UNIVERSITIES PROVIDE ‘SAFE SPACE’ FOR BDS HARASSERS, NOT FOR JEWS
WIN Exclusive: Antisemitic Campus Group Turns Jewish Professor’s Life into Hell: Atara Beck, World Jewish News, Feb. 21, 2019 — Michael Goldstein is an administrator and an adjunct professor of communications and government relations at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn – a part of City University of New York (CUNY). His father, in fact, the late Leon Goldstein, was the school’s president for 29 years and the man who built the college’s modern-day campus.
Supporting Faculty on Israel: Now More than Ever: AsafRomirowsky and Alex Joffee, SPME, Dec. 16, 2018 — With the normalizing of antisemitism comes the normalizing of BDS. Professors and academics who support and advocate for BDS feel empowered and emboldened by the belief that their actions respond to the policies of current White House. Moreover, Israel is seen today as a right-wing issue, especially on campuses dominated completely by the political and cultural left.
In BDS Era, Book Provides Guidance for Parents of Jewish College Students: Deborah Finebloom, Jewish Journal, Feb. 16, 2019 — Is anyone truly prepared for the meat grinder that is the college selection process?
Addressing The “Knowledge Gaps”: Survey Aids Israel Advocacy: Doris Strub Epstein, CIJR, Jan. 31, 2019 — The lines between those who are anti-Israel and those who are antisemitic are increasingly being blurred.
Universities Urged to Enforce Code Banning Politics in Lectures: Michael Bachner, Times of Israel, Mar. 25, 2018
Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies: Ramallah on the Hudson: A.J. Caschetta, Campus Watch, Nov. 19, 2018
Anti-Israel Sentiments Make Waves on Campus: Rachel Fayne, The Jewish Times, Feb. 13, 2019
Study-Abroad Programs Enter the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Gabby Deutch, The Atlantic, Oct. 12, 2018
Antisemitic Campus Group Turns Jewish Professor’s Life into Hell Atara Beck World Jewish News, Feb. 22, 2019
Michael Goldstein is an administrator and an adjunct professor of communications and government relations at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn – a part of City University of New York (CUNY). His father, in fact, the late Leon Goldstein, was the school’s president for 29 years and the man who built the college’s modern-day campus.
Yet, as Goldstein wrote in an article published last week in the New York Daily News, he is the victim of “a systematic and pernicious campaign in which I have been targeted and harassed because of who I am and what I believe.” In this case, the “reason” for the attack, he says, is that he is “Jewish, politically conservative and I believe in Zionism, the civil rights movement of the Jewish people.”
In an attack in February 2018, the assailants, he explains in the Daily News piece, defaced a photo of his father with anti-Semitic graffiti, and he later learned that the incident occurred a day after Kingsborough Professor Katia Perea, a member of the radical Progressive Faculty Caucus (PFC), an unsanctioned group of faculty members, apparently told an administrator who refused her request to fire him, “I guess I will have to handle this myself.”
“This was my jarring introduction to the PFC and its unending campaign of harassment… It was also my introduction to the inertia of the Kingsborough and CUNY administrations,” he wrote, adding that the college refused to classify the incident as a hate crime and denied his requests for added security. “This was just the beginning of an orchestrated, aggressive movement to destroy me,” he said.
In another attack – on May 31, 2018 – anarchists began banging on his windows while he was giving a lecture, he told World Israel News in an interview. They papered the campus with 1,000 flyers, sharing posts from his private Facebook page, including a photo of his 13-year-old daughter. They likely got hold of the material from students who are also Facebook “friends,” he surmises.
“I was literally in tears,” he said.
Finally, in October 2018, CUNY decided to open an investigation. According to Goldstein, the reason is that a self-described Communist newspaper published an anonymous article from PFC that included “horrific, antisemitic, anti-Zionist tropes against me…They published a series of articles about me, calling on students to rise up against me. They’ve been training students on campus.”
