Political correctness on American college campuses is manifest anti-Semitism, but can it be fought?
Nearly thirty years ago, I had a business trip to San Francisco that required me to spend the Sabbath in the Bay Area. I only knew one Orthodox Jew in the area: Someone from the class behind me in both high school and college (Columbia) was at the time the rabbi in Berkeley. He arranged for me to stay with one of his congregants - he was in the process of leaving the community to move on to 'bigger' things. I won't mention his name because I'm still friends with many of his relatives, but that Sabbath was a real eye-opener. My friend had become what we would today term 'anti-Israel' and a 'Jewish anti-Semite.' I was floored.
What I'm about to describe was probably inevitable. The fight for 'safe spaces,' BDS and political correctness on American college campuses has morphed into blatant anti-Semitism. The role that prominent Leftist Jews has played in making this happen will not shield them from the monster they created. See Germany (which will be insulted if you say so, but remains anti-Semitic more than 70 years after Hitler's death) and Stalinist Russia. Different campuses are at different stages, but most American college campuses appear to be heading inexorably toward anti-Semitic group think.
This report that I saw on Facebook comes from a current student at my alma mater, Bir Zeit on the Hudson.
Rochman is describing a university course calling for the 'elimination' of Israel taught by what we would call an 'as a Jew' (someone who uses the accident of his birth to permit him to blatantly incite to anti-Semitism) using terms not much different from the terms that Hitler used to describe the elimination of Jews 70 years ago. As I have mentioned several times in the past couple of months, the role of Germany in financing the continued prominence of the 'Palestinians' in world affairs reflects the continued anti-Semitism in Germany (I am now reading an earlier book by Tuvia Tenenboim about anti-Semitism in Germany today - that book's publication was nearly blocked!).
Let's start with what should be obvious: Being 'anti-Israel' or subjecting Israel to double standards in 2016 is no different than being anti-Semitic in the 1940's. Saying you're 'only against Israel' but 'not against Jews' is putting a politically correct cover on an ancient hatred.
At Berkeley, the cradle of the false distinction between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism, things have only gotten worse. This article discusses a 'for credit' course on the Berkeley college campus.
According to Tammi Rossman-Benjamin,
co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative — which combats, monitors and
documents antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America —
the course in question, titled “Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis,” is a “classic example of antisemitic anti-Zionism.”
“Based upon the syllabus, the class
treats Israel as a settler colonial state and Zionism and Israel as
illegitimate,” Rossman-Benjamin told The Algemeiner,
adding that “a goal of the class appears to be talking about ways to
decolonize Palestine, which essentially means to eliminate the Jewish
state.”
“This is clear eliminationist
anti-Zionism, which is not just criticism of Israel, but opposition
to the existence of the Jewish state with efforts to eliminate that
state,” she said.
Lily Greenberg Call, a Jewish UC
Berkeley student who serves as a CAMERA Fellow and is the co-vice
president of the campus group Bears for Israel, told The Algemeiner that she became “very upset” after seeing posters advertising the class.
“It’s one thing to have a political
group like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on campus, but
teaching material that is so biased and factually inaccurate in a
classroom setting violates academic integrity,” she said.
“Palestine: A Settler Colonial Analysis” is being offered as a “DeCal” course,
which is part of a program of student-run classes that falls under the
jurisdiction of UC Berkeley’s Academic Senate. According to a
description of the course — which acknowledges “contentious” material
will be taught — the class will:
…[E]xamine key historical developments that have taken
place in Palestine, from the 1880s to the present, through the lens of
settler colonialism…we will explore the connection between Zionism and
settler colonialism, and the ways in which it has manifested, and
continues to manifest, in Palestine. Lastly, drawing upon literature on
decolonization, we will explore the possibilities of a decolonized
Palestine, one in which justice is realized for all its peoples and
equality is not only espoused, but practiced.
Students are also required to attend at least one event, on or off campus, “relating to Palestine.”
The faculty sponsor of the course, Dr. Hatem Bazian,
is the co-founder of SJP and a major supporter of the US Campaign for
the Academic & Cultural Boycott of Israel (USACBI). Bazian is a
former fundraising speaker for the anti-Israel organization KindHearts,
which was shut down by the US government in 2006 for its alleged ties to
Hamas.
You might think there's nothing wrong with that because college campuses are supposed to facilitate 'the free exchange of ideas.' But that's not what's going on here.
