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Vigilance Needed At U-M

Z

Eugene
Greenstein

gize. To those of Jewish descent, rest
ionist Organization of
assured that we stand with you and
America-Michigan Region
vow to continue the effort to educate
members returned, for the
others.”
third time in 12 months, to address
No such statement has been
the University of Michigan Board of
expressed by U-M’s adminis-
Regents’ meeting. Sheldon
tration regarding Jews, includ-
L. Freilich, Irving Ginsberg,
ing when spoof hate emails
Ed Kohl and I spoke at the
attacking Jews and blacks
Feb. 16 meeting. We voiced
appeared several weeks ago.
concerns over the univer-
President Mark Schlissel
sity’s silence over the past
made a strong public state-
three years when Jewish/
ment at the Regents’ meeting,
pro-Israel students had
saying, “Bigotry of any kind is
been targeted and intimi-
U-M President
unacceptable in our commu-
dated.
Mark Schlissel
nity, and I’ve said so countless
Ed Kohl and I spoke
times. Bigotry includes bigotry
during the formal meet-
on the basis of race, ethnicity and on
ing. I overviewed the U-M situation,
religion. Anti-Semitism is not toler-
mentioned that Professor Alan
ated here or elsewhere and should
Dershowitz at Temple Beth El stated
not be.”
that anti-Semitism is rising on uni-
Regent Andrea Fisher Newman
versity campuses and pointed out
thanked ZOA for coming and said,
that U-M junior Mara Cranis stated
“I want to agree with the president’s
in the Feb. 16 issue of the JN “that
anti-Semitism has been increasing on remarks, and I think that abuse of
any student — Muslim, Jewish or
campus since September.”
otherwise — is not acceptable on this
Kohl pointed out that when the
campus.”
Valentine cards with “my love 4 u
She added, “Until recently, I didn’t
burns like 6,000 Jews” incident hap-
appreciate the fact that some felt
pened a few weeks back, Central
there was a double standard for
Michigan University President
Jewish students, and I wanted to
George Ross immediately released
thank those students and others who
the following: “With heavy hearts
have reached out to let me know how
and great embarrassment, we apolo-

they feel.”
Regent Andrew Richner said,
“While hate speech is protected by
the First Amendment, we don’t have
to sit idly by and listen to it or accept
it. I think the speakers are right in
bringing this issue to our attention,
and it deserves our attention and due
diligence.”
During public comments, Ginsberg
and ZOA-MI President Freilich
spoke about the ugly climate of anti-
Semitism on campus extending over
multiple years. Both reported that
university officials displayed an unac-
ceptable double standard, vigorously
responding when other groups are
attacked, yet ignore and are silent
when Jewish students are harassed
and intimidated on campus.
Ginsberg referenced several quotes
by Schlissel about harassment
against other minority groups, but he
had been continuously silent when
Jewish intimidation occurred.
Freilich mentioned that as a son of
Holocaust survivors, he was acutely
aware of how racial, religious and
ethnic persecution of Jews can lead
to degradation, violence and blood-
shed if unchecked by governmental
officials.
He outlined four steps the univer-
sity should take to ensure that the

commentary

A

Rabbi Marvin
Hier

8

Eugene Greenstein, Ph.D., is immediate past
president of Zionist Organization of America
-Michigan Region.

letters

Simon Wiesenthal Center Urges Taskforce Be Formed

Rabbi Abraham
Cooper

educational environment is safe:
Disciplinary measures for those who
commit anti-Semitic bigotry; publicly
and forcefully labeling incidents that
are explicitly anti-Semitic; educat-
ing teachers and students about
the dangers of anti-Semitism; and
informing all students of the school’s
procedures when seeking redress for
incidents of discrimination.
The regents were given copies of
the new film Hate Spaces: The Politics
of Intolerance on Campus. (ZOA, with
its cosponsors, will be screening Hate
Spaces at 7:15 p.m. March 15 at The
Corners in West Bloomfield).
After the meeting, Regent Michael
Behm told us how thankful he was
that we spoke up.
While we were pleased we
obtained the university’s attention
with these public statements, it is up
to the community to be vigilant and
Jewish students to be involved on
campus in Jewish and Israel issues
while not letting apathy prevail.
The ZOA asks for nothing more
than Jewish students being treated
the same as all other students on
campus. •

gainst the backdrop of
surging hate crimes tar-
geting Jews and Jewish
institutions across the U.S., the
Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC)
is urging the U.S. attorney gen-
eral to establish a special task-
force to apprehend the culprit or
culprits who have launched four
waves of bomb threats against
scores of Jewish Community
Centers across the U.S. and for
President Trump to outline his
administration’s plan to combat
surging anti-Semitism.
The multipronged threats of
anti-Semitism today demand
concerted action. We look to
President Trump to take a lead-
ership role in addressing the
problem of anti-Semitism and
hate in America head-on in a
speech at a time and place of his
choosing.
American Jewry is being tar-

March 2 • 2017

jn

geted by extremists from mul-
tiple sources: On our nation’s
campuses, where incessant anti-
Israel campaigns have created a
climate of intimidation; in New
York, home to the world’s larg-
est Jewish community, which
reports a spike in anti-Semitic
incidents, and just this week, 100
headstones in a Jewish cemetery
in Missouri were overturned.
Further, social media is being
deployed 24/7 by extremists to
target and demonize individual
Jews, entire communities, our
faith and values. We need leader-
ship from the top to effectively
combat the hate.
The SWC letter to Attorney
General Jeff Sessions reads, in
part:
“Jewish institutions have, for
many years, been spending mil-
lions of dollars a year to protect
our houses of worship, commu-

nity centers, kindergartens and
Jewish schools from attacks from
extremists … While we appre-
ciate the efforts made by law
enforcement to protect people
of all faiths … given the current
circumstances … the Simon
Wiesenthal Center is urging
you to create a special taskforce
with the assignment of identify-
ing and capturing the culprit or
culprits who seek to terrorize
American Jewry through their
threats.” •

Rabbi Abraham Cooper is associate dean
of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi
Marvin Hier is founder and dean of the
Simon Wiesenthal Center, a leading
Jewish human rights organization with
over 400,000 family members. Rabbi Hier
was also one of six clergy invited to par-
ticipate in the presidential inauguration of
Donald Trump.

continued from page 6

with his analogies in making the
case that the territories adminis-
tered by Israel since 1967 — Judea
and Samaria, as his political allies
constantly remind us — are innately
Jewish.
Judea, Bibi continued, “This is our
ancestral homeland. Jews are not for-
eign colonialists in Judea.” Indeed.
Judea’s ancient boundaries (you
know, where the Jews come from)
encompassed Jerusalem, central Israel
and the northern Negev desert — all
land within the Green Line, Israel’s
1967 borders. In Samaria, only a tiny
group of Shomronim (who claim
to be the spiritual descendants of
Shomron’s inhabitants) exist today.
So, Mr. Prime Minister, your logic
dictates that Israel should relinquish
most of the West Bank.
Perhaps fake feints of logic might
impress a fake president and his corps
of amateur diplomats, but in the real
world, truth and accuracy — not blus-
ter — produces results.

Isaac Lakritz
West Bloomfield

