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Good morning and welcome to the Campus Crisis Alert. If you want to subscribe,
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1. 📰 Top Stories
Blaze Bernstein Murder. Samuel Woodward, 27, was sentenced to life without parole for the 2018 murder of
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Blaze Bernstein, a gay, Jewish college student from the University of Pennsylvania. Bernstein was brutally stabbed in what the court determined to be a hate crime, driven by Woodward's affiliation with the neo-Nazi Atomwaffen Division. Bernstein’s murder sent shockwaves through Southern California and the Jewish and LGBTQ communities nationwide. At the hearing, Bernstein's mother told the court, “Samuel Woodward ended my son’s life because my son was Jewish and gay. Blaze’s memory and spirit will live on in every kind deed done in his honor."
Deeper. Read an ADL backgrounder on
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Atomwaffen Division for more about this neo-Nazi group which is preparing for a race war.
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Redwood City, CA. A
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lawsuit on behalf of several Jewish K-12 students was filed against the Sequoia Union High School District, alleging failure to address a hostile environment for Jewish students at Woodside and Menlo-Atherton High Schools. Incidents cited include swastika graffiti, harassment by peers and teachers and anti-Jewish narratives in presentations. The suit alleges that despite complaints, the district took no action. The plaintiff’s Attorney Ryan Weinstein said of the students in the case: "They were targeted to such a degree that advisers and teachers advised them to hide outward identity signs of their Jewish faith.”
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Berkeley. After Oct. 7 and the hate it spawned around the world shook the Jewish community, people mobilized to push back. At the University of California, Berkeley, a group of graduates banded together to
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launch the Cal Jewish Alumni Network to advocate for a safe and inclusive environment for Jews on campus. The group already has around 200 members and they hope to reach 3,000 by the spring. As one group leader, Connie Unger asserted: “I don’t join women’s groups and I don’t join Jewish groups. But what happened on Oct. 7, obviously, and the aftermath of it, the rise of antisemitism, caused me to change.”
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Berkeley. More news from UC Berkeley, where the initial outline of a
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comparative lit course titled "Leninism and Anarchism: A Theoretical Approach to Literature and Film," stated it will explore the genocide of the "indigenous Palestinians by the Israeli Occupying Forces" and asserted that Hamas is a “revolutionary resistance force.” The school has pulled that description offline and responded to concerns by making the revised description much more general.
2. 🏆 Campus Champions
Concerted Action. Last night, the mood was electric at the Kennedy Center in Washington for the 30th Anniversary ADL In Concert Against Hate. Stars like Ben Stiller, Sia and Eden Golan entertained us and inspired us as we all work to fight antisemitism and hate the world over. Among the honorees were students Noa Fay, Luda Isakharov and Einav Tsach, who both on campus and on Capitol Hill have put their college experience on the line in order to speak up for what’s right. Each of them received the Levenson Family Defender of Democracy Award. Scooter Braun received the ADL Spotlight Award for bringing “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29AM” to the U.S.,
where it has provided survivor testimonies and recreated the atmosphere of the harrowing Hamas attack. The powerful exhibit has been in NYC, LA and next month Miami. Honored with the Kay Family Award were recipients Dr. Mehnaz Afridi, Dr. Charles Chavis and Rosette Goldstein. Visit
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www.concertagainsthate.org for more about the event.
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(ADL In Concert Against Hate student honorees.)
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Doubling Down on Defiance. In defiance of protests, encampments and the glorification of terrorism, Jewish students are eager to
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take back the narrative. Louis Danker, a student in Edinburgh, shares how students are rising above the antisemitism on campus by celebrating Jewish life: “So when I say that we’re fighting antisemitism with Jewish pride, what do I mean? Well, the symmetry is striking. Attacks on Jewish football fans? We launch men’s and women’s JSoc football teams. Defacement of Jewish charity buildings? We redouble our Mitzvah Day volunteering. Hateful and divisive rhetoric at protests? We invite our flatmates to interfaith Friday Nights.”
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Upstate Upswing. Post 10/7, Jewish students at
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Cornell University have faced antisemitic protests, a professor saying he was “exhilarated” by the Hamas attack and a Cornell junior Patrick Dai was sentenced to 21 months in prison for violent online threats against the school’s Jewish community. In an interview, Jewish sophomore Ezra Galperin offers his perspective that under interim leadership, the administration has taken firmer action. Galperin highlighted community mobilization efforts that successfully thwarted a pro-BDS resolution and shared the outlook that “I’m cautiously optimistic.”
3. 💪✡️ Am Yisrael Chai
Druze Hero. One
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positive story that emerged out of the day when violent mobs chased Israeli soccer fans through the streets of Amsterdam recently was that of Melham Asad, who is a Druze resident of northern Israel, and a soccer fan of Maccabi Tel Aviv who had traveled to the match. Seeing a group of Arabic-speaking people he noted were planning to assault Maccabi fans, he stepped in and as he described it, “I told them that no Jews are still here, that they escaped. I did everything to confuse them.” Asad also helped other Israeli fans to conceal themselves to avoid attacks.
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Timeless Texts. Thanks to a collaboration that includes the National Library of Israel and the nation’s Ethiopian Jewish community, a set of
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sacred manuscripts written in Ge’ez, an ancient language, will be digitized and made public. Some of the texts are centuries old and survived grueling trips, carried by hand, as Ethiopian Jews left Ethiopia and made the difficult trek to Israel. The effort that is digitizing these text “aims to study and safeguard the scriptures and culture of Beta Israel” (a term referring to the Ethiopian Jewish community).
(Source: Image released by National Library of Israel)
4. 📣 Info and Action:
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Not on My Campus
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Students — how to take action, deal with antisemitism, and organize your community.
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Alumni — how to organize a sign-on letter, answer a fundraising request, or write a letter to a university president.
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Parents — write a letter about commencement, organize a dial day, or get help selecting a college for your student.
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Faculty and Staff — support for impacted faculty and staff, and guidance on how to discuss what constitutes antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and how to provide help to students and colleagues.
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Glossary of Commonly Used Antisemitic Phrases Heard at Protests.
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Campus Antisemitism Report Card — see the grade a college earned in this first-ever report card.
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Report an Antisemitic Incident.
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Are you a student or know one who needs legal help? Contact our
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Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), run by ADL, Hillel, the Brandeis Center, and Gibson Dunn. Hundreds of incidents have been reported. You are not alone!
Do you have something to share with us? Please email us at
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