According to Rossman-Benjamin, “You
just need to take a look at the instructor, facilitator, authors of the
reading materials and listed guest speakers to see that the course is
biased and presents an egregious framework against Israel.” Furthermore,
she noted, “Not one reading or guest lecturer isn’t a virulent
anti-Zionist, absolutely opposed to the existence of the state of Israel
and supporter of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.”
Reading material includes selections
from works by anti-Zionist Israeli historian Ilan Pappe; the late Edward
Said, a fierce Israel critic; and Saree Makdisi, an advocate of the
elimination of Israel as a Jewish state. Also, there are testimonies
from the controversial and widely debunked Israeli group Breaking the Silence.
“As seen from the syllabus, the class
doesn’t look at Israel and ask if it is a settler colonial state or if
Zionism is a legitimate ideology,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “The starting
point is that it is illegitimate. This is completely one-sided and has a
clear anti-Zionist bent, to the extent that it opposes the existence of
the Jewish state.”
And if you still think this course is anything other than a 'safe space' for anti-Semitic rants....
She also told The Algemeiner
that she finds it “concerning” that the course has “a strict
no-technology policy — no phones, voice recordings or photographs —
which makes me worried that some of the content will be inherently
anti-Israel and as such, the facilitators don’t want to make it public
in any way.”
By the way, if you pay taxes to the State of California, you're supporting this.
Is there any way to fight back? Here's one promising story from Miriam Elman, an Associate Professor at Syracuse University.
A brief recap: [Israeli Filmmaker Shimon] Dotan [of New York University's Graduate School of Journalism] was invited by a University of Nebraska colleague to screen the film at SU. A tenured professor in SU’s Religion Department, M. Gail Hamner, then rescinded the invitation on account of warnings from colleagues that the “BDS faction on campus will make matters very unpleasant” for her and Dotan if he came. Bottom line: Hamner was reluctant to bring Dotan to the conference because she felt intimidated by a faculty caucus who wouldn’t be happy about the screening of a well-received Israeli film.
SU responded admirably by reasserting the university’s commitment to free speech and its opposition to “any boycott of Israeli academic institutions or faculty.” An invitation to Dotan to present his film at a later time this year was also extended. On her part, Hamner issued an apology and reaffirmed her own support for academic freedom. To my mind, this rings hollow. A true defender of campus free speech actively solicits diverse viewpoints, and doesn’t surrender to peer pressure to conform. Still, Hamner’s expression of regret seems sincere and heartfelt.
All’s well that ends well? Not quite. Lingering questions remain: did Hamner have to “vouch” in the same way for other films in the conference – or was it just the product of an Israeli national that required special scrutiny? Are a group of anti-Israel colleagues exercising subtle veto power when it comes to academic programming related to Israel?
To get answers to these questions, and assess the magnitude of the problem, I and other SU faculty are now urging the administration to undertake a comprehensive and transparent investigation. Supported by the Academic Engagement Network, a new national organization committed to opposing BDS on campuses and to preserving academic freedom and free speech, we believe that only a full exploration as to why Dotan’s invitation was withdrawn will both lay this incident to rest and ensure that something like it won’t happen again.
This inquiry shouldn’t be construed as a witch hunt, nor is it likely to reveal a campus awash in anti-Israel animus. SU is generally a welcoming place for Israeli scholars and students. An exploration of the matter may also show that Hamner panicked unnecessarily and that her fears of the “BDS faction” were overblown. But it’s possible too that the inquiry will uncover more evidence of stealth boycotting.
Three lessons about these silent boycotts and how to defeat them can be learned from my university’s “Dotan Affair.”
First, administrators need to recognize that just because their schools are on record opposing academic boycotts of Israel doesn’t mean that individual faculty members are adhering to that institutional policy in their personal instructional practices. Administrators must make school policy crystal clear, but they also have to institute mechanisms to ensure that faculty members comply with it.
Second, the case highlights that successfully confronting silent boycotting ultimately depends on whether individual faculty are willing to take a stand. Like all bullies, stealth boycotters get away with their bigotry and intimidation because most faculty aren’t as honest and forthright as Hamner was about the pressures they’re facing, and because the vast majority of professors prefer to do their research and teaching and hesitate getting involved in "campus politics." The now multiplying anti-BDS organizations operating on campus are going to have to figure out a way to incentivize more faculty to engage proactively – and get those feeling cowed by BDS harassment to go public.
