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continued from page 17

not a member of a targeted group,
it is still your place, today and every
day, to stand against injustice and
fight discrimination. To our Black
and Jewish friends, classmates and
peers: You matter, and you belong
here.”
On Sunday, the Detroit FBI field
office stated, in part: “If, in the
course of investigation, informa-
tion is developed suggesting a
federal violation of law, the FBI will
coordinate with the United States
Attorney’s Office to identify the best
course of action toward prosecu-
tion.”

CMU INCIDENT
At Central Michigan University in
Mount Pleasant, another hate inci-
dent took place, this time involving
a Valentine’s Day card distributed at
a Feb. 9 College Republicans event
with a message containing a photo
of Adolf Hitler that read: “My love 4
u burns like 6,000 Jews.”
A statement on CMU Hillel’s
Facebook page and website as well
as the Hillel Campus Alliance of
Michigan site said they are “deeply
concerned and disappointed stu-
dents would use anti-Semitic rheto-
ric and references to the Holocaust
in a joking manner. We find these
references to trivialize an incredibly
dark period in history when more
than 6 million Jews perished.”
The College Republicans apolo-
gized for the incident, saying they
were not aware someone had
slipped such a note into one the
Valentine’s Day candy bags they
were giving out. According to the
Associated Press, school leaders
Feb. 10 said the woman responsible
for distributing the card was not
a CMU student and admitted her
“misguided action.” CMU said mem-
bers of the student group “were
unaware of the card when distribut-

ing the party gift bag containing it.”
ADL Detroit Regional Director
Heidi Budaj said, “The message
conveyed in this Valentine’s Day bag
is outrageous and deeply offensive.
This anti-Semitic distribution not
only affects the campus community,
but also trivializes the horror that
Holocaust victims and their families
have experienced.”
Rabbi Abraham
Cooper of the
Simon Wisenthal
Center (SWC)
in Los Angeles
harshly criticized
the CMU incident
and said universi-
ties do not go far
Rabbi Abraham
enough in their
Cooper
reactions when
such incidents
arise on campus.
In an interview, Cooper said
he was not satisfied the woman
responsible for creating the card at
CMU was not named by the univer-
sity and still wanted to know who
within the student organization
invited her to the event.
“It is very nice the club apolo-
gized, but they still owe the com-
munity full disclosure as to how this
vile incident happened,” Cooper
said. “At the minimum, it is time
to begin to name and shame such
cowards.”
Cooper said harsher consequenc-
es for perpetrators of anti-Semitism
and better protections for Jewish
students cannot be implemented
at colleges and universities because
there is no legal definition of anti-
Semitism.
According to Cooper, the SWC is
working with other groups to pass
legislation in Congress to sharpen
discrimination and hate acts
aimed at Jews. Late last November,
the bipartisan Anti-Semitism

Awareness Act was introduced to
Congress and, in December, passed
unanimously in the U.S. Senate.
In response to the rising hate acts
against Jewish students, the SWC in
2014 developed a mobile app called
“combathateU” to help Jewish stu-
dents and other supporters of Israel
deal with hate, bias, anti-Semitism
and extreme anti-Israel harassment
on campus. Submissions to the app
are answered within 24 hours so the
SWC can elicit additional informa-
tion and suggest possible solutions.

RESILIENT STUDENTS
On both campuses, Jewish students
reacted to the events with shock
and confusion, but also continued
to engage Jewish students as well
as non-Jewish students in inclusive
programming to pave the way to
dialogue and understanding.
Chandross, a U-M sophomore,
said he was “surprised and con-
fused” when the email landed in his
inbox. But he and fellow computer
science majors who received the
same email learned quickly from
the email’s metadata it was a fake.
“We’re all pretty much reacting
in the same way,” Chandross said.
“Some people are bigots and you
just can’t let it phase you. It’s just
not a way to move forward.”
U-M junior Mara Cranis, 20, of
West Bloomfield, who has a leader-
ship position at U-M Hillel, said that
since September, there has been an
increase in anti-
Semitism on cam-
pus. The day after
the email, she and
other students
and professional
Hillel leaders were
on hand at the
Hillel building to
serve as a sup-
Mara Cranis
port source for

students.
The organization also went ahead
with its already-scheduled Jewish
Engineering Students Associated
Shabbat and extended the invita-
tion to the National Society of Black
Engineers.
Hillel at CMU
President Hadley
Platek, 21, of
Woodhaven
was preparing
a Tu b’Shevat
“unplugged”
Shabbat event
when she received
Hadley Platek
a text from a
friend containing
the photograph of
the offensive card.
In response, she and other con-
cerned students quickly assembled
an anti-hate rally attracting
approximately 60 students, where
she shared her dismay about the
card as well as her experience of
visiting Yad Vashem on her recent
Birthright trip to Israel.
“Many of my friends were
shocked that something like this
could happen at our campus,”
Platek said. “I know that in stress-
ful times people use humor to
cope, but I don’t know how people
can think this is funny. There was
a clear lack of judgment from the
person who created this.”
Platek, a senior, said this was the
first time she could recall some-
thing of this nature happening at
CMU and that, in general, she said
there has been a “great coming
together” against hatred and rac-
ism toward minorities, especially
since the Trump administration’s
temporary ban on immigrants from
seven Muslim-majority countries.
“Our campus [student body] is
very good about inclusion, coming
together to make things better.” •

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