June 3, 2014 The Horror of Holocaust Denial Over the last few weeks, the Holocaust has appeared surprisingly often in the news. In most cases, the reason has been the surprising degree of ignorance or denial that so many people have about this cataclysmic event. The most disheartening reports have addressed the role of educators in spreading misinformation. Worse, they have illustrated that […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
May 30, 2014 Holocaust Survivors, Too, Need to “Check Your Privilege” In a twitter exchange with MSNBC host Touré Neblett, a child of Holocaust survivors asked: “How much do I owe for what Dems did in the first half of the century, while my family was in Europe running from Nazis, or in Dachau?” In other words, Jewish victims of the Nazis don’t owe “reparations” to […] Anti-Semitism Blog
May 29, 2014 Perspectives on an “American Psycho Killer” Not everyone will agree, but I consider mass murders committed by deranged individuals motivated by “hate” ideologies as human rights violations. The UC Santa Barbara killer Elliot Rodger, who posted videos and a 141-page autobiography before killing six and wounded 13, is the current example of a psychotic who achieved temporary infamy (and also a […] Blog
May 28, 2014 Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Prosecuted in Texas, Utah and New Mexico The U.S. Department of Justices’s Civil Rights Division focuses on anti-Jewish hate crimes in the lead article to the new May 2014, Volume 60, issue of “Religious Freedom in Focus. The following excerpt from the new issue presents the Department’s view of anti-Semitic hate crime: Three Anti-Jewish Hate Crimes Prosecuted in April in Texas, Utah […] Anti-Semitism Blog
May 27, 2014 Call for Applications for Anti-Semitism Research: Tel Aviv University – Stephen Roth Institute Our colleagues at the Stephen Roth Institute in Tel Aviv are posting this Call for Applications for research students, post-doctoral fellows and scholars who focus on the study of anti-Semitism and racism. Given the paucity of institutional support for anti-Semitism research, this opportunity is worth noting. The Roth Center’s call appears in full below: CALL […] Anti-Semitism Blog
May 26, 2014 SJP DePaul’s Divestment Referendum Passes by Slim Margin On Friday, pro-Israel students at DePaul University stood up against divestment campaigns by the anti-Israel student group, Students for Justice in Palestine. By a referendum passage by a difference of only 242 votes, pro-Israel students came out in large numbers with the intent of rejecting the referendum. Said StandWithUs National Campus Program Director Brett Cohen, “The […] Anti-Zionism Blog
May 23, 2014 THE NEW SOUND AND FURY OVER “RACE” When I was six years years old, my parents taught me not to say “the baddest word in the world.” Not being exactly Victorian prudes, the word they had in mind was not “sex.” But it was closely related and started with an “f.” Today, that word in politically correct circles starts with an “r.” […] Blog
May 23, 2014 Brandeis Center Presses Vassar College to Hold Student Group Accountable The Brandeis Center has urged Vassar College President Catherine Bond Hill to take penalizing action against the college’s chapter of SJP, Students for Justice in Palestine. In a letter to Vassar President Catherine Bond Hill on May 19th, 2014, “We believe that this incident may raise serious issues concerning federal civil rights law.” SJP […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog Litigation
May 21, 2014 Plus Ça Change, Plus C’est La Même Chose: McCarthy Era Loyalty Oaths Are Back at UCLA— This Time Targeting Jews My alma mater has some proud moments in the history of civil liberties. In 1939, the UCLA Philosophy Department hired Bertrand Russell. (You can buy for a pretty penny on E-Bay a 1940 UCLA Yearbook featuring both him and Jackie Robinson.) This was before Russell was unceremoniously barred by the City University of New York […] Blog
May 20, 2014 UC Officials Condemn Actions By SJP Recently, there have been disturbing developments at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Students for Justice in Palestine, or SJP, has been making moves to block pro-Israel, Jewish groups groups from getting a fair voice in campus policy-making. What is even more surprising, and maybe even sickening, is that no other groups are being targeted. […] Anti-Zionism Blog
May 19, 2014 Brandeis Center Lauds University of California Statements on Civil Discouse The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) today lauded public statements by University of California President Janet Napolitano and University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) Chancellor Gene Block on the importance of civil discourse. Blog
