Is Anti-Zionism on Campus a Passing Nuisance, or a Fundamental Threat?

Suzanne Garment for Mosaic

The answer might come down to how well America can resist the influence of European-style anti-Semitism.

“The subject is gloomy, but the food will be good—and the music spectacular.”

Thus, in late January, spoke Alvin Rosenfeld, a professor at Indiana University and director of its Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism. He was describing a four-day international scholars’ conference scheduled for late spring on the university’s Bloomington campus. In the event, the conference did not disappoint in its food, its music—or its gloom, which rose like a miasma from the days-long rehearsals of the varied and abundant forms of anti-Semitism, particularly in the form of anti-Zionism, in today’s world.

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25 Most Expensive Schools Worth Every Penny

Natalie Sportelli for Forbes Magazine
Students in the class of 2020 will weigh a number of factors when choosing their colleges this spring. They’ll consider location, size, academic reputation, presence of Greek life, athletics and more before sending their deposit to their new home for the next four years. Ever present, however, as they make their final decisions, will be the total cost of attending.

Students may find that their dream school is simply more expensive than they can afford and choose an alternative option. This is a harsh reality for young people nationwide who may not fully understand what a six-figure financial commitment will look like in student loan bills.

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Israel Experience

JEWISH UNITED FUND/JEWISH FEDERATION OF METROPOLITAN CHICAGO

Still looking for something to do this summer?

Israel Experience Links

What is an Israel Experience program? Israel Experiences are identity-building, peer group programs run by non-profit organizations that allow participants to learn in-depth about the land, culture and people of Israel. The list of approved Israel Experience programs is constantly changing as new programs are developed. For your convenience we have included links to various suggested organizations, below, to help you find the best possible Israel Experience for you. Since there are many other programs not every one is approved, please contact us ( israelexperience@juf.org) if you have a question about a specific Israel Experience program.

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UC Irvine chancellor: Anti-Israel protesters ‘crossed the line of civility’

(JTA) — Anti-Israel student protesters disrupted the screening of a film about the Israel Defense Forces at the University of California, Irvine.

Jewish students attending the screening of the Israeli documentary “Beneath the Helmet” Wednesday night, under the auspices of the campus Hillel, had to be escorted away from the scene by campus police, the Orange County Register reported.

Anti-Israel protesters have disrupted numerous pro-Israel events and Israeli speakers at campuses and other venues around the world in the past year. For example, protesters at London’s Kings College in January smashed a window during a speech by former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon; protesters at San Francisco State University shouted down Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat during a speech there in April, and protesters at the University of Minnesota in November shouted down Hebrew University Professor Moshe Halbertal during a speech there.

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Anti-Semitism: The only hate allowed in campus ‘safe spaces’

By Lawrence Summers, Opinion for the New York Post

It has seemed to me that a vast double standard regarding what constitutes prejudice exists on American college campuses. There is hypersensitivity to prejudice against most minority groups but what might be called hyper-insensitivity to anti-Semitism.

At Bowdoin College, holding parties with sombreros and tequila is deemed to be an act of prejudice against Mexicans. At Emory, the chalking of an endorsement of the likely Republican presidential candidate, Donald Trump, on a sidewalk is deemed to require a review of security tapes.

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Why is “Sisterhood” Still Relevant on Today’s College Campuses?

by Liat Greenwald for Jeducation World

This past weekend, I was involved in an incredibly exhilarating and spiritually uplifting event: Nashir, the intercollegiate Jewish women’s arts festival. Each year, Nashir consists of a Shabbat experience, followed by a visual arts gallery and performance on Saturday night; this year Nashir took place at the University of Pennsylvania.

When my friends first discovered that I was involved in Nashir, I fielded a lot of questions (from both men and women) about two themes in particular: Why are women-only spaces important? And, in an age of burgeoning egalitarianism, is the idea of sisterhood still relevant?

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The AMCHA Initiative

The AMCHA Initiative is a non-profit organization dedicated to investigating, documenting, educating about, and combating antisemitism at institutions of higher education in America.

