Anti-Semitism on College Campuses

Parents Forum
21

@ScooterDee I would never advise someone to eliminate a school; just to do some research so you know what you’re getting involved in before enrolling.
@JHS can you explain “Jewish students are responsible for a great deal of the ferment…” statement? I’m not sure if you are taking a “blame the victim” stance–I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, but could you elaborate?

See how quickly even here we conflagrate anti-Semitism and anti-Israel rhetoric. It’s OK to criticize Israeli policies, which many Jewish students do. It’s not OK to draw swastikas, beat up Jews, target Jewish students with anti-Israel activity simply because they are Jewish, etc. It’s not OK to target kosher dining accommodations. All of that is currently happening on college campuses. It’s not OK to advocate for the elimination of Israel. I haven’t heard about this happening recently, but remember when Jewish students were targeted with flyers under their dorm doors telling them they had to leave, in a poorly thought out simulation of the Palestinians being told to leave their homes? Not OK.

22

Sorry for the confusion. I was talking about Jewish students criticizing Israeli policies, supporting the BDS movement, and openly questioning the legitimacy of Zionism (which can easily be characterized as “advocating for the elimination of Israel”). Obviously, there are many people advocating for the elimination of Israel who are anti-Semites, pure and simple. But there are any number of people who are committed Jews who do not regard preserving Israel as a “Jewish state” as a positive value.

These days, neither “Zionism” nor “anti-Zionism” describes a single specific, coherent position and set of principles. Each can be used as a label for a wide variety of mutually inconsistent analyses.

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Of course, when a label that has no consistently understood definition is used an epithet to label opponents, the effect is more to incite than to enlighten.

24

The Tree Of Life Synagogue tragedy happened in our backyard. The fluff/trivial condemnation of Omar’s pernicious, comment underscores that Anti-Semitism is alive and well. Very disconcerting.

25

@JHS,

Except that, for many Jewish students (and even for old people who are atheistic and ethnically half-Jewish like myself), the very questioning of the right of Israel to exist is a horrible gut punch that makes me feel unsafe.

Advocating for the eliminination of the state of Israel is singling out Israel alone, among all the world’s states where there are disputes about territory and/or ethnic tensions and/or concerns about the treatment of various groups (which is much worse in other nations whose right of existence we never hear questioned), as the one whose entire right to exist is under question. Why do people single out Israel for this unique, sole censure? Because it is unique in that it the world’s only Jewish majority state. In other words, anti-Semitism.

Please read the New York Times articles I attached to my original post that started this thread. Where would Israel’s 8 million inhabitants be expected to go? Why can’t an Israeli enjoy a national identity as does an Irish person or a German person or a Japanese person?

When I hear someone say Israel should not exist, I hear that they think I myself should not exist.

Go ahead and criticize particular Israeli policies. Advocate for a two state solution or different ways of handling events with Palestinians. Israelis themselves are divided on these issues, just as Americans are divided on issues like health care or immigration. But we do not say that America should cease to exist. Or that China should cease to exist. Or that Saudi Arabia should cease to exist.

For many Jewish students, it is terribly frightening to hear Israel singled out in this way. It basically says that Jews should have no place in our world as we have no identity.

And remember that Israel, the only historic home Jews had ever lived in where they had a government and were not minorities who were often enslaved or persecuted, was re-established as a nation following the Holocaust, when there had been a systematic effort to eliminate all Jews through murder, and when the nations of the world turned away fleeing Jews through immigration quotas and turning away boatloads of refugees. Israel was re-established to keep Jews alive.

So yes, anti-Zionism is not as immediate a threat as having a swastika drawn on your door or being beaten on the street, but a student hearing it sees the long term, hidden threat embedded in it. And as a Jewish student on campus, that is scary indeed.

26

" But there are any number of people who are committed Jews who do not regard preserving Israel as a “Jewish state” as a positive value."

So long as the same people are supporting the establishment of Palestine as a Palestinian Muslim state, this is antisemitism, since it is declaring that only Judaism and only Jews are not worthy or recognition either as an ethnicity or as a religious group, nor do they deserve anything resembling a national homeland. Since the history of Jews as an ethnic/religious minority has never been good, long term, this is also claiming that Jews deserve oppression.

As for the rest - I’ve already written just how the left’s claims regarding Israel and European colonialism are blatant attempts to erase Jewish culture, especially that of the Mizrahi majority of Israeli Jews.

PS. I am a supporter of the two-state solution, BTW, and support the idea of a Palestinian state.

27

The problem with a two state solution is the definition of it. Israel will never give up the Golan Heights, period. Jordan doesn’t want Israel to give up the Golan Heights. It is literally their security blanket per se. Rockets would be that much closer to Tela Viv etc etc. Not happening.

I would love to see the education change on Palestine territories. Teaching children to hate in kindergarten books through college needs to stop. There is Birthright for many young Jews to go to Israel paid by Israel and learn etc. I really would like to see educated students from Gaza /West Bank do the same tour with Jewish Students and people from around the world. Many have no clue about what Israel really is, just the propaganda they see on state TV. Yes, the internet changes some of this but not enough. Educating each other and talking about differences has to start somewhere. Saudia Arabia and Jordan work with Israel behind the scenes. We need more of this in front of the camera.

28

@pilot2012 - Omar got slammed immediately from the entire political establishment and was forced to make a hostage style apology. I’m not sure how you are seeing this as a trivial commendation.

