12 | JULY 23 • 2020 

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On many campuses, students 
lack clarity on how to deal with 
incidents of hate or ignorance, 
stalling progress. This flaw exists 
currently at MSU, even when 
the evidence is crystal clear that 
action must be taken. 
The class I took was about 
America’
s role in the Middle 
East and featured a book written 
by military historian Geoffrey 
Wawro called Quicksand, in 
which he attempts to explain the 
U.S involvement in the region. 
He employs anti-Semitism in his 
explanation, essentially blaming 
Jews for U.S. involvement in 
the region, and accusing Jews 
of manipulating American cit-
izens and administrations into 
wrong foreign policy decisions. 
While discussing the creation of 
the state of Israel, he describes 
the supposed effort of Zionist 
Jews internationally to gain 
American sympathy for their 
cause. “The American Public 
— saddened by Jewish suffering 
and largely unaware of Arab 
claims in Palestine — eagerly 
embraced the Zionist propagan-
da that appeared in every major 
American newspaper and many 
minor ones, too,
” Wawro wrote. 
“The Jewish propaganda was 
ingenious, appealing at the same 
time to American sentimentality 
and anti-Semitism.
”
When I tried to report the 
anti-Semitism in this class, I 
was stonewalled. Members 
of the Office of Inclusion and 
Equity (OIE), as well as other 
departments on campus dealing 
with harassment and inclusion, 
informed me there was nothing 
that could be done, and that the 
class did not “reach the level of 
discrimination.
”
 I am still trying to get the 
university to take action and 
protect Jewish students (and 
other groups under siege) on 
campus. The university needs to 
come up with a system that pro-
motes the concerns of students, 

instead of bogging them down 
with procedure and informing 
them the status quo will just 
have to do. For many groups, 
including Jewish students, the 
status quo is unacceptable. 
Universities could also help 
fight discrimination and bigotry 
by instituting programs that 
bring people together to combat 
bigotry, such as the ADL pro-
gram called No Place for Hate, 
which educates students on 
bias and discrimination starting 
from as early as middle school. 
The program includes curricu-
lums that go in depth on various 
forms of bigotry and discrimina-
tion and can be vital for students 
of all ages to gain a better under-
standing of the issues. Another 
option is the MSU Dialogues 
program, in which students 
learn more about other identi-
ties and cultures. The Dialogues 
program is optional, and only 
120 students, including me, par-
ticipated in the spring of 2020. 
Expanding the program and 
mandating participation could 
help stomp out hate and bigotry. 
It will take communities and 
students of all backgrounds 
working together and support-
ing each other make all students 
feel safe, including Jews, people 
of color and the LGBTQ com-
munity. It will also take critical 
assistance from the universities. 
Although the Serling Institute 
of Jewish Studies has done their 
best to support Jewish students 
on campus through workshops 
and classes on Israel, they 
cannot do it by themselves. 
By 
working together, students, fac-
ulty, and staff of all backgrounds 
can fight back against hate and 
ensure college campuses are a 
safe place for all. 

Alan Shulman is a senior at Michigan 
State University majoring in international 
relations with minors in Russian studies 
and Jewish studies. Read his full paper 
on campus anti-Semitism at thejewish-
news.com. 

ANTI-SEMITISM from page 10

