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Jewish Journal

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November 15, 2019

SJP Protesters Chant ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free’ During Hen Mazzig Speech

Leave a Comment / Online, United States /

Around 25-30 Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)-led protesters chanted “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” during pro-Israel activist Hen Mazzig’s Nov. 14 speech at Vassar College.

Vassar Organizing Israel Conversations Effectively (VOICE) hosted the Mazzig event, titled: “The Indigenous Jews of the Middle East: Forgotten Refugees.” The chanting can be heard on video from the event.

Mazzig told the Journal in a phone interview that the chanting went on for 15 minutes outside of the auditorium and it was so loud he couldn’t speak until the protesters left.

“I was so disturbed,” Mazzig said. “It was probably the worst talk I gave. Just to hear those chants ‘from the river to the sea Palestine will be free’ – which means death to Israel – just so horrible to me.”

Prior to the event, Mazzig pointed out that the protesters were handing out flyers accusing Mazzig of “pinkwashing,” – the allegation that Israel provides the LGBTQ+ community with rights to distract from the Israeli government’s treatment of Palestinians – and stating that Mazzig’s “queerness will never make up for the violence underlying his advocacy for a settler-colonial occupying state.”

“It had nothing to do with the talk,” Mazzig said. “My talk was about Mizrahi Jews. I had to talk about being gay because in the flyers they mentioned it.”

Photo courtesy of Hen Mazzig.
Photo courtesy of Hen Mazzig.

He speculated that the protesters had dissuaded people from entering the event because their chants and the music they were blasting were loud.

Vassar College President Elizabeth Bradley addressed the incident in a statement.

“A group of students disrupted the speaker by chanting outside the lecture hall for some time,” Bradley said. “People who were in the lecture expressed that the chanting was intimidating and hard to listen to. The words have been associated by some people with anti-Semitism.”

She added that while the university allows for peaceful protest, the students protesting Mazzig’s speech violated university protocol with the chanting and the university would address the matter internally.

“Vassar aspires to a culture where people feel they belong, where diverse views are welcomed, and where respect for persons is paramount,” Bradley said. “Today, we let ourselves down in the pursuit of these values. Despite this, I believe in our ability to learn from this event. Given the strong voices on this campus, and the commitment of faculty, administrators, staff and students to education, I remain confident that multiple ideas, even opposing ideas, will continue to flourish.”

Mazzig told the Journal that he thought Bradley’s statement was weak and that the university should have apologized to him for the incident.

 “The fact that the [Vassar College] president mentioned that the calls for the destruction of the Jewish state might be considered as anti-Semitic or considered by some as anti-Semitic, no it’s considered by 97% of Jews as anti-Semitic,” Mazzig said. “It’s just ridiculous and tokenizing to say that it isn’t, and no other minority would be treated this way on campus.”

Anti-Defamation League (ADL) New York and New Jersey tweeted, “This is wrong. Preventing others from speaking is not “free speech.” We are appalled that some students at #Vassar repeatedly interrupted @henmazzig as he was telling his story to the students that invited him.”

In a subsequent tweet, ADL New York and New Jersey praised Bradley’s as “strong.”

StandWithUs CEO and Co-Founder Roz Rothstein said in a statement to the Journal, “Anti-Israel activists at Vassar are not seeking to change Israeli policy, but to end Israel’s very existence. When someone like Hen can’t speak without facing hateful chants because of his national identity, our very core values, including the right to free speech, are at risk.  We appreciate Vassar’s president for recognizing that this violated the university’s commitment to the free exchange of ideas, and urge the administration to follow through by holding the disruptors accountable.”

Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa (JIMENA) tweeted, “Jews in Arab countries were ethnically cleansed just a few years after the genocide of European Jews. Anti-Semites continue to make clear our existence isn’t accepted anywhere – not even in our indigenous land.”

Vassar’s SJP chapter wrote in a Nov. 15 Facebook post that they had chanted “Stop the killing stop the hate, Israel as an apartheid state!” and “How do you spell justice? BDS!” in addition to the “from the river to sea” chant and then left after 15 minutes.