She has made other comments that seem to reveal her anti-semitism, this one not so much. After all, is noticing that AIPAC and US Jews heavily influence US politics really that outrageous? US Jews make over 50% of the donations to the Democractic Party and 25% to the Republican Party. Plus, other than the State of the Union, no other event attracts more members of Congress than the AIPAC conference. The political establishment loves money and there are a lot of Jewish billionaires.

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Please let me phrase my sentence above differently. “I would love to see the education change IN Palestine territories”

In other words, stop Hamas from educating the children to hate jews.

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Omar is on the foreign affairs committee that governs Israel and other countries. She is being asked to resign since it’s clear she can not be impartial.

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@tpike12 – I don’t want to derail this thread. Not “commendation” – condemnation. Her censure should take into account not only this instance, but as you point out her previous “other comments.” I’m won’t comment on the Jewish billionaires and its nuanced stereotype.

32

The Golan Heights dispute is between Israel and Syria, and is not part of the West Bank or anything that is typically envisioned as being part of a proposed Palestinian state.

33

@JHS Let me give you an example. This happened not on a college campus, but in a research lab where I used to work. There was an invited speaker who was a college professor of geography. He presented a talk on some geography issue, which touched on economics of many regions of the world, but completely no politics. That is, until he got to Middle East and started bashing Israel as the sole reason of Palestinian sufferings. If it were a forum on politics, I would have disagreed and moved on, but in a purely academic talk it was very much out of place, and I felt very uncomfortable. Another Jewish woman in the audience got up and stomped out.

Later on, a coworker who wasn’t Jewish asked me what her problem was. I explained, and he didn’t argue with me, but it was obvious he didn’t think it was such a big deal, and probably didn’t even notice this singling out Israel during the talk.

I’m not, in fact, a fan of current Israeli politics, but this kind of thing goes on all the time, and most people don’t understand what the big deal is, they think it’s just a normal political criticism and Jews are being overly sensitive and just want everybody to blindly support Israel. In recent years the BLM movement and reading various accounts made me understand more about blacks feeling singled out by police and others even when no confrontation ensues - and I know many white people don’t feel it’s a big deal if nobody is arrested. I wish people made similar efforts with respect to Jews and Israel.

34

Tufts University today
https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2019/02/13/anti-israel-posters-found-tufts-jewish-center/KbgClPbAHgwyUoL4iU9XXP/story.html

35

First of all, i love Israel. That doesn’t mean that i love the current political leadership (they’re awful) but I love the people and the culture and the technology scene and the architecture and the acceptance of gay culture and the science and the food. It pains me to see people speak out against those who live there without understanding the full picture.

That said, I’d recommend a larger university rather than small…and one that’s not a political hotbed but just a big place where everyone can find their own tribe.

36

Not surprisingly, terrorist groups support the BDS movement.
https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2019/02/study-reveals-extensive-links-between-bds-and-terrorist-organizations/

37

What Omar said was old fashioned anti-semitism. Basically she said rich Jews control the world. Then under pressure she apologized for unknowingly being insensitive. This is not a matter of a lack of knowledge. That would be appropriate for the Gucci black turtlenecks which were a mistake and bad judgement - but unintentionally racist. Omar is an anti-Semite pure and simple. Unfortunately the world has changed far less than we pretend it has. We all must be on our guard and not allow any accommodation of this ancient existential hatred of Jews to go unanswered. We know how that story ends.

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@TheGreyKing

  1. I am Jewish. Born and raised. A synagogue member all my life.
  2. I think it is a bad idea to turn this thread into a debate about Israel. It's worth talking about anti-Semitism on campus, and it's worth talking about the intersection of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus. I think we can do that civilly. But if we start arguing about the underlying merits of Zionism or its opposite, it's pretty certain to make everyone unhappy without educating anyone.
  3. Almost by definition, any "two-state solution" is a Zionist solution. The point of having a two-state solution is so that one of the states can continue to be a "Jewish state" with a Jewish majority and some -- but not too much -- limitation on the civil rights of non-Jewish citizens, while the other state would not be a "Jewish state," and might even be a state that defined itself as Islamic. If Zionism means anything, it means believing that there is value and legitimacy in having a nation that defines itself as a Jewish state. Without that belief, the two-state solution is hard to justify.

Jews who don’t regard themselves as Zionists mostly don’t argue for a two-state solution these days. But they certainly don’t support driving the Jews of Israel into the sea, either, or expropriating their property or abrogating their civil rights. At the simplest level, what they tend to support is American- or Western European-style secular democracy with strong protections for minority (and majority) civil rights.

I don’t want to debate the merits of those positions, or which is less feasible practically and ethically. My point is only that there is a moral “anti-Zionism” that does not mean “expel all the Jews,” or anything like that.

39

Is it assumed that (either with respect to Israel or any other specific country or in general) that members of minority groups must necessarily have their civil rights limited in some way?

40

@ucbalumnus - Indeed, no. Here is a link to the founding charter of Israel.

https://mfa.gov.il/MFA/ForeignPolicy/Peace/Guide/Pages/Declaration%20of%20Establishment%20of%20State%20of%20Israel.aspx

I draw attention to these two sections—

  1. “It will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions; and it will be faithful to the principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
  1. “WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions.”

Has it always lived up to these ideals in all respects? No, just as the United States has not always lived up to its ideals in all respects.

But the central question of this thread is not about Israel, but about the experience of students facing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism on campus.