Currently the SPME University of Buffalo chapter has over 60 on its mailing list, mainly faculty from UB, but also some from Buffalo State College, Erie Community College, and SUNY College at Brockport. The number includes a significant share of community members, about 20 or so. Here are some highlights of the year:
October 5, 2006, we held a membership meeting at Higher Grounds evangelical coffee house to show support for it after it underwent criticism for displaying an Israeli flag in its window.
October 16, we co-sponsored evening talk at Jewish Community Center, “Butchering the Truth: The Media War Against Israel,” by Steven Stotsky, of CAMERA. Other sponsors were AJC, Hadassah, JCC, Jewish Fed of Greater Buffalo, and our synagogues. Our members raised funds to purchase a half-page advertisement in the student paper, the Spectrum, to publicize the event to college students. Attendance around 80.
October 25, we co-sponsored an evening talk at Jewish community Center by David Muscant of the David Project on “The Israel-Arab Conflict: From Understanding to Advocacy,” with the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo. Attendance around 60.
November 30, we co-sponsored, with the Jewish Law Students Association, Prof. Avi Bell of Bar-Ilan University and Visiting Professor of Law at Fordham University at UB Law School on the topic of Terrorism in International Law. About 40 attended.
On January 17, 2007, we co-sponsored Nonie Darwish in a lecture on the University at Buffalo campus, drawing perhaps 100 attendees. Though she was speaking the next day elsewhere in Buffalo, we succeeded in raising funds to sponsor her additional talk on campus.
On January 31 we issued a statement criticizing the WNY Peace Center for violating principles of self-professed pacifism to bring anti-Israel distortion and bias to campuses. Twenty faculty members signed the statement. Our statement was widely circulated, was covered by the local NPR affiliate, and appeared in the Buffalo Jewish Review.
On March 25-27, the Buffalo chapter chair attended the SPME strategic planning meeting in Philadelphia.
The lessons are the following. First, we succeeded in becoming more active and are a recognized force on campus. Second, we developed good relations with likeminded Jewish organizations. Third, we have not yet reached out or developed alliances with others on campus.
Fourth, as always, it’s very difficult to get faculty members to become active-they treasure their time. It’s a struggle to keep them interested in the listserv. Yet many are personally devoted to this fight. Overall, we can report that our effort is far more organized than it was two years ago when we started.
Our major plan for next year, we hope to submit a grant proposal for a more coherent and scholarly lecture series on campus.
Respectfully submitted,
Ernest Sternberg
Professor
Department of Urban & Regional Planning
Hayes Hall
University at Buffalo, State University of New York
Buffalo, New York 14214
(716) 829-2133 ext. 224
Fax: (716) 829-3256
ezs@buffalo.edu
