Posted on 05/16/2002 4:43:21 AM PDT by Clive
I am pleased to see that the university is taking it seriously.
For completeness, here is the letter from Laurie Zoloth as printed in Frontpage Magazine:
Dear Colleagues,
TODAY, ALL DAY, I have been listening to the reactions of students, parents, and community members who were on campus yesterday. I have received e-mail from around the country, and phone calls, worried for both my personal safety on the campus, and for the entire intellectual project of having a Jewish Studies program, and recruiting students to a campus that in the last month has become a venue for hate speech and anti-Semitism. After nearly 7 years as director of Jewish Studies, and after nearly two decades of life here as a student, faculty member and wife of the Hillel rabbi, after years of patient work and difficult civic discourse, I am saddened to see SFSU return to its notoriety as a place that teaches anti- Semitism, hatred for America, and hatred, above all else, for the Jewish State of Israel, a state that I cherish. I cannot fully express what it feels like to have to walk across campus daily, past maps of the Middle East that do not include Israel, past posters of cans of soup with labels on them of drops of blood and dead babies, labeled "canned Palestinian children meat, slaughtered according to Jewish rites under American license," past poster after poster calling out "Zionism=racism, and Jews=Nazis." This is not civic discourse, this is not free speech, and this is the Weimar Republic with brown shirts it cannot control. This is the casual introduction of the medieval blood libel and virulent hatred smeared around our campus in a manner so ordinary that it hardly excites concern-except if you are a Jew, and you understand that hateful words have always led to hateful deeds.
Yesterday, the hatred coalesced in a hate mob. Yesterday's Peace In The Middle East Rally was completely organized by the Hillel students, mostly 18 and 19 years old. They spoke about their lives at SFSU and of their support for Israel, and they sang of peace. They wore new Hillel t-shirts that said "peace" in English, Hebrew and Arabic. A Russian immigrant, in his new English, spoke of loving his new country, a haven from anti-Semitism. A sophomore spoke about being here only one year, and about the support and community she found at the Hillel House. Both spoke of how hard it was to live as a Jew on this campus how isolating, how terrifying. A surfer guy, spoke of his love of Jesus, and his support for Israel, and a young freshman earnestly asked for a moment of silence, and all the Jews stood still, listening as the shouted hate of the counter demonstrators filled the air with abuse.
As soon as the community supporters left, the 50 students who remained praying in a minyan for the traditional afternoon prayers, or chatting, or cleaning up after the rally, talking -- were surrounded by a large, angry crowd of Palestinians and their supporters. But they were not calling for peace. They screamed at us to "go back to Russia" and they screamed that they would kill us all, and other terrible things. They surrounded the praying students, and the elderly women who are our elder college participants, who survived the Shoah, who helped shape the Bay Area peace movement, only to watch as a threatening crowd shoved the Hillel students against the wall of the plaza. I had invited members of my Orthodox community to join us, members of my Board of Visitors, and we stood there in despair. Let me remind you that in building the SFSU Jewish Studies program, we asked the same people for their support and that our Jewish community, who pay for the program once as taxpayers and again as Jews, generously supports our program. Let me remind you that ours is arguably one of the Jewish Studies programs in the country most devoted to peace, justice and diversity since our inception.
As the counter demonstrators poured into the plaza, screaming at the Jews to "Get out or we will kill you" and "Hitler did not finish the job," I turned to the police and to every administrator I could find and asked them to remove the counter demonstrators from the Plaza, to maintain the separation of 100 feet that we had been promised. The police told me that they had been told not to arrest anyone, and that if they did, "it would start a riot." I told them that it already was a riot. Finally, Fred Astren, the Northern California Hillel Director and I went up directly to speak with Dean Saffold, who was watching from her post a flight above us. She told us she would call in the SF police. But the police could do nothing more than surround the Jewish students and community members who were now trapped in a corner of the plaza, grouped under the flags of Israel, while an angry, out of control mob, literally chanting for our deaths, surrounded us. Dr. Astren and I went to stand with our students. This was neither free speech nor discourse, but raw, physical assault.
Was I afraid? No, really more sad that I could not protect my students. Not one administrator came to stand with us. I knew that if a crowd of Palestinian or Black student had been there, surrounded by a crowd of white racists screaming racist threats, shielded by police, the faculty and staff would have no trouble deciding which side to stand on. In fact, the scene recalled for me many moments in the Civil Rights movement, or the United Farm Workers movement, when, as a student, I stood with Black and Latino colleagues, surrounded by hateful mobs. Then, as now, I sang peace songs, and then, as now, the hateful crowd screamed at me, "Go back to Russia, Jew." How ironic that it all took place under the picture of Cesar Chavez, who led the very demonstrations that I took part in as a student.
