Editor’s Note: Zev Hurwitz, editor of The UCSD Guardian, recently responded to an article by AMCHA Initiative’s Tammi Rossman-Benjamin that was headlined “Insider’s guide to campus bias faced by Jews” in the March 31 online edition of San Diego Jewish World. Here is his response which was printed April 10 in “New Voices,” a national publication for Jewish students
By Zev Hurwitz
LA JOLLA, California — With the release of the University of California’s campus climate survey results, the Anti-Defamation League and the regional pro-Israel watchdog AMCHA Institute pounced on the results, which indicated that life for Jewish students on UC campuses is less than perfect.
The results, announced last month, show Jewish students self-described as some of the most uncomfortable in the UC System. At UC San Diego (my campus), Jews are listed as “least comfortable with the climate.” While our Jewish mothers may see this as an opportunity to chide us by saying “I told you that you should have worn a sweater,” poor climate for Jewish students has nothing to do with the weather (which is perfect in La Jolla, for the record).
Yes, in the world where Islamophobia, minority underrepresentation and racial issues (like UCSD’s 2010 Compton Cookout) dominate the campus climate conversations, it is the Jewish students who feel the most victimized by other students on campus.
As a result, the ADL, StandWithUs and AMCHA along with all their other pro-Israel/Jewish pals, who thrive on donors that sympathize for the tortured Jewish student on campus, can capitalize. AMCHA even goes so far as to host a BDS map to showcase how much of the country has been affected by anti-Israel campaigns and faculties.
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So naturally, no one was surprised when AMCHA cofounder and UC Santa Cruz professor Tammi Rossman-Benjamin penned an op-ed March 31 in a local Jewish paper entitled “Insider’s guide to campus bias faced by Jews.” The piece regarding the report tells readers (and donors) that “Jewish students have found themselves facing a new kind of campus anti-Semitism.”
She goes on to talk about how Muslim Student Associations are ruining my life and how uncomfortable I feel on campus.
Aside from the inherent issues with the data that was reported in the survey results, Rossman-Benjamin is wrong on two major counts:
1) She is not an insider for Jewish students on my campus (she’s neither a student, nor is she here).
2) I am not being targeted. I am okay.
In previous New Voices posts, I’ve written about how I feel totally comfortable being Jewish and wearing a yarmulke etc. But to tell me that I am under fire for my religious views and that I need to be saved is as offensive to me as a missionary telling me that I will burn in hell for not accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior (which is arguably a more common threat at UCSD).
As for the survey itself, ADL and AMCHA can relax. As for the circumstance under which the data was collected:
1) The survey was completed during the month that we had BDS on campus last year.
2) Jewish and pro-Israel groups on campus campaigned and pushed Jewish constituents to voice concerns in the survey.
3) The data reflects last year and its “uncomfortable” environment, particularly to BDS victims. The current freshman class (which has not experienced BDS or any anti-Israel activity), I believe, would have much higher “comfortable” rates.
AMCHA, the ADL and Standwithus would have its donor base believe that Jewish students on campus are threatened, demonized, and bullied, but that simply is not the case. This has been a very peaceful year, and as my successes in bringing the Union of Jewish Students together with the Muslim Student Association for dietary advocacy shows, a political and religious divide does not really exist. UJS sent delegates to an Islam awareness week interfaith panel last quarter and save for a single protester (Christian), the event was peaceful, informative, and the MSA president personally thanked me for attending.
It isn’t fair to make accusations against my peers (especially my non-Jewish ones) and then to victimize me in order to boost fundraising campaigns.
I spoke at a panel for the ADL in April 2012, a month after a failed divestment resolution took seven hours of my time away. I told an audience of Temple Beth El Congregation members and ADL guests that sure, no one in my community loves BDS, but it wasn’t ruining my experience as a Jewish student.
Two years later, the same is still true. I’m here as a Jewish student, “studying” for exams, editing a paper, and trying to make this a better place for the next round of Jewish students. But running around and crying wolf over events that are not affecting me is unfair and not productive.
To AMCHA, et. al, calm down. I’m fine. But let me be the one who decides that.
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Zev Hurwitz is a student at UC San Diego and is editor in chief of the campus newspaper, the UCSD Guardian. Facebook photo
Mr. Hurwiz mentions the failed divestment resolution of 2012 that took so much of his time. Where was he then in 2013 when the resolution did not fail, but passed? And what has he been doing ever since to have it rescinded? He spoke at another ADL panel about it? Does he plan to do something about it, or is everything dandy as is? And I’m not sure that his patting himself on the back for bringing together “the Union of Jewish Students together with the Muslim Student Association for dietary advocacy” is really a major achievement, not is it really reassuring. Has he convinced his MSA buddies to drop the Anti-Israel Week? What about the fake “Apartheid Wall?” No? These are not issues worthy of his attention because other Jewish students are just imagining a climate of hostility? It appears that Mr. Hurwitz is living in a fantasy world all of his own, and rather than face the real dangers, he chooses to besmirch the few organizations that take the situation Jewish students face a lot more seriously than he does.
Unfortunately, the response by Jewish organization on campus was naive and immature. They decided to pass out condoms with Stars of David with a message “Israel: It’s Safe to Come”.
These kids don’t realize how serious the matter is. It is not about what is happening on campus today but more about the years ahead when students leave the Universities. Many will be go into society believing the lies of BDS propaganda and support the destruction of Israel. Germany demonstrated in the 20th century how lies become truths with terrible consequences.
Keep up your hard work Mr. Surbeck. BDS should be banned from public funded campuses all together!
We are so pleased, Zev, that you are having a positive educational experience as a Jewish student at UCSD. That is the way it should be. Unfortunately, that is not the case for far too many Jewish students.
Antisemitism is a serious problem on California’s college and university campuses and on campuses across the county. Students contact AMCHA regularly to report feeling uncomfortable speaking freely about their support for Israel and unsafe at times in their classrooms and on campus because they are Jewish. In fact, in the UC Campus Climate survey you refer to, Jewish students at UCSD reported feeling the most uncomfortable of any religious group at UCSD. And, this isn’t just the case at UCSD.
This past fall, at San Francisco State University, a Palestinian student group hosted an all-day event where participants could make posters and t-shirts that said “My Heroes Have Always Killed Colonizers,” meaning Jews. At UC Berkeley, a Jewish girl holding an “Israel Wants Peace” sign was ramrodded with a shopping cart. Anti-Israel student activists at the University of Michigan, just last month, hurled death threats at Jewish student council members and called them “dirty Jew” and “kike.” At Harvard, Palestine Security Committee members frightened Jewish students by placing mock eviction notices on their dormitory door. At Northeastern University, students vandalized a menorah and disrupted Jewish events.
In addition, many professors are using their official positions and resources to promote campaigns to harm or dismantle Israel. At schools where this occurs, Jewish students report feeling emotionally and intellectually harassed and intimidated by their professors and isolated from their fellow students. Unfortunately, these students are often afraid to come forward and confront the professor or to complain to an administrator, because they are concerned about retaliation.
The bravery of AMCHA Initiative’s two cofounders, Professors Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith, is immeasurable. They started AMCHA because they saw firsthand the mistreatment of Jewish students on campus by fellow students and professors. We wish all students felt like you do. But, until they do, AMCHA will continue to fight for the safety of Jewish students on campuses across the county. This video illustrates the problem for Jewish students on your campus, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OzHXfq-wjk&feature=youtu.be.
Sincerely,
Nicole Rosen
AMCHA Initiative