Dozens of students in the northwest are punished for boycotting anti -Semitism video

JTA – After the Guardian reported on Sunday that hundreds of students from Northwestern University were blocked from class after they refused to look at anti -Semitism training video, the school offered a clarification on Monday: The real number of punished students is less than three dozen.

However, other elements in history remain unchanged: the students boycott the video about what they say in the video that the university is “lit” this year as a reaction to anti-Semitism allegations associated with pro-Palestinian protests on the campus.

In a letter to the northwestern administrators last month, over 200 students, faculties and others who were not connected to the university criticized “anti -Semitism here/now” because they were “denial, blurring, discriminatory and morally harmful”.

The 17-minute video was created by the Jewish United Fund of Chicago, Chicago in the Jewish Federation, on request on request from Northwestern. The Guardian story quoted the critics of the module to say that it was biased in favor of Israel and said it does little to protect Jews.

The video that the Jewish telegraphic agency checked offers a basic history of Judaism, Israel and anti -Semitism. It is said that some criticism of Israel can enter anti -Semitism or how anti -Semitism can sound, but emphasizes several times that not all points of criticism of Israel are anti -Semitic.

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It says that anti -Zionism is usually anti -Semitic.

“Anti-Zionism is opposition to Jewish rights of self-determination. Anti-Zionism also takes on many forms, most of which are anti-Semitic because they work against Jewish human rights,” says a named Rabbi narrator. “Antizionism is not the same as the criticism of Israel. Democracies thrive under criticism. The criticism of the Israel is okay if/as long as it is not based on conspiracy theories about Jews, distortions of history or anti -Semitic tropics.”

The video begins with a liability exclusion of the rabbi, who apparently seems to be Jonathan Posner from Metro Chicago Hillel, supports Juf, and finds that some Jews can “not agree” with the information offered.

“There are Jewish people who do not agree with some of the things that are presented, and that’s okay. The Jewish cultural values ​​are disagreements and debates. This training is representative of the majority of the Jewish people,” said the narrator.

In an explanation, the university said that the students “did not have to agree with the training modules”, but would confirm that they would adhere to the students’ code of conduct. (In the boycotting student letter, the code of conduct also criticized to have imposed restrictions on the protest of students.)

The training video was supported by Michael Simon, the managing director of Northwestern Hillel, who said in an e -mail that it was “crucial” to raise awareness of anti -Semitism and that the training served as a “starting point” for further learning at school.

A rabbi tells Juf’s “anti -Semitism here/now”. (Screenshot about JTA)

For Claire Conner, a junior in the northwest and the student president of Hillel, the boycott of her fellow students of anti -Semitism training videos was a shock.

“I was really surprised when I heard about the training about the training for the first time because I had just seen the training, and I was actually surprised by the level of pluralism and the nuance in the video, which made it even more confusing,” said Conner.

Conner noted that the students did not have to agree to the training and said it was “disappointing” that some had refused to take part.

“Nobody has to agree to the content of the training. The only thing that is necessary is that you listen,” said Conner. “So it is disappointing to see that so many students have refused to even hear an understanding of Jewish history, our culture and harmful prejudices with which the vast majority of the Jews identify.”

The mandatory training was announced by the school in March in an email to the student body in which US President Donald Trump quoted “additional measures to combat anti-Semitism” on January 29.

Last year, when Propalestinian protests were still at the locations, Northwestern became one of the first schools that took direct negotiations with demonstrators, which prompted the school’s anti-Semitism committee to be mass-criticized.

In April, the school was freezed by the Trump government with almost 800 million US dollars because of allegations that it had not reduced anti -Semitism on her campus. Before the autumn semester, after over a year of criticism of his dealings with pro-Palestinian demonstrators and anti-Semitism on the campus, the Jewish President of the school, Michael Schill, resigned.

From left to right: President of Northwestern University, Michael Schill, the President of Rutgers University, Jonathan Holloway and Frederick Lawrence, testimony at a hearing with the title “Call to account for accountability: Stop the anti -Semitic college chaos” at the House Committee on Education and Workforce, on Capitol Hill in Washington, 23. May 2024.

