AMCHA releases web page collecting testimonies of anti-Semitism on campus

The AMCHA Initiative, a watchdog organization that works to investigate and combat anti-Semitism in American universities, launched a new web page last month to collect testimonies from students of on-campus incidents.

Director and co-founder Tammi Rossman-Benjamin said AMCHA created the page because of concern over a rise in campus anti-Semitism.

“We hear regularly from Jewish students who feel targeted, harassed, threatened, and even assaulted on campus,” she said, adding that a recent study conducted by Trinity College and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law reported 54 percent of Jewish students having witnessed or personally experienced anti-Semitism on campus.

Rossman-Benjamin said the student testimonies came from previously published and public accounts of student government meetings, legislative hearings, and news articles. The student testimonies come from more than 40 schools and 120 speakers. Many students are quoted multiple times under their school and are identified first by their school, then their first name. They’re organized by school in order to make it easier for students, parents, university leaders, and legislators to navigate. As of now, she said, the testimonies are only written, but AMCHA has been looking at the possibility of video and audio recordings.

Rossman-Benjamin said she hopes the compilation of concerns shared by these students will help university leaders and elected officials to understand the significance of the problem, and take action. The percentage of students who have witnessed or experienced anti-Semitism is “frightening and devastating,” she said. “Students should know they are not alone.”

To that end, she said, they’ve been successful. “The community is very appreciative,” she said.

AMCHA has faced controversy over its stated mission and tactics before. In October 2014, more than 40 professors of Jewish studies signed a statement criticizing AMCHA for its actions, stating that “AMCHA’s tactics are designed to stifle debate on issues debated in Israel and around the world, and the presumption that students must be protected from their own universities is misguided and destructive.”

The statement, published in the Forward, added that “[e]fforts such as these do not promote academic integrity, but rather serve to deaden the kind of spirited academic exchange that is the lifeblood of the university.”

Working on the project with AMCHA is StandWithUs, a pro-Israel advocacy organization. Roz Rothstein, the organization’s CEO and co-founder, said in a statement sent to New Voices that “if we ignore modern anti-Semitism and/or the double standard (of allegations and blame) against only Israel, the lies or omission of context can and do amount to incitement towards hatred or violence.”

She added that a campus should “represent the freedom to discuss opinions openly”, and students shouldn’t risk “persecution” because they’re Jewish or support Israel.

According to Rossman-Benjamin, AMCHA hasn’t received any complaints from Jewish students who feel this project isn’t representative of their campus.

Not everyone thinks AMCHA’s tactics are a positive step towards dealing with anti-Semitism.

Last year, Zev Hurwitz, a graduate of UC San Diego and former editor in chief of the UCSD Guardian, wrote an opinion piece in New Voices arguing that the data of a UC campus climate survey didn’t accurately reflect the current climate on campus, and AMCHA’s assessment of campus anti-Semitism didn’t actually represent the situation at UCSD.

“While it’s true that anti-Semitism does exist in problematic quantities on many campuses, AMCHA, while meaning well, can actually do a lot of harm by being as radical as it has been,” Hurwitz told New Voices via email.

“Constantly classifying the campus as a shooting range for Jewish students is not the complete story, nor is it helpful to the Jewish communities on those campuses who suffer dropping Jewish enrollment and lose Jewish manpower for positive campus Jewish experiences.”

 

Jackson Richman is a student at The George Washington University.