Recently, college campuses throughout many Western countries have fallen victim to an increase in anti-Semitic displays and events. In 1995, there were 118 reported incidents of anti-Semitism on college campuses in America, with many likely not reported. The following examples are extreme cases of anti-Semitism. However, the point remains that intense opposition to the actions of Israel should not be taken out on students on campus. Colleges should be places where free speech can occur, but those rights end when they infringe upon the safety of other members of college campuses.
On Oct. 23, 2007, a George Washington University freshman reported that a swastika was drawn on her dorm room. Two more swastikas appeared on her door during the next four days, while a total of eight swastikas were spotted on campus during a 10-day stretch. The Anti-Defamation League has received 260 reports of anti-Semitism on American college campuses since 2005, as well as 5,126 incidents worldwide.
In 2005, swastikas were engraved on café tables at the University of Oregon. Two days later, a note was left for an eighth grade teacher in Staten Island, New York saying, “Burn in hell, Jew bastard! Hitler rocks!” Also in 2005, a teacher in a Los Angeles high school returned from Yom Kippur services to discover that his classroom windows were painted with swastikas. Later in that same year, outside of a Jewish Community Center in Dunwoody, Ga., a sign was rearranged to display the phrases, “Hitler is God,” and, “Adolf is a Jew God.”
It is perfectly acceptable for students to voice their dissatisfaction over Israel’s policies and actions. But to engage in targeted hate speech against an entire group of people is appalling. Students do not have the right to engage in behavior which elicits fear amongst other college students and creates an environment where intimidating rallies and protests occur against a specific group of people.
Let this piece serve as a calling for administrators, faculty members and students to look at their campus laws and policies to ensure that protests and rallies may occur, but only if they are contained so as to not forecast threats toward other students on campus. Those who draw swastikas should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law because acts such as those draw allusions to the extreme suffering of millions of innocent people. These actions are no more acceptable than drawing symbols on campus which excuse horrendous human rights violations against enslaved blacks. There is a point where protest becomes menacing and threatening to others on campus, and that is where the line should be drawn.
Perhaps more disturbing than student displays of anti-Semitism is that which occurs in the classroom by professors. Leonard Jeffries, the former head of the Black Studies Department at the City University of New York, blamed “rich Jews” for prolonging the European black slave trade. He also asserted that Hollywood is the site of a massive Jewish conspiracy to disparage and degrade blacks. Perhaps the most horrifying aspect of his anti-Semitic rants is that, after these statements were issued, in 1991 the City College’s Board of Trustees voted 10-4 to give the prejudicial professor a one-year extension as the chairman of the Black Studies department. It was not until the following year that this louse was removed from power.
But the story gets even more ridiculous. Jeffries sued CUNY for violating his freedom of speech rights and for penalizing him for his statements. The pinheads in the jury actually sided with Jeffries, and awarded him $360,000 for his pernicious anti-Semitism. Mercifully, in April 1995, after a serious of long appeals processes, the appeals court upheld the removal of Jeffries. However, Jeffries remains a tenured professor at City College. The madness in America continues as too many of our college professors espouse radical ideologies on their students.
Regardless as to which group is targeted, let us call out professors who abuse their position of power to utter reckless and incendiary comments. Let us work together to curb events which demonize people for their religion, race, ethnicity and other attributes.
