UC president in unusual public dispute with several American Jewish groups

The president of the University of California and leaders of some prominent American Jewish organizations are in an unusual public dispute about the extent of anti-Semitism on UC campuses and the best ways to try to reduce it.

A dozen Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the national headquarters of both Conservative and Orthodox Judaism, sent a letter to UC President Mark G. Yudof last week that contends the university’s response to anti-Semitic acts has been too weak. Citing recent incidents of swastikas on campus property and anti-Israel speakers who use anti-Semitic language, the letter alleged that many Jewish UC students feel “an environment of harassment and intimidation.”

The Jewish leaders, with support of 700 UC students who signed an online petition, said that a new UC committee formed to study issues of racial and religious bias will not adequately address the concerns of Jewish students. They called for “an explicit focus on anti-Semitism” and for UC administrators to publicly and more strongly condemn acts and speakers that they said demonize Jews and Israel.

In a response released Tuesday, Yudof said he is very concerned about any anti-Semitic acts at UC and promised to “do everything in my power to protect Jewish and all other students from threats or actions of intolerance.” But he also criticized the Jewish groups' letter as “a dishearteningly ill-informed rush to judgment against our ongoing responses to troubling incidents that have taken place on some of our campuses.”

Yudof, who is Jewish and is married to the former lay leader of Conservative Judaism’s North American headquarters, also wrote that the Jewish groups may have based their concerns on an unreliable sampling of student opinion and that most Jewish UC students’ “perspectives are more mixed than you suggest.”

The UC president said he was disappointed that the letter writers seem to have dismissed the university's Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture and Inclusion as destined to fail and he urged them to support its work. “This is premature and disheartening, given that their work, in what will be a long and complicated struggle, has barely begun,” he said.

That panel, which held its first meeting last week, was created in response to what UC officials said were several troubling incidents over the last school year, including an off-campus "Compton Cookout" party by UC San Diego students that mocked African Americans, as well as the spray-painting and carving of swastikas at several UC Davis locations, including on the dorm room door of a Jewish student there.

-- Larry Gordon

Comments

[Lee]

Another sad and ill-informed rush to judgement.

Herd mentality.

[YAAKOV NURIK]

Pres Yudof should spent some time walking around the Beserkley campus wearing a yarmulke. He'd be better informed about the anti-semitism at UC.

[TheBigPicture]

Acts of vandalism are certainly more serious than a couple of kids uttering Compton Cookout...but vandalism is a crime, let the cops handle it. The Cookout amounted to nothing, so the University had to step in...

Knee jerk reaction, I just love it...

[female gentile]

Why don't the Jews just take over all of our universities, get rid of the Gentiles and be done with it. they are seeking to control just about everything else.

[Wise 'ol geezer]

And what if a fair number of these Jewish students(aside from the non Jewish ones)just happen to object to the actions of Israel in recent times(i.e., the Flotilla incident, invasion of Gaza)? These Jewish organizations would have a more legitimate basis if in fact the universities under discussion had disgraced themselves by becoming like those under the Nazi period which is far from the case(then Jewish students wouldn't even be allowed to attend classes).

[Hamas delenda est]

Do American academics or student groups have any 1st Amendment right to give terrorist groups advice on how to conduct business, even when the subject is (allegedly) peaceful activity? Anti-terrorism laws made that kind of assistance illegal, calling it “material support” for terrorism itself. Last month, the Supreme Court upheld the law in a 6-3 decision that stopped an aid organization from consulting with the PKK:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_supreme_court_anti_terror_law

=
The Supreme Court has upheld a federal law that bars “material support” to foreign terrorist organizations, rejecting a free speech challenge from humanitarian aid groups.

The court ruled 6-3 Monday that the government may prohibit all forms of aid to designated terrorist groups, even if the support consists of training and advice about entirely peaceful and legal activities.

Material support intended even for benign purposes can help a terrorist group in other ways, Chief Justice John Roberts said in his majority opinion.

“Such support frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends,” Roberts said.
=

Hamas would be one such example. It conducts terrorist attacks against Israel with one part of its organization while running charitable endeavors with another. Fundraising for Hamas to support its outreach programs would allow Hamas to use the money elsewhere, or even if the specific money was applied to the charitable work, it would allow Hamas to not have to dip into the charity funds for its terrorist activities.

So, a big thank you to all the Hamas-huggers on UC campuses for making it easier for Obama’s NSA to track your URL and the Obama Justice Department to prosecute your material support propaganda campaign. Great job, traitors.

[Happy Cactus]

In todays world you better get a thicker skin. The jews have done their fair share of targeting others and making their lives miserable. They are no angels!

[Stefano888]

Nice ploy to mix African Americans with anti-Semitism or anti-Zionism. They are not the same. There is no alliance between them and their situations are very different in this society and at Berkeley. Enough of that type of political correctness.

[Stefano888]

No reason to have included African Americans and UCSD in this article in order to dilute the real problem or situation at Berkeley.

[Phony ultra liberal. We will hide our Anti Semitism around our liberal ways.]

The typical anti semites are on the board tonight. Why is it Jews only being 2% of the population control all of the Places and instituations you convict them of controling?Instead of beating around the bush just come out with it and let your extreme liberal hatred and anger towards Jews out, then make sure you attack the blacks. Of course you will only do it behind closed doors with your poisoned familys or other friends. Any jew who you make these comments to by trying to look like such a cool jew accepting liberal know anti semetic comments when they hear it. It is like telling a black person I have a black friend.

[kuruc]

the jewish uc president is not doing enough. who exactly are this anti-semites on the uc campuses?

[Southoc]

It is not the Universities responsibility to take action, but to disseminate and seek new knowledge.

[susan]

I attented CSUN from 1998 - 2001. I saw the most hateful anti-semetic acts and speeches I have ever witnessed. It was so offensive that I wrote my Senator. I also called the school to complain and was ignored. It was intolerable. I am not Jewish, but if I were, I would have pulled my kid from the school. After what I witnessed, I will never give UC a penny - not one penny. It was appalling. No one did anything about it.

[Transparency]

UC President Yudof's leadership silences public disputes with Chancellors such as Sorry Tale of UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Office: easily grasped by the public, lost on University of California’s President Yudof. The UC Berkley budget gap has grown to $150 million, & still the Chancellor is spending money that isn't there on $3,000,000 consultants. His reasons range from the need for impartiality to requiring the consultants "thinking, expertise, & new knowledge".
Does this mean that the faculty & management of UC Berkeley – flagship campus of the greatest public system of higher education in the world - lack the knowledge, integrity, impartiality, innovation, skills to come up with solutions? Have they been fudging their research for years? The consultants will glean their recommendations from faculty interviews & the senior management that hired them; yet $ 150 million of inefficiencies and solutions could be found internally if the Chancellor & Provost Breslauer were doing the work of their jobs (This simple point is lost on UC’s leadership).
The victims of this folly are Faculty and Students. $ 3 million consultant fees would be far better spent on students & faculty.
There can be only one conclusion as to why inefficiencies & solutions have not been forthcoming from faculty & staff: Chancellor Birgeneau has lost credibility & the trust of the faculty & Academic Senate leadership (C. Kutz, F. Doyle). Even if the faculty agrees with the consultants' recommendations - disagreeing might put their jobs in jeopardy - the underlying problem of lost credibility & trust will remain. (Context: greatest recession in modern times)
Contact your representatives in Sacramento: tell them of the hefty self-serving $’s being spent by UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau & Provost Breslauer