“Although we do not believe that Zionism should have a platform, especially not one funded by our student government, we did not prevent anyone from attending the talk or stop Mazzig from speaking,” they wrote.

SJP at Vassar also argued that the “from the river to the sea” chant is not calling for the destruction of Israel.

“The phrase is a popular slogan among a wide range of Palestinian resistance and nationalist groups. It was used by the Palestine Liberation Organization in its 1964 founding and served as a rallying cry during the intifadas and other popular uprisings,” they wrote. “However, the inception of the slogan comes directly from early Zionists under British Mandatory rule as they were imagining the boundaries of their future state. This conception was later cemented in the 1973 founding charter of Likud, [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu’s political party, which states ‘between the Sea and the Jordan there will only be Israeli sovereignty.’ Subverting this rhetoric with their own use of the phrase, Palestinian activists have articulated their right to live freely in the entirety of their homeland.”

They added that saying that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism obfuscates legitimate criticism of the Israeli government is “an anti-Semitic tactic, as it falsely represents the Jewish community and tells them what they ought to believe.” SJP at Vassar also called Bradley’s statement reckless.

“By not providing any detail, or even taking a concrete stance in the statement, Bradley’s response plays into Mazzig’s tactic of fear-mongering,” they wrote. “Bradley refers to the chant as potentially anti-Semitic, thereby conveying to Jewish students that they have something to fear without specifying anything that actually happened.”

SJP Protesters Chant ‘From the River to the Sea Palestine Will Be Free’ During Hen Mazzig Speech Read More »

Noah Schnapp to Star in WWII Film About Rescue of Jewish Children

Leave a Comment / Entertainment /

Noah Schnapp (“Stranger Things”) will star in “Waiting for Anya,” a movie based on Michael Morpurgo’s novel about a secret mission to smuggle Jewish children from a village in southern France to Spain during World War II. 

Schnapp will play a shepherd who joins forces with a widow (Anjelica Huston) and his grandfather (Jean Reno) to help the children escape under the noses of the Nazis. 

Written and directed by Ben Cookson, the film will be released on Feb. 14, 2020.

Noah Schnapp to Star in WWII Film About Rescue of Jewish Children Read More »

‘Stop Bombing Gaza!’ Painted on Michigan State Campus Rock

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The phrase “Stop Bombing Gaza!” and a Palestinian flag were found painted on a Michigan State University (MSU) landmark on Nov. 15.

The landmark, known as The Rock, is painted with new messages each day, which can range from marriage proposals and birthdays to messages commemorating the victims of the 9/11 terror attacks, according to the Lansing State Journal. MSU’s Chabad Student Center posted a photo of the “Stop Bombing Gaza!” paint on The Rock to Facebook.

“We were saddened to receive this picture taken from students on their way to class this morning,” the post read. “The Rock which for so long has been a unifying spot on our campus to bring people together, was used last night to make a blunt and deceptive political point that hurt the feeling of many students.”

They acknowledged that while the situation between Israel and the Gaza Strip is complex, such statements “encourage a culture that demonizes Israel and Jewish students and has NO place at MSU. We will never give into angry voices and demonization.”

MSU’s Chabad Student Center added: “We announce in the eternal voice of the Jewish people: Am Yisroel Chai. The Nation of Israel lives. A year after Pittsburgh, we are here. Six months after Poway, we are here. While rockets rain down on Israel, we stand strong. We are here we are not going anywhere.”

https://www.facebook.com/JewishSpartans/photos/a.1954918564776915/2459098547692245/?type=3&theater

Anti-Defamation League Michigan Regional Director Caroline Normandin, an alumnus of MSU, said in a statement to the Journal, “MSU students have a long tradition of freedom of speech at ‘the Rock’ near the auditorium on campus. We are disappointed by this latest display and are glad it is going to be repainted tonight.  Seeing a one-sided statement is not valuable because it does not allow for open or shared narratives.  We stand with Jewish students and MSU Hillel efforts to educate and promote future [dialogue].”

MSU Media Information Manager Melody Kindraka said in a statement to the Journal, “We recognize that cross-cultural interactions may sometimes create moments of surprise or discomfort. But when perspectives clash, we have an individual and shared responsibility to guard against behaviors that demean or otherwise harm individuals and our community. A strong campus community is characterized by respect for, and civility toward, one another.”

