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AMCHA Tracker Shows
Anti-Semitic Activity On Campus

AMCHA Initiative launched its new Anti-
Semitism Tracker (amchainitia tive.org/
database-search/) with a powerful, user-
friendly search engine that will provide
the public with unprecedented access
to information and photo documenta-
tion about anti-Semitic incidents that
occurred on campuses between 2015-
2018. AMCHA is the only organization
that makes its database of all reported
incidents of campus anti-Semitism acces-
sible to the public.
Using the website’s new search engines,
users will be able to tailor a search by city,
state, zip code, geographical region, year,
date range, university and category.
Some of the incident categories include
physical assault, discrimination, destruc-
tion of Jewish property, genocidal expres-
sion, suppression of speech/movement/
assembly, verbal assault, intimidation,
harassment, condoning terrorism, com-
paring Jews to Nazis and accusing Jews of
inventing or exaggerating the Holocaust.
Users can also search and run customized
reports by keyword, such as “swastika.”
One category of the search engine is
solely devoted to chronicling BDS activ-
ity, allowing users to easily access BDS

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September 20 • 2018

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events, divestment votes, event shut
downs and disruptions, as well as to
locate faculty who have signed publicly
accessible petitions calling for an aca-
demic boycott of Israel.
AMCHA also unveiled new photo and
video libraries where colleague organi-
zations, the public, authors, publishers
and journalists can access and republish
photo and video documentation of recent
incidents. In addition, through the new
webpage, students will be able to submit
photos and videos of the anti-Semitism
they witness in real time.
Many of AMCHA’s most popular web-
site tools, including its swastika tracker,
divestment scorecard, anti-Zionist cam-
pus group locater (including campuses
with Students for Justice in Palestine
chapters), disruption tracker and
“Student Voices” page with more than 700
student testimonials, will now include
enhanced search capabilities as well.
AMCHA, a nonpartisan, nonprofit orga-
nization, monitors more than 400 college
campuses across the U.S. for anti-Semitic
activity, and recorded 468 known anti-
Semitic incidents in 2015, 642 in 2016, 653
in 2017 and 394 so far in 2018. •

Michael Steinhardt Faces
‘#Metoo’ Allegations

JNS.org

M

ichael Steinhardt, one
of Hillel International’s
biggest donors, made
inappropriate sexual remarks
to a female employee of the
organization, according to the
Jewish Week. As a result, Hillel has
launched an investigation, as a
second female employee stepped
forward to accuse Steinhardt.
The initial complaint was filed
in 2015, when the organization
began a protocol where no female
employee would interact with
Steinhardt alone.
With the ongoing internal
probe, Hillel quietly removed
Steinhardt’s name several weeks
ago from the board of governors
list on its website.
“I can confirm that my client
did raise concerns regarding
Michael Steinhardt to Hillel, and
that she is cooperating fully with
Hillel’s investigation,” Debra Katz,
a Washington attorney specializ-
ing in these types of claims, wrote
to the Jewish Week via email.
In a follow-up email, she said:

“My client is not in a position
to comment at this time given
Hillel’s ongoing investigation.”
Steinhardt, a former hedge-
fund manager whose net worth
is estimated at $1.1 billion, told
the publication that Hillel has not
notified him of the investigation,
although his daughter, Sarah
Bloom, vice chair of the
Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish
Life, and Rabbi David Gedzelman,
president and CEO of the founda-
tion, have been notified of the
probe by Hillel.
Hillel has also informed the
Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish
Life that it is not soliciting the
foundation’s annual $50,000
grant this year to support Hillel’s
Springboard Fellowship, accord-
ing to sources within Hillel. The
Fellowship is a national project
that places recent college gradu-
ates at Hillel campuses nation-
wide.
Steindhardt is an investor in
this newspaper and holds the
title of chairman of Detroit Jewish
News LLC. •