Does sovereignty include removing Israel from the face of the earth and the extermination of Jews?
Jews are the victims of more hate crimes than any other religious group. More than 6x Muslims.
There is a difference between calling for the extermination of a people and protesting a government. If youâre tearing down pictures of kidnapped children, thatâs not free speech, thatâs antisemitism. If youâre marching in support of a Palestinian state, thatâs free speech. If youâre chanting slogans from WW2, thatâs antisemitism.
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Exactly, Christopher Wray testified today
âJews in America suffer âsomething like 60% of all religious-based hate crimes and incidentsâ despite representing only about 2.4% of the American public, Wray said, citing government statistics.â
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And then there is perception vs. reality.
Naturally, the most âinterestingâ schools for tabloid media (as far as headline crabbing/click-baiting) are the household names. So, presenting isolated antisemitic actions by a few crazed individuals (who unfortunately can be found in all areas of life) at those schools as a âtrendâ is revenue producing - but not necessarily factual.
Per example >20% of the undergraduate body at Columbia University is Jewish (Columbia University - Hillel International)!
But the much-upvoted piece of âjournalismâ a few posts early, completely misrepresents the unapproved (and also factually incorrect) posting of one crazed individual (who did have access to a clubâs social media accounts), as the official position of that club â and to feed their narrative, that âjournalistâ invents that Jewish students had actually been barred from that event.
Yeah - if I read this as a parent that sounds scary.
Except⊠itâs not true.
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I believe there are a range of views. Obviously if those views include murder up to and including genocide, that would be very antisemitic. If they include more territory under Palestinian control, not necessarily so. But I donât think those advocating for Palestinian rights are homogenous in their agenda and opinions. Surely there are some antisemites among them. But I do not believe all - or even necessarily most - are. And I guess when they all get lumped together, that makes it even trickier for school admin to disentangle it all and take a position that is humane, fair, and sympathetic to both sides, while rooting out and dealing with any extremists.
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One of my closest friendâs son attends Columbia law and he said he feels very unsafe on campus and is glad he isnât living on campus this year.
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The other thingâŠSomewhere upthread someone posted a link where you could look up any university and see a list of antisemitic incidents that had been documented on their campus. But some of those allegedly antisemitic incidents included things like âschool newspaper published an op-ed on Palestinian rightsâ or something of that sort. And I personally find this quite concerning - it runs up the number of antisemitic incidents so if you just look at the number, it is horrifying. But perhaps the reality doesnât justify that horror? It is how you define antisemitic and, as I said, whether you consider any demonstration of support for Palestinians to be an inherently antisemitic position. But if you just look at the numbers, then you miss the large areas of grey in the discussion. And ultimately I donât think that helps anyone.
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and neither is the Jewish population in the U.S. and, their different âbranchesâ and practices, and to what degree they are an integral part of our âmainstreamâ society - or how much they choose to isolate themselves. As a result, the reactions of âGentilesâ are not necessarily homogenous either, and not necessarily directed at the âraceâ - but possibly a reflection of specific activism.
Practical example from the NYC suburbs: I can imagine (and surely hope) that most people would care less that their childâs best friend, teacher, pizza-boy, or pediatrician happens to be Jewish - but might actually have strong feelings about a local sect that over years successfully defunded the public school district, because they send their children to (often unlicensed/unapproved) schools, and in neighborhood houses that donât follow zoning laws or even construction codes.
So - are those gentile parents (and township departments) antisemitic - or just decrying unfair actions by a strong, local ethnic group who just happens to be Jewish.
Iâm not taking everything labeled âantisemitismâ at face value.
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I am Jewish, I know exactly what you are referring to, and I do not consider people who speak out about those actions to be antisemitic.
That being said, as a Jewish person I do silently cringe on the inside and hope that I am right in my assumptions. It is hard to explain this feeling to those who are not Jewish. I grew up with antisemitism over 40 years ago.
As a Jewish person I am supportive of innocent Palestinians. That being said, I find whatâs going on on college campuses to be scary, and the fears I had in HS are resurfacing.
Itâs hard to be part of a group (any group) that many want eliminated. There are times when I know something has antisemitic undertones, yet those who are not Jewish do not see it (itâs not their lived experience).
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FWIW - the perpetrator is no longer a student at Columbia.