“The leader is Anthony Alessandrini, one of the founders of Students for Justice in Palestine,” Goldstein explained. They hold meetings every Friday night. Some Jewish faculty members who can’t attend, because of the Jewish Sabbath, have asked them numerous times to make it on another evening, but to no avail, he said. Indeed, Alessandrini has been called out by Canary Mission, which, according to its website, “documents people and groups that promote hatred of the USA, Israel and Jews.”
Only after a Christian colleague experienced a vicious attack and demanded added security did the college finally agree to do the same for him, Goldstein said. “She feared for her life.”
This was after the Lawfare Project, a non-profit legal advocacy group that defends “the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and pro-Israel community, and fighting discrimination,” sent a letter to the CUNY chancellor, demanding protection for Goldstein. Asked why the college allows the abuse to continue, Goldstein told World Israel News, that “they’re afraid of litigation. As long as they can get away with delaying the issue, they’ll do that.”
As for his personal views, “I’m not anti-Muslim,” he stressed. “I’m against Islamic extremism. Most people who are good Muslims are against these crazies who bomb, stab. I’m against them attacking Jews, Christians, homosexuals – anybody.
“They’ve stripped me of my humanity this year. They destroyed me. I’m half the man that I was. I have sleepless nights. Every student I look at, I think they’re going to attack me. I don’t even leave my office. They’ve isolated me. I have to walk around campus with a public safety officer. I’ve gained 50 pounds. I used to wear a suit and tie every day, but now I just don’t have what it takes anymore.
“They’ve legitimized anti-Semitism,” he said. “If I was black, gay, Muslim, Latino or disabled, the university would have come to my rescue. It’s they who have attacked me, but it’s the university that enables them and emboldens them by their inaction. “My father built the college. He, like I did, loved the university and the students. He’s rolling in his grave now, seeing how these haters have been allowed to thrive and multiply.”
PFC’s “activities are not only directed towards me,” Goldstein notes. “Over the past year alone, at least five complaints by Jewish staff members have been filed against them internally with CUNY.”Goldstein said he has non-Jewish friends who were members of PFC but left because of the anti-Semitism. “They informed me about it, said it was set up like a Communist cell. They told me what was being said against Jews. They use the word Zionist, but it means Jews.” … [To read the full article, click the following Link – Ed.]
SUPPORTING FACULTY ON ISRAEL, NOW MORE THAN EVER
Asaf Romirowsky
SPME, Dec. 16, 2018
With the normalizing of antisemitism comes the normalizing of BDS. Professors and academics who support and advocate for BDS feel empowered and emboldened by the belief that their actions respond to the policies of current White House. Moreover, Israel is seen today as a right-wing issue, especially on campuses dominated completely by the political and cultural left. This allows every anti-Israel voice to be treated as normal and moral.
Faculty opposed to Israel are at the forefront of BDS, hiding behind the increasingly thin façade of academic freedom to launch systemic attacks on Israel, its supporters, and on the structure of the university itself.
Examples abound, from Rutgers women’s studies professor Jasbir Puar, who published an antisemitic blood libel as scholarship (and received an award from a professional organization for her calumnies), to University of Michigan American Studies professor John Cheney-Lippold, who refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student who wanted to study in Israel.
Facts and scholarship find no room in the world of BDS or identity politics. Feelings and politics shape everything related to Israel and, increasingly, related to the university as a whole. More and more, only one set of ideas is presented, in which Israel is the sole or greatest evil not only in the Middle East but the world, and which must be treated uniquely. Turkey’s jailing of tens of thousands of fellow academics does not register, much less China’s imprisonment of a million Muslims in re–education camps. Such comparative analysis, the basis for all social science, is dismissed as mere “what-about-ism.”
Academics opposed to Israel demand not only a monopoly on the university but impunity from criticism. After the Cheney-Lippold affair, a variety of academic BDS supporters came out in his defense and decrying the University of Michigan’s tepid response. So did several academic organizations, including the American Association of University Professors and the Middle East Studies Association, along with BDS groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and local Arab American representatives. Michigan’s Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies even held a BDS event, including a “teach-in,” with support from a host of other departments.