There was no safe way out of the Plaza. We had to be marched back to the Hillel House under armed SF police guard, and we had to have a police guard remain outside Hillel. I was very proud of the students, who did not flinch and who did not, even one time, resort to violence or anger in retaliation. Several community members who were swept up in the situation simply could not believe what they saw. One young student told me, "I have read about anti-Semitism in books, but this is the first time I have seen real anti-Semites, people who just hate me without knowing me, just because I am a Jew." She lives in the dorms. Her mother calls and urges her to transfer to a safer campus.
Today is advising day. For me, the question is an open one: what do I advise the Jewish students to do?
Laurie Zoloth,
Director, Jewish Studies Program
(I know there are two threads with this article up. I'm posting in both so those who are following this will see the lastest update)
Dear Colleagues and Students:
On Thursday morning, May 23, members of SFSU's General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) are holding an off-campus press conference to denounce what a news release promoting the event describes as "fomenting [of] intolerance" and "accusations by SFSU President Corrigan against Palestinian and Arab students who are members of GUPS." The news release is followed by a lengthy statement that charges "racist treatment of Palestinian students" at SFSU and alleges that recent communications from the president to the campus have evoked a "hate frenzy" against Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab students here.
This document includes statements that "... President Corrigan is capitalizing on the atmosphere of fear and fostering intolerance against Arabs and Muslims on campus, thus creating a dangerous and hostile environment... The president of the university issued a derogatory news release last week, attacking the Palestinian students...the statement constructed a hateful, discriminatory and one-sided attack on the students...[We] and concerned citizens are gravely worried by the hate frenzy that the SFSU president stirs up in his letter."
These charges are so totally at variance with the campuswide messages calling for mutual respect, civility, and recognition of "the humanity of those with whom we disagree" that we have sent out since September 11 and the tone we have sought to set -- a tone epitomized by the "Love Is Stronger Than Hate" banners that fly across campus -- that they must be challenged, set against fact and seen for what they are -- extreme statements of feeling.
It is difficult enough to deal respectfully with each other in these highly-charged times; exaggerated language only drives us further apart.
You can view all our messages to the campus since September 11 at our new Web site, "SFSU's Response to Pro-Israel - Pro-Palestine Tensions on Campus." (http://www.sfsu.edu/~news/sfsuresp.htm) You will find there words such as these:
"We will not let terrorism change the eyes with which we view each other, the hearts with which we understand each other, the respect with which we treat each other." "We have an absolute obligation to preserve this University as a safe and supportive community for all among us."
"As we wrestle with the passionate emotions and strongly opposing world views the Middle Eastern situation arouses, I hope that we will work consciously to speak and act in a way that recognizes the humanity of all members of our community, that sees individuals, not enemies."
"The vast majority of this campus community would condemn the hateful speech and threatening behavior we saw last Tuesday. It is a very few individuals who are fomenting this discord."
There is much we should be discussing together, about the May 7 rally and other matters. Yes, ugly statements were made to -- not just by -- pro-Palestinian students at the rally. And the cases we are forwarding to the District Attorney's office emerging from the event recognize that: they represent both sides of the gathering. (See our "SFSU's Response" web site for a news release with details of the legal and disciplinary action we have taken.)
Especially in difficult times like these, we cannot afford to escalate conflict through distortion of each others' positions. Let us disagree, but let us do so honestly. Let us use each others' words fairly, represent each others' views and actions accurately. Only then can we come together to bridge differences and join together in a positive community.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, president
Robert Corrigan's most recent email:
Reports of recent events at San Francisco State University have generated impassioned responses from concerned individuals here and around the world. The University has established a new Web site on which you will find information about those events and the University's actions in response to them. The site, "SFSU's Response to Pro-Israel-Pro-Palestine Tensions on Campus," can be reached through SFSU's home page: http://www.sfsu.edu.
One campus incident, in particular, continues to generate strong reaction. It concerns an extremely offensive flier that appeared briefly on our campus in early April to advertise a pro-Palestine rally. The flier began to circulate on Thursday, April 4. By April 5, members of the sponsoring student organization began to cover up the most offensive part, the blood libel. By the end of the day, all the fliers had been removed from the campus by those students and University staff. The fliers have never been redistributed or reposted by the sponsoring groups. If they were to be, they would be removed immediately.
I was appalled by the flier and sent strong letters to each of the student groups named on it, followed by a message to all faculty, students and staff. The student group chiefly involved with production of the flier wrote me a letter of apology shortly thereafter.
The offices of Student Affairs, Human Relations, and Student Programs and Leadership Development have held many individual meetings with the student groups involved. No tax dollars and to the best of our knowledge no student organization funds were used to pay for the flier.
I have communicated with all SFSU faculty, students, and staff several times in recent weeks around these issues via e-mail. Two of those messages follow. The first is my message to the campus community strongly condemning the flier and quoting extensively from my letters to the student groups responsible for it. The second is my message about the May 7 rally.
-- Robert A. Corrigan, President
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