The paint on the MSU rock comes after Islamic Jihad fired at least 450 rockets from Gaza toward Israel this past week in response to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) killing a senior Islamic Jihad commander; the IDF responded with strikes against Islamic Jihad terrorists. A ceasefire was reached on Nov.14 but rockets continued to be fired from Gaza.

‘Stop Bombing Gaza!’ Painted on Michigan State Campus Rock Read More »

Swastika Found on Israeli Ambulance

Leave a Comment / Israel, Online /

A swastika was painted on an Israeli ambulance in Tel Aviv on the evening of Nov. 15.

Magen David Adom (MDA), Israeli’s national emergency center, tweeted out a photo of the vandalism and said the vandalism occurred while the MDA was attending to a patient. “MDA sees this shocking act as an offense to every citizen of Israel,” the tweet stated.

MDA Director General Eli Ben said in a statement, “Whoever committed this repulsive act, knew the meaning of his actions and should be treated with the utmost severity and with zero tolerance.”

This is a developing story.

Swastika Found on Israeli Ambulance Read More »

Education Department to Investigate NYU’s Handling of Campus Anti-Semitism

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The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) will open an investigation into New York University’s (NYU) handling of anti-Semitism on campus.

In April, the Journal reported that then-NYU senior Adela Cojab filed a complaint against NYU on behalf of Jewish and pro-Israel students on campus. The complaint centered around NYU’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter receiving the President’s Service Award from the university in April despite a member from the group being charged in April 2018 for assaulting a pro-Israel student during a Yom HaAtzmaut rave. The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office did not immediately respond to the Journal’s request for the status of the case.

OCR Compliance Team Leader Anna Moretto Cramer’s letter to Cojab’s attorneys, which was obtained by the Journal, states, “You alleged that the university discriminated against students of Jewish descent on the basis of national origin by failing to respond appropriately to incidents that created a hostile environment for Jewish students at the university. OCR determined that the complaint is appropriate for investigation.”

Cramer later added: “OCR will investigate whether, as a result of incidents that occurred at the university, a hostile environment existed for Jewish students at the university, and if so, whether the university responded appropriately.” The investigation falls under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination on race and ethnicity on college campuses.

Cojab, who now works for the Maccabee Task Force as a Northeast Coordinator, told the Journal in a phone interview that she was thankful that OCR is looking into the matter.

“Students who were celebrating a cultural — not a political — event that celebrates Jewish ancestry in [Washington Square Park], had their national [Israeli] flag and they also had a physical assault during the [Israeli] national anthem,” Cojab said. “Those are the facts.”

Cojab pointed out that pro-Israel students had a feeling before the rave that it might be unsafe because earlier in the month, NYU’s SJP called for a boycott of all NYU pro-Israel groups and posted a photo of a flyer on its Facebook event page quoting Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine founder George Habash calling for a revolt to publicize Israeli Apartheid Week.

Cojab said she had met with NYU administrators before the rave and they forced SJP to take down the flyer, and that NYU increased public safety officers. She argued that the flyer and boycott should have put SJP’s charter in question and that its charter should have been revoked after one of its members was arrested for assault.

“Aside from the fact that action could have been taken before all this to prevent it, no significant action was taken afterwards to prevent it and less than a year later, [SJP] got an award,” Cojab said.

She added that she hopes OCR will hold the university accountable, which would include requiring universities to implement disciplinary measures for groups on campus that create a hostile climate for students.

“I think this is objectively a case of an unsafe campus environment where the university should have had a protocol in place and they didn’t,” Cojab said. “But really, I think that even just having the investigation opened is a positive, because it does show not only NYU, but the universities across the U.S., that this is a serious issue.”

Neal Sher, one of Cojab’s attorneys, similarly told the Journal in a phone interview that OCR has an opportunity to set a precedent among all American universities.

“SJP has branches,” Sher said. “On every campus they have a presence. It’s quite possible down the road if steps are taken on how to deal with SJP, it could have an impact nationwide.”

