Campus Antisemitism
The move came in response to recent actions by faculty at the University of Michigan and Pitzer College against the Jewish state.
“This is our response to darkness,” says Chabad Rabbi Yonah Blum. “We [were] expecting a lot of people, Jewish and not Jewish, to come out and show solidarity against anti-Semitism and hate.”
In total, 77 swastika incidents have occurred in 2018, according to the AMCHA Initiative.
A Jewish professor at Columbia University in New York was the target of anti-Semitic vandalism, walking into her office to discover two red swastikas and the slur “Yid” on the walls.
Temple University professor and CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill takes the heat for calling for “a Free Palestine From the River to the Sea.”
“The student union has a history of breaching its legal responsibility to remain neutral and often supports Palestinian student groups at the expense of pro-Israel students on campus,” said student Tamara Berens.
Shai DeLuca-Tamasi, a veteran of the Israeli Defense Forces, left a lasting impression at each stop of his tour, motivating students not only in the pro-Israel sphere.
A student government resolution, titled “A Resolution Denouncing Action by the Faculty That Eliminates Student Learning Opportunities,” contends the faculty proposition was about “forwarding a political agenda” and “eliminates student learning opportunities.”
The school put out a statement condemning the boys’ kneeling as “inappropriate,” and said their move “demonstrated deliberate and flagrant disregard for the ethos of the school.”
The dual venture will include post-doctoral fellowships, a student-exchange program and research grants for commercial projects.
“To our Jewish students, faculty, staff and neighbors—and indeed, every member of our university community—I pledge that Duke will do whatever we can to protect your safety,” said university president Vincent Price.
Darion Ouliguian, president of the campus student group Bruins for Israel, called on SJP’s umbrella organization and its UCLA branch to separate “between legitimate criticisms of Israel and anti-Semitic forms of anti-Zionism, and to not allow your conference to become a space full of hate, but rather a space that encourages education on this topic.”
