jewish@edu ior college students by college students GATEWAY TRAVEL A Campus Of Difference Anti-Defamation League provides tools for students to defeat bigotry on their campuses. Leslie Spector We wish our loyal clients a Sweet New Year filled with health, happiness and peace around the world. 2013 5774 L'SHANAH TOVAH 28470 13 MILE ROAD Farmington Hills Tel: 248-432-8600 www. llatewaytryt gum VIRTUOSO. SPECIALISTS IN THE ARTOF TRAVEL Call us for all your travel needs IlL? SHOLEM ALEICHE INSTITUTE invites you to join them at their SECULAR HIGH HOLIDAY ASSEMBLIES to be held at a NEW venue The Hillel Day School Chapel 32200 Middlebelt Rd. (Between Northwestern Hwy. and 14 Mile Rd.) Farmington Hills ROSH HASHANAH THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 5TH AT 10 AM KOL NIDRE FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 13TH AT 8 PM YOM KIPPUR SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14TH AT 10 AM As Always No Ticket Required Membership inquiries welcome. Call Institute Office (248) 423-4406 1855320 86 August 29 • 2013 e're looking for the Jews! We're looking for the Jews!" six boys using German accents shouted down the hallway of a dorm at Western Michigan University on the anniversary of Kristallnacht, a pogrom against Jews throughout Nazi Germany and parts of Austria that occurred on Nov. 9-10, 1938. The only Jew in the dorm happened to live on the floor where this incident took place. And, someone had thrown a snowball directly at his room, shattering the window. WMU administrators sat down with the Hillel organization on campus to figure out how to address this issue. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) was contacted, informed and came to lead a diversity training program — its national A Campus of Difference program — for the residents of that particular dorm and the six young men involved. "Differences at college become dif- ferent types of differences," said Heidi Budaj, direc- tor, ADL-Michigan Region. "Some people at these universities have never seen a Jew Heidi Budaj before. Through our training, we give these students and residence life staff tools to help stu- dents integrate. "Jews are often approached by some- one who has never seen a Jew before and asked 'Where are your horns?' Our train- ing provides answers for these innocent questions. We have the tools to say there are a lot of misconceptions about Jewish people. A Campus of Difference arms par- ticipants with the ability to educate and not to just argue and walk away." A Campus of Difference helps college administrators, faculty members and students examine stereotypes, expand cultural awareness, explore the value of diversity and combat racism, anti-Semi- tism and all forms of bigotry. "This program arms people with dip- lomatic tools and ways to present infor- mation that is not negatively confron- tational, but that can diffuse negative arguments," said Harry Weaver III, ADL's local project director. "A Campus of Difference allows individuals who have been trained to effectively combat anti-Semitic opin- W Rochelle Lieberman and the staff of Gateway Travel 1N Intern ions as well as the defamation of Jewish people, with facts. "Although the program is in the pro- cess of being revamped, the goals and purposes remain the same. We want to help college students, and people at large, who run into these issues in their communities." Currently, WMU is the only active school in Michigan at the collegiate level that has gone through training with A Campus of Difference. Ideally, ADL's goal is to be at every college in Michigan. This is a program that will enhance student life at any college, regardless if there have been incidents of hate crimes or not. The program is designed by human relations specialists with professional experience on college and university cam- puses. It is comprised of on-site work- shops (full-day, half-day or multi-day) on anti-bias education and diversity aware- ness. A Campus of Difference is designed to prepare students, often from homog- enous schools and communities, for liv- ing together with those of the opposite gender, race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. "Right now, the program focuses on anti-Semitism because we found that on a college campus, the anti-Semitic voices, in some cases, are much stronger than the voice that combats that," Weaver said. "We will teach these students how to handle being harassed because of the fact that they are Jewish. "These tools we provide give students the language to stand up for themselves. When someone is surrounded by oth- ers and an anti-Semitic joke is told, they will know how to handle the situation because of our training. In shorter terms, our training tells you what to say and how to say it. Our hope is that students will do this with any racial or ethnic joke," he added. The Facts In 2011, 85 percent of hate crimes nationwide involving religion were anti- Semitic, according to the most recent FBI Hate Crime Statistics report. Hate crimes tend to be the highest priority of the Bureau's civil rights program because of the "heinous nature and their impact on victims and communities." In 2012, ADL's annual Audit of Anti- Semitic Incidents shows that the total number of anti-Semitic incidents in the U.S. decreased by 14 percent. The report also looks at criminal and non-criminal incidents reported to ADL in 35 states and Washington, D.C. According to the report, there were 927 anti-Semitic incidents across the U.S. Among these incidents, 17 were physical assaults, 470