On November 6th, the American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise released a statement condemning the BDS movement. The statement contained 92 signatures from across the spectrum of Jewish organizations in the United States, including the Louis D. Brandeis Center. The different organizations represent a diverse political and religious group of organizations, all brought together in the fight against the bigoted aims of the BDS movement. We are proud to stand with these others organizations against this insidious form of hatred, and will continue to lead the legal fight against BDS on American university campuses.

The full text of the statement can be found below:


Believing that academic, cultural and commercial boycotts, divestments and sanctions of Israel are:

  • Counterproductive to the goal of peace,
  • Antithetical to freedom of speech,
  • Part of a greater effort to undermine the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their homeland, Israel.

We, the undersigned members of the Jewish community, stand united in our condemnation of calls and campaigns for boycotting, divestment and sanctions of Israeli academic institutions, professors, products and companies that do business with Israel.

We recognize and accept that individuals and groups may have legitimate criticism of Israeli policies. Criticism becomes anti-Semitism, however, when it demonizes Israel or its leaders, denies Israel the right to defend its citizens or seeks to denigrate Israel’s right to exist.

The BDS movement is antithetical to principles of academic freedom and discourages freedom of speech. The movement silences voices from across the Israeli political spectrum. By pursuing delegitimization campaigns on campus, proponents have provoked deep divisions among students and have created an atmosphere of intolerance and hatred.

We oppose the extremist rhetoric of the delegitimization movement and reject calls for boycotting, divestment or sanctions against Israel. We call upon students, faculty, administrators and other campus stakeholders to uphold the academic and democratic values of a free and civil discourse that promotes peace and tolerance.

Prof. Mervin Verbit /
Prof. Samuel Edelman
Academic Council for Israel

Rabbi Steven Burg
Aish HaTorah

Andy Borans
Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity

Dr. Mitchell Bard
American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise (AICE)

Gerald Platt
American Friends of Likud

Howard Kohr
The American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)

David Harris
American Jewish Committee (AJC)

Herbert Block
American Zionist Movement (AZM)

Charles Jacobs
Americans for Peace and Tolerance

Andrew Goldsmith
AMIT

Jonathan Greenblatt
Anti-Defamation League (ADL)

Dr. Colin Rubenstein / Jeremy Jones
Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council

Howard Libit
Baltimore Jewish Council

W. James Schiller
Baltimore Zionist District

Matthew Grossman
BBYO, Inc.

Daniel Citone
B’nai B’rith Europe

Daniel S. Mariaschin
B’nai B’rith International

Stephen Savitsky / George W Schaeffer /
Cheryl Bier
Bnai Zion Foundation

Jonathan Arkush
The Board of Deputies of British Jews

Fred Taub
Boycott Watch

Hazzan Alisa Pomerantz-Boro
The Cantors Assembly

Shimon Koffler Fogel
The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)

Malcolm Hoenlein
Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations

Phillip Brodsky
The David Project

Gunnar Bjork
Denmark Lodge, B’nai B’rith

Naomi Mestrum
Dutch Centre for Information and Documentation Israel (CIDI)

Mindy Stein
Emunah of America

Anton Block
Executive Council of Australia

Akiva Tendler
The Fellowship for Campus Safety and Integrity

John.D.A Levy
Friends of Israel Educational Foundation Academic Study Group

Ellen Hershkin
Hadassah, The Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

Elliot Mathias
Hasbara Fellowships

Arlene & Sheldon Bearman
The Herbert Bearman Foundation

Mark Hetfield
HIAS

Eric Fingerhut
Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life

Adv. Irit Kohn
The International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists

Ethan Felson / Geri Palast
Israel Action Network

Jacob Baime
Israel on Campus Coalition

Josh Block
The Israel Project (TIP)

Adam Milstein / Shoham Nicolet
Israeli-American Council

Shawn Evenhaim
Israeli-American Coalition for Action

Doron Krakow
JCC Association

Jenn Ross
JCRC of the Jewish Federation of Greater Harrisburg

Caroline L. Good
JCRC/Jewish Federation of Greater New Orleans

Alan Hoffmann
Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI)

David Hatchwell
Jewish Community of Madrid (CJM)

Elana Kahn
Jewish Community Relations Council of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation

Michael S. Miller
Jewish Community Relations Council of New York

Ben Friedman
Jewish Community Relations Council of Orlando

David Bernstein
Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA)

Jerry Silverman
The Jewish Federations of North America

Michael Makovsky
Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA)

Simon Johnson
Jewish Leadership Council

Russell F. Robinson
Jewish National Fund (JNF)

Henia Vrazda and Board
Coordination Committee (Denmark)

Dov H. Maimon
Jewish People Policy Institute (JPPI)

Lori Weinstein
Jewish Women International (JWI)

Yael Mosesson / Nina Tojzner
Jewish Youth Organization in Sweden

Ron Klein
Jews for Progress/National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC)

