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I’m a CUNY Student — Political Leaders Are Failing Our Jewish Community
Protesters gathered at CUNY Chancellor Felix V. Matos Rodriguez’s office under the mantra ‘End Jew Hatred’ to protest growing antisemitism within CUNY and their campuses on Sept. 12, 2023. Photo by Meir Chaimowitz/NurPhoto via Reuters Connect
During the past year, college campuses across the country have been beset with protests, violence, threats of violence, and discrimination against Jews.
After Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, attacked Israel on October 7 2023, New York Governor Kathy Hochul (D) empowered Judge Jonathan Lippman, former Chief Judge of New York and Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals, to review antisemitism and discrimination more broadly inside the City University of New York school system (CUNY).
His report, released on September 24, 2024, has raised many eyebrows.
The New York Times coverage of the report focused on Judge Lippman’s recommendation for a complete overhaul of the discrimination reporting system at CUNY, but implied that the problem of antisemitism was not — in fact — widespread.
That claim is heavily misleading, and ignores the main takeaway of his report.
While Judge Lippman did say that there are “few incidents of physical violence,” he very clearly emphasized the seriousness of the pervasive nature of antisemitism at CUNY.
For example, Lippman observed that “Some of the schools … had a significant number of reported incidents of antisemitism,” adding later that “schools with backlogs of complaints are more likely to become safe havens for perpetrators of antisemitism and discrimination.”
Moreover, his research revealed that the collection methods of the schools studied were so confusing that he and his attorneys had difficulty navigating the discrimination report portal.
According to the report, “[i]t is unreasonable to think that the average student, faculty member, or employee can navigate the investigative process on their own.” Lippman concluded that given the difficulty in navigating the system, it is more than likely that reports of antisemitic conduct are underrepresented in the antisemitic databases. Thus, the problem of antisemitism is likely more pervasive than originally thought.
The Times’ assessment of the report failed to recognize this central takeaway.
Moreover, Lippman clearly implicated the major failings of CUNY at the hands of the Chief Diversity Officers (CDO) at each campus, whose responsibility is to investigate antisemitic incidents.
At the same time, the judge reported that many of these CDOs were either unaware of relevant civil rights laws pertaining to Jews, or disagreed with established laws defending Jews.
As the report notes, “chief diversity officers must be trained on the requirements of the law and cannot gauge the propriety of conduct based on their personal views of what constitutes antisemitism. They must be guided by what the law applicable to CUNY dictates — even if that involves applications or interpretations of a definition of antisemitism with which they disagree.”
This is a shocking takeaway — that the very people whose job it is to know discrimination law are unaware of the law, and disagree with the ways in which it applies to Jews.
Lippman further said that “CUNY would be well-advised to consider whether future investigations of hate in any form should continue to reside within individual school diversity offices.”
Considering that this June, the US Department of Justice found that CUNY has a history of improperly investigating similar discrimination cases, the judge’s observations and advice in this regard are spot on.
Hochul’s directive to implement Lippman’s suggestions is welcome, but what people think that some formal training on antisemitism will suddenly cause these CDOs to care about our complaints?
As the report has shown, many have willfully ignored us and will likely continue to do so regardless of the mandatory training they receive. Chief Diversity Officers are part of the problem, not part of the solution.
Jewish students need help, and with increasing certainty, we know it will not come from our schools. We must now look either to more forceful action from federal, state and local leaders.
Gideon Askowitz is a CAMERA Fellow and an alumnus of the Hertog Political and Constitutional Studies Programs. He also regularly appears on Fox News to discuss politics and antisemitism.
The post I’m a CUNY Student — Political Leaders Are Failing Our Jewish Community first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels
View of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) building in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Abed Rahim Khatib / Flash90.
i24 News – Sweden will no longer fund the U.N. refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA) and will instead provide humanitarian assistance to Gaza via other channels, the Scandinavian country said on Friday.
The decision comes on the heels of multiple revelations regarding the agency’s employees’ involvement in the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led massacre in southern Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Sweden’s decision was in response to the Israeli ban, as it will make channeling aid via the agency more difficult, the country’s aid minister, Benjamin Dousa, said.
“Large parts of UNRWA’s operations in Gaza are either going to be severely weakened or completely impossible,” Dousa said. “For the government, the most important thing is that support gets through.”
The Palestinian embassy in Stockholm said in a statement: “We reject the idea of finding alternatives to UNRWA, which has a special mandate to provide services to Palestinian refugees.”
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Sharren Haskel thanked Dousa for a meeting they had this week and for Sweden’s decision to drop its support for UNRWA.
“There are worthy and viable alternatives for humanitarian aid, and I appreciate the willingness to listen and adopt a different approach,” she said.
The post Sweden Ends Funding for UNRWA, Pledges to Seek Other Aid Channels first appeared on Algemeiner.com.