JEWISH WORLD

18 JEWISH WORLD • NOVEMBER 18-24, 2022 justice advocacy spaces and even student government. With fright- ening frequency, these students are told they are not welcome unless they first condemn Israel. No other group of students is charged such a price for admission. As president of the Brandeis Center, I speak nearly every day to students on campus. Let me share with you some of the things they are telling me: 1. They say that the trip they took to Israel was the most amaz- ing experience of their life, but they won’t post photos of it on so- cial media. 2. They say they won’t wear t-shirts with Hebrew writing on them. At one school, students asked the Hillel not to manufac- ture t-shirts with the name of the school in Hebrew letters because, they said, “When we wear He- brew, we become targets.” 3. They say they are afraid to wear items that identify them as Jewish, such as a Star of David or a kippah (a skullcap), because their peers on campus automati- cally assume that all Jews who are visibly Jewish are Zionists — and today, Zionism is equated with racism and all things evil. 4. They say they are being pushed out of social justice advocacy spac- es, removed from clubs or even re- moved from student government — all because they are Zionists. • For example: At SUNY New Paltz, a student who creat- ed an organization to empower survivors of sexual assault was removed from the group she started. Her access to the club’s social media accounts and doc- uments was cut off. Why? Be- cause she shared on her own personal Instagram account an info-graphic that explained that Jews are an ethnic group orig- inally from Israel, and that it is not possible to “colonize” a place that you are from. • At the University of South- ern California, the vice pres- ident of student government, Rose Ritch, a fierce progressive and supporter of Palestinian hu- man rights, became the target of an intense online harassment campaign that vilified her and urged her removal from office for no reason other than that she believes Israel has a right to ex- ist. The posts called to impeach her “Zionist a**.” After the Brandeis Center got involved as Rose’s counsel, the university postponed her impeachment tri- al. Privately, administrators told Rose they were sorry for what she was experiencing, but pub- licly, they refused to issue any statement condemning the an- ti-Semitism. The administrators even refused to explain to the university community why the impeachment trial had been put off, leaving it to Rose to explain to the student body why her own impeachment trial would not be taking place. Ultimately, without the university’s public support, Rose was compelled to step down. As she explained in her resignation statement, she was pushed out of office, and denied this student leadership opportunity, solely due to her Zionism — an integral compo- nent of her Jewish identity. The Brandeis Center filed a Title VI complaint against the university for failing to protect Rose from the unlawful harassment and discrimination. This summer, the Department of Education opened a formal investigation of the matter. • And at UC Berkeley Law School, at least nine student organizations, representing the majority of the student body — groups that include the Wom- en of Berkeley Law, the Queer Caucus and the Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association — adopted bylaws that commit these student organizations to never invite speakers “that have expressed and continue to hold views … in support of Zionism.” Mind you, these bylaws do not say that the organizations will prohibit programs related to Zi- onism or Israel. The bylaws say that the groups will not invite any individuals who support Zi- onism to speak on any subject. So, for example, the Women of Berkeley Law will not invite a Zionist attorney to speak about Roe v. Wade , and the Queer Cau- cus will not invite a pro-Israel speaker to discuss gay marriage. As the dean of Berkeley Law acknowledged, these bylaws would preclude him and 90% of the Jewish students at Berkeley from addressing these clubs, because the overwhelming ma- jority of Jews believe Israel has Julia Jassey, a Zionist who found herself the target of hate from both the left and the right, even her peers, at the University of Chicago. When discriminators use the words “Israel” or “Zionist,” administrators think they are witnessing a good-faith political debate. Campus continued from page 4