Friday, February 10, 2017

Follow up to Combating Hate Event at Newport Beach Synagogue


Reference is made to the event I attended recently at the Bat Yahm Synagogue in Newport Beach.

http://garyfouse.blogspot.com/2017/01/interfaith-event-at-bat-yahm-synagogue.html

I have received the below invitation to attend another such event.


Gary, 
  Thank you for attending the Combatting Hate: An Interfaith Town Hall.  
Organizers and participants are exploring next steps and hope to communicate 
with you soon. 
In the  meantime, you are invited to hear from a cyber-hate expert: ADL's 
Director of Technology & Society who is tackling the new platform of hate 
online. See below for information on this special program and a link to register

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/anti-semitism-in-the-digital-age-tickets-311704657

 Peter 
 
 Peter S. Levi |Regional Director 
 Anti-Defamation League: Orange County/Long Beach Region 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is my response to Rabbi Levy.



Dear Rabbi Levy, 
 
Thank you for your invitation to the above event. However, before deciding 
whether to attend, I would like to know if audience members can ask questions of 
the speakers directly without having to write down questions that will never be 
chosen. Last week when I handed my question to (name deleted), she took a  look at 
it and told me she didn't want to get into that issue. (My question was to 
identify who the perpetrators of anti-Semitism were at UCI  and other campuses.) 
Having just concluded 18 years teaching part-time at UCI Ext. I know perfectly 
well who the perpetrators are. They are not KKK, neo-Nazis, skinheads, Trump 
supporters or white supremacists. They are members of the Muslim Student Union 
and Students for Justice in Palestine as on other campuses. Yet, this was never 
mentioned. Everything was about the aforementioned groups. 
 
As a Christian who is deeply involved in the fight against Jew hatred, I find it 
frustrating that the whole evening was devoted to shifting blame for 
anti-Semitism onto groups who are far from being the major contributors to 
anti-Semitism while ignoring anti-Semitism from Muslim quarters. This event was 
nothing more than a political event highlighted by UCI Vice Chancellor Thomas 
Parham's rant about the President having the moral decency of a cockroach and 
calling Jeff Sessions a "racist from Alabama". He has the right to say it, but 
it was inappropriate to the occasion. Is that the official opinion of UC Irvine? 
 
I thank you again for your invitation, but I have to wonder if this is just 
going to be another politically-correct event where differing viewpoints will 
be screened out. 
 
 
Sincerely, 
 
 
Gary Fouse 
 
 
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As yet I have not received a response from Rabbi Levy. 

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