University of California Takes a Positive Step Re: Anti-Semitism

Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com

Hat tip to AMCHA Initiative.
I scoffed when University of California President Mark Yudof created his UC Advisory Committee on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion a couple of years back. Every time he gets a new complaint about anti-Semitism on UC campuses, he trots out this body to show he is dealing with the problem.
Finally, however, I have to compliment (with certain reservations) this body for the just-released study they have done on the problem facing Jewish students on campus whenever some group decides to hold an anti-Israel event.

Below is a letter from the AMCHA Initiative to the committee thanking them for their report but cautioning them about the attempts of groups like Jewish Voice for Peace to have Yudof table the report.
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“Jewish students are confronting significant and difficult climate issues as a result of activities on campus which focus specifically on Israel, its right to exist and its treatment of Palestinians. The anti-Zionism and Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movements and other manifestations of anti-Israel sentiment and activity create significant issues through themes and language which portray Israel and, many times, Jews in ways which project hostility, engender a feeling of isolation, and undermine Jewish students’ sense of belonging and engagement with outside communities.”

• In May 2010, 60 Jewish students on three UC campuses (UCB, UCI and UCSD) responded to an on-line questionnaire about campus climate that we posted. These students described feeling harassed and intimidated on their campuses: more than two-thirds felt that anti-Israel events and campaigns promoted hatred of the Jewish State and of Jews and even expressed the concern that such hatred might lead to violence against Jewish students on their campus, with some stating that it already had. Almost all the students felt that their administrators do not treat Jewish concerns as sensitively as they treat those of other minorities. (See Here for a selection of student responses to the questionnaire).
• In May 2010, 70 UC Irvine faculty members signed an open letter stating that they were deeply disturbed about activities on their campus that fomented hatred against Jews and Israelis, and that many faculty and students felt intimidated, and even unsafe.
• In June 2010, more than 700 Jewish UC students signed an on-line petition expressing outrage at anti-Jewish rhetoric and imagery on campus. They asserted that these events “are as offensive and hurtful to Jewish students as a “Compton cookout” or a noose are to African-American students.”
• In June 2010, the leadership of twelve national Jewish organizations — including United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism and the Orthodox Union, which represent two of the three major religious Jewish movements in America — signed a letter to President Yudof asking him to acknowledge and address the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry at the University of California.
• In September 2011, more than 5,000 members and supporters of the California Jewish community signed an AMCHA Initiative petition to President Yudof expressing their deep concern about the longstanding and pervasive harassment and intimidation of Jewish students on UC campuses and urging him to address the problem promptly and forcefully.
• Earlier this month, the AMCHA Initiative sent to the UC Regents and President Yudof a letter signed by more than 1,000 members and supporters of the California Jewish community, that asked the Regents and President to carry out their legal and moral obligations to ensure that UC classrooms are not being used to promote anti-Semitism.