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May 9, 2002 Today, all day, I have been listening to the reactions of students, parents, and community members who were on campus yesterday. I have received e-mail 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 (San Francisco State University) 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. SHOVED AGAINST THE WALL 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 holocaust, 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. DOUBLE STANDARD 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? Postscript:The incident described here is, unfortunately, not in isolation. In the first few months of 2002, there have been over 50 documented cases of anti-Semitic acts in and around the Bay Area. These include an attempted arson at a synagogue in Berkeley, and a synagogue in San Francisco that was fire-bombed. The campus scene has been violent as well. In recent weeks at UC Berkeley, a brick was thrown through the Hillel windows, Hillel property was spray-painted with "Hate Jews," and a rabbi's son was beaten up, requiring stitches to his head.
Published: Sunday, May 19, 2002
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I'm so sorry that this happened
Hello, I am so sorry that this happened. Right now, I am ashamed to be a student at SFSU. This school seems to have such double standards and I feel so let down. It is not a liberal, tolerant place at all. The whole thing about tolerance and diversity is obviously nothing more than a PR ploy to protect the school's image, which is the only thing that matters to the powers that be. I have seen similar, more subtle hypocrisies in the music department, of professors looking the other way concerning their favorite students. Also, I noticed a professor in a human sexuality class who is quite well known give preferential treatment to certain students in whom he had a personal investment. At this point, I simply want to graduate and move on to graduate school in a different region of the country
(2) Anonymous 4/16/2004
Very sorry that this happened.
I am an alumni of SFSU (M.F.A., '98) and appreciate your article. You are very courageous to publicly document this event. It is beyond comprehension that any plea for peace could be challenged with such anger.
(3) debi 7/1/2002
anti-
Shalom, reading this made my stomach literally hurt, i am in Florida, and i encountered a arab running a convenient store who saw my star of david around my neck, and i felt the hate first hand as he and i carried on a pretenious polite conversation , never had i felt that feeling. its horrible but being only five one and a woman and a america all my life, i didnt back down from his sneers and jeers , i thought "how dare he come to my country and hate me for no reason!" jews must carry something to protect themselves or do more than stand there and take the hate mobs , they must have that spirit of courage instead of the spirit of 'the persucuted and Ohhhh im a jew so i must be always hated" this isnt my fate jew or not im human and i dare anyone to try to take that from me, i will fight with my last breath