Opinion
A MIX OF IDEAS
Dry Bones
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us.
AND THE U.S.
o A LOWERED
ITS FLAG
Editorial
Shifting Campus Sands
V
andalism of sukkahs on college
campuses continues to be an
annual event with at least two
struck each year according to Hillel: The
Foundation for Jewish Campus Life. The
most notable attack this year took place
Oct. 3 at Stanford University in Palo Alto,
Calif.
But sukkahs aren't the only overtly
Jewish targets of vandals prowling U.S.
campuses. Recent reports of anti-Jewish
graffiti range from swastikas painted on
dormitory walls to anti-Israel slogans
scrawled on buildings.
The American Jewish community must
stay vigilant. Vandals often become bolder
when they sense a lack of restraints or
disinterest in their acts, which clearly are
meant to draw publicity.
The newly revised edition of "The
UnCivil University," a publication of the
Institute for Jewish and Community
Research in San Francisco, underscores
what the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA)
terms "a growing atmosphere of anti-
Israelism and anti-Semitism on North
American campuses:'
That's an authentic red flag.
While violence against Jewish students
isn't as severe as it was when "The UnCivil
FACE IT'
University" was first published in 2005,
anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic rhetoric on
campus "has risen to a crescendo — the
amount of background noise keeps the
debate vitriolic:' the publication now
reports (www.unciviluniversity.org ).
The JTA report reveals a troubling trend.
Publication co-author Aryeh Weinberg
told JTA that universities don't always
work effectively to defuse situations. And
the Jewish community is often hesitant to
respond, deferring to national organiza-
tions like the Anti-Defamation League or
Hillel.
There's a ray of hope, however. Jewish
students confronted by anti-Jewish or
anti-Israel acts have begun to exchange
fear and isolation for advocacy, with sup-
port from the broader campus community.
For example, Christian, Muslim and Hindu
student groups reached out to the Stanford
University Hillel following the October
sukkah vandalism, Hillel Rabbi Mychal
Copeland told JTA.
In response to the outpouring of sup-
portive phone calls and e-mail messages,
Stanford's Jewish Student Association
invited the entire campus to join Hillel for
Shabbat dinner in the sukkah on Oct. 9,
the last night of the holiday. Sixty people
TO REMEMBER THE
VICTIMS.
/A I *
ictu re
crowded into the make-
shift structure to eat
and celebrate together.
We're heartened by
the interfaith nature of
that sukkah celebra-
tion. JSA President Jeff
Gettinger got it right in
TO OPEN ITS EYES
A MORE EFFECTIVE
his letter thanking the
AND DEAL WITH
RESPONSE WOULD
Stanford community.
THE DANGER IT
BE FOR AMERICA
Noting the temporary
FACES.
and flimsy nature of
the sukkah, he wrote:
"This is a reminder that
no matter how rooted
and permanent we may
seem, each individual,
each community is
dependent on some-
thing larger than itself.
What grounds the suk-
DryBonesBlog.com
kah is not the canvas
are increasing on campus. The headlines
and metal that makes
up the frame: It is the people and commu- may seem less daunting, but don't for an
instant think the danger has diminished.
nity that fill it:'
But we can't become complacent: Alarm It still exists and echoes — boldly and in
more subtle, but equally perilous, ways.
still counters too many of the positive
Beware of trends that seem moderating.
stories. We must heed the anti-Zionist
The vibrancy of Jewish campus life and the
rallies, Jewish hate pronouncements and
safety of Jewish students are at stake. E
Holocaust denial advertisements that
Reality Check
Detroit Tapestry
My mother wrote in white ink on the
black page of the photograph album. It is
a picture of the two of us standing on a
footbridge.
"V-J Day on Belle Isle she wrote. "The
only quiet place in the city on the day
Japan surrendered:'
It was Aug. 15, 1945, and half a world
away, the city of Hiroshima lay in terrify-
ing, radioactive ruins. The population
of Detroit was close to 1.9 million. The
estimates at Hiroshima, where several war
industries were concentrated, was some-
where over 400,000.
Last month, I received an e-mail show-
ing pictures of a vibrant city of skyscrap-
ers, lights, streets full of people, with a
population of slightly more than a million.
Want to guess which it was?
I offer a Detroit tapestry:
• "Storefronts are empty, theaters are
dark.
"Grass on the sidewalks but none in the
park.
Me and my town; we just
wanna be loved:'
• I have a friend who is lost in
the '50s. In his mind, it is mid-
way through that decade. Gordie
Howe and the Wings have just
won their fourth Stanley Cup in
six years. Bobby Layne and the
Lions have two in the bag and a
third just two years away.
Al Kaline is the youngest bat-
ting champ in American League
history, although he'll have to
wait another 13 years for his
first championship with the Tigers.
He spends a lot of his day on e-Bay,
looking for memorabilia from that era.
It was a time when everything was right
and if you were growing up in Detroit you
knew ... you just knew ... especially at
Thanksgiving, that you were living in one
of the best cities in the world.
"Hold on to the past:' says
my friend:' "It's all we've got:'
• "Goin' to Chicago; sorry, but
I can't take you:'
• Thousands of Detroiters
crowd against the doors of
Cobo Hall, expecting to get free
money from the government.
"It's Obama money:' one of
them shouts at a radio reporter.
"It's from his own stash:' I don't
think she was kidding.
• Jennie Clow was the prin-
cipal at Roosevelt Elementary.
In the school office was a pho-
tograph of a Ford biplane that was named
after her. I wish I had thought to ask why.
I like to think she may have been friends
with Amelia Earhart as an adventuresome
young woman, but went into the education
game, instead.
My first week in kindergarten, I stepped
into the path of someone who was throw-
ing an empty pop bottle on the play-
ground. It opened a gash in my head and
I had to be driven to my uncle's medical
office at the Maccabees Building. It left
a nasty blood stain on the back seat of
Jennie Clow's Ford.
• Roosevelt was torn down several years
ago when the neighborhood no longer had
enough school-age children to justify its
cost.
• "By day I make the cars
And by night I make the bars:'
• My mother wrote in white ink on the
last black page of the photograph album. I
am walking off, waving, typewriter case in
hand, to cover a Tigers game for the Free
Press in 1967. "How beautiful the city has
been this summer;' she wrote. "I hope it
continues:'
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .
November 26 • 2009
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