Recent Antisemitic Activity

April 26, 2016 – WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY
SJP publishes an article in the student newspaper that falsely accuses Israel of colonization and ethnic cleansing.
(ANTISEMITIC EXPRESSION: DELEGITIMIZATION; DEMONIZATION)

 April 25, 2016 – UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON
Flyers advertising a Tuesday night event titled “Leftist Diversity: Excluding all Ideas except their own” were defaced. One flyer was vandalized with the Wolfsangel, a symbol connected to the Nazi party.
(TARGETING JEWISH STUDENTS & STAFF: GENOCIDAL EXPRESSION; HISTORICAL)

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The New Leader of the UK’s Student Union is an Anti-Semitic Apologist for Terror

Malia Bouattia is symbolic of the poison of the regressive Left

By Maajid Nawaz for The Jc.com

The words below are not mine. But because of their gravity, it is important that you read them in full.
“The notion of resistance has been perhaps washed out of our understanding of how colonised people will obtain their physical emancipation...With mainstream, Zionist-led media outlets …resistance is presented as an act of terrorism.
“But instead of us remembering that this has always been the case throughout struggles against white supremacy, it’s become an accepted discourse among too many...

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Welcome to Queens College, Where Jews and Muslims Dialogue

Sam Kestenbaum for The Jewish Daily Forward    

On a recent afternoon in Queens, Secretary of State John Kerry sat with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, chatting amiably. “It’s great to see you two side by side,” Kerry said to the delegates. “Now, have we agreed about these land swaps?”

The Israeli and Palestinian smiled and nodded — a historic agreement had been reached; it seemed there might be an end to the crippling decades long stalemated conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.

But then the class period ended.

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On Gabriel Knight and what anti-Semitism really means

Winston Shi, Senior Staff Writer the Stanford Daily

“‘Jews controlling the media, economy, government and other societal institutions’ [is] a fixture of anti-Semitism that we [inaudible] theoretically shouldn’t challenge. I think that that’s kind of irresponsibly foraying into another politically contentious conversation. Questioning these potential power dynamics, I think, is not anti-Semitism. I think it’s a very valid discussion.”
– ASSU Senator Gabriel Knight ’17

Stanford students sometimes seem to think that their intelligence is a bubble protecting them from idiocy. But as we learned again at the ASSU Senate meeting on Tuesday night, anti-Semitism, though stupid, is not the sole provenance of stupid people.

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Scottish Pro-Israel Student Bounced From Council Meeting for Blasting BDS

The Jewish Daily Forward   

A Scottish college student was accused of violating “safe space” rules and told she risked being expelled from a meeting after she spoke out against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel movement.

Imogen Wilson, 22, the vice president for academic affairs at Edinburgh University Students’ Association, told Britain’s Telegraph she was accused of making “inappropriate hand gestures” when she disagreed with claims made about her at a student council meeting on BDS last week.

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Passover is coming soon, check out our Passover Holiday Spotlight Kit

6 Jewish Students Reveal How Israel Debate Colors Campus Life

By The Forward Staff

When the Forward put out a call for students to tell us about a college experience that had shaped their Jewish identity in some way — good, bad or otherwise — we expected to receive a diversity of responses. And in a way, we did: Students wrote about moments in Mumbai and Johannesburg and Ithaca, and their political views spanned the gamut from left to right. But every student interpreted the question as being about Israel and the BDS movement. That in itself is telling. The Israel debate has reached a fever pitch on campus, and whatever view you take of it, its ramifications are now impossible to ignore.

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Passover will be here soon, check out our Passover Holiday Spotlight Kit

‘Apartheid Week’ really does threaten Israel, some experts warn

By Matt Lebovic for The Times of Israel

Going against prevailing wisdom, pro-Israel voices sound the alarm on Students for Justice in Palestine’s flagship project, saying the annual campus onslaught fuels attacks on Jewish students, erodes support for Israel

BOSTON — For more than a decade, “Israeli Apartheid Week” has appeared at dozens of campuses worldwide, as the Jewish state’s detractors take center-stage to condemn the “settler-colonial project” where “apartheid policies over the Palestinian people” amount to “ethnic cleansing,” according to IAW’s mission statement.

In the assessment of some Israel supporters, loud elements of the pro-Israel community have made mountains out of molehills with their reaction to IAW, the annual Israel-bashing fest of Students for Justice in Palestine. In the words of an anonymous “Northeast Hillel director” quoted by JTA this week, “Apartheid Week” and other SJP activities amount to “kind of a big nothing.