Kenneth L. Marcus
The Louis D. Brandeis Center For Human Rights Under Law

Ron Carner
Maccabi USA/Sports For Israel

Meara Razon Ashtivker
Masa Israel Journey

Marilyn L Wind / Sarrae G Crane
MERCAZ USA

Chellie Goldwater Wilensky
NA’AMAT USA

Ram Shefa
National Union of Israeli Students

Farley Weiss
National Council of Young Israel

Rabbi Micah Greenland
NCSY

Susan Z. Kasper / Harry Hauser
North American Association of Synagogue Executives (NAASE)

Gerald M. Steinberg
NGO Monitor

Allen I. Fagin
Orthodox Union (OU)

Tzvi Avisar
Over the rainbow–the Zionist movement (OTR)

Rabbi Julie Schonfeld
Rabbinical Assembly

Jacob Sternberg
Realize Israel

Rabbi Jonah Dov Pesner
Religious Action Center

Rabbi Gideon Shloush
Religious Zionists of America/Mizrachi

Matt Brooks
Republican Jewish Committee (RJC)

Eran Shayshon
Reut: The Reut Group: From Vision to Reality

Rabbi Prof. David Golinkin
The Schechter Institutes, INC., Jerusalem

Asaf Romirowsky
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME)

Andy Huston
Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity

Rabbi Marvin Hier/ Rabbi Abraham Cooper
Simon Wiesenthal Center

Barbara Pontecorvo
Solomon-Osservatorio sulle Discriminazioni (Italy)

Ben Swartz / Mark Hyman
South African Friends of Israel

Wendy Kahn
South African Jewish Board of Deputies

Ben Swartz
South African Zionist Federation

Roz Rothstein
StandWithUs

Ilan Sinelnikov
Students Supporting Israel (SSI)

Jonathan Turner
UK Lawyers for Israel

Josh Holt
Union of Jewish Students (UJS – UK)

Rabbi Rick Jacobs
Union for Reform Judaism (URJ)

Luke Akehurst
We Believe in Israel

Dorrit Raiter
WIZO Denmark

Carol S. Simon
Women’s League for Conservative Judaism

Rabbi Marla J. Feldman
Women of Reform Judaism

Betty Ehrenberg
World Jewish Congress, North America

Yosef Tarshish
World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS)

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
The World Values Network

Laurence A. Bolotin
Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity

Paul Charney
Zionist Federation of the United Kingdom and Ireland

Morton A. Klein
Zionist Organization of America (ZOA)

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Washington, D.C., November 6:  Today, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) urged Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University President Timothy Sands to take bold actions to address intolerable neo-Nazi activity on his campus. In a letter issued today, the Center admonished President Sands that he must do more to protect his students, especially one whom the instructor (or his spouse) allegedly called a “fat ugly turd clown” while urging associates to “f*** her up” and “destroy her).

LDB Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Gross explained, “We are horrified by the reports that we are hearing from Virginia Tech students. The problem is not just that Virginia Tech employs an avowed white supremacist as a graduate student instructor and that many undergraduate students are required to take his course. Worse, he has allegedly urged his associates to violently attack a Virginia Tech student who has stood up to him.”

“I am a white supremacist,” the graduate student allegedly announced on social media. Multiple sources note that he has posted numerous offensive on comments social media including this example of Nazi propaganda: “I agree with pretty much every word. 1 million might be a tad too many dead Jews but that’s just splitting hairs,” while sharing a link to an article with a photo of Hitler titled, “If Hitler Had Won World War II, We’d Have A Better, More Just World Today.”

This summer, LDB admonished Virginia Tech to honor Virginia House Majority Leader-Designee Delegate C. Todd Gilbert’s request that Virginia public universities address this issue [of anti-Semitism] on their own initiative through effective policies, education, orientation, and training. . . with clarity and detail.” Virginia Tech did not respond. LDB is now concerned that the administration is failing to address problems on their campus that LDB had urged, and are experiencing the problems about which LDB had warned.

“The university’s response to a self-proclaimed white supremacist teaching assistant fails to address the impact on the students that take his course and rely on him for a grade,” Gross commented. “This TA’s commentary ranges from a clearly racist and falsely intellectual defense of white supremacism to regurgitation of long-debunked Holocaust denial propaganda and anti-Semitic tropes. And this TA also teaches freshman composition, a required class for freshman.  The students who take his class do not necessarily get to choose their teacher, and while other TAs also teach this class, the fact remains that some freshman students will find themselves in his classroom, and will need to complete the required class.  And these students may be black or brown, Jewish or Muslim, and they will find themselves required to sit in a classroom with a teacher who considers them unequal to him because of their ethnicity, and they will rely on that teacher for a grade in a required course.”

“Putting aside questions of morality and justice, one has to wonder what Virginia Tech thinks its students will learn when they are required to take freshman composition with an instructor whose best-known words allegedly include ‘fat ugly turd clown’ (to describe a Virginia Tech student) and ‘Fuck her up/Destroy her’ (to describe what should be done to her),” Gross concluded.

