The UK and U.S. Embassy have cautioned their nationals about visiting Stockholm and environs because of a of week of riots in ostensibly enlightened Sweden by predominantly Muslim immigrants and their children, attributed alternatively to “police brutality” or bad social conditions. In 2010, the Simon Wiesenthal Center issued its own “travel advisory” cautioning Jewish travelers […]
For the final post of my oddly 21-day “week” of guest posting for the Brandeis Center blog, I want to focus on a troubling trend on college campuses which prevents belief-based organizations from excluding people hostile to their core beliefs. I talk about this trend in detail and at length in my book, and for now, […]
The Brandeis Center is delighted to announce that it has successfully resolved campus anti-Semitism concerns that it had raised with the University of California at Davis. In a press release to be issued later this morning, the Center will laud UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi for her leadership in responding to a November 2012 incident on […]
As Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan returns home from his visit to his biggest western fan, President Barack Obama, only to prepare for a controversial pilgrimage to Hamas-controlled Gaza, Turkey’s educational system is being mocked internationally. A spoof in “The Scientific American” focuses on revelations that Istanbul textbooks have pictured Charles Darwin as “a […]
Because it “gives support to old conspiracy theories about Jews controlling media,” the Oslo Newspaper, “Dagsavisen,” recently took down from its site pro-Palestinian activist Siri Lill Thowsen’s article: “Is There Jewish Dominance over International and Norwegian Media?” Though the anti-Israel Lobby is howling in protest that the removal demonstrates Thowsen’s thesis, nothing could be further […]
In a stinging rebuke to the Asian-American Studies Association, the American Association of University Professors has just strongly reaffirmed its opposition to academic boycotts. The new AAUP statement responds to both Stephen Hawking’s recent controversial decision to boycott Israel as well as the AASA decision to endorse the anti-Israel boycott. The AAUP acknowledges that individual […]
Left Foot Forward, a left-wing British political blog, asks this excellent question today about Stephen Hawking’s decision to boycott the State of Israel. Indeed, Hawking reportedly traveled to both China and Iran over the last few years. His decision to boycott Israel was reported yesterday, then retracted, then confirmed by the end of the day. Hawking […]
Do you think that the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement (BDS) is anti-Semitic? Does it matter whether BDS is aimed at Israel’s activities in the West Bank/Judea and Samaria, or whether it is aimed at the entire country? Is this a meaningful distinction? A lively discussion is proceeding on the Brandeis Center’s popular Facebook […]
My second of three posts for the Brandeis Center examines the use of “hate speech” policies on college and university campuses. Specifically, I want to focus on several cases in which these policies have been used to censor or punish students and faculty for expressing speech even mildly critical of Islam. These cases demonstrate that […]
The University of California’s long, ugly battle over anti-Israel divestment has just gotten even messier. Brandeis readers will recall that Berkeley’s student senate passed a resolution on April 18 urging divestment from companies that do business with Israel. Berkeley’s Chancellor Robert Birgeneau immediately repudiated the measure and announced that it would have no impact on […]