Why is Shaarey Zedek and ZOA Undermining Our Jewish Community?

Metro Jewish Detroit’s Dirty Little Secrets are hurting all of us.

There is a conspiracy of silence, an “omerta” if you will, by our communal “bosses” and organs of power to hide the truth, to deflect our focus away from serious and growing threats to much more pedestrian or newly-hyped issues of the day. To read the Detroit Jewish News of late, one would think that bed bugs and cluttered closets are our biggest worries. If only that were true. Granted, it is much harder to confront difficult and inconvenient truths, but we fail to do so at our own peril.

The sad reality is that not only have our leaders failed to address the accelerating dangers; not only have they reneged on their responsibilities to be the front guard protecting our welfare and security; in too many cases, they are the problem – in bed with the wrong bed partners.

To wit, the Jewish News just weeks ago featured a front-page cover story hailing the 150th anniversary of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. In the glowing review of the synagogue’s and clergy’s vaunted history was, by way of pointing out its ecumenicalism, a brief mention of the synagogue’s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. No mention of the participating imam or his troubling ties to a “radical anti-Semitic” Pakistan-based Islamist organization whose founder likened Jews to parasites and presaged the “extermination” of the Jews. No mention of ADL’s warnings not to grant the legitimacy the organization craves to mainstream itself in advancing its ‘extremist ideology’. No mention that authorities stated the organization influenced the radicalization of a young American teen to become Al Qaeda’s top English language propagandist and the alleged mastermind of the cargo bomb plot targeting Chicago synagogues who was killed alongside Anwar Al-Awlaki in the recent US drone strike in Yemen. No follow-up analysis or enterprise reporting from the Jewish News. Only one small letter to the editor from a concerned communal activist that had to fight its way into the paper and only after it was gored of much substance.

And in what is perhaps the most painful and dangerous sellout of all, the Zionist Organization of America has thrown our community under the bus. Tonight at its annual Balfour Concert, the ZOA Michigan Chapter, with the backing of the national ZOA, is honoring CSZ Rabbi Joseph Krakoff, despite the fact that the ZOA knows full well about the imam’s associations because the ZOA itself made the rabbi and synagogue aware of them in vain hopes CSZ would preclude the imam’s participation or refuse itself to participate.

Instead of calling out an enabler of dangerous anti-Semitism and radical Islamism; instead of criticizing the appaling derelictions of due diligence that allowed this to transpire, the ZOA is honoring and rewarding the betrayal of our community. Why would the most stalwart of Jewish organizations make a a sham and mockery of their mission?

There is no organization stronger or more principled than the ZOA in defending Israel…in calling out university presidents, diplomats, generals, US Secretaries of State and Presidents and even Israeli Prime Ministers when they undermine Israel’s legitimacy and strength. But isn’t the strength and security of our local community worth speaking out for as well? What good are all the ZOA speakers and programs warning us of the looming threats when they help to enable and empower them in the first place? Just this past week, the ZOA Midwest campus coordinator wrote a crying appeal for communal support after a high-ranking Bedouin Israeli speaking here at the University of Michigan was treated malignly by a group of MSA students. Instead of gala concerts enabling the enablers, why didn’t ZOA, Rabbi Krakoff and his imam colleague go to the university to support the speaker, to insist he be treated civilly and to demand the university ensure the rights of Jewish students are honored and protected?

Bottom line: The rabbi didn’t want to hurt the imam. ZOA didn’t want to hurt the rabbi. Does anyone care that they are hurting our children??

CSZ and ZOA are hardly the only local institutions to have compromised our communal integrity and welfare. They are just the most recent. TT hopes desperately that all our communal organizations will take to heart their avowed obligations to speak and act on behalf of our interests. If ever there was a time for scrupulous vetting, for reassessment of priorities, for reorientation, it is NOW!

Read the report below.

ADL: “Despite its effort to ‘mainstream’ itself, IONA maintains its official ties to Pakistan and remains committed to its goals and extremist ideology.”