Dozens of Michigan faculty members also signed an angry letter demanding the university not punish Cheney-Lippold and claiming that the right to deny students letters of recommendation for study in one place and one place only, Israel, is a function of their academic freedom and right to free speech. Professional responsibilities to students, or the rights of students who perform well to receive letters of recommendation from their faculty members in order to study wherever they choose, do not enter the discussion.
BDS cuts to the heart of what universities are supposed to be. Is a university an impartial platform at which students can receive an education as well as support to go on with their lives and careers wherever they choose, or is it a political platform shaped exclusively by the views of an angry minority of Israel-hating faculty? Academics who support BDS demand that their politics directly shape the world and the lives of their students while eschewing all responsibility and even criticism. John K. Wilson, the co-editor of the AAUP’s blog, “Academe,” told Insider Higher Ed that “it is morally wrong for professors to impose their political views on student letters of recommendation,” but still argues that the professor should not be punished. There are almost no consequences, except writ large, when institutions like Evergreen State or the University of Missouri, which experienced similar unhinged anger from faculty and students over racial issues, found their enrollments plummeting and state legislators questioning the wisdom of supporting their bitter politics…. [To read the full article, click the following Link – Ed.]
IN BDS ERA, BOOK PROVIDES GUIDANCE FOR PARENTS OF JEWISH COLLEGE STUDENTS
Deborah Finebloom,
Jewish Journal, Feb. 16, 2019
Is anyone truly prepared for the meat grinder that is the college selection process? It’s all-consuming, sucking the entire family into its vortex for months or even years: which schools to apply to, the endless tours and interviews, the essays, references and financial-aid applications, followed by months of nail-biting until the life-changing thumbs ups or thumbs downs.
(One searing memory is of my 17-year-old son setting fire to a particularly condescending rejection letter and, with a few choice words he must have picked up on the school bus, proceeding to flush its ashes down the toilet.)
A decade ago, after slogging through the process, if your child was accepted into a selective college, you’d breathe a sigh of relief, cash in your investments and have something to crow about when you run into your neighbor at the supermarket. But that was before anti-Israel fever reared its ugly head on many North American campuses, as wildly popular today as was goldfish-swallowing in the 1950s, and draft-card (and bra) burning in the 1960s and ’70s.
Coming to the rescue of concerned and confused parents is Jerome Ostrov’s “Finding the Right School in the Era of BDS and Intersectionality: A Jewish Parents’ Guide to Colleges: 2018-19 Academic Year.” The hefty tome (an oversized volume of no less than 444 pages) demystifies for parents much about the college selection process (for those clueless about what differentiates early and rolling admissions for example), but first and foremost, it’s an invaluable guide to protecting your child from the anti-Israel and, increasingly anti-Semitic, forces eating away at the fabric of many North American universities.
In these pages, the author, a retired lawyer who’s done his homework over the years studying America’s colleges and universities (and visiting 125 of them in the process), introduces parents to the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement. Long story short: In the last three years, 56 resolutions have been introduced into student governments recommending their schools withdraw from any business or academic relationship with Israeli companies, universities, hospitals, research projects, etc. (At some schools, even a brand of hummus served in dining halls with the Israeli name Sabra has triggered protests). More than half of these BDS resolutions have passed, and new ones are introduced each month.
Colleges that have passed such resolutions include Columbia University/Barnard College (which tops many a “Worst Schools for Jewish Students” list); Tufts University; the University of Maryland; the University of Massachusetts in Amherst; no fewer than five University of California campuses; George Washington, New York and Northeastern universities; and such heartland institutions as the Ohio State University, and the universities of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin…. [To read the full article click the following Link – Ed.]
ADDRESSING THE KNOWLEDGE GAP: SURVEY AIDS ISRAEL ADVOCACY
Doris Strub Epstein
CIJR, Jan.31, 2019
The lines between those who are anti-Israel and those who are antisemitic are increasingly being blurred. That was a conclusion of a ground-breaking survey commissioned by La’ad Canada last September that asked 1500 people from across Canada key questions regarding what they think about Israel and Jews, including BDS.
