Zionist Organization of America Opens Orange County Chapter

On Thursday evening, I attended the inaugural event for the new Zionist Organization of America chapter in Orange County, California. The featured speaker was my friend and colleague Susan Tuchman, who is the chief of ZOA's legal division in New York. Also present was Steve Goldberg of ZOA's Los Angeles office. If you are wondering why ZOA has decided to open up an Orange County chapter, let me just say that the main topic of discussion tonight was UC-Irvine.

Of course, I have written extensively about the on-going issues at UCI surrounding the Muslim Student Union's advocacy of the Palestinian cause and the virulently anti-Israel speakers they routinely bring to campus. No need to repeat most of that here. Ms Tuchman spoke eloquently about the history of how ZOA got involved in the allegations of anti-Semitism at UCI. She spoke about the lawsuit ZOA brought against UCI with the Dept. of Education Civil Rights Office, a suit that ended unsuccessfully not on its merits, but because the agency decided that Jews were a religious group not covered under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act protecting ethnic and racial minorities. The decision is still under appeal.

Ms. Tuchman spoke movingly of individual Jews who had been intimidated because of their Jewish identity and support for Israel. She spoke of Jewish students who appealed to the administration and got no results. She spoke of Jewish students who gave up and left UCI rather than continue to put up with the tense atmosphere on campus. She spoke of one past Jewish student who some years back was accosted by pro-Palestinian students as she passed by what was supposed to be a silent protest and was screamed at. She wrote a letter to the (previous) chancellor complaining about the incident. She received no reply from the then-chancellor but instead received a reply from a lower official suggesting she go to the counseling office and get help in dealing "with her own issues".

Tuchman also described the on-going controversy over George Galloway's visit last year in which funds were raised for Viva Palestina that resulted in a convoy of supplies, materiel and funds to Gaza. ZOA is still awaiting a response from UCI on the results of an internal investigation into whether campus fund-raising rules were violated. The Department of Justice has also been requested to investigate.

Many questions came from the audience regarding the administration's lack of response to charges of anti-Semitic harassment at UCI. Ms Tuchman advised the audience that the university's position is that it is a matter of free speech. True enough, but Tuchmann said that the university has a responsibility to use its own right of free speech to condemn hateful speech when it occurs on their campus.

It was good that Ms Tuchman and Mr Goldberg traveled to Orange County to show their support. It was also good to renew my acquaintance with Susan and pledge to ZOA whatever assistance I can offer in fighting anti-Semitism.