Speakers Clash About What to Do About Campus Anti-Semitism
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Posted by David Murrell on 05:58:53 2008/09/25
From this week's Canadian Jewish News. A debate about anti-Semitism on Canada's campuses (and the current appeasement policy by our "mainstream" Jewish organizations):
http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15400&Itemid=101
Speakers clash on how to fight campus anti-Semitism
By SHERI SHEFA, Staff Reporter
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Drawing the line between anti-Israel rhetoric and anti-Semitism on campus is not the responsibility of Hillel or any other Jewish group it's up to universities to do so, says a former senior Hillel staffer in Toronto.
Tilly Shames, who spent five years as associate director at Hillel of Greater Toronto before taking a job at Hillel at the University of Michigan this year, was one of three speakers at an event titled "Anti-Semitism on Campus," held at Beth David B'nai Israel Beth Am Synagogue last week.
More than 100 concerned parents and students gathered to hear Shames; Lawrence Hart, an associate professor of medicine at McMaster University who is involved in the Jewish community in Hamilton and writes a monthly column for The CJN, and York University Jewish studies professor Martin Lockshin, who just returned from a sabbatical in Jerusalem.
Shames began her speech by admitting that she was hesitant to speak about anti-Semitism on campus, because she prefers to focus on building bridges through dialogue with other members of the campus community and to advocate for Israel and Judaism in positive ways.
"We are spending a significant amount of time in our Jewish community focusing on the actions and activities of the anti-Israel community and internally criticizing one another for our response, or perceived lack thereof, and this is taking precious time and energy and resources away from the critical work that we're doing on campus, which is pro-active advocacy efforts as well as critical leadership development."
Having said that, she spoke about examples of anti-Semitism and said she is pleased at the way that university administrations continue to take steps to investigate and denounce anti-Semitic incidents when they arise.
But Shames added that since the start of the second intifadah in 2000, there has been more anti-Israel activity that has "pushed a line either towards anti-Semitism, blurred that line, or leaped over that line into anti-Semitism.
"It is a grey area that poses the most problematic challenge for university administrators to find where that line is. When does anti-Israel become anti-Semitic, and when does free speech become hate speech?" she asked.
"But it is not for us to determine. It is the university's decision, and it is the university's dilemma. It is not our dilemma."
She said that universities struggle with enforcing their own regulations, with ways to properly uphold free speech for all sides, and it's not up to Hillel to decide how to handle issues that arise.
"Hillel does not and cannot play the role as the police force on campus, and we cannot be held responsible for a rally of anti-Israel events happening on campus," she said.
"When the Canadian Jewish News' headline two years ago showed that Hillel failed to change the name of Israeli Apartheid Week ["Hillel seeks name change for 'Israeli Apartheid Week,' Feb. 9, 2006], it sent a message to the Jewish community that Israeli Apartheid Week was our failure. And it is not. It happens, and we can control our actions surrounding it, but we cannot be blamed for its existence."
She added that Hillel also doesn't want to defend Israel by putting down the rest of the Middle East.
"As Zionists, we should be celebrating Israel, and our standard for Israel should be much higher than saying it has a better human rights record than Saudi Arabia."
Shames said the goal should be to marginalize radical voices to the point of irrelevance and to empower students who want to see an end to the clashes on campus between Zionist and anti-Israel students.
Lockshin spoke along the same lines as Shames, saying that the systematic anti-Semitism of the 1960s when he was a student is gone.
Today, he said, there are many Jewish professors, deans and university presidents. Jewish studies courses are developing and growing on campuses across the country, and most Canadian universities have developed some ties with Israeli institutions.
"But the glass is also half empty," Lockshin said.
Within the last decade, there has been a rise in anti-Israel rhetoric by what he calls the radical left.
"They spread half truths and lies about the State of Israel. It is uncomfortable for Jewish students who have to put up with demonstrations and postering about 'Israeli Apartheid' and other such lies."
He said that university campuses are extremely friendly to both Jewish students and staff, as well as the State of Israel, but when it comes to stepping in to stop anti-Israel groups from demonstrating on campus, his understanding is that they can't.
Lockshin said speech that is merely offensive and untrue is not considered hate speech, and until it crosses the line into hate speech, there is nothing a university can do to stop students and staff from expressing their views.
"I say that we fight against the evil speech of our enemies by mocking it, by holding it up to ridicule whenever possible and to try to make more noise than they do," he said.
"I don't think we'll ever succeed shutting up the bad guy by force. I don't think we should ever suggest that their freedom of speech be removed unless they break the law."
Hart, for the most part, disagreed with Shames and Lockshin and suggested that Jewish groups can't afford to ignore the actions of anti-Israel groups.
The strategies to deal with them have been "misguided and self-defeating," Hart said.
"What we have been doing by not engaging is, in effect, encouraging, enabling and empowering the other side By this attitude, we have been denying our students a particular opportunity to define who they are, to assert their identities as Jews and as Zionists."
He said that focusing on shared values to diffuse conflicts between anti-Israel groups and Zionists is a good idea, "but to import shared values as the way we should be responding all of the time, even in the face of the most vitriolic effigies, really is not the way to go."
Hart said that dialogue is important in reaching out to others, but it's equally important not to dialogue with the wrong people.
"Do they respect who we are? Do they respect the integrity and legitimacy of the State of Israel? And do they want to take part in a dialogue that will help them move forward as a two-way street?"
He said that the anti-Israel groups are very active and the reality is that they are not being marginalized.
Four years ago, Uof T was the only campus that held Israel Apartheid Week events, he said.
"What we now have is an initiative on 28 separate campuses in Canada, the United States and elsewhere. It is growing, and we have allowed it to grow because we didn't take action right from the get-go."
During the question-and-answer period, some audience members aired their grievances and said that they didn't accept Shames' and Lockshin's views on the matter, and some even accused Hillel of not representing the students properly.
Shames responded by saying that the problems on campus can't be solved by yelling simplistic slogans.
"It is a matter of building relationships, sitting down with members of the moderate middle. I'm not suggesting dialogue with people who do not recognize Israel's right to exist. I'm talking about dialoguing with those who do not understand the complexities of the Middle East and making sure that our students are equipped with the kind of knowledge and the skills and the ability to be able to engage in deep and complex discussions with them."
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