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10 Campus Rabbis Who Are Even More Legendary Than Their Impressive Facial Hair

Here’s a list of 10 mensches from campuses across the U.S. with stories that’ll blow your mind.

Paul (Paltiel) Ratzenberg for Community on BuzzFeed
Since encountering Chabad during my studies at University of Cincinnati, (huge shout out to Rabbi Yitzi and Dina Creeger!) I personally have encountered each one of these impeccable rabbis through various outlets, such as shabbat dinners, shabbatons, and Birthright trips. We’ve kibitzed, laughed, and cried. Actually, we’ve never cried, but I’m open to it!

Check out the list of legendary Chabad on Campus rabbis below and stay tuned for my list of legendary campus Rebbetzins (female religious leaders)!

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Bringing Start-Up Nation to Campus

Elliot Mathias for The Times of Israel

Spring semester is usually when BDS efforts on US campuses heat up.  Pro-Israel students usually find themselves on the defensive, doing their utmost to fight off the lies and distortions thrown at them.

Recent anti-Israel activity on campuses have raised the stakes even higher as Israel haters have worked diligently to reach beyond their own base.  They have successfully built relationships and created allies with “marginalized” minority groups who have proven easy prey for the anti-Israel propagandists’ false self-description of being the marginalized, the oppressed, the victim.

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A Question for Jewish College Students in America Who Side With Israel’s Enemies

From the algemeiner.com   
Here’s a question for those fearless Jewish college students, in groups like Jewish Voice for Peace, who have made common cause with Palestinian crusaders, given to the incessant chant of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be Free.”

Do you know what you are chanting? Have you figured what it is actually between the river and the sea? And what happens when Palestine is free?

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Oxford student leader resigns as vote endorses Israel Apartheid Week

‘A large proportion of the student Left at Oxford has a problem with Jews,’ charges Alex Chalmers, quitting as co-chair of Oxford University Labour Club

By Eylon Aslan-Levy for The Times of Israel

A co-chairman of the Oxford University Labour Club (OULC) resigned Monday night in protest over the society’s endorsement of Israel Apartheid Week. In a sharply worded statement, Alex Chalmers claimed that “a large proportion of both OULC and the student Left in Oxford more generally have some kind of problem with Jews.”

Chalmers, a second-year History student at Oxford’s Oriel College, resigned after Oxford’s student Labour club voted by 18-16 to back Israel Apartheid Week. Chalmers described the week as “a movement with a history of targeting and harassing Jewish students and inviting anti-Semitic speakers to campuses.”

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For Jewish College Students, Knowledge on Israel is Power

From the algemeiner.com

A new Brandeis University study shows that over half of all Birthright candidates do not know how to answer even ‎the most basic questions about the Jewish state, making them functionally illiterate concerning Israel. The ‎study seeks to understand and assess Israel literacy and is a continuing project with participation of ‎researchers from the university’s Schusterman Center for Israel Studies and Cohen Center for ‎Modern Jewish Studies. ‎

The study found that regardless of the students’ background — for example, whether they had attended Jewish ‎day school or not — and the ranking of their university, relatively few Jewish students were Israel literate. ‎This is among students who are interested enough in Israel to apply to go on a Birthright trip; results would most likely be even more depressing among those who were not ‎Birthright candidates.‎

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Picture Perfect

Rapping director trains lens on other Jewish students

by Rebecca Carrol for Hillel.org

I am, among other things, a rapper, an actor/director, a screenwriter and a photographer/blogger. I grew up in Las Vegas and created my own degree at Brown University — Evolutionary Anthropology.

At Brown, I created and performed a one-woman rap musical about aliens, time travel and DNA. I also wrote my first screenplay, a romantic comedy called “Coffee & Tuna” about a Jewish law student who wears a yarmulke to cover his early bald spot. The story won Brown’s screenplay contest and was made into a movie! Since then, I’ve taken a screenwriting class and have submitted screenplays to the contest every semester.

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Michael Douglas and Natan Sharansky Make Odd Couple on College Pro-Israel Road Show

By Noel Rubinton for The Jewish Daily Forward   

Talk about your odd couples: actor Michael Douglas, winner of last year’s Genesis Prize, kicked off a three-college speaking tour with Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky on Thursday night at Brown University.