In late August, when a Virginia Tech undergraduate student whose anonymity we will preserve found out about a series of these postings, she shared her concern in what she believed to be a private Facebook group. “Jane Doe” then began suffering from harassment, including:

The following message was posted on Facebook:

My wife found the phone number of the bitch

behind this:

571-XXX-XXXX*

Fuck her up

Destroy her

[Jane] ((([Doe])))*

She’s on the left
(*Name and phone number redacted.) The post included a picture identifying the undergraduate student, and put her last name in three closed parentheses (“Jane ((([Doe])))”), a white supremacist symbol indicating “Jew.” The poster incorrectly assumed that Jane Doe was Jewish based on her Jewish-sounding last name. Following this posting, Doe has received threatening voice messages and upwards of 70 phone calls from blocked numbers. Other harassment included the posting of Doe’s private cell phone number on an online sex chat forum under the username, “FatAntifaBabyGurl4U.” The post read: “Hey hit me up if you like fat cuties! Ill b e waiting :),” and then listed her number. Doe has received numerous text messages with inappropriate sexually harassing content from numbers she does not recognize. Jane Doe has also been harassed with phone calls, text messages, and other messages on Facebook, Reddit and email listservs.

“I have spent my last semester at Virginia Tech fighting with university administrators and officials about a clear-cut issue and direct threat of white supremacy on campus,” says Doe. “I have now had to fight them about a direct threat to my safety. I remain tangled in university red tape that has offered me no protection and continues to hide behind vague non-answers to my concerns and my inability to feel safe on campus. I remain tangled in university bureaucracy and unclear statutes, handbooks and codes of conduct that do not seem to offer me any form of protection. I continue to have to fight that for any action to be taken.

Jane Doe continued, “I predicted that the situation involving [M] would escalate if preventative action was not taken, and there is no reason why I should be sitting here dealing with the fallout of a death threat and doxxing campaign against me had the university taken my concerns seriously when I first brought them to light in August. Student safety was put into jeopardy when a white supremacist was given authority and control over students in the classroom. The threat to my safety is just one instance in a pattern of intimidating and threatening behavior by [M].”

Doe added, “Even if I hadn’t been personally targeted, [M] still poses a threat to campus because he believes certain people to be inferior and professes an ideology that inherently requires violence in order to secure a white state.”

The graduate student, “M,” and his wife now reportedly claim that his wife was responsible for much of the threatening and retaliatory behavior. His wife is unaffiliated with Virginia Tech, meaning she would suffer no disciplinary consequences.  LDB has urged the university to question and investigate this admission. Such harassing and threatening messages violate numerous university policies, including the Student Code of Conduct and the Policy and Procedures on Harassment, Discrimination, and Sexual Assault. If M is found to have been involved in these postings, either directly or as an accomplice, the Brandeis Center has urged that he be fully disciplined in line with Virginia Tech policies.

LDB has notified Virginia Tech that they should thoroughly investigate the posting of Jane Doe’s phone number on an online sex forum under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which includes unwanted online sexual behavior that interferes with a student’s education. LDB has urged Virginia Tech to adhere to Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin in programs that receive federal funds. OCR announced in guidance that Title VI applies to discrimination on the basis of perceived Jewish ethnicity or ancestry. Certain retaliatory actions are prohibited under both statutes.

Though M has reportedly stepped down from teaching in the upcoming Spring semester, he is still teaching on campus this semester, and Virginia Tech has taken little responsive action. In LDB’s letter, LDB urged the Virginia Tech administration to take steps to remedy the current situation, including: 1) ensure safety – take necessary steps to ensure that Jane Doe as well as all students of any race, religion, or background, are safe on campus; 2) fully investigate the graduate student to determine if he was involved in the retaliatory harassment, and if wrongdoing is found under Virginia Tech policies for both students and employees, discipline fully, consistent with applicable constitutional protections; 3) issue a stronger statement specifically addressing and condemning M’s hateful rhetoric, in line with the guidelines laid out in LDB’s Best Practice Guide; 4) provide training and education, on an annual basis, to all instructional staff, including students, faculty, teaching assistants, and administrators, on what anti-Semitism is – in its contemporary as well as historical manifestations – and how it should not be tolerated on campus, just like all other forms of discrimination should not be tolerated; and 5) create more academic and extracurricular programming to raise community awareness about global and campus anti-Semitism.

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About The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law: The Louis D. Brandeis Center, Inc., or LDB, is an independent, nonprofit organization established to advance the civil and human rights of the Jewish people and promote justice for all. The Brandeis Center conducts research, education, and advocacy to combat the resurgence of anti-Semitism on college and university campuses. It is not affiliated with the Massachusetts university, the Kentucky law school, or any of the other institutions that share the name and honor the memory of the late U.S. Supreme Court justice.