Joe Kaufman, Americans Against Hate: "If one wishes to keep away from extremists and caution others to do the same, one would certainly not join up with CAIR or IONA. One would shun them."

The Zionist Organization of America Michigan chapter, with the knowledge of the national organization and despite appeals from supporters and concerned community members, will confer its highest honor upon a rabbi who, along with the decision-makers of his synagogue, recently legitimized the leader of an organization described by the ADL as a “radical anti-Semitic” Pakistan-based organization seeking a global Islamic caliphate and who is also vice chair of a Michigan coalition (CIOMonline.com) which partners with CAIR, ISNA et al.

Tonight, Rabbi Joseph J. Krakoff will be awarded the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award at the 78th annual Balfour celebration of the ZOA Michigan chapter. Just last month, at an interfaith commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks (www.liftupsouthfield.org) , Rabbi Krakoff yielded his bimah to Imam Mustapha Elturk, the head of IONA, the reconstituted US arm of Tanzeem-e-Islami, an organization described as a "Nazi-style Islamist movement" in a Pajamas Media article by Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate. (http://pjmedia.com/blog/cair-leader-tied-to-nazi-style-islamist-mosque/).

Elturk recently penned a whitewashing tribute to Islamic sharia law. He was also quoted last year in the Arab American News mourning the death of Hezbollah spiritual leader and US designated global terrorist Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

The organization's history of anti-Semitsim has been documented by ADL and many sources. According to a report in Canada’s National Post on Tanzeem-e-Islami founder Israr Ahmad and included in an Investigative Project onTerrorism (IPT) report:

“He compares Jews to parasites, calls the Holocaust "Divine punishment" and foresees the "total extermination" of Jews at the hands of Muslims.”

According to Kaufman, and as documented by many other sources chronicling the organization:

“The movement was founded by Israr Ahmad, a religious fanatic who, according to IONA’s website, had broken away from the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in 1957 because of the group’s “involvement in the electoral politics.”

A couple of Ahmad’s favorite targets are Jews and Christians, whom he chillingly describes as “enemies of Islam...”

Ahmad brought his movement to America in 1993, under the name Tanzeem-e-Islami North America (TINA). In 2003, the organization changed its name to the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA), after Ahmad had appointed Mustapha “Steve” Elturk to be the group’s new leader.

Subsequent to the name change, IONA has made the claim that it is somehow independent from TI. Yet, the web address tanzeem.us is a mirror address of IONA’s official website, ionaonline.org.

As well, the group never relinquished the harsh anti-Western and Nazi-like rhetoric of its Pakistani parent.”

The national ADL profile concurs: “Despite its effort to ‘mainstream’ itself, IONA maintains its official ties to Pakistan and remains committed to its goals and extremist ideology.”

Tanzeem-e-Islami/IONA, according to the ADL, Southern Poverty Law Center and other sources, purportedly influenced Samir Kahn, the online editor of al Qaeda's English language Inspire Magazine, who was taken out alongside American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, in the Sept. 30 US drone strike in Yemen. According to a Fox News report citing federal authorities, Kahn “admitted he was behind the October 2010 cargo printer bomb plot” which targeted synagogues in Chicago.

The Michigan ZOA Balfour fundraiser will also honor a local Jewish member of the US military. That is certainly noble, except for the fact that the honoree rabbi’s embrace of Imam Elturk degrades the tribute to the Jewish first lieutenant. As noted by the national ADL, Tanzeem’s founder expressed support for the Taliban as it is “based on upholding the supremacy of Islamic shariah.” Last Sunday, 13 Americans were killed in a Taliban bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. The death toll of US soldiers in Afghanistan now tops 1,700.


What is so vexing is that the Detroit ZOA, which made the rabbi and Congregation Shaarey Zedek aware of its objections to the imam's inclusion in the 9/11 commemoration and provided documentation of the the imam’s extremist ties, would honor the rabbi despite his failure to rescind the invitation to the imam, to back out of the event or to issue a public statement disavowing the imam and IONA. Even more curious is the ZOA’s refusal to take up the rabbi on his reported offer to bow out of the ZOA honor in the wake of this controversy.

