JULY 1 • 2021 | 15

OUR COMMUNITY

continued on page 16

Executive 
Director Tilly 
Shemer stated that 
the widely distrib-
uted, one-sided 
messages “made 
many Jewish 
students who are 
concerned about 
Israel in this moment feel 
upset, unseen and unrepre-
sented … Jewish and non-Jew-
ish students who have chosen 
to speak publicly about these 
statements or share their 
concern for Israel and how it 
is depicted or even just call 
for neutrality — whether on 
social media or through CSG 
Community Concerns — have 
received disrespectful, mock-
ing and even hateful messages 
in response.”
Shemer said Hillel’s 
Undergraduate Governing 
Board urged a halting of hate-
ful messages coming from 
both sides of the issue and 
called on the leadership of 
other student organizations to 
do the same. 
“Hillel’s staff and student 
leadership invited student 
leaders from CSG and LSA 
to attend an online forum in 
which Jewish students talked 
about the impact of CSG’s and 
LSA’s one-sided statements 
condemning Israel,” said 
Shemer.
“However, CSG has not 
retracted their statement, have 
not condemned hateful mes-
saging directed toward indi-
viduals or Hillel or the Jewish 
community, and have not 
condemned the vandalism at 
the Hillel building. While we 
were deeply disappointed that 
there was little recognition 
how painful their messaging 
was for Jewish and pro-Israel 
students, we will continue to 
encourage them to address 
issues of antisemitism. 
“LSA Student Government 
did pass a resolution con-
demning the rise in antisem-

itism and committed their 
leadership to working with 
Hillel on programming 
addressing antisemitism in the 
future.”
After being approached by 
Hillel for dialogue, CSG mem-
ber Ashvin Pai in a May 18 
publicly released document to 
the CSG said he disagreed that 
the pro-Palestinian declaration 
was causing divisions in the 
student body as evidenced by 
many student organizations 
that signed on in agreement or 
put out their own statements 
against Israel. 
“Make no mistake, the only 
division that exists on this 
issue is between those who are 
sympathetic to a settler colo-
nial, apartheid state and those 
who are not,” he wrote. 
Pai said he resented requests 
from pro-Israel students to 
learn more about the com-
plexities of the wider Arab/
Israeli conflict by having 
conversations with other stu-

dents or reading books from 
a variety of viewpoints on the 
history of the topic. 
“Whether intentional or 
not, these statements act as an 
active erasure of Palestinian 
history by insinuating that 
the lived experiences of 
Palestinians and of marginal-
ized communities who are in 
solidarity with Palestine are 
not as valuable as Western 
institutionalized knowledge. 
The history of Palestine is not 
found in a book or learned in 
a course.”
The JN attempted to contact 
Pai several times for further 
comment, but Pai 
did not respond. 
Michigan 
Anti-Defamation 
League Director 
Carolyn 
Normandin 
said there is “no 
doubt” that such 
proclamations put out by 
student governing bodies on 

campuses across the country is 
causing an uncomfortable and 
fearful atmosphere for Jewish 
students. 
“When you put out state-
ments that co-opt the truth 
and are inflammatory, there 
are dangerous consequences,” 
said Normandin. “
Any time 
somebody says they don’t 
need to learn about a topic 
before they talk about a topic, 
they’re barking up the wrong 
tree, especially at the universi-
ty level. 
“In order to talk about a 
complex subject such as the 
Israeli/Palestinian conflict, 
you need to study it from a 
wide variety of sources. I find 
[Pai’s] statement foolish and 
dangerous.”

ALUMNI REACTION
Alumna Alexa Smith (Penny 
Stamps School of Design ’18) 
said she wants her university 
to do better when it comes 
to defining what constitutes 

U-M Central Campus

 WIKIPEDIA

“STUDENTS WHO HAVE SHARED THEIR CONCERN 
FOR ISRAEL HAVE RECEIVED DISRESPECTFUL, 

MOCKING AND EVEN HATEFUL RESPONSES.”

— U-M HILLEL’S TILLY SHEMER

Tilly 
Shemer

Carolyn 
Normandin

