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Students and faculty hold forum to discuss anti-Semitism on campus

February 11, 2016
Kinesiology junior Trevor Lopatin speaks about his experiences with anti-semitism on Feb. 9, 2016 at the MSU Hillel House on 360 Charles Street in East Lansing.
Kinesiology junior Trevor Lopatin speaks about his experiences with anti-semitism on Feb. 9, 2016 at the MSU Hillel House on 360 Charles Street in East Lansing. —
Photo by Emily Elconin | and Emily Elconin The State News

The second annual anti-Semitism forum was held at the Hillel Jewish Student Center, or MSU Hillel, on Tuesday, bringing together many Jewish students to share their personal experiences and learn how to report such cases of discrimination. 

Led by executive director of MSU Hillel Cindy Hughey, professor emeritus Ken Waltzer, associate professor and director of the Jewish Studies program Yael Aronoff and Office of Institutional Equity investigator Mwanaisha Sims, the forum touched on concerns related to rising anti-Semitism across college campuses nationwide and the response that should be taken by MSU's Jewish community.

First to speak was Brad Isakson, an international relations senior, whose own experience with anti-Semitism became the spark behind the first anti-Semitism forum last year.

"I was with my friends leaving a lecture hall and they found out I had driven to class," he said. "So they began asking me for a ride back to their homes and I said I couldn't do it because I had other things to do."

One of the kids got visibly upset by this and stormed off and, as he was walking away, muttered under his breath that, 'he'll save a spot on the train to Auschwitz' for me."

The next day, Isakson received a message from Aronoff regarding a recent study done by the Brandeis Center and Trinity College across 55 college campuses. Of the 1,000 plus students they interviewed, around 54 percent said to have experienced some form of anti-Semitism on campus.

The study prompted Aronoff to begin asking Jewish students at MSU if they've come across anti-Semitic incidents themselves, and Isakson replied by recounting his story. When she received his response, they collaborated to create a forum for students to share their experiences safely.

"It made me realize that all these little, small instances are really blatant anti-semitism and they come and go a lot."

Several other students spoke at the forum. Sarah Klein, a psychology junior, spoke of an incident that occurred during her study abroad to Israel last summer. While eating lunch, a student told her that they didn't want her "dirty Jew chips" after she had offered her some.

"It made me realize that all these little, small instances are really blatant anti-semitism and they come and go a lot," Klein said. "A lot of people have had one little experience like me so that could be hundreds of Jewish students having this one experience."

Jesse Yaker, a political science sophomore, is a member of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi. He shared a situation in which their fraternity house was broken into and their composite — the collection of portraits showing current members of the fraternity — was vandalized with drawn-on Hitler mustaches and swastikas.

"It was just kind of the shock that it happened to me, to us as a chapter," he said. "When it actually set in that we were the target of anti-Semitism, that was the hardest part to accept." 

In response to a growing need for students to report these incidents and have it fully investigated, a new Office of Institutional Equity has been created.

Sims, an investigator for the office, was adamant that students take advantage of the office's functions.

"It is important to report," Sims said. "You are part of the MSU community, and if you don't report no one is going to report for you."

As to why on-campus anti-Semitism has risen lately is the subject of a research paper Isakson will present on Feb. 26. A combination of political disdain towards the state of Israel, the history of anti-Semitism in the U.S. and an overall culture of demagoguery have all been suggested as reasons behind anti-Semitism by Isakson and other academics exploring the topic.

Waltzer is equally concerned with why anti-Semitism has been on the rise through the past three to five years. 

"I think there's two things going on," he said. "One has to do with anti-Zionism on campus and the effort to make Israel into a pariah state, which makes Jews feel like they're bad people cause they support Israel. On the other hand, just a rise in nastiness towards minorities and people of different backgrounds, a kind of animus against inclusion."

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