I am cross-posting this release from the Zionist Organization of America, which signals a breakthrough in the effort to have the Dept. of Education, Office of Civil Rights recognize anti-Semitism as part of their responsibility to enforce civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. You will note from the article that the long controversy at the University of California at Irvine has played a central role in this struggle.
http://www.zoa.org/sitedocuments/pressrelease_view.asp?pressreleaseID=1942
The ZOA took a lot of heat during this years-long effort from people one would have thought would support them. They deserve a lot of credit. Those who tried to stymie the ZOA should be embarrassed.
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7 comments:
FINALLY!!!
This should be good news at UCI. I'm a little worried that UCI will continue to excuse the MSU's speakers and other activities as merely anti-Israel and not anti-Semitic. We'll have to see how it plays out. Hate to be pessimistic bit I've lots of scars from this battle and I know how they are.
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Zionism has no business pushing a measure like this. Zionism is support for establishment of a Jewish homeland. If anything, blatant outbreaks of anti-Semitism would support the thesis that all Jews should move to Israel. This puts the ZOA on the same level as the advocates of an independent Black Nation somewhere in the U.S.
Now an organization dedicated to the rights of Jewish citizens to the full rights of citizenship, as opposed to the ideology that they need their own homeland, might have a sound basis to advocated this measure.
Siarlys,
I know some of the folks at ZOA and I can assure you they are loyal Americans. ZOA does not advocate that American Jews relocate to Israel. They are concerned about anti-Semitism in the US.
Well then, that's not Zionism. They need to get their terms straight. They could call themselves the Jewish American Civil Rights League, but then that sounds too much like the Italian version, started by some guy named Columbo.
Zionism is Zionism. Civil rights are civil rights. Two distinct causes, which can each rise or fall on their own merits.
Siarlys,
The ZOA is the oldest national Jewish org in the US. I think they were founded around the turn of the century (1900).
Well, like the NAACP, they seem to have wandered off topic. If they were founded in 1900 to promote Zionism, that would be promoting a Jewish homeland in the lands north, south and west of Jerusalem. What does the age of the organization have to do with what they stand for?
Perhaps they should consider a name change. However, they support Israel and are also concerned with anti-Semitism. Does that make them bad?
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