>--- Original Message ---
>From: "michael pugliese" <debsian at pacbell.net>
>To: asdnet at igc.topica.com leftist_trainspotters at yahoogroups.com
>Date: 5/10/02 12:21:17 AM
>
------- Start of forwarded message -- -----
>From: Irene Heinstein <ireneth at cal.berkeley.edu>
>To: pen-l <pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu>
>Subject: Fwd: Fw:[DemocraticLeft] Anti-Semitic outbreak at
SFSU
>Date: 5/10/02 12:04:45 AM
>
> Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 23:30:56 -0700
>
> From: Irene Heinstein <ireneth at cal.berkeley.edu>
> Subject:[DemocraticLeft] Anti- Semitic outbreak at SFSU
> To: Group <ireneth at cal.berkeley.edu>
>
>
>
>
>
> This email was sent to SF State faculty and administration
today by the
> Director of Jewish Studies.
>
> Irene
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>
> 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 email
> 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
>
> R. Chaim Mahgel
> Administrative Assistant to the Director
> Jewish Studies Program HUM 416
> San Francisco State University
> 1600 Holloway Avenue
> San Francisco, CA 94132 415-338- 6075 jewish at sfsu.edu
www.sfsu.edu/
> ~jewish
>
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>-------- End of forwarded message ---
>