It is reported that the rabbi turned to the local ADL and AJC to vet the imam, who greenlighted him despite the national ADL's extensive documentation and warnings to the contrary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/american-jihadi-samir-khan-killed-awlaki/story?id=14640013

http://pjmedia.com/blog/cair-leader-tied-to-nazi-style-islamist-mosque/

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Community&article=3199

http://www.investigativeproject.org/539/fbis-latest-outreach-outrage

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/american-al-qaeda-proud-traitor/story?id=11855126

http://ciomonline.com/resources/partner-organizations

http://www.islamicity.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=RS1108-4817

http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/al_qaeda_english_magazine.htm

http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/samir_khan.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_4

http://www.adl.org/mian_Terrorism/samir_khan.htm

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/fall/ten-years-after/grown-at-home

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/29/us-public-opinion-afghanistan-war

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=b4e39c78-3eb3-43e8-a418-cc61adc044c5

Detroit JCRC - The New Nazis

It may sound harsh to some people to refer to a recognized Jewish organization as Nazis. But after the actions of Richard Nodel, the JCRC President this past Thursday, that may actually be kind words. For in this writer's humble opinion, when you, as a Jew and the head of a Jewish organization, consort, support, and stand in solidarity with those who are known to wish the Jews dead or subjugated, Israel gone, and support Hizbollah and other terrorists, then you have just put yourself several rungs below the Nazis.

On Thursday, Mr. Nodel (who has been written about previously on Talking Tachlis when this small minded KAPO assumed that the shooter of Rep. Giffords was a member of the political right( see here )stood representing the "Jewish Community" with Al-Qazwini (read about Qwazini here) in solidarity against the freedom of speech, Constitutionally guaranteed rights of Rev. Jones. read more here.


Shame on Richard Nodel, shame on the JCRC. Exactly how ignorant are our Jewish community's "so-called" leaders? When our free speech, whether it be that of Terry Jones, or the Nazis in Skokie, is limited, we all lose - an none more than the Jews. Shouldn't they just know better? It was Hitler and the Nazis who limited speech so that what happened to 6 million Jews and 6 million others was "not spoken about."

Is Mr. Nodel so blind that he can't see that he has just handed the Jihadists and those who wish to enforce Sharia Law in our country their first victory on the road to silence those who would speak out about the realities of Islam. And how ironic, that that victory would be handed to them by a Jew.

It is time for us to disband and remove the JCRC, Nodel, Robert Cohen its Executive Director, from the Detroit Jewish landscape. We cannot afford their dangerous antics because these antics will surely result in only more pain for our people or at minimum the subjugation of future generations to the will of Islam.

And where is Mr. Nodel and the JCRC speaking up when the Islamists burn churches, urinate on Jewish graves, destroy centuries old temples, MURDER babies like the Fogels, pave the roads with the gravestones from Jewish graves? They are NO WHERE...yet when a Koran "may" be burned, they stand in solidarity with those who have applauded these disgusting acts against Jews and Christians.


Our counry's glorious history has always allowed for free speech, whether we like what that free speech says or not. As Jews, as the Jewish community, it is our sacred responsibility that we stand up for that speech. Anything else will lead to our demise.

Posted by Aerie

P.S. Kudos to the ACLU on this topic. They must be applauded for coming forward and offering to support Rev. Jones' right to free speech.

MONUMENTAL JEWISH FAILURE: CEDING THE CAMPUS AND ABANDONING OUR STUDENTS

While we applaud the recent editorial in the Jewish News calling attention to the University of Michigan's aberrant, abysmal failure to encourage study abroad in Israel and saluting the cadre of proud Jewish students pressuring U-M to change its policies, (Michigan Daily article and editorial important to read), we at TT believe such longstanding university intransigence is just the most obvious tip of the iceberg... symptomatic of much greater and graver anti-Israel animus on campus. We (together with our network of campus monitors) are very wary about the escalation of anti-Israel activities, some of them sanctioned and even sponsored by college departments and administrations themselves.



