JTA — After the Guardian reported on Sunday that lots of of Northwestern College college students have been being blocked from lessons after they refused to look at an antisemitism coaching video, the varsity provided a clarification on Monday: The actual variety of college students penalized is lower than three dozen.
However different components of the story stay unchanged: The scholars are boycotting the video over what they allege is “biased” content material within the video that the college started requiring this 12 months in response to antisemitism allegations tied to pro-Palestinian protests on campus.
In a letter to Northwestern directors final month, over 200 college students, college and others not affiliated with the college criticized the “Antisemitism Right here/Now” coaching video for being “denialist, unscholarly, discriminatory and morally dangerous.”
The 17-minute video was created by the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, Chicago’s Jewish federation, at Northwestern’s request final 12 months. The Guardian story quoted the module’s critics as saying it’s biased in favor of Israel and mentioned it does little to guard Jews.
The video, which the Jewish Telegraphic Company reviewed, affords a fundamental historical past of Judaism, Israel and antisemitism. It says that some criticism of Israel can veer into or sound like antisemitism however emphasizes a number of instances that not all critiques of Israel are antisemitic.
It does say that anti-Zionism is normally antisemitic.
“Anti-Zionism is the opposition to the Jewish proper of self-determination. Anti-Zionism additionally takes many types, most of that are antisemitic, as a result of they work towards Jewish human rights,” an unnamed rabbi narrator says. “Anti-Zionism isn’t the identical as Israel criticism. Democracies thrive underneath critique. Israel criticism is okay if/so long as it’s not based mostly on conspiracy theories about Jews, distortions of historical past or antisemitic tropes.”
The video opens with a disclaimer from the rabbi, who seems to be Jonathan Posner of Metro Chicago Hillel, which JUF helps, noting that some Jews “might disagree” with the data provided.
“There are Jewish individuals who might disagree with among the issues that will likely be introduced, and that’s okay. Jewish tradition values disagreement and debate. This coaching is consultant of nearly all of Jewish folks,” the narrator mentioned.
In a press release, the college mentioned that college students have been “not required to agree with the coaching modules” however did must attest they’d abide by the Scholar Code of Conduct. (The boycotting college students’ letter additionally criticized the code of conduct for imposing limitations on pupil protest.)
The coaching video was endorsed by Michael Simon, the manager director of Northwestern Hillel, who mentioned in an e-mail that it was “essential” to boost consciousness about antisemitism and that the coaching served as a “leaping off level” for additional studying on the faculty.
For Claire Conner, a junior at Northwestern and the scholar president of Hillel, her fellow college students’ boycott of the antisemitism coaching video got here as a shock.
“I used to be actually stunned after I first heard of the boycott in regards to the coaching as a result of I had simply watched the coaching, and I used to be truly stunned by the extent of pluralism and nuance within the video, which made it much more complicated that folks have been protesting it,” mentioned Conner.
Conner famous that college students weren’t required to agree with the coaching, and mentioned it was “disappointing” that some had refused to take part.
“No person is required to agree with the contents of the coaching. The one factor that’s required is that they pay attention,” Conner mentioned. “So it’s disappointing to see that so many college students have refused to even take heed to an understanding of Jewish historical past, of our tradition and of dangerous prejudice that the overwhelming majority of Jews determine with.”
The necessary coaching was introduced by the varsity in March in an e-mail to the scholar physique that cited US President Donald Trump’s January 29 government order, “Additional Measures to Combat Anti-Semitism.”
Final 12 months, as pro-Palestinian protests continued to roil campuses throughout the nation, Northwestern grew to become one of many first colleges to enter direct negotiations with protesters, prompting the varsity’s antisemitism committee to resign en masse over criticism of the deal.
In April, the varsity confronted a virtually $800 million freeze in federal funding by the Trump administration over allegations that it had didn’t mitigate antisemitism on its campus. Forward of the autumn semester, after over a 12 months of criticism over his dealing with of pro-Palestinian protesters and antisemitism on campus, the varsity’s Jewish president, Michael Schill, resigned.
From left to proper: Northwestern College President Michael Schill, Rutgers College President Jonathan Holloway and Frederick Lawrence testify at a listening to known as ‘Calling for Accountability: Stopping Antisemitic Faculty Chaos’ on the Home Committee on Schooling and the Workforce, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Might 23, 2024. (Michael A. McCoy/Getty Pictures/AFP)
Whereas Conner mentioned that the campus local weather had reached its tensest level following the October 7, 2023, Hamas invasion of Israel and the campus protests towards the following struggle in Gaza, she felt that Northwestern had since “made massive steps in the suitable route” and the general really feel of the campus now was “comparatively calm.”
