Campus Watch June 1, 2023

Jewish Student Elected UCSB President

A Jewish UC Santa Barbara student has been elected as Associated Student (AS) President.

The Algemeiner reported that the student, Tessa Veksler, received 51% of the vote. She told The Algemeiner that she felt it was necessary to run after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as she was one of the few Ukrainian students in the student government. “Many students turned to me for advice,” Veksler said. “In working to help international students in Ukraine I realized how very few resources were available and that the ones that were available were not well known.”

Veksler also observes Shabbat — the first UCSB AS President to do so — and she has already assigned her responsibilities to her other AS colleagues during Shabbos. She told The Algemeiner that “people have, if anything, expressed admiration for my being able to observe on a college campus.”

CUNY Law Posts Entire Video of Anti-Israel Commencement Speech

The City University of New York (CUNY) School of Law posted the entirety of the May 12 commencement address given by Fatima Mohammed, a member of CUNY Law’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, after the law school faced criticism of censorship from pro-Palestinian groups.

The Times of Israel (TOI) reported that during her speech Mohammed said that “Israel continues to indiscriminately rain bullets and bombs on worshipers, murdering the old, the young, attacking the funerals and graveyards as it encourages lynch mobs.” She also praised those resisting Zionism “by any means necessary,” per TOI.

Both the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York and Anti-Defamation League New York/New Jersey criticized Mohammed’s speech as having “incendiary anti-Israel rhetoric” and denigrating “students’ identities.” When asked to respond to such criticism, a spokesperson from CUNY Law told the Journal, “Members of the Class of 2023 selected student speakers who offered congratulatory remarks and their own individual perspectives on advocating for social justice. As with all such commencement remarks, they reflect the voices of those individuals.”

More Than 150 UVM Faculty Members Call on University to Apologize for Handling of OCR Investigation

A letter signed by more than 150 University of Vermont (UVM) faculty members called on University President Suresh Garimella to apologize for his handling of the investigation conducted by the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR).

UVM was being investigated over allegations that they failed to adequately respond antisemitic incidents on campus; OCR and UVM came to a resolution in April that included requiring the university to implement policies protecting Jewish students on the basis of their ethnicity as well as their religion. VTDigger reported on May 17 that the 182 faculty members who signed the April 28 letter lambasted Garimella for misinforming the community when he said in September that the “truth” would show that the university properly handled the antisemitism complaints when the OCR investigation determined otherwise. The faculty members called for Garimella to apologize and “provide a full and accurate account of what actually happened.” The faculty senate passed a resolution on May 18 echoing the letter, NBC 5 reported.

When NBC 5 reached out to the university to comment, they replied: “Our aim now is to ensure that all on our campus hear our commitment to addressing antisemitism, feel empowered to report it whenever it occurs, and are supported in those times in which we must confront it in our community.”

Antisemitic Symbol, Racial Slurs Found in University of Maryland Dorms

An antisemitic symbol and multiple racial slurs were found in one of the University of Maryland (UMD) dormitories last month.

Fox 5 DC reported on May 22 that the symbol and slurs were found on April 29, and another slur was found scrawled on a chair on May 2. The university said in a statement, “The University of Maryland is deeply concerned to learn of these actions, which have no place on our campus or in our community. We all share a responsibility in creating safe, welcoming, and inclusive places to live, work, and study, and acts of hate and bias are not acceptable.”

Report: Nearly All Antisemitism Eradicated from Saudi Textbooks

A new report from IMPACT-se released on May 23 has found that over the past five years, nearly all antisemitism has been removed from Saudi textbooks.

The Jewish News reported that the removed material included text “implying that Jews are the enemies of Islam” and allegations that Israel attempted arson against the al-Aqsa Mosque in 1969. However, Saudi textbooks still refer to Israel as “the Zionist entity” and call Zionism a “racist movement.” IMPACT-se CEO Marcus Sheff said in a statement that there is a “clear trend of moderation in relation to Israel.” “Kudos is due to the Saudi government for this multi-year and systematic removal of Jew hate and moderation of content on Israel in the textbooks of over six million Saudi children, and of many more who study the textbooks outside of Saudi Arabia,” he said.