Lastly, the “Dotan Affair” shows that BDS, which bills itself as a human rights movement aimed at ending the Israeli "occupation," is in fact pure racist hatred, from which even famous anti-occupation, progressives Israelis – like Shimon Dotan – aren’t immune. To put a stop to stealth boycotting on campus and prevent more Israeli scholars from being privately shut out of academia, Zionists from across the political spectrum – left, center, and right – will need to fight together to ensure that all their voices can be heard on campus.
This battle is far from over. But I sure would not want my children or grandchildren on an American college campus today.
The most anti-Semitic college campus in the United States is...
The most anti-Semitic college campus in the United States is the home of Edward Said and Joseph Massad and Rashid Khalidi and the center for 'Palestinian studies.' Yes, you guessed it, it's Bir Zeit on the Hudson.
According to the [David Horowitz Freedom] Center, Columbia University is listed first because
it is home to the “most well-known antisemitic professors in the
nation such as Rashid Khalidi and Joseph Massad, who has been accused
of harassing Jewish students on multiple occasions. In addition, it is
home to a highly active SJP chapter that has recently brought BDS
founder Omar Barghouti and disgraced antisemitic professor Steven
Salaita to campus.”
The Center also cited a number of offending events held at Columbia
University in 2014, such as Israeli Apartheid Week and a protest with
signs that read “Call to Action: Stand with Gaza.”
Cornell University came in second place followed by George Mason
University, Loyola University Chicago, Portland State University, San
Diego State University and San Francisco State University. Rounding off
the list was Temple University, University of California Los Angeles and
Vassar College.
How to deal with rampant anti-Semitism on US college campuses
Given the anti-Semitism being taught in the classrooms on so many North American college campuses, it's not too surprising that anti-Semitism has become rampant on those same campuses. This is Caroline Glick.
Increasingly, anti-Semites in the US are adopting brownshirt tactics
to violently advance their goal of removing Jews from the public square
and intimidating others into boycotting Israel and those who support it.
Take just a few examples in recent weeks. In late September, several
hundred anti-Semitic rioters at the Port of Oakland prevented
longshoremen from unloading cargo from the Israeli cargo ship Zim
Shanghai. According to media reports, there were 50 policemen from the
Oakland police force on the scene, but their presence did not stop the
rioters or enable the longshoremen to offload the cargo.
None of the anti-Semites were arrested. Zim Shanghai was forced to leave the port with its cargo and sail on to Los Angeles.
The group that organized the assault on the Zim ship calls itself
Block the Boat for Gaza. It operates through its Facebook page where it
openly organizes violent assaults on Israeli shipping. Another assault
is planned, according to its Facebook page, for October 25.
A previous assault in August, during Operation Protective Edge, also
took place with police presence and nonintervention. The Zim Piraeus was
forced as well to pull anchor with its cargo and sail on to Los
Angeles.
Block the Boat for Gaza is supported by another group called Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
On October 8, the Brooklyn Nets played an exhibition game against
Maccabi Tel Aviv at the Barclay Center in downtown Brooklyn. The event
was a benefit for Friends of the IDF. Twelve IDF soldiers wounded during
Operation Protective Edge were guests at the event.
About a hundred anti-Semitic rioters organized outside the event.
They were members of variety of organizations reportedly including
Jewish Voices for Peace, Adalah – New York, and the Direct Action for
Palestine.
After the event, a number of the rioters accosted Leonard Petlakh,
the director of a local Jewish community center, as he was leaving the
arena with his two young sons. According to The Forward, they shouted,
“Free Palestine,” and, “Your people are murderers.” And then one of them
punched him in the face, breaking his nose.
The assailant was arrested. But strangely, he was not charged with
committing a hate crime despite the clear anti-Semitic character of his
crime.
On October 5, hours after the end of Yom Kippur, swastikas were
painted on the walls of AEPi Jewish fraternity at Emory University near
Atlanta. Swastikas were also painted at the Yale University campus. In
July, mailboxes of AEPi members at University of Oregon were defaced
with swastikas.
In August, a Jewish student at Temple University was assaulted by a member of Students for Justice for Palestine.
In a video filmed at the national convention of AEPi and posted on
YouTube two weeks ago, members of AEPi from campuses around the US and
Canada shared the stories of anti-Semitic assaults they and their
friends suffer regularly on their campuses. The attacks described
included, among other things, violent assaults.
