudofs response letter to 12 Jewish organizations including the O C Independent Task Force on anti-Semitism click here

See Also:

Letter to UC President Yudof signed by OC Task Force and 11 Organizations

UC President Yudofs Letter

(Comments by Tammi Benjamin who co-authored the letter)

As you will see in his letter to us, Yudof goes to great lengths to minimize our concerns about the safety of Jewish students on UC campuses.  He also completely ignores our charge that there is an egregious anti-Jewish double standard among UC administrators and Regents, who, for example, have shown extreme sensitivity and responsiveness to the emotional distress that a Compton Cookout or noose might cause African American students,  but have virtually ignored the long-standing and intolerable harassment and intimidation of Jewish students through anti-Semitic graffiti, numerous speakers and events on many UC campuses that demonize Jews and support terrorism against Israel, divestment campaigns, etc.

Please feel free to write to one of the following in support of our Letter and the 12 courageous Jewish organizations that signed it:

UC President Mark Yudof: President@ucop.edu

UC Regents: regentsoffice@ucop.edu

LA Times: letters@latimes.com (Word limit 150)

To read U C President Yudofs response letter to 12 Jewish organizations including the O C Independent Task Force on anti-Semitism  click here

“University administrators would do well to read the writing on their campuses’ bathroom walls”

The following commentary is from the Jewlicious blog:

The Toilet as a Sign of the Times in the University of California

Written by themiddle

Over the years, we have brought our readers numerous posts about the anti-Israel movement at UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and recently UC San Diego. These movements are typically led by those schools’ Muslim Student Association or branch. The students at these organizations are organized, well funded and appear to have a network that not only provides them with necessary materials and programs, but also has a circuit of professional anti-Israel speakers.  Here’s one: