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UMass Amherst Student Government Passes BDS ‘Reaffirmation’
Baker Hall at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst. Photo: Wikipedia Commons.
The Student Government Association (SGA) of the University of Massachusetts-Amherst (UMass) proposed and passed on Friday a resolution which “reaffirmed” its previous endorsement of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel just a few days after Jews and Israelis marked the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 attacks on the Jewish state.
“Be it further resolved, that the UMass Amherst Student Government Association University Undergraduate Senate continues to urge the UMass Amherst administration, board of trustees, and UMass Foundation to divest from all direct and indirect financial investments and official university partnerships with Raytheon and other defense contractors, all corporations affiliated with Israel Defense Forces, and entities on the BDS list,” the resolution said.
It continued, “Undergraduate Senate continues to affirm the rights of students to protest and make demands of UMass administration and affirms that any talks or implementation surrounding divestment should include democratic oversight from faculty, students, and staff.”
The measure, titled “The Reaffirmation,” also contained spoils for anti-Zionist and pro-Hamas fellow travelers, imploring the university, for example, to drop disciplinary charges filed against students who last semester lived illegally in a “Gaza solidarity encampment” site from which they refused to leave unless administrators complied with their demands for a boycott of Israel.
Coinciding with mass mourning of the Oct. 7 victims, the resolution reopened old wounds, a UMass student — Aviva, who has requested that her last name be withheld from this article — told The Algemeiner. She also argued that, having taken place on Shabbat, the resolution seemed to reveal the intention of its sponsors to exclude Jews from the debate.
“We see time and time again that student governments around the country basically put these votes up on nights such as Shabbat or other holidays when they know the Jewish students cannot show up and that, if they did, their argument would not withstand rigorous debate,” Aviva said, noting that many Jewish students did eventually decide to attend the SGA session. “And we saw that the other night, that there were so many holes in their argument that they were unable to confidently answer many questions both from senators and community members who supported the reaffirmation and who did not.”
A palpable tension choked the air in the room once the senators realized they would have to see in person a people they had contrived to treat as board game pieces, she continued. Forced to discuss the matter at hand with an audience comprising more dissenters than anticipated, some SGA members defended themselves, arguing that the session was, at its core, a performance — a pantomime of resistance against corporate power which would bear little on decisions rendered by the trustees who mange the university’s endowment.
Others claimed, falsely, that it was necessary because UMass’s investments are heavily concentrated in Israeli businesses and others linked to it. However, whether the vote was a performance or not, its happening so soon after the Oct. 7 anniversary, and on Shabbat, indicated that SGA had chosen Jews and Zionists as its target audience, Aviva explained.
“They don’t mention any other countries [besides Israel]. To me, that’s blatant antisemitism. Another problem is that the concerns of Jewish students were brutally disregarded during the question and answer portion of the session,” Aviva continued. “One Jewish student stood up and said that she had experienced an assault on campus and asked the members of Senate who supported the resolution what they would do to protect Jewish students on campus, to which he responded something like, ‘I’m more worried about Jewish students who were mistreated by cops.’”
The hearing went on in this way, according to Aviva, with the anti-Zionist senators accusing Israel of crimes against humanity while imposing their opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Jewish students as established facts. At some point, SGA president Colin Humphries said that his earlier call to be “respectful of one another” — as quoted by The Massachusetts Daily Collegian — had been ignored and that their militancy had cut deep. A Jewish senator, he noticed, exuded distress, causing him to walk to where she sat and console her.
“They were snickering and making fun of people,” Aviva said. “The president, as well as vice president, of SGA has supported more than a few questionable ideas during his tenure, taking stances that don’t really make sense, but it was telling that he felt so nervous in that room that he needed to move to the back of the room to protect a Jewish student. That really shows that this isn’t a safe campus environment, a president feeling nervous and scared for one of his legislators.”
Ultimately, the anti-Zionist caucus of UMass SGA notched yet another legislative victory. The “reaffirmation” passed overwhelmingly and will be forwarded to the university’s leadership. Aviva believes, however, that SGA can still be a force for good and that one ingredient of reforming it is increased Jewish representation.
“This reaffirmation was so painful because Jewish senators were in the process of talking about ways to build bridges, to build community within SGA and between the larger campus student body,” she said. “That being said, I think SGA has the power to really bring people together. Electing more Jewish senators and chairs of different committees would be an amazing start.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really?
JNS.org – If I asked you to name the most famous line in the Bible, what would you answer? While Shema Yisrael (“Hear O’Israel”) might get many votes, I imagine that the winning line would be “love thy neighbor as thyself” (Leviticus 19:18). Some religions refer to it as the Golden Rule, but all would agree that it is fundamental to any moral lifestyle. And it appears this week in our Torah reading, Kedoshim.
This is quite a tall order. Can we be expected to love other people as much as we love ourselves? Surely, this is an idealistic expectation. And yet, the Creator knows us better than we know ourselves. How can His Torah be so unrealistic?
The biblical commentaries offer a variety of explanations. Some, like Rambam (Maimonides), say that the focus should be on our behavior, rather than our feelings. We are expected to try our best or to treat others “as if” we genuinely love them.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman of Liadi, in his classic text called the Tanya, argues that the actual feelings of love are, in fact, achievable provided that we focus on a person’s spirituality rather than how they present themselves physically. If we can put the soul over the body, we can do it.
Allow me to share the interpretation of the Ramban (Nachmanides), a 13th-century Torah scholar from Spain. His interpretation of the verses preceding love thy neighbor is classic and powerful, yet simple and straightforward.
“Do not hate your brother in your heart. You shall rebuke him, but do not bear a sin because of him” by embarrassing him in public. “Do not take revenge, and do not bear a grudge against your people. You shall love your fellow as yourself, I am God” (Leviticus 19:17-18).
What is the connection between these verses? Why is revenge and grudge-bearing in the same paragraph as love your fellow as yourself?
A careful reading shows that within these two verses are no less than six biblical commandments. But what is their sequence all about, and what is the connection between them?
The Ramban explains it beautifully, showing how the sequence of verses is deliberate and highlighting the Torah’s profound yet practical advice on how to maintain healthy relationships.
Someone wronged you? Don’t hate him in your heart. Speak to him. Don’t let it fester until it bursts, and makes you bitter and sick.
Instead, talk it out. Confront the person. Of course, do it respectfully. Don’t embarrass anyone in public, so that you don’t bear a sin because of them. But don’t let your hurt eat you up. Communicate!
If you approach the person who wronged you—not with hate in your heart but with respectful reproof—one of two things will happen. Either he or she will apologize and explain their perspective on the matter. Or that it was a misunderstanding and will get sorted out between you. Either way, you will feel happier and healthier.
Then you will not feel the need to take revenge or even to bear a grudge.
Here, says the Ramban, is the connection between these two verses. And if you follow this advice, only then will you be able to observe the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor. If you never tell him why you are upset, another may be completely unaware of his or her wrongdoing, and it will remain as a wound inside you and may never go away.
To sum up: Honest communication is the key to loving people.
Now, tell me the truth. Did you know that not taking revenge is a biblical commandment? In some cultures in Africa, revenge is a mitzvah! I’ve heard radio talk-show hosts invite listeners to share how they took “sweet revenge” on someone, as if it’s some kind of accomplishment.
Furthermore, did you know that bearing a grudge is forbidden by biblical law?
Here in South Africa, people refer to a grudge by its Yiddish name, a faribel. In other countries, people call it a broiges. Whatever the terminology, the Torah states explicitly: “Thou shalt not bear a grudge!” Do not keep a faribel, a broiges or resentment of any kind toward someone you believe wronged you. Talk to that person. Share your feelings honestly. If you do it respectfully and do not demean the other’s dignity, then it can be resolved. Only then will you be able to love your fellow as yourself.
May all our grudges and feelings of resentment toward others be dealt with honestly and respectfully. May all our grudges be resolved as soon as possible. Then we will all be in a much better position to love our neighbors as ourselves.
The post Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself. Really? first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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‘Nonsense’: Huckabee Shoots Down Report Trump to Endorse Palestinian Statehood
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee on Saturday dismissed as nonsensical the report that President Donald Trump would endorse Palestinian statehood during his tour to the Persian Gulf this week.
“This report is nonsense,” Huckabee harrumphed on his X account, blasting the Jerusalem Post as needing better sourced reporting. “Israel doesn’t have a better friend than the president of the United States.”
Trump is set to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. The leader’s first trip overseas since he took office comes as Trump seeks the Gulf countries’ support in regional conflicts, including the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza and curbing Iran’s advancing nuclear program.
However, reports citing administration insiders claimed that Trump has also set his sights on the ambitious goal of expanding the Abraham Accords. These agreements, initially signed in 2020, normalized relations between Israel and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan. The accords are widely held to be among the most important achievements of the first Trump administration.
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US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks
US President Donald Trump’s Middle East envoy-designate Steve Witkoff gives a speech at the inaugural parade inside Capital One Arena on the inauguration day of Trump’s second presidential term, in Washington, DC, Jan. 20, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria
i24 News – Unless significant progress is registered in Sunday’s round of nuclear talks with Iran, the US will consider putting the military option back on the table, sources close to US envoy Steve Witkoff told i24NEWS.
American and Iranian representatives voiced optimism after the previous talks that took place in Oman and Rome, saying there was a friendly atmosphere despite the two countries’ decades of enmity.
However the two sides are not believed to have thrashed out the all-important technical details, and basic questions remain.
The source has also underscored the significance of the administration’s choice of Michael Anton, the State Department’s policy planning director, as the lead representative in the nuclear talks’ technical phases.
Anton is “an Iran expert and someone who knows how to cut a deal with Iran,” the source said, saying that the choice reflected Trump’s desire to secure the deal.
The post US to Put Military Option Back on Table If No Immediate Progress in Iran Talks first appeared on Algemeiner.com.