May 18, 2014 Trojan Horse “Plots” to “Islamize” British Secular Education Rather than summarize these articles in my words, which the reader might discount, I provide links that read like a Robert Heinlein sci fi horror story set in the emerging Universal Caliphate: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10776607/Islamist-plot-six-schools-face-Ofsted-special-measures.html Uses and Abuses Blog
May 15, 2014 Debating the Holocaust* Recently, an assignment, designed by teachers and approved by an administrator, at Southern California’s Rialto School District sought to improve critical thinking skills of 2000 eighth graders by having them debate whether the Holocaust really happened or instead was “a plot” to falsify history. Now, Charles C. W. Cooke has made a case in the […] Anti-Semitism Blog
May 14, 2014 Polls Apart: The ADL’s First Survey of “Global Anti-Semitism” Such eye-popping ADL findings as that 26 percent of the world’s population qualifies as “anti-Semitic” (i.e., harbors at least 6 of 11 core anti-Semitic attitudes) and that 35 percent has never heard of the Holocaust are receiving blanket media coverage. They are available in detailed strokes—but with a Methodology section that I suspect will leave […] Blog
May 14, 2014 LDB President to Deliver Keynote Address Blasting BDS Movement This evening in Tel Aviv, LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus will deliver an important keynote address at an important conference on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The IAM conference, entitled “BDS Campaign Against Israel: On Campusand Beyond,” will take tonight at 6 p.m. in Tel Aviv University, Max Webb Hall 1. LDB President Marcus, a […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
May 8, 2014 Pro-Palestinian Anti-Semitism at Vassar Vassar College, which describes itself as “a highly selective, residential, coeducational liberal arts college,” has recently attracted a lot of attention because of the energetic activism of so-called “pro-Palestinian” groups like Vassar’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) who were apparently supported by dozens of faculty members. As I noted in a related post a […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
May 7, 2014 The Transformation of Urban Liberalism: Bertrand Russell Bites the Dust Liberalism in American politics has been around at least since Thomas Jefferson. But—as many times in the past—today’s liberal is not your granddaddy’s garden variety. A case in point is the contrast between two New York City mayors: Bill de Blasio, a champion of gay rights whose multiracial, multicultural family was among his chief selling […] Blog
May 5, 2014 Brussels Ban on Anti-Semites’ Summit Shimon Samuels and the Simon Wiesenthal Center have had a significant victory in their effort to block a summit of anti-Semitic leaders that had been planned for Belgium. Their report follows: Wiesenthal Centre commends Belgian Interior Minister, urging her to now block hatefest organizer’s candidacy in 25 May European Parliament elections” 4 May, The Simon Wiesenthal […] Anti-Semitism Blog
May 2, 2014 Ali Abunimah’s Orwellian Definition of Anti-Semitism Veteran anti-Israel activist Ali Abunimah is currently touring US campuses to hawk his recently published book “The Battle for Justice in Palestine.” As anyone even vaguely familiar with Abunimah’s prolific writings at his Electronic Intifada blog will know, his idea of “justice in Palestine” requires doing away with the world’s only Jewish state, and the […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
May 2, 2014 The Brandeis Center and The Lawfare Project Urge NYU to Discipline Students Who Shoved Inflammatory Fliers into Students’ Dorm Rooms This morning, the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights under Law and The Lawfare Project urged New York University President John Sexton and his administration to “firmly and forcefully” discipline the students who shoved inflammatory materials into students’ private rooms at two New York University dormitories on April 24. The two independent national civil rights organizations had been […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
April 24, 2014 Anti-Semitism: From Ukraine to the U.S. LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus has just published this piece with The Algemeiner online: Few recent news articles captured more attention than reports that Jews in Ukraine were being ordered to register. Then it turned out that the pamphlets ordering Jews to register might be something of a hoax or a political stunt. Either way, […] Anti-Semitism Blog