Powell Library at UCLA
Reporter Adam Nagourney published a story in today's
New York Times about an incident of anti-Semitism on the UCLA campus:
It seemed like routine business for the student council at the University of California, Los Angeles: confirming the nomination of Rachel Beyda, a second-year economics major who wants to be a lawyer someday, to the council's Judicial Board.
Until it came time for questions.
"Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community," Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, began, looking at Ms. Beyda at the other end of the room, "how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?"
For the next 40 minutes, after Ms. Beyda was dispatched from the room, the council tangled in a debate about whether her faith and affiliation with Jewish organizations, including her sorority and Hillel, a popular student group, meant she would be biased in dealing with sensitive governance questions that come before the board, which is the campus equivalent of the Supreme Court.
Even though one of Beyda's inquisitors
said he could "see that she's qualified for sure," he and the council rejected her application on a 4-4 vote. The board only reversed course after a faculty adviser, Debra Geller, admonished them.
The four students who interrogated Beyda—Sofia Moreno Haq, Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed, Manjot Singh, and Fabienne Roth—later released an apology, saying their "intentions" were "never to attack, insult or delegitimize the identity of an individual or people." Roth added, "I deeply regret how I phrased my questions to Rachel."
In both a memo from the university's chancellor, Gene Block, and a letter to the editor from the school's vice chancellor for student affairs, Janina Montero, UCLA's leadership did not describe Beyda's treatment as anti-Semitic. Block instead called the incident a "teaching moment."
Please head below the fold for more on this story.
Rabbi John Rosove of Temple Israel of Hollywood, who describes himself as a supporter of the "multicultural agenda in American liberal circles," expressed concern over this state of affairs:
Though these four dissenters showed sincere remorse for their initial vote against Ms. Beyda, I question whether they and the UCLA administration understand adequately the nature of the problem.
I try not to speak with hyperbole. I am not one who sees anti-Semites lurking under every bed. I am not a fear-monger. I do not believe that all criticism of Jews or the state of Israel is necessarily anti-Semitic.
Yet, our inability to use the term anti-Semitism when it concerns Jews, when we don't have a problem calling other forms of ethnic and religious bigotry what it is, raises disturbing questions about prevalent attitudes towards Jews, Judaism, Zionism, and the state of Israel.
As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I find this development particularly distressing. Beyda's treatment was not a lone incident.
A study from Trinity College published last month showed that anti-Semitism is a major problem on American campuses, with 54 percent of Jewish respondents saying they'd personally experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism in just the last academic year.
No student—no person—should ever have to experience what Beyda experienced. But this particular brand of bigotry won't end until it is called out for exactly what it is: anti-Semitism.