SAN DIEGO — I wonder if I would have survived in college back in the 1960s if the animus on campus toward Jews and Israel were as great as it is today.
Two examples of the kind of hatred and bigotry that Jewish students face can be found at the University of Southern California, up in Los Angeles, and across the country at Florida State University in Tallahassee.
Taking the case closer to home, Rose Ritch earlier this week resigned as vice president of the student government, explaining that she did so because she had been “harassed for weeks” for being an openly identified Zionist. Quitting the student post was necessary, she said “to protect my physical safety on campus and my mental health.”
In her resignation message, Ritch said, “I have been told that my support for Israel has made me complicit to racism, and that, by association, I am racist. This is anti-Semitism and cannot be tolerated at a university that proclaims to `nurture an environment of mutual respect and tolerance,'”‘ she wrote.
USC, ironically, is the home of the Shoah Foundation’s extensive Holocaust archives compiled under the leadership of film producer Steven Spielberg.
The University’s president Carol L. Folt called Ritch’s resignation “heartbreaking” and added, “I believe it is critically important to state explicitly and unequivocally that anti-Semitism in all its forms is a profound betrayal of our principles and has no place at the university. We must condemn any bias or prejudice that is based on a person’s race, religion, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristic. What happened to Rose Ritch is unacceptable, and we must all take up her challenge to do better.”
Folt continued, “It is more important now than ever for our university to serve as a global beacon of belonging. I’m grateful today to announce a new university-wide initiative launched by the USC Shoah Foundation, “Stronger than Hate.” This program serves as a call to counter hate with tangible action. It represents the work of many of our university leaders – including students, staff, and faculty – who have come together to support and amplify our collective struggle against hate. Through meaningful exhibitions, programs, and workshops, this initiative is designed to help foster a campus culture of connection and compassion that empowers us to listen, learn, heal, and dream together. We hope that as we listen to each other, we can move beyond stereotyped beliefs that lead to implicit and explicit biases, and instead foster a respectful and supportive campus culture. We invite everyone to become Stronger than Hate and to sign up for this important opportunity here.”
StandWithUs, the pro-Israel organization that has dedicated itself to helping students resist anti-Semitism on campus, issued a statement saying still more must be done.
“StandWithUs calls upon the university to immediately reaffirm support of its Jewish and Zionist students, and back up those words with a concrete plan of action to ensure something like this never happens again. We stand with USC Hillel and Jewish students at USC in their efforts to combat anti-Semitism and ignorance on campus. We will continue to work with ICC, Hillel, Brandeis Center, and all of our partners to empower USC students going forward,” the statement said.
At Florida State University, meanwhile, where a Palestinian, Ahmad Daraldik, serves as student body president, the Student Senate voted 19-16 to keep him in office, notwithstanding the fact that his Facebook posts have included such language as “f— Israel” and “Stupid Jew.”
Dan Leshem, Hillel director at the university, called upon the University’s administration “to distance itself from this student’s hateful rhetoric, and we call on the student to make a sincere apology and commit himself to learning about how harmful his words have been for Jews and others on the campus.”
FSU President John Thrasher commented, “Anti-Semitism and religious discrimination have no place at Florida State University. I am aware of a controversy involving the FSU Student Senate President who has posted offensive anti-Semitic rhetoric online. I want to take this opportunity to unequivocally state that we will not tolerate discrimination against groups or individuals.”
Thrasher gave no indication, however, whether steps would be taken to remove Daraldnik or to otherwise discipline him.
I read about incidents such as those at USC and FSU with great interest and concern. My grandson, Shor Masori, is the son of my daughter and a native Israeli with family roots in Yemen. Today, Shor is a student at UC Berkeley, which has the reputation of being the granddaddy of so-called “Progressive” politics. (I think anti-Semitism is “Regressive” and those who practice it should be so labeled.) Although Shor is active in Bears for Israel, so named because Berkeley’s mascot is the Golden Bear, he tells me that he has not faced discrimination nor push back from pro-Palestinian students, at least not so far. He has attended social functions with students from other Middle Eastern countries, which he reports have been amicable. Despite differences over politics, there is much that Israelis and Arabs have in common –food, similar languages, and intense family lives being among them.
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Donald H. Harrison is editor of San Diego Jewish World. He may be contacted via donald.harrison@sdjewishworld.com
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