Elliot Kaufman
WSJ, Aug. 22, 2024
“ … the anti-Israel fanatics demand that Jews relinquish not so much the tenets of their religion as their dignity and the solidarity that sustains Jewish peoplehood.”
A legal victory for Jewish students comes by way of an oversimplification of Judaism. Yet in the process, it stumbles on some deeper truths about the attempt to twist Zionism—support for the existence of a Jewish state—from a modest expression of political decency into a radical and global evil, unique among the nations.
“Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith,” U.S. District Judge Mark C. Scarsi ruled in Frankel v. Regents of the University of California. His Aug. 13 preliminary injunction means UCLA can’t allow a rerun of the spring, when protest encampments denied “Zionists” access to a main quad and thoroughfare, a library and even some classrooms.
Less than a week later, on Aug. 19, the University of California president directed his 10 campuses and their chancellors to enforce the rules against encampments, blocking paths and masking to shield one’s identity. Maybe the legal approach will get results.
The judge focused on the free exercise of religion: The plaintiffs, three Jewish students, “assert that supporting the Jewish state of Israel is their sincerely held religious belief.” For one plaintiff, the complaint attests, “Judaism is synonymous with supporting Israel.” Another “seeks to follow Jewish law (halacha), which prohibits speaking ill of or defaming the land of Israel.” This is why he “believes, as a matter of his religious faith, that he must support Israel.” … [To read the full article, click here]