Barnard Students Pass BDS, Administration Rejects It
The Student Government Association of Barnard College passed a referendum to divest from Israel. The referendum has now, officially, been rejected by Barnard’s administration.
The Student Government Association of Barnard College passed a referendum to divest from Israel. The referendum has now, officially, been rejected by Barnard’s administration.
This past week, the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry released its 2017 “Antisemitism Worldwide” analysis, which noted a dramatic upswing in anti-Semitism within the United States. The Kantor Center is currently led by Dina Porat, a member of the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s Academic Advisory Board.
Trayon White, the Washington D.C. City Council member who recently invoked multiple anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, is back in the news this week after leaving a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Museum early and for donating to noted anti-Semite Louis Farrkhan.
On April 11, the Associate Students Senate at University of California—Santa Barbara (UCSB) unanimously passed a resolution condemning both anti-Semitism and hate speech. This news coming out of UCSB, which has also been the site of numerous failed BDS resolutions, is another positive step in the ongoing battle against campus anti-Semitism.
On April 5, 2018, The New York Times printed the obituary of Professor Mel Gordon, a University of California Berkeley theater professor. However, the obituary does not mention Professor Gordon’s significance in helping to protect the rights of students on campus who have brought Title VI claims against the University.
The Anne Frank House has come under fire for preventing a Jewish employee from wearing his Kippa.
FutureLearn and Yad Vashem’s latest collaboration is well under way as their “Anti-Semitism: From Its Origins to the Present” entered its fourth week. Several weeks ago, the Brandeis Center provided a brief overview of the first two week’s material. This post will serve a similar function, detailing some of the material covered in weeks 3 and 4 of the course.
On April 3, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker signed Assembly Bill 553 into law. This anti-discrimination measure, which makes Wisconsin the 25th state to enact anti-BDS legislation, prohibits any state agency or governmental unit from entering into a contract with those who boycott Israelis with the intent of inflicting harm on Israel.
This past week, students at the University of Michigan-Flint adopted an anti-Israel resolution making it the third Michigan campus to adopt a BDS (Boycotts, Divestment, and Sanctions against Israel) measure.
The Brandeis Center would like to call attention to FutureLearn’s latest online course, “Antisemitism: From Its Origins to the Present.” The course is currently in its second week, and upon enrollment, students will gain access to the first two weeks of material. The following represents a brief overview of some of the topics discussed in these early weeks, as well as a general outline.