Orange County Jewish Federation and UC-Irvine Hate Week

I am posting an article from the OC Jewish Experience, which is the blog of the Orange County Jewish Federation, and which advertises itself as the official blog of Jewish Orange County.

http://ocjewishexperience.wordpress.com/2010/05/12/hunting-down-jews-and-uc-schools-watch-this/

I take particular note of this passage:

"Jewish Federation Orange County, Stand With Us and other concerned students and faculty showed up to the MSU’s Hate Week events on Monday to make sure they were seen and heard."

To begin with, Stand With Us has certainly been involved in countering the UC-Irvine Hate Week. Their director has been there to help with flyers and posters as well as challenge each of the speakers. I salute her.

As for the Orange County Jewish Federation, it is true that after years of inaction and ignoring and/or downplaying the problem at UCI, that they have been forced to take a "strong stand" publicly vis-a-vis the university in the wake of the disruption of the Israeli ambassador's speech on February 8th. In fact, to hear them tell it, they are leading the charge.

Nonsense.

In reality, the Federation has been an impediment to those voices that wanted to counter the ugliness of these hate weeks.

Now comes this statement that they (the Federation) are being "seen and heard" at Hate Week. Of course, no mention of Act for America, who participated. No mention of the woman (who will remain unnamed at this point) from ACT who spearheaded this effort and put it all together. So the Federation wants to step forward and claim credit?

Nonsense.

The fact is that the Federation discouraged people from showing up at the events to protest and challenge the speakers. The fact is that the Federation did not want people from the community to come to campus. They consider these people to be "outsiders". Well, I am no outsider. I teach at UCI. I belong there and nobody can tell me I don't. Just because their hapless CEO shows up and stands around doesn't mean much in my eyes. What was his participation?

Yesterday, the aforementioned lady from Act for America, who came every day to lead the protest and show the American and Israeli flags, was mocked by "someone" from the Federation because they (the protesters) had a low turn out that day (because it was considered sort of a "minor day" in terms of the speakers). This lady is the true hero of the whole week. It is she who was responsible for turning out the largest number of supporters.

Today, the aforementioned "someone" from the Federation was in for a big shock as the good side had the biggest turn out of the week to hear Amir Abdel Malik Ali. I and the director of Stand With Us challenged Ali after his speech. Did the CEO of the Federation challenge Ali or any other speaker this week? No. Has he ever? Not to my knowledge.

This was a turnout that the Federation did not want to see happen. Now it looks like they are going to take the credit for it while they deride the one person who did more than anyone to make our week a success.



In my humble view, this week was a victory for the good guys. It should serve as an example for other campuses in the US and Canada. I would also like to thank Act for America, Stand with Us, the SWU director and Rabbi Yonah Bookstein, who turned out supporters, for all they did this week to stand up for Israel, the US and our Jewish students. And to my special unnamed friend from ACT- a special salute.

As for the Orange County Jewish Federation? Gimme a break.