The upsurge in the hostile campus climate is indeed troubling and we fear, a portent of darker days ahead. This didn't happen overnight. The sad truth is that through years of communal insouciance, or worse, indifference to the mounting anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on campus, we have become accomplices to the dangers that face our children and grandchildren at our higher institutions of learning. We have been so obsessed with "tikkun olam"ing -- saving the world for others -- that we have neglected to do the same for our own.

For insights into how this sad state of affairs has evolved, TT urges you to read the analyses below from an oracle and giant of the American Jewish community, Charles Jacobs. The original founder of The David Project, he is a principled and outspoken advocate for Jewish students without peer.

Why the Jews are losing the battle for the campus

Charles Jacobs
February 24, 2011

The warnings have been there. In 2006, the US Commission on Civil Rights found that "many college campuses thought the US continue to experience incidents of anti-Semitism." Gary Tobin in his 2005 book "Uncivil University: Politics and Propaganda in American Education," concluded that "anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism are systemic in higher education and can be found on campuses all over the United States." Across the country too many Jewish and pro-Israel students are patronized, mocked, intimidated and sometimes physically attacked, while anti-Israel professors poison the minds of America's future leaders. Yet Jewish leaders have by and large not responded effectively.

How did the Jewish community, known for its rhetorical genius, lose a critically important political battle on American campuses? Here is a thumbnail sketch: In 1990, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, explained on Jordanian TV how the Arab Lobby can and will match Jewish political and organizational success in America (the clip is here). Zogby and his allies recognized that the campus and the media, unlike Capitol Hill, are two battle grounds that Arabists could win by allying themselves with the American left. In both venues they already had beachheads and feet on the ground. The campus was in transition politically, influenced by '60s tenured radicals who had adopted the dogma of post-colonialism, and its Palestinian version, Professor Edward Said's "Orientalism."

Moreover, America was experiencing a significant increase in foreign born Muslim students as well as increased Muslim immigration (many from countries with a culture of vicious anti-Semitism). Zogby focused on forming alliances with Marxist professors, die-hard socialist activists, African- American student groups, gay-lesbian groups and, most importantly, Jewish progressives. He also realized that an emerging anti-Israel Left/Muslim axis on campus could be better organized and benefit from an inflow of Arab petro dollars into prestigious American universities. All this was happening while many Jewish leaders, intoxicated by the Oslo agreement, were abandoning Israel programming.

Today, we can see the brilliance of Zogby's strategy: Anti-Israel sentiment suffuses the campus atmosphere. In the classroom, radical professors express the the dominant narrative that the Palestinians are right and the Israelis are in the wrong. In its mild form, the Palestinians suffer needlessly at the hands of Israeli occupiers; in its more vicious version, Israel is a racist, genocidal apartheid nation. Outside the classroom, anti-Israel groups hold conferences, screen films and conduct theatrical demonstrations that portray Israel in the harshest of terms. Israel's advocates are rudely interrupted, prevented from speaking; pro-Israel events are disrupted; Jewish students are intimidated verbally or even physically, and are excluded from pro-Palestinian events. Pathetic attempts by Jewish groups to initiate dialogue with Palestinian students are rejected. Any acknowledgement of Israelis' humanity is seen as a validation of Palestinian oppression. Our epoch's secular religion - political correctness and multiculturalism - judges people by who they are, not what they do. Israelis are by definition always guilty, while darker skinned, impoverished, indigenous Palestinians are eternally innocent.

Far more than their parents and their community suspect, Jewish students find it challenging and often unpleasant, if not actually frightening, to support Israel on many campuses today.

Through research and interviews with campus activists and students from around the country, we are developing a compilation of anti-Israel incidents and descriptions of hostile atmospheres on campuses. Here are just four recently reported incidents:

Hampshire College, Amherst. Last semester a pro-Israel student was repeatedly verbally harassed by individuals covering their faces. The student was called "baby killer," "genocide lover," "apartheid supporter" and "racist." After receiving an email that read "Make the world a better place and die slow," she moved off the campus. She has now returned but is still afraid to disclose her identity.

Rutgers University. Last month, a group of pro-Israel students and Holocaust survivors were made to pay an entrance fee to an event that likened Palestinians to Holocaust victims. The event had been advertised as free and open to the public; Palestinian supporters were let in without charge.

Indiana University. Last November, five incidents of anti-Jewish vandalism were reported in one week, including rocks thrown at Chabad and Hillel; sacred Jewish texts placed in various bathrooms and urinated upon; and an information board about Jewish studies programs smashed with a stone.

Carlton University, Ottawa. Last April, a non-Jewish supporter of Israel and his Israeli roommate were attacked by an Arab-speaking mob who screamed anti-Semitic epithets. Nick Bergamini was punched in the head and chased by a man who swung a machete at his head, missing by inches.

Now ask yourself: What would have happened on campus, in the media or in the community if these incidents had been directed at African American, Hispanic or Muslim students?

We have the answer: In October 2009, a noose was found at the University of California-San Diego library. Students occupied the chancellor's office. The governor, the chancellor and student leaders condemned the incident. The school established a task force on minority faculty recruitment and a commission to address declining African-American enrollment, and vowed to find space for an African- American resource center.All this - only to discover a few weeks later that the noose was planted by a minority student.

Jewish students and Jewish buildings attacked and intimidated are not a hoax, yet Jewish leaders sit on their hands. No one calls for sensitivity training for Muslim and leftist students about the use of blood libels and anti-Semitism. No one demands students be taught about proper behavior in a civil society or about principles of free speech and academic inquiry. More and more, the ugly aspects of the "Arab street" are coming to campus. With the commendable exception of the Zionist Organization of America - which won civil rights protection for California students under Title 6 - Jewish leaders have remained mostly silent. Without their protest, why should university administrations care?

A failure of leadership: Who lost the Campus?

Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser

February 17, 2011

It was disappointing to read that the David Project - which we co-founded in 2002 in response to the Jewish establishment's failure to address anti-Israelism on America's campuses - has decided to join the mainstream ("David Project steers toward the center," Feb. 4). We are proud of the outstanding accomplishment of the David Project in providing training in Jewish high schools and colleges, but we lament the organization's retreat from precisely the sort of activism required to change a most serious situation for Jews on campus.

We created the David Project in the face of an upswing in anti-Israel obsession among opinion elites - in the media, in liberal church leadership, but especially among the professoriate and radical student groups. It was becoming clearer each day that the future leaders of America were being indoctrinated on campus to like Israel less and the Palestinian cause more. Jewish students, who were unprepared for the tsunami of anti-Israelism on campus, felt abandoned by the established Jewish organizations - even when they begged for help. The Jewish community did not understand the nature and severity of the problem. Or what to do about it.

The problem, as we saw it, was that Israel's adversaries were portraying perpetual attacks on Israel as honest criticism - but were in fact carrying out wellplanned campaigns of vilification. These campaigns included shutting down pro-Israel speakers and intimidating Jewish students who dared - even in classroom discussions - to challenge the Palestinian narrative. The campus campaigns were generated, organized and funded by an international left/Muslim coalition loudly proclaiming "principles" of justice and human rights that were selectively applied - against us. This activity is abetted by many in university administrations who marginalize Jewish concerns and exclude Jews from the "sensitivity" and "hate speech" protections offered all other minorities.

In fact, campaigns to delegitimize the Jewish state are impervious to facts, logic and reason; they actually thrive upon the Jewish community's instinctive response, which is to defend and "explain" Israel's conduct. This response, best exemplified by Mitchell Bard's ubiquitous handbook "Myths and Facts," seeks to disprove each false claim - as though it were simply a matter of ignorance or misunderstanding, a "myth" and not a lie - and to set things straight. This cannot work when your adversaries have no interest in honest discussion. Indeed, each time you prove a claim to be wrong or an overreach, another claim is manufactured. This would have been obvious to Mark Twain, who remarked that "lies can travel around the world before truth puts its pants on." Yet the Jewish community, despite 30 years of ineffectual attempts, continues to try to put on its pants. For most groups, the most natural and effective response to a campaign of vilification is to announce to the world that you are being vilified, and to turn the finger of accusation back on the defamers. Who are these people who tell lies and photoshop the truth under the banner of journalism and academic freedom and human rights? To win, one has to break the silence about them, the defamers.

Our controversial film "Columbia Unbecoming" broke that silence, dramatically depicting the nature and extent of anti-Israelism on campus. It shocked New York as it exposed how radical professors abuse academic freedom, intimidate Jewish students and suppress honest discourse, while Jewish professors remained silent and the administration indifferent. The Jewish establishment was not happy with our film. They urged quiet, controlled, behind-closed-doors meetings - that lead nowhere. Sadly, the film predicted a growing trend: Now more and more campuses are "unbecoming." Just ask Jewish students about Israel on campus.

Rather than deal forthrightly with the deteriorating campus scene, Jewish organizations adopted the "Israel beyond the conflict" method. This approach consciously ignores the waves of viciousness aimed at Israel and smilingly tells the world about Israel's incredible achievements (as though the Nazis hadn't ever heard of Jewish physicists!). But bragging about scientific and social miracles, while not exposing and countering the liars, can at best leave Israel, in the prescient words of CAMERA's Andrea Levin, as "the apartheid state with nanotechnology."

Defense and avoidance are failed strategies, yet they're the ones adhered to by our conflictaverse Jewish leaders. Conflict with leftists and Muslims can fray the Jewish big tent and liberal sensitivities. Moreover, exposing radical Muslims' bad behavior can get you sued - or labeled a bigot. We know. We also know what silence brings.

Reluctance to acknowledge a problem is a common institutional reflex: Announcing that there's a serious problem implies that someone has failed. It also means that now someone has to do something. Meanwhile, all actions are risky - and effective actions can be controversial and may fail. There are so many reasons for Jewish leaders to shield their constituents from what they know: that our community has a deeply serious problem on American campuses that is not going away.

The original mission of the David Project was to change a losing strategy. We had to expose the nature, extent and sources of the assault - and indirectly the failure of the Jewish leadership. We created a new strategy, had significant successes and challenged the establishment.

Despite their stated concerns about the daunting challenges we face, too many Jewish leaders continue to display an unwillingness to speak honestly about the problem, a reluctance - when the times call for courage - to be, in the wonderful words of Facing History and Ourselves, "upstanders" and not bystanders.

Why the Jews are losing the battle for the campus

Charles Jacobs

February 24, 2011

The warnings have been there. In 2006, the US Commission on Civil Rights found that "many college campuses thought the US continue to experience incidents of anti-Semitism." Gary Tobin in his 2005 book "Uncivil University: Politics and Propaganda in American Education," concluded that "anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism are systemic in higher education and can be found on campuses all over the United States." Across the country too many Jewish and pro-Israel students are patronized, mocked, intimidated and sometimes physically attacked, while anti-Israel professors poison the minds of America's future leaders. Yet Jewish leaders have by and large not responded effectively.

How did the Jewish community, known for its rhetorical genius, lose a critically important political battle on American campuses? Here is a thumbnail sketch: In 1990, James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute, explained on Jordanian TV how the Arab Lobby can and will match Jewish political and organizational success in America (the clip is here). Zogby and his allies recognized that the campus and the media, unlike Capitol Hill, are two battle grounds that Arabists could win by allying themselves with the American left. In both venues they already had beachheads and feet on the ground. The campus was in transition politically, influenced by '60s tenured radicals who had adopted the dogma of post-colonialism, and its Palestinian version, Professor Edward Said's "Orientalism."

Moreover, America was experiencing a significant increase in foreign born Muslim students as well as increased Muslim immigration (many from countries with a culture of vicious anti-Semitism). Zogby focused on forming alliances with Marxist professors, die-hard socialist activists, African- American student groups, gay-lesbian groups and, most importantly, Jewish progressives. He also realized that an emerging anti-Israel Left/Muslim axis on campus could be better organized and benefit from an inflow of Arab petro dollars into prestigious American universities. All this was happening while many Jewish leaders, intoxicated by the Oslo agreement, were abandoning Israel programming.

Today, we can see the brilliance of Zogby's strategy: Anti-Israel sentiment suffuses the campus atmosphere. In the classroom, radical professors express the the dominant narrative that the Palestinians are right and the Israelis are in the wrong. In its mild form, the Palestinians suffer needlessly at the hands of Israeli occupiers; in its more vicious version, Israel is a racist, genocidal apartheid nation. Outside the classroom, anti-Israel groups hold conferences, screen films and conduct theatrical demonstrations that portray Israel in the harshest of terms. Israel's advocates are rudely interrupted, prevented from speaking; pro-Israel events are disrupted; Jewish students are intimidated verbally or even physically, and are excluded from pro-Palestinian events. Pathetic attempts by Jewish groups to initiate dialogue with Palestinian students are rejected. Any acknowledgement of Israelis' humanity is seen as a validation of Palestinian oppression. Our epoch's secular religion - political correctness and multiculturalism - judges people by who they are, not what they do. Israelis are by definition always guilty, while darker skinned, impoverished, indigenous Palestinians are eternally innocent.

Far more than their parents and their community suspect, Jewish students find it challenging and often unpleasant, if not actually frightening, to support Israel on many campuses today.

Through research and interviews with campus activists and students from around the country, we are developing a compilation of anti-Israel incidents and descriptions of hostile atmospheres on campuses. Here are just four recently reported incidents:

Hampshire College, Amherst. Last semester a pro-Israel student was repeatedly verbally harassed by individuals covering their faces. The student was called "baby killer," "genocide lover," "apartheid supporter" and "racist." After receiving an email that read "Make the world a better place and die slow," she moved off the campus. She has now returned but is still afraid to disclose her identity.

Rutgers University. Last month, a group of pro-Israel students and Holocaust survivors were made to pay an entrance fee to an event that likened Palestinians to Holocaust victims. The event had been advertised as free and open to the public; Palestinian supporters were let in without charge.

Indiana University. Last November, five incidents of anti-Jewish vandalism were reported in one week, including rocks thrown at Chabad and Hillel; sacred Jewish texts placed in various bathrooms and urinated upon; and an information board about Jewish studies programs smashed with a stone.

Carlton University, Ottawa. Last April, a non-Jewish supporter of Israel and his Israeli roommate were attacked by an Arab-speaking mob who screamed anti-Semitic epithets. Nick Bergamini was punched in the head and chased by a man who swung a machete at his head, missing by inches.

Now ask yourself: What would have happened on campus, in the media or in the community if these incidents had been directed at African American, Hispanic or Muslim students?

We have the answer: In October 2009, a noose was found at the University of California-San Diego library. Students occupied the chancellor's office. The governor, the chancellor and student leaders condemned the incident. The school established a task force on minority faculty recruitment and a commission to address declining African-American enrollment, and vowed to find space for an African- American resource center.All this - only to discover a few weeks later that the noose was planted by a minority student.

Jewish students and Jewish buildings attacked and intimidated are not a hoax, yet Jewish leaders sit on their hands. No one calls for sensitivity training for Muslim and leftist students about the use of blood libels and anti-Semitism. No one demands students be taught about proper behavior in a civil society or about principles of free speech and academic inquiry. More and more, the ugly aspects of the "Arab street" are coming to campus. With the commendable exception of the Zionist Organization of America - which won civil rights protection for California students under Title 6 - Jewish leaders have remained mostly silent. Without their protest, why should university administrations care?