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.
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.
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.
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
