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COLLEGE EQUALITY

Fighting Hate

U.S. must enforce pledge against campus harassment.

New YorkIJTA

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uried in the recent policy state-
ment on bullying in the public
schools, the U.S. Department
of Education's Office for Civil Rights
announced a major policy on anti-
Semitism: For only the second time in its
history, OCR pledged that it would use its
civil rights enforcement powers to protect
Jewish students from anti-Semitic harass-
ment.
The landmark ruling bolsters the 2004
policy that I issued while heading OCR
during the first George W. Bush adminis-
tration but which had been abandoned or
ignored in the intervening years. The new
policy is a big deal for students on many

of the second intifada. Since
college campuses, where anti-
Semitism has made a startling
then, many campuses, espe-
return. However, it is hardly clear
cially on the West Coast, have
whether OCR will enforce it fully.
seen a resurgence of anti-Jew-
The new policy is certainly
ish animosity. In many cases,
timely. Some say this is a "golden
we see old school European-
age" for American Jewish college
style stereotypes of greedy,
students, pointing to the prolif-
conspiratorial Jews.
eration of Hillel houses, Jewish
Quite frequently, though,
studies departments, Israel stud-
this hate spills over from anti-
Kenneth L.
ies classes, and Jewish college
Israel protests into brazenly
Marcus
presidents and faculty. There is
anti-Jewish harassment. In
Special
to
the
some truth to this opinion.
2006, the U.S. Commission
Jewish News
But if it is the best of times,
on Civil Rights said that anti-
it is also the worst of times.
Semitism had become a "seri-
The long, steady progress against anti-
ous problem" on many campuses across
the country.
Semitism since the end of the World War
II halted nearly a decade ago at the start
OCR's new policy means that Jewish

students again will receive the same
legal protections as black, Arab, Asian
and female students. This has been a
tough issue for the bureaucracy because
Congress banned discrimination in feder-
ally funded education programs on the
basis of race, color, national origin, sex,
age or disability — but not religion.
Bureaucrats have been reluctant to
protect Jewish students because Judaism
is a religion and Congress has not autho-
rized probes of religious bias. Moreover,
officials do not want to be seen as saying
that American Jews are a separate "race"
or "nation?' The new policy wisely steers
clear of these problems, anchoring protec-
tions in ethnic bias.
Whether the policy succeeds will

Michigan Colleges Discuss
Protecting All Students

Don Cohen
Special to the Jewish News

F

our Michigan universities
participated in the Zionist
Organization of America-
Michigan Region's Dec. 8 forum on
campus anti-Semitism and civil rights.
The forum was cosponsored by
Temple Beth El in Bloomfield Township
and StandWithUs-Michigan. It was
keynoted by Susan Tuchman, director
of the ZOA Center for Law and Justice
in New York.
ZOA-Michigan President Eugene
Greenstein of Farmington Hills opened
the program with a litany of alleged
problems affecting Jewish students on
Michigan campuses as well as courses
and admissions policies that favor Arab
students and countries at the expense
of Israel.
"We ask universities to treat stu-
dents of the Jewish faith with the same
respect and sensitivity as other minori-
ties:' Greenstein said. "Is the same
yardstick being used for Jewish stu-
dents as used when inviting speakers
that demonize the belief systems and
identities of African American, Muslim,

18 December 23 2010

or gay and lesbian students?"
Tuchman and ZOA have led a six-year
campaign to have the U.S. Department
of Justice amend Title VI of the Civil
Rights Act of 1964 to include religion
alongside the other protected classes of
race, color or national origin. Since the
U.S. Department of Education makes
federal funding contingent on enforce-
ment of the act and other federal laws,
including religion would be a potent
incentive for universities to protect
Jewish students as they do others.
Legislation was introduced in the
current Congress, but it is now not
expected to advance, and will have to
be reintroduced in the new Congress
next year. But in late October, Secretary
of Education Arne Duncan issued new
guidelines so the Civil Rights Act can
be invoked if anti-Jewish behavior is
thought to be based on ethnic charac-
teristics.
Tuchman welcomes that today's
Jewish students don't face admission-
limiting quotas and enjoy excused
absences for holidays, kosher food,
and active Hillels, Chabad Houses and
Jewish studies departments. But at
the same time, she says, they are also

Wayne State's Dr. David Strauss and Michigan State's Paulette Granberry Russell

"facing traditional, old-fashioned anti-
Semitic and vicious anti-Zionist and
anti-Israel anti-Semitism?'
Following a 14-minute video on
anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism at the
University of California, the largest
state school system in the country, the
four Michigan university representa-
tives Dec. 8 gave brief remarks before
answering questions from the audience.
Paulette Granberry Russell, Michigan

State University's senior adviser to
the president for diversity and direc-
tor of the Office for Inclusion and
Intercultural Initiatives, said MSU has
a range of diversity support programs
and that her office investigates issues.
The office enforces compliance with
state and federal non-discrimination
laws. She said "harassment is a form of
discrimination" and there is a student
judicial process that can used to resolve

