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. […] Blog Anti-Zionism
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 […] Blog Anti-Semitism
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 […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
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 […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
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 […] Blog Anti-Semitism
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 […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
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 Blog Anti-Zionism
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, […] Blog Anti-Semitism
April 23, 2014 MLA Vote: Will Bias Beat Scholarship? Jeff Robbins has just published the following excellent article at the Times of Israel blog: There is a scene in Guys and Dolls, the Damon Runyan-inspired tale about entertaining mobsters, in which a thug nicknamed Big Julie From Chicago lays down the law: he will not be shooting craps unless the outcome is safely rigged in […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
April 22, 2014 Brandeis Center President Publishes Article on Stanley Fish and Academic Freedom The Brandeis Center’s Founder and President, Kenneth L. Marcus, has just published a short but important article on academic freedom in the current issue of the Florida International University Law Review. Marcus’ article, entitled “The Doctrine of Balance,” argues that academic freedom should not extend to the dissemination of unbalanced propaganda in the classroom. The […] Blog Anti-Zionism
April 21, 2014 Welcome Stephen A. Cohen and Aviva J. Vogelstein The Louis D. Brandeis Center is pleased to welcome two new civil rights legal fellows, Stephen A. Cohen and Aviva J. Vogelstein. Cohen and Vogelstein’s appointments marks the Brandeis Center’s continued expansion, as the Washington, D.C.-based civil rights group grows to face the resurgent problem of anti-Semitism on American University campuses. Stephen Cohen (Steve), who […] Blog Anti-Semitism
April 11, 2014 Call for Papers on Anti-Semitism in the Shadow of the Holcoaust The European Sociological Association’s section on Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism is now one of the most important sources of research on contemporary anti-Semitism. In advance of their mid-term conference this September in Vienna, the section has issued an interesting new call for papers on “Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism in the Shadow of the Holocaust”: […] Blog Anti-Semitism
April 4, 2014 Institute for Law & Policy Announces New Summer Program We are pleased to cooperate with our friends at the Institute for Law & Policy on an exciting new summer program for international students and attorneys at Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Alumni of LDB’s 2013 inaugural national law student leadership conference will remember Institute Chairman Richard Heideman for his memorable presentations. For more information on […] Blog
March 25, 2014 Vassar And The BDS War On Campus The anti-Zionist – and sometimes also anti-Semitic – website Mondoweiss recently published a lengthy report by the site’s founder Philip Weiss about a meeting that took place at Vassar in early March. According to Weiss, the meeting had been scheduled by the school’s Committee on Inclusion and Excellence in order to discuss guidelines for activism […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism
March 18, 2014 LDB in Boston, St. Louis and Washington, D.C. This week will provide opportunities to see Brandeis Center lawyers in action in Boston, St. Louis, and Washington, D.C. At noon today, LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus will address “The New Anti-Semitism” at St. Louis University School of Law. This event, in which Marcus will discuss legal approaches to contemporary Jew-hatred, kicks off a particularly busy […] Blog Anti-Semitism
March 15, 2014 WHY THE JEWS DID NOT ALWAYS LOVE ST. PATRICK’S DAY The “You Don’t Have to be Jewish to Love Levy’s Real Jewish Rye” ad debuted 50 years ago this year. Of course, you also don’t have to be Irish to march at the front of the official St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Unlike David Dinkins in 1993 and Bill de Blasio this year, New York’s Jewish […] Blog Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism