February 7, 2014 Roskam & Lipinski Introduce Federal Anti-Boycott Legislation Yesterday Congressmen Peter Roskam and Dan Lipinski introduced anti-boycott legislation to prevent academic boycotts against the State of Israel. This bill would supplement existing federal and state anti-boycott statutes that were passed decades ago in response to the Arab boycott of Israel. Specifically, this bill would block federal funding for universities that engage in anti-Israel boycotts. Rep. Roskam’s […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
February 7, 2014 Jeff Robbins on Scarlett Johansson and the Anti-Israel Crowd Boston attorney Jeffrey S. Robbins has a great new piece on Scarlett Johansson in the Boston Herald today. It begins like this: Scarlett Johansson takes on anti-Israel crowd In front of the SodaStream plant just outside Jerusalem there is a statue that contains the prophet Isaiah’s exhortation: “And they shall beat their swords into plowshares, […] Anti-Zionism Blog
February 6, 2014 Civil Rights Hero Irwin Cotler to Step Down from Canadian Parliament The Brandeis Center congratulates former Canadian Minister of Justice Irwin Cotler for his distinguished service to Canada and the world upon the announcement that Cotler would not seek reelection to the Canadian parliament. Cotler is Honorary Chair of the Brandeis Center’s Academic Advisory Board. LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus commented, “Irwin Cotler is truly a living legend in human rights law, and […] Blog
February 5, 2014 News from London Our friends at UK Lawyers for Israel have just issued another impressive newsletter chock-full of interesting information (UKLFI Bulletin No. 62) under the leadership of Jonathan D. C. Turner. Several highlights from the current Bulletin appear below: UKLFI BULLETIN NO. 62 Hope University Liverpool allows the truth to be told Mike Fryer of Christians for […] Anti-Zionism Blog
February 5, 2014 ASMEA Research Grants Our friends at the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) have announced these research grants for academic research papers. Members of LDB law student chapters should be aware that law students are eligible for grants for research on topics such as various aspects of the law of the Middle East […] Blog
February 3, 2014 Barry Rubin, R.I.P. I was saddened this morning to learn that Barry Rubin, a brilliant and prolific scholar of Israel and Middle East Studies, had passed over the weekend. Barry had been struggling with cancer for quite some time, and his continued surge in productivity over the last year, while battling serious illness, was nothing short of heroic. […] Anti-Zionism Blog
January 31, 2014 ISGAP Announces New Lineup of Lectures on Anti-Semitism Our friends at the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy have just announced this impressive lineup of upcoming events. ISGAP, as our readers may recall, is headed by LDB Academic Advisor Charles A. Small, who founded and headed the former Yale Institute for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism (YIISA). ISGAP | The Institute for […] Anti-Semitism Blog
January 16, 2014 UC Santa Barbara Agrees to Strengthen Civil Rights Protections for Jewish Students Here’s an important new success story: The University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) has pledged to implement recommendations from the Brandeis Center, and in return the Center has agreed to withdraw its U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) Title VI complaint asserting that the university had created a hostile environment for […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
January 16, 2014 The Misplaced Crusade to Circumcise Moby Dick—and Make “White Racism” Quintessentially Jewish Last Purim, Brooklyn Assemblyman Dov Hikind “blacked up” in an incredible display of bad taste. Jews in particular were appalled, but there’s a subgroup of Jewish professors who may have felt vindicated. Practitioners of “the whiteness school”—prominent names include the late Michael Paul Rogin, Edward L. Goldstein, Jeffrey Melnick, and Karen Brodkin—argue that for performers […] Blog
January 9, 2014 The Brandeis Center Hosts Its First National Law Student Conference The Brandeis Center held its first National Conference for Law Students in Los Angeles on January 2nd and January 3rd. This is part of the new initiative for law school chapters of the Brandeis Center. The conference focused on educating and engaging law student members of the LDB law school chapters by offering a series […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
January 9, 2014 The MLA’s Top Five BDS Blunders This Week LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus describes the Modern Language Association’s top five BDS blunders at The Algemeiner today. An excerpt appears below: The Modern Language Association (MLA) has blundered repeatedly over its treatment of Israel in the run-up to its annual conference this week. Technically the 30,000 member association is not contemplating a resolution to boycott, […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
January 8, 2014 The Purim Miracle in a Courtroom Having analyzed the decisions and judgments of Polish prosecutors and judges in cases concerning anti-Semitic and racist hate speech one may wonder what makes them so lenient and sympathetic towards the views voiced by bald and well-muscled men who are eager to extend the right arm in the air with a straightened hand and make the […] Anti-Semitism Blog Litigation
January 6, 2014 The ASA Repeatedly Chastised Over BDS Resolution The public chastisement of the American Studies Association continues. By some counts, over 100 higher education institutions have now rebuked the ASA for its controversial decision to endorse an academic boycott of Israel. But even this enumeration may substantially undercount the number of institutions that have treated the ASA like an unruly child for its […] Anti-Zionism Blog
January 2, 2014 Fifth College Cuts Ties to Controversial American Studies Association According to Inside Higher Ed, a fifth institution has cut ties with the embattled American Studies Association. Over sixty universities have lambasted the ASA’s controversial anti-boycott resolution, in addition numerous scholars, commentators, Jewish groups, and the American Association of University Professors. To their credit, four institutions went beyond statement-making and actually dropped their membership in […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
December 27, 2013 Five Takeaways from the ASA Debacle What should we learn from the American Studies Association’s lopsided December 15 vote to endorse the anti-Israel boycott? Here are five takeaways: The Jewish Community Got Beat There is no question about it. The American Studies Association’s anti-Israel boycott resolution is a defeat for everyone who is concerned about anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism in higher […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
December 23, 2013 LDB President Publishes New Essay on Global Anti-Semitism LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus is publishing an important new paper on “The Definition of Antisemitism” in a new volume on contemporary global anti-Semitism, Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity. The paper provides a timely intervention into a lively public debate over the meaning of “anti-Semitism” at a time when hostility towards Jews is often […] Anti-Semitism Blog
December 13, 2013 Judd Serotta Elected to Brandeis Center Board The Brandeis Center has just announced the election of Philadelphia litigator Judd Serotta to its board of directors. Mr. Serotta is a distinguished litigator, a member of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights’ New Jersey Advisory Committee, and an active member of the Jewish community. The press release announce his election appears below: Philadelphia Litigator […] Anti-Semitism Blog
December 6, 2013 Brandeis Center Responds to the Journal of Academic Freedom In its 2013 publication, the Journal of Academic Freedom discussed the topic of academic boycotts, primarily focusing on the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). In her introduction, the Journal’s editor, Ashley Dawson, wrote that the “reviewers of the submitted articles. . . felt [the articles] could have the salutary […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog
December 5, 2013 “Knockout Attacks” Don’t Bode Well for African Americans, Jews, or Anybody Else The lid has finally blown off the simmering cauldron. For about a month, there have been reports of “knockout attacks,” mostly in Northeastern cities. These reports have not looked too closely at the ethnicity of the attackers while generally characterizing the attacks as “random” and lacking the specificity of “hate crime” targeting. But now Brooklyn’s […] Anti-Semitism Blog
December 4, 2013 National Law Student Conference Gains Star Power The Brandeis Center just announced two superstar additions to the faculty of our inaugural national law student leadership conference: international lawyers Richard Heideman and Abraham (Avi) Bell. The LDB national law student conference, to be held in Los Angeles, California on January 2-3, 2014, marks the launch of the Brandeis Center’s law student chapter program. […] Anti-Semitism Anti-Zionism Blog