In response to JUF, the video was created in compliance with the Worldwide Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, a extensively adopted definition that has been criticized for characterizing some anti-Israel speech as examples of antisemitism.
The boycott letter homed in on that difficulty because it outlined a litany of objections.
“Though it claims that criticism of Israeli state insurance policies is allowed, the video extends the definition of anti-semitism to situations the place imagery and language are directed on the violence perpetrated by the State of Israel,” the letter mentioned in regards to the video. “Thus, whereas political criticism is alleged to be permitted in idea, this seems under no circumstances to be the case in observe.”
The letter additionally condemned the video for stopping Palestinian college students from “advocating for Palestinian self-determination, because the video prohibits any critique of a state construction which privileges Jews over non-Jews.”
It continued, “We’re additionally involved that the cynical use of an anti-discrimination coaching to ban any dissent towards the actions of a right-wing authorities will degrade the credibility and integrity of the very anti-discrimination protections the coaching claims to be selling.”
The Guardian story additionally cites a pupil organizer, Micol Bez, as saying that JUF opposed a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.
College students collect on the anti-Israel Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the campus of Northwestern College on April 25, 2024, in Evanston, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Pictures/AFP)
That declare might have referred to a January 2024 ceasefire decision passed by the Chicago City Council that JUF opposed for being “one-sided,” in keeping with Dan Goldwin, the federation’s chief public affairs officer.
“What we imagine is we’d like to see a cessation of violence as rapidly as doable, with the return of our hostages and transferring on to one thing higher,” mentioned Goldwin. “However no, we’re not against a ceasefire, we’re against a really particular ceasefire decision pending in entrance of the Chicago Metropolis Council.”
A hand-drawn map of Israel included within the ‘Antisemitism Right here/Now’ coaching video from JUF. (Screenshot by way of JTA)
The letter additionally criticized the coaching video for incorporating a visible map of Israel that features the Golan Heights and the West Financial institution, and for utilizing the time period “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical title for the West Financial institution favored by Israel’s authorities and its right-wing supporters.
Goldwin mentioned the group had purposefully used a “hand-drawn, cartoonish-style” map of Israel to keep away from “making an attempt to prejudge what precise borders would or ought to appear to be.” The phrase Judea, he mentioned, was meant to underscore a degree within the video, not endorse the Israeli authorities’s language.
“The context the place it’s within the video is to principally give folks a normal orientation as to the place Israel is, the place our historical homeland is, the place the Jews got here from, the phrase Judea and what it means. That’s the place the phrase Jew comes from,” Goldwin mentioned. “It was not meant to be a precise political delineation.”
In response to the coaching, the Northwestern chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace, an anti-Zionist pupil group, devised another antisemitism coaching scheduled for Tuesday in a college constructing. The scholar group didn’t reply to requests for remark from the Jewish Telegraphic Company.
“As antisemitism each rises internationally and on the similar time is weaponized to repress Palestinian activism, it’s extra necessary than ever to know what antisemitism truly is and the way we truly battle it,” an Instagram post in regards to the coaching learn. “Be part of us on Tuesday for an precise antisemitism coaching by a Chicago neighborhood member.”
Whereas Goldwin mentioned the video had not been deployed at different universities, he mentioned its content material was the identical as antisemitism coaching JUF had provided at different excessive colleges and universities for “a long time.”
College students collect on the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the campus of Northwestern College on April 25, 2024, in Evanston, Illinois. (Jacob Magid/Instances of Israel)
Goldwin mentioned that regardless of criticism of the coaching, he hoped that it could function an “necessary abstract and clarification of the lived expertise of hundreds and hundreds of Jews.”
“The necessary factor to remember is that this video is an academic software, and we’re not at all times going to agree with each piece of schooling we’re given,” he mentioned. “This video doesn’t require you on the finish to certify that you just agree with every thing in it, however we hope it sensitizes you to know the place a few of your fellow Jewish college students are and what’s impacting their capacity to have a fruitful and helpful faculty expertise.”
Conner mentioned she hoped that college students would “reevaluate” their resolution to boycott the video given the rise in antisemitic incidents nationwide.
“I believe the truth that so many college students are unwilling to even take heed to a coaching on Jewish historical past and tradition and on the historical past and causes of antisemitism is very regarding on this time of rising antisemitism throughout the nation,” she mentioned. “I might hope that extra folks reevaluate their resolution and acknowledge that it’s necessary to not less than take heed to this attitude and to interact with it respectfully.”