Gideon Rafal, the president of AEPi at University of Arizona, described
how he was assaulted while trying to prevent a group of 20 Jew-hating
thugs from forcing their way into his fraternity house.
Rafal said he was struck from behind and lost consciousness.
The injuries he sustained during the assault included a skull
fracture, bleeding in the brain, a concussion and a lower back fracture.
He says that he was hospitalized for three weeks, spending 10 days in
the intensive care unit.
Rafal did not say who the assailants were or what legal measures were
taken against them or what organization if any, they were associated
with.
Other students described threats against Jewish students manning a
table for Birthright Israel programs at Loyola University in Chicago,
and the assault of a Jewish female student at University of California
at Santa Cruz.
Shane, a student at University of Calgary, described how he, his
mother and sister were violently assaulted for counter-protesting at an
anti-Israel protest. The group that sponsored the anti-Israel protest
and whose members attacked him and his family is an official campus
organization.
Shane said he fears for his life as he walks through campus.
In recent years it has become apparent that university campuses have
become breeding grounds for anti-Semitism. The incidents described by
the Jewish students who attended the AEPi convention indicate that the
anti-Israel propaganda taught in the classrooms is increasingly being
translated into anti-Jewish violence outside of them.
I graduated from Bir Zeit on the Hudson a little too early to remember Barry Soetoro a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama. But isn't it more than a little curious that not a single one of the 25 members of the Columbia College Class of 1983 - allegedly Obama's class - who lives in Israel remembers him?
What are Obama's classmates in Israel up to? Quite a few,
like him, went straight to law school after finishing their
undergraduate degrees. One is a doctor, several are
engineers, and a few hold top jobs in finance. There's an
architect in the group, a tour guide, a librarian, a speech
pathologist, an occupational therapist and a journalist.
Most are married with children (about three on average ), a
few are already grandparents, while others, who came to
parenting relatively late in life, are still chasing around
toddlers. Among the group are also two married couples who
began dating while in college.
They're scattered around the country, but Beit Shemesh and
Ra'anana seem to be their preferred locales. Four live in
Jerusalem and its outskirts, three in Tel Aviv, two are up
north in Kfar Vradim, and two live over the Green Line in
the settlement of Ginot Shomron.
But here's the thing: Not one of us remembers Barack Obama
- who transferred to Columbia after his sophomore year at
Occidental College in California - from our undergrad years,
nor do we know anyone else who does.
"If he wasn't on my radar, he wasn't on anyone's radar,"
asserts Jamie Miller, a mother of five, who lives in Beit
Shemesh and remains active in the alumni association,
traveling back to New York every five years to attend
reunions.
"I was a cheerleader, so I knew all the jocks," says
Miller, who went to law school after college and today works
as a librarian and English teacher. "I was in the marching
band, I worked on the yearbook, and I was involved in
student government, so I knew everyone. But I never saw him
around."
Sarah Graber Nehrer, a speech pathologist who moved with
her family from the United States to Rehovot last summer,
says she became curious about Obama even before his first
presidential run. "When he first came on the political
scene, back when he was running for the Senate, I was living
in Illinois, and I was like, 'Wait, this guy went to school
with me,'" she explains. "But I had no recollection of him
whatsoever, and neither did anyone else I know, which I
found very strange."
Compared with other American universities, Columbia, a
member of the prestigious Ivy League, is small. Its
graduating class in 1983 - including Columbia College for
men, Barnard College for women and the College of
Engineering - had fewer than 2,000 students. And since the
campus itself, located in the uptown Manhattan neighborhood
of Morningside Heights, is also quite small, the
opportunities to bump into your classmates and get to know
faces over a period of four years were abundant.
...
Yet another classmate, Michael Teplow, notes that someone
with presidential aspirations "wouldn't be shy, but in fact,
quite gregarious," which is why he, too, was surprised to
discover "when I first started flipping through my yearbook
looking for his picture that he wasn't there, and I didn't
remember him at all." Like Obama, Teplow went onto law
school after he graduated Columbia. Today he lives in the
settlement of Ginot Shomron, from which he travels each
weekday to his law firm in Tel Aviv. Most of his practice is
in corporate law, but Teplow has also built up a pro-bono
side practice over the years representing Palestinians who
have served as informers for Israel's security forces.
Another Tel Aviv corporate lawyer in the group is Norman
Menachem Feder, a senior partner in Caspi & Co., who
once clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Menachem
Elon. "I spent most of my time at Columbia either in the
library or in the gym practicing for fencing, so if Obama
wasn't hanging out in those places, I wouldn't have seen
him," he notes.
Teddy Weinberger moved to Israel 15 years ago with his
wife and former classmate Sarah Jane Ross, who works in
institutional sales at Excellence Nessuah investment house.
From their home in Givat Ze'ev, in the West Bank just north
of Jerusalem, where the couple live with their five
children, Weinberger continues to maintain close ties with
many of his old college buddies, and says he understands why
Obama may not have been on any of their radar. "He was a
transfer student living off campus and that made it possible
for him to keep such a low profile."
What might be a fair comparison is to ask how many of them knew another famous Columbian from that era - George Stephanopoulos - who was a class ahead of them.
You don't think Barry lied about going to Columbia, do you?
As you can see in the first email below, only one out of the four events sponsored by the school's "Human Rights Institute" is not directly related to Israel. But it is today's email (in which three of the six events relates to Israel) that is really disturbing in its condoning the use of the term "pinkwashing," and the co-sponsorship of an event with "Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine." (the attachment was sent along with this email).
Also, if you look at the website of CLS's "Human Rights Institute," you can see there already have been a number of similar recent events (http://www.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/events/calendar - "Doing Human Rights in Israel and the OPT" a discussion with Bill Van Esveld, Middle East & North Africa Division, Human Rights Watch, 2/13/2012; Struggling for Legal, Civil, and Human Rights: Bedouin Citizens of Israel in the Negev/Naqab, 10/27/2012; Rawia Aburabia, Association for Civil Rights in Israel, 10/19/2012), and last year (http://www.law.columbia.edu/human-rights-institute/events/pastevents/2010-2011- Libby Lenkinski Friedlander, Director of International Relations at the Association for Civil Rights in Israel, 2/21/2011; 'Housing, Land, & Property Rights in East Jerusalem & the West Bank' Antonia Mulvey of the Norwegian Refugee Council in discussion with Professor Peter Rosenblum, 2/7/2011).
This is too good to check. A classmate from Bir Zeit on the Hudson sent me a promo for something called Columbia conversations online. They're holding a two-day celebration of the launch of something called the Columbia Global Center in Istanbul, Turkey. The Columbia Alumni Association is presenting two webcasts as part of the celebration, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday, each at 11:30 am eastern time. The topic of the one on Wednesday is rich (Hat Tip: Merrill W).
Is the Internet Too Free? Moderated by Dean Nicholas Lemann and Sheila Coronel A panel discussion on the perils of—and prospects for—journalism online. Is the Internet a safe place for original and independent reporting? Or is it a threatened space? Are the freedoms that citizens and journalists enjoy online more myth than reality?
In case you are wondering, Nicolas Lemann is the dean of the Graduate school of Journalism. One would at least hope that his answer to the discussion question will be "no."
If any of you are interested in watching, go here.
Student involved in 'steering' incident at Columbia interviewed
The Orthodox Jewish Barnard College student who was 'steered' away from a course at Columbia University has given an anonymous interview, which has been published in the Tablet, an online Jewish magazine.
In her first interview since the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights launched an official inquiry into possible anti-Jewish discrimination late last month, the student gave Tablet Magazine a description of the incident that sparked the federal investigation. (The Office for Civil Rights confirmed in an email that it is “investigating a complaint alleging Columbia University discriminated against a student of Jewish ancestry/ethnicity on the basis of national origin.”)
“I went to her to speak about the major and talk to her about classes that I was looking at,” the student, who asked not to be named, said of a January, 2011 meeting in which she sought advice from McDermott, the longtime chair of the Asian and Middle Eastern Cultures Department at Barnard. “I mentioned a course taught by Joseph Massad.”
“Oh, he’s very anti-Israel,” McDermott responded, according to the student. “And I said, ‘That’s fine, I’ve heard anti-Israel things before, and I’m fine if it’s a culture clash.’ ”
But McDermott insisted Massad’s course would make the student “uncomfortable,” the student said in the interview. In the end, the student, then a sophomore, took the Jewish history class instead.
...
The student, now a Middle East Studies major, knew about Massad’s reputation....
And so, the student said, she wasn’t much surprised by McDermott’s advice until last May. That month, she met Peter Haas, a professor of Jewish studies at Case Western University and president of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, a network of pro-Israel academics and professors, and told him about what happened. Another member of the pro-Israel professors’ network, Judith Jacobson, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia’s School of Public Health, followed up by calling the student. Jacobson wanted to know if the student was interested in talking to Kenneth L. Marcus, who heads the group’s legal task force. The student agreed.
