June 18, 2014 What Me Worry: The “New York Times” and Hitler in 1924 In a recent blog entry, I wrote that nobody—not even H. G. Wells—would have predicted in 1914 that, less than 20 years later, a megalomaniacal, anti-Semitic dictator would seize power in enlightened Germany. Now, I find that that bastion of prognostication, the “New York Times,” actually implied it was impossible in 1924. The wording of […] Anti-Semitism Blog
June 13, 2014 Pax Americana RIP As the post-WWII American Pax Americana unravels at differential rates of speed everywhere from Mosul to the Mexican border—resuming and accelerating a process that began under Jimmy Carter but was arrested for a while by Ronald Reagan—it is nice to know that Hollywood is riding to the rescue of the values of global decency and […] Blog
June 11, 2014 Terrorism and Anti-Semitic Violence: Complex New Realities Defy Simple Ideological Labels It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that we live in an age when almost every headline story has become a Rorschach Test for spin doctors on cable news or in cyberspace. Their purpose is not to promote dialogue leading to some sort of shared understanding but to further fuel current political polarizations with […] Anti-Semitism Blog
June 11, 2014 Does Anti-Semitism Threaten American Jews? The following article by LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus is distributed via JNS.org. JNS.org — In a recent issue of Time magazine, Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, writes that anti-Semitism is “not a threat to American Jews.” He could not be more wrong. Let us start with the obvious. Any […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
June 11, 2014 Left, Right, and “What’s Good for the Jews” The resurgence, now on both sides of the Atlantic, of what is usually interpreted as extreme conservative politics—but might better be called right-wing populism—is likely to spark a new debate about present and future threats posed by political extremism to Jews. Since the Revolution of 1848—when according to a story an Orthodox rabbi with a […] Anti-Semitism Blog
June 11, 2014 Good News from Western Washington StandWithUs is reporting that the student government at Western Washington University unanimously voted yesterday not to consider boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) based on national origin. The Student government’s “Resolution Regarding International Divestment, Boycott, and Sanctions” is an extraordinary response to the BDS resolutions adopted at other schools. In a powerfully written statement, the Western Washington student […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
June 9, 2014 The Tikvah Fund Issues a Call for Applications and Nominations The Tikvah Fund is has invited our nominations for potential attendees to its very well-regarded Fall 2014 Tikvah Advanced Institutes. This round, Tikvah will offer institutes in both New York and Jerusalem on topics including Religious Freedom in America, Israeli National Defense, The Hebrew Bible and Jewish Excellence, The Case for Nationalism, and more. Please let us know if […] Blog
June 8, 2014 ANTI-SEMITIC PRIDE AND PREJUDICE IN TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY CULTURE The twenty-first century is providing fertile ground for the “artistic” transmission of anti-Semitism on two levels. For mass consumption, Mel Gibson’s film, “The Passion of the Christ” (2004), modernized the medieval passion play to which the Nazis had continued to pay homage at Oberammergau. With a powerful flair for violent filmmaking in the tradition of […] Anti-Zionism Blog
June 4, 2014 Brandeis Center Legal Advisory Board Member Garners Major Title VI Victory Civil Rights Attorney, Joel H. Siegal, a member of the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s Legal Advisory Board, reports a major Title Six victory brought on behalf of a 14 year old African-American student against St. Charles Borromeo School, a private elementary school operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco. In the case, Mugisha M. v. […] Litigation
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