Also, the victim was not some random Jewish kid walking across the campus with his Yarmulke or a big Magen David on her neck, but they had both been part of a group hanging up posters with Hamas victims until the wee hours of the morning together, before one turned on the other.
Yes, extremely specific and bizarre - which is telling as far as the âgeneral populationâ.
They just arrested a junior at Cornell.
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A bit more info.
Patrick Dai, age 21, a junior at Cornell University who is originally from Pittsford, New York, was arrested today on a federal criminal complaint charging him with posting threats to kill or injure another using interstate communications.
The complaint alleges that Dai posted threatening messages to the Cornell section of an online discussion site, including posts calling for the deaths of Jewish people and a post that said âgonna shoot up 104 west.â According to information provided by Cornell University Police and other public information, 104 West is a Cornell University dining hall that caters predominantly to Kosher diets and is located next to the Cornell Jewish Center, which provides residences for Cornell students. In another post, Dai allegedly threatened to âstabâ and âslit the throatâ of any Jewish males he sees on campus, to rape and throw off a cliff any Jewish females, and to behead any Jewish babies. In that same post, Dai threatened to âbring an assault rifle to campus and shoot all you pig jews.â The charges and the allegations in the complaint are merely accusations. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
The charge filed against Dai carries a maximum term of 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years.
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In addition to everything else wrong, he just torched $200k in cost of attendance for Cornell to date (whether paid by his family, Cornell financial aid, or the government).
ETA: I found his LinkedIn profile, which suggests heâs actually a senior, so even more money torched.
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You may want to follow the links in the source you are basing this statement onâŠ
âA 2020 survey of Jewish Americans found perceptions of rising antisemitism in the United States, and other organizations have reported an increase in antisemitic incidents.â
It would appear a bit more nuance is required than the generalization you conclude.
In fact this is the Pew studies (that you use) conclusion on attitudes towards JewsâŠ
âThe positive public attitude toward Jews may not tell the whole storyâ
THIS. I canât tell you how much I agree with you - to my core - there have been incidents in my community that my close friends donât see the same way, and Iâm like, itâs antisemitic
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yeah, I noticed no names on that faculty letter. If they feel that strongly, the Council should list each and every signature.
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But, see, I think that letter is a bit problematic and could potentially do more harm than good (although I fully realize the intention is good). I am glad he explicitly commits to protect Jewish students. That is absolutely the correct thing to do. However, where is his commitment to protect Palestinian and Muslim students? The original letter - and you can fairly call it angry, inflammatory, or many other things - makes reference to students attending pro-Palestinian rallies as facing threats and intimidation. Do they not deserve the same protection as Jewish students facing the same? All students deserve to feel safe in their campus community and beyond, no matter what their political beliefs. No one should be threatened or intimidated for their identity or beliefs. Antisemitism is sadly alive and well in the US, but so is Islamophobia. Discrimination is never right and colleges have a duty to protect and defend all. This letter singles out Jewish students for protection - will that just make Islamic students feel more justified in their anger and sense of being marginalized? Now, I do not claim to have ANY answers to ANYTHING here. But I do think this is what makes the position of college admins so tricky. It is a very fine line to walk and requires tact, empathy, and diplomatic skills - and even then, people will accuse you of using canned messages. I think most are doing the best they can. But itâs going to be hard to satisfy everyone and, while they may not need to satisfy everyone, they do need to be fair and sensitive to both sides (and please donât misinterpret this statement: I do NOT mean be fair to racists, antisemites, etc.).
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Neither is new in Israeli / Palestinian politics on college campuses and elsewhere. Main difference is that instead of a few noisy extremist bigots yelling at each other in some corner and everyone else ignoring them like before is that current events are pulling everyone else into it, and some more naive (to the situation) people get pulled into extremist bigotry.
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Yes, this may be true as well. So how does one prevent that in the current situation? How do we allow honest and sincere expression of reasonable positions (for either side) without stoking extremist positions? And not to beat a dead horse, but this is where college response can also be tricky because the public positions they take can cause people to further dig in their heels and perhaps go deeper into the more extremist views. Thereâs some element of human psychology that must also be weighed when publishing these various statements. Some statements will do more harm than good by causing increased righteous indignation potentially leading to more extreme views through a sense of continued victimization.
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