The Yudof Flap Over UC Anti-Semitism

(Hat tip to Tammi Benjamin)


There is an on-going dispute between University of California President Mark Yudof and a group of Jewish organizations who wrote a letter to him complaining about growing anti-Semitic expressions on several UC campuses. I am cross-posting an article appearing in the Jewish Journal (Los Angeles) that describes the response from the organizations to Yudof's response to the original letter.

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July 7, 2010

Jewish Groups Dismissed by UC President Decry Double Standard on Acts of Hate
By Jonah Lowenfeld



University of California President Mark G. Yudof responded with a mix of dismissal and reproach Tuesday to leaders of 12 Jewish organizations who had co-signed a letter asking him to take firm action to protest and prevent future outbreaks of anti-Semitism on UC campuses.

On June 28, leaders from Stand With Us, the Orthodox Union, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, and the Simon Weisenthal Center, among others, sent a four-page letter to Yudof, stating that “Bigotry against Jewish students has occurred over many years and on many University of California campuses.” They asked Yudof to examine the problem on UC campuses with “an explicit focus on anti-Semitism.” The letter acknowledged that the university had established an Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion, but said that the body would “not address the specific issues of Jewish students.”

“Without an explicit focus on anti-Semitism,” the letter said, “the problems of Jewish students will not be recognized and addressed in the same straightforward manner as those of other minority groups.”

Among the incidents mentioned were the protestors who last April repeatedly heckled Michael Oren, Israel’s Ambassador to the United States, during a speech he gave at UC Irvine, the staging of “apartheid week” on the same campus in May, and the appearance of swastikas on buildings at UC Santa Cruz earlier this year.

In his response, which was dated July 2 and mailed to the recipients, Yudof called the letter “a dishearteningly ill-informed rush to judgment against our ongoing responses to troubling incidents that have taken place on some of our campuses.” Nevertheless, he pledged, “to do everything in [his] power to protect Jewish and all other students from threats or actions of intolerance,” and pointed out that he and the California Board of Regents had each set up “campus climate committees” to “measure [the] climate for tolerance at the University of California for the long term.”

Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, wrote the Jewish groups’ letter, along with UCLA Professor Emeritus Leila Beckwith and Roberta Seid, a lecturer at UC Irvine. Speaking by phone Wednesday, Rossman-Benjamin said she feels Yudof missed their point.

“He’s misconstrued our letter,” she said. “We have never suggested that the advisory task force couldn’t address our issues.” What they were asking for was for the president to do three things: 1. establish “a working definition [of anti-Semitism],” 2. issue “an acknowledgement that there has been a history of a problem of anti-Semitism on UC campuses,” and 3. make “a commitment to address that problem.”

“We weren’t discounting the task force,” Rossman-Benjamin said. “We were only saying that without the things that we were asking for, the task force would not address Jewish concerns, because they wouldn’t know what to address.”

Roz Rothstein, executive director of StandWithUs, who was one of the co-signors of the letter, said that Yudof’s letter furthers the double standard she believes exists when it comes to taking seriously Jewish students’ concerns about anti-Semitism.

“Intolerance should not be tolerated. Not for African Americans, not for Jewish students,” Rothstein said. “Why is it when there’s a swastika, or 10 swastikas, it’s minimized?”

Part of the dispute centers on the perception campus administrators reacted differently to these specific incidents than they did to two racist acts that took place at UC San Diego in February: when, a UCSD fraternity held an event to mock Black History Month that they called a “Compton Cookout,” and when, a week later, a noose was found hanging in the UCSD library.

Rossman-Benjamin described a meeting of the California Board of Regents this past March by way of illustration. In addition to discussing the racist acts at UCSD, the regents also talked about the treatment of Oren at UC Irvine and the appearance of swastikas at UC Davis. But, Rossman-Benjamin said, “99.9 percent of the discussion by all of the regents and all who spoke had to do with the racism.”

Some Jewish organizations that were approached declined to sign the letter to Yudof, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, both of which were mentioned by name in Yudof’s response.

“All incidents of hate speech,” Yudof wrote, “including the depiction of swastikas on campuses, have been promptly investigated. In such matters, I have sought guidance from the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Community, and other Jewish groups.”

“We have frequently discussed matters with [Yudof],” said Ken Stern, Director of the Division on Anti-Semitism and Extremism at AJC, who has been writing about these issues for over 20 years. AJC declined to sign the letter in part because of the campus climate committees Yudof had already set up. “We thought it was wise not to prejudge what that was going to achieve,” Stern said.

Stern also suggested that protests, such as the Jewish group’s letter, could backfire: “It’s one thing to say—and I think it’s appropriate to say—that anti-Semitism should not become unremarkable on campus,” he said, “but you don’t want to turn the people who are putting forward hateful speech into free-speech martyrs.”

A spokesman at Yudof’s office declined to comment further on the matter, saying “the letter speaks quite clearly for itself.”
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I take special note of the comparison drawn between the incidents that occurred at UC San Diego directed toward black students and the anti-Semitic incidents and expressions at UCSD and other campuses, where apparently it has become a sport to draw swastikas on campus.

As I reported, there was an enormous outpouring of support at UCSD for their black students in the wake of the "Compton Cookout" and a noose being discovered in the library. That is commendable-even though the incidents are still cloaked in mystery. Yet, the Horowitz incident at UCSD, when a student from the Muslim Student Association expressed agreement with the statement of a Hizbollah leader that "Jews should all gather in Israel so the job of hunting them down would be easier" has proven to be a story with no legs at UCSD. It was basically business as usual after a general lukewarm statement from "the university" that included an "explanation for the young lady in question.

I also reported a few months back that when swastikas were found on the UC Berkeley campus, about 50 Jewish students and some faculty held a peaceful protest vigil in response to anti-Semitism only to be heckled by a UC professor named Andrew Gutierrez because he doesn't like Israel. The video is there for all to see. It was shameful.

It appears that there is a double standard when it comes to issues of hate in the UC system-as well as at most other universities in general. It is all wrapped in political correctness. In other words, it all boils down to who is the victim and who is the perpetrator.

I also noted that mention was made of the fact that some Jewish organizations had been requested to co-sign the letter to Yudof but declined. That is hardly surprising as I have mentioned in the past.