<p>Two years ago I was looking to transfer from UNC to either Berkeley or Columbia (I was accepted to both). I very much wanted to go to Berkeley, except I chose Columbia for a single comment made on this very discussion board: at Berkeley, one Cal student student said, it is acceptable not only to call Israel a fascist state, but to extend such labels to all Jews. In other words, at UC Berkeley, it was in vogue to hate Jews.</p>
<p>As a Jewish student, that did the trick. I am now about to graduate from Columbia University, where I have had a very happy time. Do you think that Berkeley is as anti-Semitic as this student made it sound?</p>
<p>One of the best characteristic of Berkeley is that it promotes freedom of speech, and a sense of freedom. I agree with you that whoever said that was unacceptable. But it was mighty immature of you to base your perception of a school on a comment.</p>
<p>And by the way, there was a professor at Columbia who was threatened or something awhile back. She seemed really controversial. I saw it on the news last year or so.</p>
<p>Well, I’m going to be exceptionally unpopular, but I’m going to have to agree that being ANTI-ISRAEL seems to be in vogue here, though I’m not sure it has anything at all with being anti-semetic. It’s hard to differentiate the two, because they are so closely intertwined. </p>
<p>Of course, not all students are anti-Israel, but the portion that are are very vocal. My Jewish friends have, at times, admitted to feeling uncomfortable and antagonized.</p>
<p>However, I am just another student…take it with a grain of salt.</p>
<p>You’re right, it was a bit hasty of a decision. And in reality, it wasn’t that quick. But I do recall thinking an awful lot about that comment. I mean, why would someone who wasn’t Jewish even notice that their Jewish friends were feeling marginalized if it weren’t true? Of course, it’s pretty easy to feel marginalized as a Jew, but still, I wanted to be in, if not a Jewish environment at least one where people don’t assume you are a racist, etc. because you are Jewish or Zionist.</p>
<p>Support for/against Israel here is kind of polarizing at the moment.</p>
<p>I support the two state solution, I support Israel and I support Palestine; however, I did support Israel’s attempt towards the extermination of Hamas after the Qassam attacks in Dec/Jan. If I went to the SJP people and told them that, they would probably think I am right-wing, though I am left-of-center to far-left-of-center on literally everything.</p>
<p>In summary, IMHO, at the moment it feels kind of hard to be liberal and be pro-Israel in any sense, though this is highly exacerbated by the Moghtader issue (BTW I voted to recall him) + the aftermath of the conflict in Dec/Jan.</p>
<p>Good comments all around. Support for/against Israel is controversial everywhere. I guess my perception of Berkeley is that it is a place where people are very myopically “liberal” in the sense that they see wealthy people fighting with less wealthy people, regardless of the issue, and they side with the less wealthy people. While being anti-Zionist is by no means the same as being anti-Semitic, there is a very fine line between the two. Maybe this is me stereotyping Berkeley students (although it seems that such is not completely unfounded), but I’d say that there is a tendency to think, “Jews are wealthy and powerful. Jews support Israel. Israel is a racist state. Therefore, Jews are racist. Jews are hypocritical because they do same thing to the Palestinians as the Nazis did to them.”</p>
<p>This is not to say that every Cal student thinks that actively, but that the majority, if they did hear such rhetoric would not disagree.</p>
<p>I’m sorry you feel that way. But I would definitely disagree with that rhetoric if I heard it, but I really don’t think people who espouse that rhetoric are in the majority. Perhaps such a group is larger at Berkeley than at most universities given Berkeley’s sizable Muslim student population and far left reputation, but I think its a gross overstatement to say that it is the stance of the majority of Berkeley’s students. I’m not sure I can convince you otherwise since you seem so set on your views of Berkeley. You really must come and see for yourself if this is true or not.</p>
<p>When we were picking colleges last May, one of my friends who was Jewish told me that he wasn’t going to Berkeley even though he got the Regents and alumni scholarships because he felt that Berkeley wasn’t as welcoming to Jews since the Muslim student population was so large. Another friend who was also Jewish was pretty set on coming to Berkeley (the only other school he was even going to consider was MIT), because his siblings had gone to school here and told him it was great, and this friend is pretty happy at Berkeley.</p>
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<li>I think it is extremely stupid to pick your institution on a single anonymous comment on an on-line discussion board.</li>
<li>That said, in my experience pro-Palestinian tend to be rather extremist in their views and make unfair comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa or even Nazi Germany, which is quite ridiculous. This tends to alienate Jews who might have otherwise been critical of certain Israeli policies, and forces them into being stalwart supporters instead. Nobody gains from this loud rhetoric, neither the Israelis who get bombarded by Hamas rockets nor the Palestinians who are forced to endure settlers’ appropriation of their lands or get caught up in the crossfire between the IDF and Hamas.</li>
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<p>I seem to recall that Columbia invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, infamous for denying the Holocaust and has calling for Israel to be wiped off the face of the Earth, to speak at a public forum. Berkeley has never invited Ahmadinejad. </p>
<p>I agree with stalker. Anyone who makes a decision on which college to enroll based on an anonymous post from an online discussion site needs to delete the Internet from his or her computer. </p>
<p>This is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I sincerely hope you did not make a decision based on one simple comment. (Course, I would’ve ended up going to Columbia given the chance, but I didn’t apply there) Did you even visit Berkeley? Calling Berkeley anti-Semitic would be the last insult I would even think of if I were to talk crap about it.</p>
<p>I think wherever you go people will oppose and support different issues and I don’t think one comment made by a student, not even an official, is enough to judge a school.</p>