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September 5, 2024
VIA EMAIL
Richard M. Englert, President
Temple University
Office of the President
Sullivan Hall, Second Floor
1330 Polett Walk
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Board of Trustees
Temple University
Office of the Secretary
1810 Liacouras Walk, 5th Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19122
Dear President Englert and Honorable Members of Temple University’s Board of Trustees:
We write on behalf of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), the oldest pro-Israel organization in the U.S., dedicated to fighting antisemitism and anti-Israelism, including on college campuses. The ZOA led the successful six-year battle to ensure that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act would be enforced to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment and discrimination at federally funded schools. We filed the first case of campus antisemitism that the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights ever agreed to investigate under Title VI and have been helping Jewish students enforce their civil rights ever since.
We were horrified that the antisemitic, anti-Israel group that calls itself “Students for Justice in Palestine” (SJP) – a group that is responsible for creating a hostile antisemitic environment for Jewish students on campuses across the U.S. – wasted no time this academic year in creating a hostile environment for Jewish students at Temple University. On August 29, 2024, SJP organized a demonstration on campus demanding that the university condemn Israel and divest from holdings in Israel. The protest specifically targeted Hillel, the center for Jewish life at Temple.
During the demonstration, the SJP protesters called for Israel’s destruction, displaying signs that said, “Free Palestine” and “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will Be Free.” The SJP protesters demonized Israel with falsehoods, holding signs outrageously accusing Israel of genocide, in disregard of the fact that it is the terrorist group Hamas that is openly committed to the murder of every Jew, as evidenced by its recent brutal execution of six innocent Jewish hostages in Gaza. The SJP protesters also falsely labeled Israelis as “colonizers,” when in fact Jews are indigenous to the Land of Israel going back thousands of years.
President Englert did issue a statement to the community in response to SJP’s protest, acknowledging that the protesters were “targeting a group of individuals because of their Jewish identity.” But instead of immediately and forcefully condemning their conduct, he effectively encouraged them to continue to protest, by immediately affirming their right “to engage in peaceful and orderly demonstrations” – which does not describe how SJP and its allies conducted themselves then or on other occasions.
Furthermore, President Englert only mildly scolded the SJP protesters, describing their conduct as “not acceptable.” He was equally mild in describing Temple’s reaction to the SJP protesters’ deliberate targeting of the Jewish community, saying that the university is “deeply saddened and concerned by these events.”
This is a far cry from how President Englert and other university leaders responded when other groups were targeted by hate and bias. In 2017, when racist posters were posted on campus, President Engler was direct and forceful in condemning the conduct. In an email to the community, President Englert wrote: “These fliers were disgusting, intimidating and hateful, and they have no place on our campus. . . . Personally, I found the fliers despicable, and it breaks my heart that this occurred at Temple.”
Similarly, in June 2020, President Englert, together with other university leaders, issued a strong statement condemning anti-Black racism after the death of George Floyd. He expressed “outrage” at and said he was “appalled by” incidents of violence against Black people. In response to racist comments on social media from incoming and current students, President Engler was equally strong in the same statement: He (and other university leaders) said, “Make no mistake, these racist statements are repugnant.” He also said that he was “disgusted” by the comments.
Again in March 2021, in response to the killing of eight people in Atlanta most of whom were of Asian descent, President Englert issued a forceful statement to the Temple community, condemning bias and violence directed against Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Though acknowledging that it was not clear what motivated the killing of the eight people, President Englert nevertheless expressed “outrage” at the repeated incidents of bias and violence against Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in this country and he “condemned” the incidents.
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