By Bruce S. Ticker in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Georgia legislative candidate Nathalie Kanani risked offending Atlanta-area Jews when she took out a Passover ad that featured a loaf of challah which was decidedly leavened. In Connecticut’s Fairfield County, a bunch of spoiled rich Catholic high school students proclaimed “at least we are not Jews.”
It was a San Francisco union president who prevailed in insulting the Jewish community when she dubbed a Jewish instructor a “colonizer” during a college trustees meeting nearly a year ago – at the top of her lungs.
Maria Salazar Colon is clearly an adult – solely in chronological terms – who revealed herself as juvenile and mean-spirited. Those students in Connecticut were contemptible and obnoxious who should have known better, but maybe they will grow out of it. Kanani made a mistake that any non-Jewish person can make.
All three episodes came to light over the weekend and exemplify different degrees of offenses toward Jews. Kanani, left with egg on her face, swiftly apologized. Both the college and the high school investigated their respective incidents.
A San Francisco Chronicle article stated that a late March report composed by an independent investigator concluded that Salazar Colon violated City College of San Francisco policies against harassment and discrimination when she “verbally assaulted” instructor Abigail Bornstein because she is Jewish, and that it was “reasonable” for Bornstein to “perceive Salazar Colon’s communications as threatening or frightening.”
Last May 29, Bornstein used her two-minute public comment time at a trustees meeting to oppose a budget item supported by the union, and Salazar-Colon called in to say, “I really wish that that colonizer, Abigail Dumbstein, would shut her damn mouth and not speak on SEIU items,” adding that Bornstein was “dumber than a bag of rocks” and should “shut the f- up.”
At that time, Bornstein told the newspaper that she was concerned for her safety and had lost sleep. She said she reported to police about both the verbal attack at the meeting and a follow-up email from Salazar Colon that said in capital letters: “YOU LACK THE POWER TO STOP OR CONTROL SEIU, AND YOU NEVER WILL! ACCEPT THAT, COLONIZER!”
Salazar Colon’s conduct is no surprise. It conforms fluidly with the style of hard-core Israel-bashers who distort Middle East issues and threaten their targets.
For example, she is accusing Bornstein of conspiring with Israel to steal land that supposedly belongs to the Arabs, which makes Israel and its supporters “colonizers.” Salazar Colon managed to tie a college union issue to Israel’s conflicts 8,000 miles to the east.
Besides, Salazar Colon is also denying Bornstein’s free-speech rights to comment on a college issue. From reading the Chronicle article, it is apparent that the trustees have power to make policy, and Bornstein has the right to make recommendations.
That is how democracy works, incidentally, but then Israel-bashers have no respect for democracy for anyone else.
The Chronicle reported that it was uncertain what disciplinary action might be taken against Salazar Colon, who is president of the Service Employees International Union Local 1021 at the college.
Besides her status as union president, the college website says that Salazar Colon works in the City College Office of Student Conduct and Discipline, which lists among its objectives mitigating “aggressive, excessive anger, or disruptive behavior” among students, the Chronicle reported.
Salazar Colon falls short of serving as an example for the college’s students.
The Catholic students in Connecticut, who are hockey players and fans, were disciplined in connection to anti-Jewish social media posts targeting members of a rival hockey team, even though only one member of that team is Jewish. The New Canaan High School Rams beat the Fairfield College Preparatory School Jesuits 3-1 in a game on March 23 played at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut.
The parents of these spoiled brats pay an annual tuition of $26,000.
The New York Times reports that before the game, and for days after, biased speech invoking “Jew Canaan” and aiming at some student-athletes appeared on Instagram accounts tied to fans at Fairfield Prep.
One image that appeared on Instagram read, “Win or lose we booze, and at least we’re not Jews.”
Fairfield Prep has responded firmly and swiftly. “We are very aware of the offensive antisemitic comments and posts,” said Fairfield spokeswoman Lauren Castagnola. “Antisemitism is repugnant and antithetical to the Jesuit tradition. There have been disciplinary actions that have been taken.”
The school’s leaders also informed parents that the Instagram posts were “in direct opposition to the Jesuit, Catholic values and respect for human dignity we seek to instill in our students.” New Canaan principal Bill Egan said that a Fairfield Prep administrator contacted him to apologize and asked if the school could reach out to the student most victimized in the posts. The student, who is not Jewish, was compared to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
It sounds as if Fairfield Prep’s leaders needed no coaxing to respond so well. I appreciate it.
Former prosecutor Nathalie Kanani, a Georgia state Senate candidate in a Metro Atlanta district, made a Judaic faux pas when she took out a campaign ad in The Atlanta Jewish Times’ Passover edition featuring a fluffy challah.
She wished Atlanta-area Jews “a blessed Passover” over an image of a challah draped in an Israeli flag alongside two towering candles, according to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
Her ad was quickly mocked. “It’s the thought that counts, I guess,” tweeted Greg Bluestein, a Jewish reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Calling the inclusion of challah “an oversight,” Kanani wrote, “My intent was to honor our Jewish neighbors and friends. We are all human, and even with the best intentions, honest mistakes can happen. I believe in meeting those moments with grace and using them to bring people of different cultures together, not tear them apart.”
Kanani’s gracious apology was greeted with deserved gratitude by local Jews. Esther Panitch, a Jewish member of the Georgia House, took Kanani to task prior to her apology. Then Panitch wrote, “I appreciate Nathalie Kanani’s campaign reaching out and taking responsibility. Mistakes happen…and she responded with grace. This is how we build understanding across communities.”
If only Kanani’s type of mistake were the Jewish community’s biggest problem.
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Bruce S. Ticker is a Philadelphia-based columnist.