Judea Pearl, chancellor professor of computer science at UCLA, Daniel Pearl Foundation president and an alumnus of NYU, told the Journal in an email, “The intimidation of Jewish students on US campuses will stop only when it becomes a liability to the intimidating organizations — SJP and [boycott, divestment and sanctions]. This can be accomplished overnight, once the administration decides to fight it on moral grounds,and state explicitly and unambiguously that Israeli and Zionist  students and faculty are welcome on campus for their positive, unique and morally inspiring contributions to the diverse tapestry of the campus community. Thus far, I have not seen the word ‘Zionism’ spelled in any official statement issued by the University. It is about time.” Pearl had asked NYU President Andrew Hamilton to rescind his 2013 Distinguished Alumnus Award after it was announced that SJP was receiving the President’s Award.

NYU Spokesman John Beckman said in a statement that the university wasn’t aware of the investigation.

“If there is one, we shall cooperate, because we know that any suggestion that NYU is anything less than highly supportive of or deeply concerned about its Jewish community is untrue,” Beckman said.

OCR’s full letter can be seen below:

Education Department to Investigate NYU’s Handling of Campus Anti-Semitism Read More »

5 Jewish Things to Know About Deval Patrick

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(JTA) — The crowded field of Democratic 2020 hopefuls has welcomed another latecomer to the fray: Deval Patrick, the former Massachusetts governor.

On Thursday, Patrick released an announcement video that recalled the struggles he faced growing up on Chicago’s South Side and said he wanted to make the American Dream accessible to all Americans.

After serving as governor from 2007 to 2015, Patrick worked as a managing director at Bain Capital — the investment firm formerly headed by Sen. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate in 2012. Patrick, 63, also served as assistant attorney general for civil rights in the Clinton administration.

Patrick, the first African-American governor in Massachusetts, implemented the health care reform in his state that Romney, his gubernatorial predecessor, had enacted, and worked to improve the state’s education system.

He also built ties between different faith and ethnic communities, and forged a close relationship with his state’s Jewish community.

Jeremy Burton, the executive director of Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council, recalled the ease with which Patrick would participate in Jewish events.

“He considered himself at home when he was in a Jewish space, and the Jewish community considered him to be part of it,” Burton told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency on Thursday.

Here are some of the highlights of Patrick’s interactions with the Jewish community.

A rabbi gave the benediction at his inauguration.
Patrick first met Rabbi Jonah Pesner when he was exploring a run for governor. Pesner, who now serves as the director of the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center, was involved at the time with interfaith work in Boston. The two grew so close that Patrick asked the rabbi to deliver the benediction at his inauguration as governor in 2007.

Patrick later returned the favor by giving the keynote address at Pesner’s installation at the RAC in 2015.

“He was able to uniquely give a speech that told the story of the importance of Jewish leadership inside and through our work in civil rights and social justice in America and across the world,” recalled Pesner, who before heading the RAC was rabbi of Temple Israel in Boston.

He has received several Jewish awards.
In 2009, Patrick received an honorary doctorate from the University of Haifa for, according to the school, his leadership and contribution to social equality, protection of religious freedom and civil rights, and promoting friendship with Israel. The previous year, he had signed a $1 billion law to promote research and business with the Jewish state.

The American Friends of the Yitzhak Rabin Center honored him with the 2014 Yitzhak Rabin Leadership and Public Service Award for his work to improve the economy in Massachusetts and promote the state’s trading partnership with Israel.

In 2016, the American Jewish Committee’s New England chapter chose Patrick to be the inaugural recipient of its Coexistence Award for his efforts to promote understanding among ethnic, religious and racial groups.

Patrick serves as founding chairman of Our Generation Speaks, an organization founded in 2014 that brings together Israeli and Palestinian youths through entrepreneurship. Patrick introduced the organization’s founder, Ohad Elhelo, at last year’s American Israel Public Affairs Committee conference.

He led two economic development missions to Israel.
In 2011, Patrick led a trade mission to Israel with local business leaders, including New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft. During the trip he met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then-President Shimon Peres and other Israeli politicians.

Patrick led a similar delegation in 2014, where he and more than 100 participants met with startup founders and other business innovators in Israel.

