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Joining The Battle

Lawyers vow help for students facing campus anti-Semitism.

I

n post-World War I Germany, Joanna
Abramson’s grandfather Ernest Gans
suffered intense anti-Semitism while
attending law school at the University of
Munich. He ultimately fled Germany a
month before the Kristallnacht
pogrom in 1938.
Gans’ granddaughter Joanna,
now a West Bloomfield attorney,
in sharp contrast, experienced
no anti-Semitism whatsoever as
a proudly pro-Israel student at
the University of Michigan in the
1970s.
Joanna
But when her son arrived for
Abramson
orientation at the University of
Michigan in 2004, new freshmen were met
by protestors with signs and chants calling
Israel an apartheid state and equating Israel
with Nazism.
“It was a completely different University
of Michigan than I experienced,” said
Abramson. “It was more like the University
of Munich that my grandfather experienced.
“This is the experience occurring all over
the United States today. As attorneys, we
can’t sit by and watch this happen.”
Abramson, a board member of the Jewish
Bar Association of Michigan (JBAM), orga-
nized a conference of local attorneys with
featured speaker Yael Mazar, the director of
legal affairs at the pro-Israel advocacy group
StandWithUs (SWU). She addressed about
50 lawyers April 7 at the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building in Bloomfield Township.
Abramson seeks to inspire attorneys to
join the fight against anti-Semitism on cam-
pus. She got a positive response from attor-
neys attending the conference.
Mazar, a Los Angeles native who is current-
ly living in Israel, conducts legal workshops
and advises students on confronting extrem-
ist activity. Before joining StandWithUs, she
specialized in civil rights and hate crimes law
with the Anti-Defamation League.
She sought to educate the attorneys
attending the conference about anti-Semi-
tism on campus and discuss what they could
do to combat it. Providing the student point
of view was SWU-Michigan’s campus liai-
son Andrew Moss, a junior at U-M in Ann
Arbor. Moss works with college and high
school students across the state to plan and
implement pro-Israel programming.

HATRED OF ISRAEL AND JEWS
Mazar described how easily anti-Israel rheto-
ric and demonstrations can morph into anti-
Semitism, giving the specific definition of
anti-Semitism promulgated by the U.S. State

22 April 21 • 2016

Department.
In addition, she spoke about the staged
disruptions by anti-Israel factions when pro-
Israel speakers seek to speak on campus —
which violate the speakers’ First Amendment
right to speak and the audiences’ First
Amendment right to listen.
She also told of harassment of
Jewish students across the country,
including, for instance, fake “Israeli-
style” eviction notices in college
dormitories or bogus student govern-
ment allegations like those brought
up and dismissed recently against
U-M student Jesse Arm.
Regarding anti-Semitism, Mazar
said that absurd charges of the mass killing
of Palestinian children were like the age-old
blood libel of Jews killing Christian children
to make Passover matzah.
She stated the three criteria of how anti-
Israel antagonists cross the line into anti-
Semitism, as laid out by the State Department
in its Fact Sheet “Defining Anti-Semitism”:
• Demonizing Israel: Using the images of
anti-Semitism to characterize Israel, compar-
ing Israel to the Nazis or blaming Israel for
all inter-religious or political tensions.
• Double Standard for Israel: Requiring
of Israel a behavior not expected of any other
democratic nation and focusing only on
Israel for human rights investigations.
• Delegitimizing Israel: Denying the
Jewish people the right to self-determination
and denying Israel its right to exist.
However, the State Department adds, criti-
cism of Israel similar to that leveled against
any other country cannot be regarded as
anti-Semitic.

TROUBLE ON CAMPUS
The University of California (UC) regents
have recently had to confront rampant anti-
Semitism on their campuses.
Mazar gave the example of swastika graf-
fiti and vandalism aimed at a Jewish frater-
nity at UC-Davis. She pointed out the case at
UCLA in Los Angeles where Rachel Beyda
was at first summarily rejected for a student
government position because questions were
raised that her Jewish faith would affect her
impartiality.
Also, at UC-Santa Cruz, an anti-Israel fac-
tion tried to prevent student representative
Daniel Bernstein from voting on a pro-BDS
resolution before the student government
because he was Jewish.
Mazar also discussed the case of U-M
student Jesse Arm, a student government
representative who was charged with ethics