The choice of Douglas for the Genesis Prize, whose stated aim is to recognize excellence and achievement by an individual who can serve as a role model for the Jewish community and as an inspiration for the next generation of Jews, sparked surprise when it was announced in January 2015. The son of a Jewish actor Kirk Douglas a his non-Jewish, British wife, Douglas is himself married to the non-Jewish actress, Catherine Zeta Jones and has long identified as secular.

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AntiSemitic Experiences of American Jewish College Students Chronicled Online

By: Lori Lowenthal Marcus for The Jewish Press

An organization has set up a webpage which catalogues, by university, testimony by Jewish students who have experienced antisemitism on their campuses.

The AMCHA Initiative, which monitors, investigates and fights against antisemitism at institutions of higher learning in America, set up the webpage a year and a half ago.

Called "Student Voices," the webpage reveals experiences of Jewish students on America's campuses who have been targeted, intimidated and/or frightened because they are Jewish.

AMCHA reports that it has collected testimonials from more than 100 students, located at 47 different schools, in 20 states.

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Finding a Jewish Community at College

By Rachel Greenspan for Tablet Magazine   

On Wednesday, I had the honor of moderating a terrific, lively (that’s Jewish for “contentious”) panel at Israeli Presidential Conference. Titled “The Campus as a Crossroads in the Life of a Young Jew,” the session—which featured Natan Sharansky, Taglit-Birthright CEO Gidi Mark and Mark Yudof, president of the University of California—might have been a predictable mix of hand-wringing and skepticism over the impact of BDS and other anti-Israel activism at colleges, had it not been for the presence of two other panelists: Andi Gergely, the head of European Union of Jewish Students, an umbrella organization for 34 national Jewish student unions in Europe and the FSU, and Rachel Greenspan, an Israel Government Fellow at the Hartman Institute. I wish I could reprint everyone’s remarks here. In lieu of that, below is an excerpt from Rachel’s prepared speech, which I think gives a nice window into just how nuanced and demanding a conversation it was—and how nuanced and demanding the challenge is as a whole.—Alana Newhouse

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The left-wing double standard on Israel

by Amram Altzman for newvoices.com   

When the documentary “The J Street Challenge” was released in 2014, one of its main arguments was that while certain Israel advocacy groups who claim to be bipartisan are acceptable political advocates, left-wing political groups, like J Street, should be condemned as beyond the pale of acceptable conversation about Israel for disagreeing with the Israeli government. When Israeli right-wing group Im Tirtzu released an advertisement last week that publicly threatened members of left-wing groups, including the director of public outreach for Breaking The Silence, Jews who talk about Israel once again had the same reaction: Organizations like Breaking The Silence are beyond the pale of acceptable discourse, and should be condemned.

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Is there a Jewish Agenda on campus?

Zev Hurwitz for newvoices.com

When a UC Santa Cruz student leader is instructed to abstain from a BDS vote due to his allegiance to a “Jewish Agenda,” the proper response from the Jewish community is very simple: Such activities are anti-Semitic, and do not belong on diverse, pluralistic campuses.

This is only the latest case of anti-Semitism that has hit California campuses this year. Daniel Bernstein’s now-well-publicized story of pre-BDS vote harassment due to his involvement in a “Jewish agenda” demonstrates a hateful, naïve, and ineffective form of lobbying. Put simply, Bernstein was targeted for intimidation because he is a student leader of Jewish background, which is, by definition, anti-Semitic.

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7 Surprising Facts About Jews in U.S. Colleges

Hillel's 'Top Schools Jews Choose' ranking this year has some revealing insights about Jewish higher education in the U.S. and Canada.

Gabe Friedman for Haaretz

JTA - Hillel, the Jewish campus organization, released its annual fall college guide earlier this month — complete with rankings of “The Top Schools Jews Choose.” The figures are estimated by campus Hillels. Here are seven takeaways.

1. University of Florida has the most Jewish students of any North American college

University of Florida, with its 6,500 Jewish (out of 33,720 total) undergraduates, edged out other heavily Jewish public colleges, like University of Maryland and University of Michigan. Two of the top three and four of the top 20 public colleges are in Florida. The private college with the most Jews is New York University, with 6,000 (out of 24,985 total).


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