He helped create a direct flight between Boston and Tel Aviv.
For years, Patrick pushed for the Israeli airline El Al to launch a nonstop flight between the two cities. In 2015, his efforts paid off when Boston became the fourth city in North America to have a direct El Al flight to Israel.

He invoked Jewish refugees in offering to host refugee children.
In 2014, an influx of women and unaccompanied children from Central America were seeking asylum in the U.S. Talking to a reporter at the time, Patrick cited the experiences of Jews during the Holocaust in arguing for why Massachusetts should host refugee children.

“My inclination is to remember what happened when a shipful of Jewish children tried to come to the United States in 1939 and the United States turned them away, and many of them went to their deaths in Nazi concentration camps,” Patrick said. “I think we are a bigger-hearted people than that as Americans, and certainly as residents of Massachusetts.”

5 Jewish Things to Know About Deval Patrick Read More »

Dutch Government Gives $2.76 Million to Restoring Jewish Cemeteries

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AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Dutch government has allocated $2.76 million toward the maintenance and restoration of Jewish cemeteries in the Netherlands.

Culture Minister Ingrid van Engelshoven announced the funding last week in a letter to the lower house of the parliament.

Local Jews have trouble maintaining the graves because the community’s numbers never recovered after the Holocaust. Dutch Jews suffered the highest death rate of any Western European country occupied by the Nazis, in part because of local collaboration.

Fewer than 40,000 Jews survived in a population of some 140,000, and fewer still returned to the Netherlands. Today there are about 45,000 Jews living in the kingdom, including more than 5,000 Israelis, according to the Organization of Jewish Communities in the Netherlands, or NIK.

Thus the small Dutch Jewish community is stretching its resources to maintain more communal property than it can handle.

“Jewish cemeteries are often the only remnant of Dutch-Jewish culture, which was largely destroyed in 1940-1945,” NIK said in a statement about the funding.

Especially “forgotten cemeteries or ones with an unusual character will be treated in the coming five years” with the new funding, NIK wrote.

The organization said it was “deeply satisfied with minister and the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science’s decision to address the issue” of neglected Jewish burial places.

Dutch Government Gives $2.76 Million to Restoring Jewish Cemeteries Read More »

Haggling with God – A poem for Parsha Vayera

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Perhaps the fifty righteous men will be missing five.
Will you destroy the entire city because of five?

Abraham was a God wrestler before
the term Israel existed. Like his unwritten
test at the idol shop, he passes this one
with flying pillars of salt.

I can’t help but think of Las Vegas
when the story of Sodom comes along.
City of sin in the desert – how many
righteous could be found in
a place where what happens there
can’t be spoken of elsewhere?
Other cities with less of a reputation
for debauchery are going down.

Just yesterday there were waves
in St. Mark’s Square as the rising
seas threaten to send Venice
the way of Atlantis.

Someday our best cities will
be only rumors in ancient texts
we are still writing down.

Every city needs an Abraham
a Sanders
an Ocasio-Cortez
a Thunberg
arguing with the destroyers
speaking up for those who
don’t deserve to be salt.

We’re drying up.
We’re flooding over.
There may not be enough
kind hearts among us
to make it stop.

God Wrestler: a poem for every Torah Portion by Rick LupertLos Angeles poet Rick Lupert created the Poetry Super Highway (an online publication and resource for poets), and hosted the Cobalt Cafe weekly poetry reading for almost 21 years. He’s authored 23 collections of poetry, including “God Wrestler: A Poem for Every Torah Portion“, “I’m a Jew, Are You” (Jewish themed poems) and “Feeding Holy Cats” (Poetry written while a staff member on the first Birthright Israel trip), and most recently “Hunka Hunka Howdee!” (Poems written in Memphis, Nashville, and Louisville – Ain’t Got No Press, May 2019) and edited the anthologies “Ekphrastia Gone Wild”, “A Poet’s Haggadah”, and “The Night Goes on All Night.” He writes the daily web comic “Cat and Banana” with fellow Los Angeles poet Brendan Constantine. He’s widely published and reads his poetry wherever they let him.

Haggling with God – A poem for Parsha Vayera Read More »