violations for peacefully dis-
agreeing with the builders of
an “Israel Apartheid Wall” on
campus. Arm was denied the
opportunity to be represented
by counsel at a student gov-
ernment hearing but received
Anti-Semitism fighters Yael Mazar and Andrew Moss
legal advice in advance from
the SWU and West Bloomfield
did nothing when four non-disruptive Jewish
attorney Lawrence Katz. The
student government wound up dismissing all students were ejected from a pro-Palestinian
event. In light of the action, the college
allegations against him.
apologized to the students and implemented
SWU has prepared a pamphlet “Know
policies to prevent future similar discrimina-
Your Rights!” for Jewish students affected
tion from occurring.
by anti-Semitic intimidation by anti-Israel
factions. Included are issues of suppression
STUDENTS’ VIEWS
of pro-Israel speech, challenging hostile
Moss,
a junior at U-M majoring in political
professors, hate speech, anti-Semitism and
science
and international studies, represents
harassment. Students are given a hotline to
SWU-MI
and works to fight anti-Semitism
get free legal help by filing an incident report
and
BDS.
“I built this position,” he explained,
through the website EndBDS.com or by call-
telling
how
he assists and educates students
ing (844) END-BDS7.
across
the
state.
He was trained in pro-Israel
Mazar says SWU has a pro bono legal
activity
by
SWU
prior to starting college in
team that will assist students facing anti-
its
MZ
teen
intern
program.
Semitism with legal tools to utilize. She
Moss
told
the
lawyers
they should “let the
invited Detroit-area attorneys to get involved
students
know
the
community
is behind
through Abramson’s efforts.
them”
regarding
anti-Semitism
on campus.
SWU’s partners in the “Know Your
He
said
students
are
fighting
for
the ability to
Rights!” project are the American Center
present
the
pro-Israel
side.
for Law and Justice, the Lawfare Project, the
Larry Katz, the West Bloomfield attorney
Louis D. Brandeis Center and the Zionist
who
volunteered his advice to U-M student
Organization of America (ZOA).
Jesse Arm prior to his successful hearing
before a student government board, attended
EXCEEDING THE RULES
the attorneys’ meeting and said, “This
Mazar said one tactic SWU has used against
pro-BDS resolutions has been to examine the meeting is the first step in the creation of a
community of lawyers concerned about the
bylaws of the resolving organization to see if
BDS movement and growing anti-Semitism,
it exceeded its authority by taking action on
particularly on college campuses.
inappropriate issues. This succeeded in an
“We want to make sure Jewish students
instance at UC-Davis. Lawyers can be helpful
and
faculty know their rights and have the
in advising students about rules and bylaws.
resources
to counter this propaganda.”
Mazar cautioned that even though pro-
Attorneys
who want to help fight anti-
BDS resolutions don’t always pass, the torrent
Semitism
on
campus can contact Joanna
of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rhetoric could
Abramson
at
(248) 706-1700 or joanna@
still influence the beliefs of future leaders who
abramsonlawoffices.com.
Local attorneys are
are subjected to unsuccessful BDS efforts.
especially
needed
to
serve
on the legal help
When anti-Israel demonstrators prevent
hotline.
Their
services
will
be
available to peo-
pro-Israel speakers from having their say,
ple
and
organizations
fighting
anti-Semitism.
Mazar said that the protestors should be
Abramson
told
the
conference
how her
arrested and prosecuted. For instance, 10
grandfather,
the
University
of
Munich-
such demonstrators at UC-Irvine were con-
schooled attorney, beginning at age 70,
victed of disrupting a 2010 speech by then-
Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren. returned to Germany every summer for the
next 25 years — until age 95 — practicing
Another weapon against anti-Semitism
law by prosecuting compensation cases for
is Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
Holocaust victims.
which prohibits federal funding to institu-
This dedication to the Jewish people and
tions that discriminate. In cases in 2004 and
against
their oppressors is the inspiration she
2010, Title VI was applied to protect Jews.
feels
herself
— and is her call to action to
In 2013, the ZOA filed a Title VI action
other
local
attorneys.
against Brooklyn College when the college

*

David Sachs

David Sachs | Senior Copy Editor

