By H. Applebaum
-Second in a Series-
SAN DIEGO — If you happen to be Jewish, it’s not just the big things like having to walk by the anti-Israel ‘Apartheid Wall’ every year, or the burning of the Israeli flag, or having the mayor of Jerusalem shouted down as the university chancellor cites freedom of speech. It’s the little things too, like having to sit in class next to a student who just yelled “Death to the Jews,” and seeing nail holes where the mezuzah was ripped off your doorway. That is what makes life hellish for Jewish students.
Anti-Semitic campus incidents increased 57% in 2017, the Anti-Defamation League reported.
At 150 colleges with chapters of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), demonstrations and anti-Israel speech is the tip of the iceberg; there is something more sinister. We’re not talking ordinary student organizations, but well-organized and funded, interconnected groups with terrorist ties. Congressional testimony documented that SJP is funded from the same sources as Hamas. The Muslim Student Association (MSA) with 600 chapters throughout the U.S. and Canada, spawned SJP, and has its roots in the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood. Many former presidents and members of MSA, like Sami Al Hussayen, Ramy Zam Zam, Ali Chandia, Abdurahman Alamoudi, and Dzhokar Tsarnaev (of Boston Marathon fame) are now serving long prison sentences for terrorism.
Threats to Israel are the focus of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA,) but except for Hillel, there was no Jewish organization specifically devoted to the college campus. Stand With Us and AMCHA Initiative stepped into the void in 2001 and 2011 respectively to educate and monitor the situation. In 2010, ZOA warned donors and students to stay away from UC Irvine because of the pervasive anti-Jewish environment, and it has just influenced the Office of Civil Rights to reopen a seven-year old case against Rutgers University. These organizations fight back and offer support for Jewish students, but where are the larger, more mainstream Jewish organizations?
Every parent and grandparent of a Jewish student should be concerned, and should find the facts for themselves. I hope this article is a portal through which readers start out on their own journey to take action, and defeat this threat to the Jewish community.
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Applebaum is a freelance writer based in San Diego.