DV Journal

University of Pennsylvania officials announced a new Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion to deal with antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus. It was one of the changes called for by the university’s Task Force on Antisemitism and its Presidential Commission on Countering Hate and Building Community.

The announcement comes in the wake of anger over anti-Israel protests on the Penn campus in the months after the Hamas Oct. 7 terror attack. It has been home to some of the nation’s most high-profile, pro-Palestinian protests, including an encampment of anti-Israel activists.

And former Penn president Liz Magill’s testimony before Congress about the school’s mishandling of anti-Jewish actions on campus that was so inept, she was forced to resign.

For Jewish students and their allies, creating the new office is an important step.

“We commend the University of Pennsylvania for the establishment of an Office of Religious and Ethnic Inclusion to address antisemitism and Islamophobia on campus,” said Michael Balaban, President and CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.

While a permanent head of the office will be appointed after a search, Majid Alsayegh and Steve Ginsburg were appointed co-leaders.

Ginsburg, a former executive with the Anti-Defamation League, has experience countering bias and extremism. Alsayegh, who grew up in Iraq, serves on the national Muslim Jewish Advisory Council, a bipartisan group of business, political and religious leaders, interim Penn President J. Larry Jameson said when he announced the appointments.  Majid is also chair of the board of the Dialogue Institute, which engages religious leaders in discussions.

Balaban praised that move as well.

“Steve Ginsburg and Majid Alsayegh are exceptional individuals, and with the University choosing them to lead this effort, we are hopeful that Penn will become a place where the Jewish community and Jewish expression can thrive.

“As we approach the one-year anniversary of Oct. 7 and campus protests continue to devolve into student harassment and intimidation, this office will be an important resource for ensuring that all students feel safe and protected on campus,” Balaban said.

Many of the school’s Jewish students say they feel unsafe, and some of them filed a federal lawsuit against the Ivy League university.

In July, Jewish students testified before the Pennsylvania Senate about how they’ve been treated on campuses, including at Penn.

“Myself and other students wearing kippahs were called ‘Nazis’ and ‘child killers,’” he said. “Chants of ‘Al Qassam make us proud’ (Al Qassam refers to the military wing of Hamas). Protestors telling me, ‘Hamas should do it again’ while we were displaying footage of the Oct. 7 massacre, and clapping when the video displayed a woman being raped. Again, clapping when a woman was shown being raped,” Penn student Benjamin Messafi told the senators.

“Having to evacuate Hillel, the only safe spot for Jews on campus, because there was an active bomb threat on the building. Classroom buildings and libraries being blocked and occupied by non-student protestors during finals week,” he added.

The American Jewish Committee’s Center for Education Advocacy also praised Penn’s actions.

“At a time when antisemitism and other forms of religious and ethnic hatred have roiled many college and university campuses, it is essential to explore new ways to promote constructive dialogue and ensure a safe, supportive environment for all students and faculty,” the organization said in a statement to DVJournal. “We welcome this move by Penn. By using this office as the sole point of contact to investigate religious and ethnic discrimination, the Penn community will now be in a better position to know who will be held accountable to ensure any complaints are promptly investigated and resolved.”

But Rav Shai Cherry, the rabbi at Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, urged supporters of Jewish students to withhold judgment until they see results.

“Combatting antisemitism is a good idea. Who would argue otherwise?” Cherry said. “But no one will be able to reasonably assess the efficacy of Penn’s initiative until we see guidelines and evidence of how they treat specific incidents and complaints.

“What happened at Columbia University was a dismissal of Jewish students’ sense of being under threat. Such a summary dismissal is an abdication of the university’s responsibility. On the other hand, a feeling of being under threat is not sufficient justification, in itself, to take disciplinary action. There needs to be a third party to evaluate the details and circumstances of the situation. Let’s hope that Penn’s new office serves as a model for the rest of the academic world.”

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What is life like for Jewish students on college campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs?

Barak Mendelsohn, a professor of political science at Haverford College, posted a message to X from a Jewish student who was considering coming to Haverford this fall but decided not to.

“First, [I] had some great conversations with other students, but when they hear that I went to Jewish Day School and am a Jew, I get asked almost immediately if I support Israel, and if I’m Zionist, I either get blocked or ridiculed by other Haverford students who I barely even know,” the student wrote to Mendelsohn, to partly explain the decision.

