ZIONIST ORGANIZATION OF AMERICA IN THE MEDIA     Federal Probes of Campus Antisemitism Have Flopped Susan Tuchman, Esq. director of ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, was correct to state: “Given this sordid history of antisemitism at CUNY, OCR would have been justified to call for the suspension or withholding of federal funding to CUNY." By Jonathan S. Tobin (June 24, 2024 / JNS) No institution of higher education in America better exemplifies the way antisemitism has been mainstreamed than the City University of New York. The post-Oct. 7 mayhem and pro-Hamas tent encampments at more prestigious schools like Columbia, Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania have garnered more headlines in the mainstream press. But on its many campuses throughout the five boroughs, CUNY has become a compelling illustration of how toxic woke ideas like critical race theory and intersectionality have normalized prejudice against Jews. A quick look through the lengthy list of JNS stories about what has been going on at CUNY in recent years reveals left-wing groups, students and faculty operating to create a hostile environment for Jews—incidents so brazen as to remove any doubt about what they were doing or their consequences. Equally obvious has been the utter indifference to, if not active complicity, on the part of CUNY’s administration, in this disgrace. So, the announcement last week that the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) had handed down a ruling on the numerous complaints brought against the CUNY system for violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act during the academic year of 2019-20 (numerous acts of antisemitism since then were not covered) should have been a long-awaited moment of reckoning for the school. ... OCR complaints are an exercise in futility The response from some in the Jewish community to this disheartening development is equally discouraging. The Louis D. Brandeis Institute for Human Rights Under the Law has done great service in highlighting the problem of antisemitism and seeking action from the government. Indeed, its founder and chairman, Kenneth L. Marcus, played key roles during his time in the OCR under Bush and Trump securing agreement about Title VI’s applicability to antisemitism. It represented the students who brought a complaint against CUNY’s Brooklyn College and is mostly focused on bringing cases to the OCR. Alyza Lewin, its president, called the CUNY settlement, “a step in the right direction as it recognizes that CUNY failed to adequately address the problem and sets up federal monitoring and oversight.” If that’s the best that years of efforts to convince the Department of Education to act can accomplish, it’s obvious that the emphasis on such complaints, as if they were an end in and of itself, is little more than an exercise in futility. The reaction of the Zionist Organization of America, which has been active in highlighting the issue, was more to the point. Susan Tuchman, director of ZOA’s Center for Law and Justice, was correct to state: “Given this sordid history of antisemitism at CUNY, OCR would have been justified to call for the suspension or withholding of federal funding to CUNY. At a minimum, the resolution agreement should have required CUNY to acknowledge its many mistakes in the past, and to take steps that would truly enhance its ability to recognize and respond to antisemitic harassment in the future.”   CONTINUE READING     Share This Email Share This Email   DONATE     Copyright © Zionist Organization of America 2024, All rights reserved. Zionist Organization of America | 633 Third Ave 31 B | New York, NY 10017 US Unsubscribe | Update Profile | Constant Contact Data Notice