Campus Antisemitism
“It is important to face our history as an institution and understand the impact of past actions,” said university president Marc Tessier-Lavigne.
After being included in the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Global Anti-Semitism 2021 “Top Ten” list, the university distributes a statement condemning anti-Semitism to the media.
Experts say the resolution ignores the reality of academic freedom in Israel. According to the Israeli Council for Higher Education, approximately 54,000 Arab students attend Israeli universities, comprising 17 percent of all students in Israel.
On Dec. 2, the LSGA passed a resolution that calls on CUNY to cut all ties with companies that “aid in or profit from Israeli colonization, occupation and war crimes.”
The lawyers reminded the administration that it signed a Resolution Agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, “in which it agreed to take certain measures to address allegations of anti-Semitism.”
“The report hides behind misleading claims of ‘academic freedom’ to treat Jewish concerns with an extraordinary level of hesitation absent from similar university reports on other minority groups,” said Douglas Sandoval, managing editor of CAMERA on Campus.
“Many students have also witnessed hostile anti-Semitic tropes and rhetoric associated with aggressive BDS tactics here,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.).
Seventeen colleges brought BDS measures up for a vote by the student government in 2020-21, and 11 have passed them.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean and director of global social action for the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said the administration’s response did not go far enough and will be included in the center’s annual list of the “Top 10” worst anti-Semitic incidents.
“No student should be afraid on a university campus, especially because of their race or religion. Sadly, for too many of our Jewish students today, that is not the case,” said Gov. Mike DeWine in a Nov. 29 letter outlining concrete steps to take to improve safety for students.
“We apologize for the distress that our miscommunication has caused the Jewish community on campus, and we understand their concerns,” said the Scarborough Campus Students’ Union.
The Dec. 2 program included a talk by a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terror group in both Canada and the United States.