Marcus, the director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative at the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, headed the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, the agency currently investigating Columbia, in 2003 and 2004. According to Marcus, what happened at Barnard was an instance of “steering”—a term that typically refers to housing discrimination, when a real-estate agent tells a black family that it would feel “uncomfortable” in a particular neighborhood because of its predominantly white population. Congress passed the Fair Housing Act in 1968 to outlaw the practice.
What McDermott allegedly did, according to Marcus, who handled cases of alleged steering as the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity in 2002 and 2003, was a form of steering and thus violated the Jewish student’s civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. He said in an interview that he knew of “no other steering cases in an educational context,” but that if the student’s allegations are verified, “it would be extremely difficult for Barnard to say that any steering would not have any harmful effect.”
I'm bothered by this case even if the student 'wins.' Let me explain why.
McDermott clearly had the student's best interest at heart. And when she told the student not to take the course, unless I have misunderstood something, she gave advice that was in the student's best interest. The issue here is not that the student was steered away from Massad - it's that Massad doesn't belong on the faculty of a major American university, and certainly not as a tenured professor.
I wouldn't want the McDermott's of the world to be chilled from giving advice that is in students' best interest. The real issue here - which is once again being avoided - is that a professor who treats students as Massad does should not be on the faculty.
I tried to find even a trailer of "Columbia Unbecoming" - the 2005 documentary of interviews of students who had taken Massad's course - to give you some idea of what the man is like. All I could come up with is this short video.
Let's go to the videotape.
As many of you may recall, I graduated from Bir Zeit on the Hudson, and Mrs. Carl graduated from Barnard. If the student involved wishes to be in touch, she can (have someone) send me an email and I will give her our US phone number.
Some of you may recall Bir Zeit on the Hudson Professor Joseph Massad, a 'Palestinian' born in Jordan, who was found to have harassed students who disagreed with him, and who was subsequently granted tenure at the university through the back door.
This all left the university with a little problem: How to keep students who disagreed with Massad out of his classes. How the university went about doing that is now going to be the subject of an investigation by the US Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights.
The OCR is investigating allegations that university faculty "steered" a Jewish student away from taking a class.
In January, the student got some troubling guidance from Barnard’s Middle East studies department chair. The young woman told the chair that she was interested in taking a course on the Arab world with Prof. Massad, who is notorious for his animosity towards Zionism. Massad, whether fairly or not, has been repeatedly accused of anti-Semitism. The chair looked at the young woman, whose Orthodox background is apparent in her modest attire. Then, as the student tells the story, the chair told her that she would not be “comfortable” in Massad’s class and that she should instead consider a course on Ancient Israel.
According to Professor Kenneth Marcus ... Columbia violated the Jewish student's civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 by deterring the student from taking the class.
By suggesting that a Jewish student may feel uncomfortable in Professor Massad's class, Columbia faculty are implicitly acknowledging allegations that Massad creates a hostile environment for Jewish and pro-Israel students. But instead of creating classroom environments where all student feel welcome, Columbia seems to think segregation of Jews might be the solution.
I think every Orthodox Jewish kid on campus should sign up for Massad's class. But since actually taking it would destroy their grade point averages, I'd suggest dropping out at the deadline.
Students at Bir Zeit on the Hudson to dine with Ahmadinejad?
Students at Bir Zeit on the Hudson (sometimes known as Columbia University) may have the 'opportunity' to dine with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he visits the United Nations next week according to a report in the school's daily student newspaper The Spectator (Hat Tip: Gary P).
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may soon break bread with members of the Columbia International Relations Council and Association.
According to an email from the club’s listserv, members are invited to a private, Sept. 21 dinner in Midtown with the man whom University President Lee Bollinger introduced as “a petty and cruel dictator” when he spoke on campus in 2007.
A version of this article that appeared online over the weekend stated that CIRCA vice president of academics, Tim Chan, CC ’14, said someone in the group has a close relationship with the Iranian ambassador. After the article was published online Chan told Spectator he was mistaken and that there is no one in group with a close relationship to the ambassador. He also emphasized that the meeting with Ahmadinejad is still tentative.
Members of the group were informed over the summer that they might have the opportunity to bring 15 students to dinner with the head of state, whose views on Israel, human rights, and homosexuality have drawn sharp criticism.