The telephone survey, conducted by the research and strategy firm Campaign Research, ascertained that only 12 percent of respondents were familiar with what BDS was, and of those who were aware, 19 percent agreed with its objectives. Of this latter group – the majority of who were males between the age of 18 – 24 – 45 percent favoured imposing further boycotts, divestment, and sanctions even if Israel were to meet its “obligations under international law.” Included among these “obligations” was withdrawal from the occupied territories, removal of the separation barrier in the West Bank, full equality for Arab Palestinian citizens of Israel and promotion of the right of return of Palestinian refugees.
“If you’re still calling for BDS after Israel does everything BDS is asking for, clearly the issue is not about co-existence, it must be about something else,’ says Sam Eskenasi, Director of Advocacy for La’adCanada. “That something else is very likely antisemitism.”
At a January 31st conference entitled “What Do Canadians Think About Israel,” held at Toronto’s Beth David Synagogue, La’ad’s Eskenasi, and Lauren Isaacs from Hasbara Fellowships Canada discussed the results of this survey and about how their organizations help “fill the knowledge gaps” and “take control of the narrative.”
The conference was organized by the Montreal-based Canadian Institute for Jewish Research (CIJR), an academic pro-Israel think-tank, that has been educating the public about Israel for over 30 years through lectures, academic conferences, and daily briefings that analyze the political happenings of the day concerning Israel.
All three outreach organizations target students on university campuses, amongst other demographic groups. Poll results such as these that expose the underlying motivations behind many BDS supporters help students distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and antisemitism. Still, the challenges for Israel advocacy groups remainsignificant. “We’re winning the ground war but losing the media war,” Isaacs says.
She offered suggestions on how to advocate for Israel. “Connect [the subject of] Israel to current “hot button” topics. Facts may be important. Emotions, though, are more powerful and drive decisions. Personalize your arguments.”
Dr. Daniel Rickenbacher, the upcoming Assistant Director of Research and Operations, CIJR, adds. “As in every generation, we must address issues that are important to young people, such as the right to sexual self-determination, women’s rights, freedom of speech, and rule of law, which are all trampled on by Israel’s enemies but guaranteed in Israel. Its an absurdity that the friends of a bigoted, extreme right movement, such as Hamas, should be supported on campus by self-declared Liberals or Progressives.”
La’ad Canada was founded in 2017 by young professionals who saw the need for an advocacy organization focused on the next generation of Jewish Canadians. Reaching millennials, La’ad believes, requires a different approach from that which worked for their parents and grandparents who fought for Soviet Jewry, and the fledgling State of Israel. Millennials only know Israel as a superpower and cannot perceive a time when its very existence was at stake and the persecution of Jews a daily occurrence. The challenge for Israel advocates is to breach this illusion of invincibility in ways that speak emotionally and intellectually to today’s youth.
CIJR Wishes All Our Friends and Supporters: Shabbat Shalom!
Universities urged to enforce code banning politics in lectures: Michael Bachner, Times of Israel, Mar. 25, 2018 — A proposed ethics code for academic institutions that drew ire last year over a clause that would prevent lecturers from promoting specific political agendas or boycotts of Israel in class has been approved and will come into force by the beginning of next year.
Columbia University’s Center for Palestine Studies: Ramallah on the Hudson: A.J. Caschetta, Campus Watch,Nov. 19, 2018 — The Trump administration may have closed the PLO’s Mission in Washington, D.C., but its Morningside Heights Mission is open for business.
Anti-Israel Sentiments Make Waves on Campus: Rachel Fayne, The Jewish Times, Feb. 13, 2019 — Relations between Jewish and Muslim students at Georgia State University have been strained lately.
Study-Abroad Programs Enter the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Gabby Deutch, The Atlantic, Oct. 12, 2018 — Twice this semester, University of Michigan instructors have made headlines for their opposition to Israel.
