UPDATED: Sept. 29, 2011, 8:03 p.m.

Anti-Semitism has risen among universities and colleges across the United States, according to a Sept. 12 article on the Israel National News website.

The article, entitled, ‘US Colleges Could Get Sued for Tolerating anti-Semitism,’ based this claim on attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner’s decision to send letters to 150 unnamed universities and colleges, threatening to take legal action if universities and colleges keep ignoring acts of anti-Semitism.

The article claimed no action has taken place to prevent incidents of name-calling, rock-throwing, and outright violence and said most of these attacks were associated with Muslim student groups on campuses.

Zachary Braiterman, associate professor of religion at Syracuse University, said in an email that the threat of a lawsuit shouldn’t be taken seriously.

‘Don’t believe a word of it,’ he said.

‘Israel National News is associated with Arutz Sheva — a ‘rightwing Israeli news outlet that promotes the agenda of settlements in the West Bank,’ Braiterman said.

He did acknowledge he has heard of a handful of cases of anti-Semitism at other universities, such as University of California-Berkeley and University of California-Riverside, but said that extreme right-wing groups, such as Israel National News, blow these cases out of proportion.

‘But the story is not anti-Semitism on American campuses,’ Braiterman said. ‘The story is how rightwing agendas are fueling and cooping Jewish studies and American Jewish life on campus.’Students who gathered for Shabbat at SU’s Hillel Jewish Student Union on Friday said they have never thought about anti-Semitism at SU before.

‘People like to make comments now and then,’ said Rebecca Horton, a junior social work major.

‘It depends on the joke,’ said Abby Leigh Charbonneau, a freshman writing and rhetoric major.

But Horton and Charbonneau said there are distinct differences between Jewish jokes and comments and actual hateful anti-Semitism.

Depending on the context and company, lighthearted Jewish jokes aren’t considered anti-Semitic, the girls agreed that some jokes concerning the Holocaust are too much.

Michael Weiss, president of Hillel, said he hasn’t seen any hate crime on campus dealing with anti-Semitism.

‘I personally have never experienced a hate crime of any anti-Semitism, nor have I had anyone come up to me complaining of it,’ Weiss said.

He said SU’s Hillel shares a strong connection with the university and it helps that there are so many Jews. Jews account for 18-23 percent of the SU student population, meaning there are 2,500 undergraduates and 500 graduates who consider themselves Jewish.

This year, Hillel also had the largest ‘FreshFest,’ the Hillel’s pre-orientation program, they have ever had.

‘This year, there were 110 incoming students with 41 upperclassman facilitators,’ Weiss said.

Weiss also discussed Hillel’s close ties with the Muslim Students’ Association and announced this year that SU’s Hillel and the Muslim Students’ Association will be co-hosting a shack at Shack-A-Thon, an event on the Quad that promotes awareness for those in need of proper housing and raises money for Habitat for Humanity.

Ismail Pathan, vice president of SU’s MSA, also had only positive things to say about the association’s relationship with the Jewish community at SU.

The Israel National News article claimed Muslim students that are getting away with anti-Semitic acts were being financially supported by terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hizbullah. SU’s MSA has no association with terrorists, Pathan said in an email.

‘I would even go as far to say that many of the Muslim students on campus are in fact against these organizations for giving Muslims around the world a bad name,’ Pathan said. ‘I was rather surprised to see such a harsh and general accusation.’

Brian Small, director of programming and student engagement at Hillel, said while anti-Semitism at SU is ‘virtually nonexistent’ it shouldn’t mean that students turn their backs to the issue.

‘I think that it is fair to say that there is racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and the generally negative treatment of many other groups wherever people find themselves. Syracuse University is no exception,’ Small said.

He said: ‘The Syracuse University community, I believe, has chosen to embrace open and healthy conversation, dialogues and debate about Israel, the Middle East and the complicated social and political scene instead of resorting to conflict, hate, et cetera. This is something, in my opinion, to be very proud of.’

seschust@syr.edu

Published on September 28, 2011 at 12:00 pm

Contact Sarah: seschust@syr.edu