Chan said that so far he hasn’t heard any concerns from members of the group.
“Everyone was really enthusiastic,” Chan said. “They’re thrilled to have this opportunity.”
I wonder how many of them would be thrilled to have the opportunity to dine with Binyamin Netanyahu. I suspect that the answer is 'far fewer.' America's future diplomats? Feh.
The location of the dinner has not been determined.
...
The Columbia International Relations Council and Association is one of Columbia's largest undergraduate organizations and claims on its website to be "the largest devoted to international relations."
I wonder how many gay members CIRCA has. Oh, I forgot. It's only Iran where there are no homosexuals according to Ahmadinejad. They have hung them all.
The journalism school at Bir Zeit on the Hudson announced this week that it plans to bestow its highest honor on al-Jazeera's English language channel.
The Columbia Journalism Award is given annually during the school's commencement to recognize an individual or organization for "singular journalism in the public interest," according to a press release. It will mark only the second time that the award is being given to an organization.
"Al Jazeera English has performed a great service in bringing the English-speaking world in-depth coverage of the turmoil in the Middle East," said Dean Nicholas Lemann. "We salute its determination to get to the heart of a complicated story unfolding in countries where news has historically been difficult to cover."
You've got to be kidding.
And if any of you think that this has nothing to do with politics, think again:
Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, told FoxNews.com he wasn't surprised by the selection.
“It isn't surprising that the liberal and Soros-funded Columbia Journalism School is also fond of the anti-American Al Jazeera," Gainor said in a statement. "Promoting Al Jazeera has become a new media cause célèbre, especially at The New York Times where criticism of America is a badge of honor. But awarding a state-funded propaganda network that supports radicals in the Arab Street cheapens what is left of the Columbia Journalism School name."
...
The entire 24-hour channel of Al Jazeera English, however, is only offered in three U.S. television markets, the largest in Washington, to a possible audience of 2.4 million, according to the network. It can also be watched streaming live at www.livestation.com/aje.
Bir Zeit on the Hudson's strange idea of academic balance
And you thought that going to college was supposed to be about being exposed to lots of different ideas. Welcome to the 'Palestine studies' department at Bir Zeit on the Hudson:
And to think that 35 years ago, Warner Schilling taught me in that very same building.
Well, the course offerings at Bir Zeit on the Hudson look a little different these days than they did in 1976:
And then there was this one last spring:
Is there anyone on the faculty at Columbia who's embarrassed by this? Or are they all too busy counting how much money they're getting for having a 'Palestinian' propaganda department?
One thing this isn't is academic. Arthur Hertzberg must be rolling over in his grave.
Bir Zeit on the Hudson and the Alexandria terror attack
A professor at Columbia UniversityBir Zeit on the Hudson has joined the chorus blaming the Mossad for last Friday night's car bomb targeting a Coptic Church in Alexandria, Egypt (I could not access the original source).
Columbia's shame, Joseph Massad:
"One week before the terrorist attack in Alexandria, the Egyptian authorities uncovered a major Israeli spy ring... Given the history of Mossad bombings of Egyptian post offices, cinemas, cultural centers, and train stations in the 1950s... it would be important to investigate possible or even potential links between the Mossad operatives and the church bombers."
Obviously!
Remind me to send them that one the next time Columbia asks me for money.
On Thursday, a pro-'Palestinian' demonstration blocked the center of the campus at Bir Zeit on the Hudson.
Students dressed as Israeli soldiers stopped other students, ordered them to the ground, and blindfolded them in a demonstration that drew multiple campus groups to a standoff on College Walk Thursday afternoon.
The Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine set up mock checkpoints—to resemble those manned by the Israeli army in the West Bank—drawing crowds and counter-protests for several hours.
Organizers from CSJP said the demonstration was meant to protest human rights violations at these checkpoints, while representatives from pro-Israel groups argued that the event was offensive and the checkpoints are a needed form of protection.
Four groups under the Columbia/Barnard Hillel, the umbrella organization for Jewish student life, set up camp opposite CSJP on the sundial and distributed fliers telling passersby that checkpoints were a necessary evil and a product of a complicated relationship.
"Our gut reaction was to show up with suicide belts and say, 'See this is why we have checkpoints'," said Jonah Liben, Hillel's Israel coordinator. "We did not want to stoop to that level of evocative anger." Actually, that's precisely what they should have done.
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