Mendelsohn believes that person is one of many Jewish students who have chosen not to attend the small but prestigious college founded by Quakers in 1833.

Because it’s a small college rather than a larger university, students can’t easily avoid others who harass them, Mendelsohn said.

“It’s a pressure cooker [for the Jewish students],” Mendelsohn told DVJournal. “The social pressures on students here are just tremendous. And to hear stories from students, where people they thought were their friends, telling them that because they are Zionist, which means believing, just believing, in Israel’s right to exist, is a huge part of our identity…[they say] ‘I will not be your friend. We cannot be in connection. You got to reject that part of your identity.’ Now imagine if that kind of pressure on gays [or] students of color. However, that [antisemitism] seems to be completely socially acceptable among the students.”

“And my heart just bleeds for them because I can’t protect them,” said Mendelsohn.

The college administration “seems content on having fewer and fewer” Jewish students.  It’s because of their notion of the world, their DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] ideology that divides everyone into oppressors and oppressed, that puts Jews inherently as the White oppressors.”

In May, the Deborah Project, a public interest law firm, sued Haverford College in federal court on behalf of “Jews at Haverford,” alleging civil rights violations against Jewish students.

“Haverford College has repeatedly, officially, refused to condemn Hamas for the atrocities it committed against Jews on Oct. 7, 2023, even though the impact of those atrocities on Jewish students at Haverford was surely as brutal as the impact on students of color when a Black man was killed by the Philadelphia police. Haverford College made no public statement condemning the brutal violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, when over a thousand Jews were murdered, mutilated, burned alive and raped to death, when hundreds were taken hostage, all in explicit and proudly announced violation of international law, videotaped by the perpetrators themselves, so there could be no doubt as to whether these atrocities occurred, or who committed them,” the suit said.

“Instead, Haverford Dean McKnight issued a public statement on Oct. 9. That statement took no moral stance on Hamas’s actions. Haverford College instead compared the butchery of Jews in Israel by a known terrorist group committed to eradicating the Jewish State and slaughtering all the Jews within it to a ‘hurricane’ or other natural disaster—thereby completely ignoring and refusing to take a position on, the gross immorality of what was done, by Hamas terrorists in less than two days to these hundreds of Jews. When a Jewish student leader complained, Dean [John] McKnight responded that, ‘I got emails from all different individuals; I can’t make everyone happy.’”

Pro-Palestinian students have been very active on campus, including holding an ‘Israel Apartheid Month’ of events in March.

Chris Mills, a spokesman for Haverford said the college does  not comment on ongoing litigation. But lawyers for the college filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on July 15. The motion claims the plaintiff’s allegations are “untethered to fact” and that the college is “deeply committed to opposing antisemitism and all forms of hate, both on and off campus.”

Mendelsohn, who emigrated from Israel 20 years ago, said he’s experienced hostility as a Jewish professor at Haverford.

“Until Oct. 7, I was a scholar and an educator,” said Mendelsohn, an expert on terrorism and Middle East security issues who has taught at Haverford for 17 years. “I’m suddenly back to being a Jew from Israel, not even an American Jew. And that’s horrible. It was a huge shock.”

“And to see our Jewish students suffering, being isolated and ostracized and ignored is just heartbreaking,” said Mendelsohn.

A math professor who has been “regularly spewing antisemitic rhetoric that celebrated Oct. 7” was given an award from the student body. That was “sticking a finger in the eyes of the Jewish community,” Mendelsohn said.  The administration could disavow responsibility because the award came from the students, he said.

“It’s just despicable what we’re experiencing,” said Mendelsohn.

Mills said, “We are saddened to learn that an incoming first-year Haverford student plans to withdraw from our Class of 2028. Everyone at Haverford College is a welcome member of our community and deserves to feel so. That principle is core to our values of trust, concern, and respect. So is the principle of respecting the right to free expression; however, that comes with limits.

“Specifically, hateful or discriminatory expression is not tolerated. We are investigating this matter and have invited the student to share the posts with us so we can learn more. The outcome of our investigation will determine next steps, including disciplinary action if appropriate. Our Office of Student Life is in contact with this student to fully understand the matter and to provide support,” he said.

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