While Conner said that the climate of the campus had reached its tenth point after October 7, 2023, the Hamas invasion protests in Israel and the campus against the subsequent war in the Gaza, it had the feeling that northwest has “taken big steps in the right direction” and the overall feeling of the campus was now “relatively quiet”.

According to JUF, the video was created in accordance with the definition of the international Holocaust Rembrance Alliance of Anti-Semitism, a widespread definition that was criticized as examples of anti-Semitism for the characterization of an anti-Israel language.

The boycott letter, which was submitted in this issue, when it hid a litany of objections.

“Although it is claimed that criticism of Israeli state policy is permitted, the video extends the definition of anti -Semitism to cases in which images and language are directed towards the violence expressed by the state of Israel,” says the letter about the video. “While political criticism is theoretically approved, this does not seem to be the case in practice.”

The letter also condemned the video to prevent the Palestinian students from “working for the Palestinian self -determination, since the video prohibits any criticism of a state structure that privileges Jews about non -Jews.”

It continued: “We are also concerned that the cynical use of anti -discrimination training in order to prohibit any contradiction to the actions of a right government to reduce, promote, promote the credibility and integrity of the very anti -discrimination against protection.”

The Guardian story also quotes a student organizer, Micol Bez, with the statement that Juf contradicted a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

The students gather on April 25, 2024 in Evanston, Illinois, on the campus of Northwestern University on the campus of Northwestern University. (Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFP)

This claim may have referred to a ceasefire resolutions adopted by the City Council of Chicago in January 2024, which Juf expressed, according to Dan Goldwin, the Chief Public Affairs Officer of the Federation, because he was “one -sided”.

“We believe that we like to see violence as soon as possible, with the return of our hostages and overcoming something better,” said Goldwin. “But no, we are not against an armistice, we are against a very specific ceasefire solution that is pending in front of the Chicago city council.”

A hand -drawn map of Israel, which is included in the training video of “Anti -Semitism here/now” by Juf. (Screenshot about JTA)

In the letter, the training video also criticized for the inclusion of a visual map of Israel, which comprises the Golan Heights and the West Bank, as well as for the use of the term “Judea and Samaria”, the biblical name for the West Bank preferred by the Israel government and its right-wing followers.

Goldwin said the group intentionally used a “hand -drawn cardboard card” by Israel to avoid “trying to look or should” look or should “. The word Judea, he said, should underline a point in the video and not support the language of the Israeli government.

“The context in which it is in the video is to give people a general orientation where Israel is, where our old homeland is, where the Jews came, the word Judea and what it means. The word Jew comes there,” said Goldwin. “It shouldn’t be a precise political demarcation.”

In response to the training, the northwestern chapter of the Jewish voice for peace, an anti-Zionist group of students, developed an alternative anti-Semitism training that is planned in a university building on Tuesday. The student group did not respond to inquiries about comments from the Jewish telegraphic agency.

“Since anti -Semitism rises both internationally and at the same time to suppress Palestinian activism, it is more important than ever to understand what anti -Semitism actually is and how we actually combat it,” read an Instagram post about training. “Visit us on Tuesday for an actual anti -Semitism training of a member of the Chicago community.”

While Goldwin said that the video was not used at other universities, he said that his content was the same as anti -Semitism training that Juf had offered at other high schools and universities for decades.

The students gather on April 25, 2024 in Evanston, Illinois, on April 25, 2024 on the campus of Northwestern University. (Jacob Magid/Times Israel)

Goldwin said that despite the criticism of the training, he hoped that it would serve as an “important summary and explanation of the experience of thousands and thousands of Jews”.

“The most important thing you should consider is that this video is an educational instrument, and we will not always agree with every training that we receive,” he said. “This video does not require that in the end you certify that you agree with everything, but we hope that it sensitizes you to understand where some of your Jewish classmates are and what affects your ability to have a fruitful and advantageous college experience.”

Conner said she hoped that the students would “re -evaluate” their decision to boycott the video in view of the nationwide increase in anti -Semitic incidents.

“I think the fact that so many students are not ready to hear an apprenticeship about Jewish history and culture as well as the history and causes of anti -Semitism is very worrying during this period of increasing anti -Semitism,” she said. “I would hope that more people re -evaluate their decision and realize that it is important to at least hear this perspective and to deal with respect.”