November 15th

Program with

US Ambassador

Saperstein, 

End-of-Year

Sponsorship

Opportunities,

& Breaking News

 

As we approach the end of the calendar year, it is an especially appropriate time for you to make a tax-deductible contribution to JLJS.   Your contribution can help sponsor one of our programs - or one or more editions of our newsletter - in your name, your firm’s name, or in the name of a loved one.  Make the donation  in this calendar year even if the event sponsored will take place next year.

Please contact Lauren Esula, lesula@depaul.edu or 312-362-6274, for specific information about sponsorship opportunities.

Even apart from sponsorships, we ask that you kindly consider making a generous tax-deductible donation to JLJS.  You may contribute in either of two ways:

(1)  BY CREDIT CARD:  Go HERE

OR

(2) BY CHECK:  Please (a) make your check payable to "DePaul College of Law" and (b) write "JLJS" on the memo line.  Then mail it to:

Prof. Steven Resnicoff, Director
DePaul University College of Law
Center for Jewish Law & Judaic Studies (JLJS)
25 E. Jackson Blvd., Chicago, IL 60604.

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This newsletter begins by describing our recent and upcoming programs and alerting you to the fact that videos of some of our past programs are available on our Facebook page.

As always, this newsletter contains numerous links to the full texts of articles, legal decisions or videos.  Please enjoy the newsletter, forward it to your friends, and send us suggestions as to how to improve it.

We are in the process of scheduling additional programming.  The following programs are already in place:

UPCOMING PROGRAMS:

1. THIS COMING TUESDAY, November 15, 2016: "Religious Freedom Throughout the World," by The Honorable David Saperstein, the United States Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom.

The program will be held in Room 8005 of the DePaul Center, One E. Jackson Blvd. Chicago, IL from 11:45 am – 1:15 pm.

Ambassador Saperstein, who is a principal advisor to the President and Secretary of State and serves as the United States’ chief diplomat on issues of religious freedom worldwide, will speak on the work to promote religious freedom around the world and to fight religious persecution, discrimination, and genocide by groups like ISIS.

1.5 units of CLE credit will be offered at this program.

Please note:  Our November 1st program on “Antisemitism in the Arab World – an Obstacle to Arab-Israeli Peace” was fully reserved in advance. Please make sure you get a seat to this program by reserving at https://religious-freedom-saperstein.eventbrite.com.

2. Sunday, December 11, 2016: Lincolnwood Jewish Congregation A.G. Beth Israel

This program will address antisemitism in the United Nations and other international bodies, and discuss what we can do about it.  This is a CLE program and is tentatively scheduled from 9:00 am -12:00 pm. 

Speakers will include Professor Steven H. Resnicoff and JLJS Advisory Board member David Levitt, a principal in the firm of Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP.

3. Wednesday, February 8th: There will be a program focusing on the “Sexual Trafficking of Women in the United States.”

More details will be provided when available.

4.   Sunday, March 26th and Monday, March 27th: There will be two programs featuring Raheel Raza. 

The Sunday program will be held at Kehilat Chovevei Tzion, 9220 Crawford Ave. Skokie, IL 60076.  The location of the Monday program is still being finalized.  More details about these programs will be provided when available.

Immediate Past Program:

1. Tuesday, November 1, 2016: “Antisemitism in the Arab World – an Obstacle to Arab-Israeli Peace,” featuring Professors Benny Morris and Salim Mansur.

All people of good will long for a just and lasting peace in the Middle East.  Such a peace requires that the parties recognize each other's right to exist and should consist of a plan to move forward together with mutual respect.  Unfortunately, the reality, not adequately recognized in the West, is that the hatred of Jews and Israelis is pervasively promoted throughout significant portions of the Arab world.  In fact, unlike the situation in much of the world where governments officially oppose antisemitism, many Arab governments throughout the Middle East actively promote antisemitic indoctrination through state-controlled news media, schools, and the like. The hatred of Jews thus fostered poisons the peace process.

This program featured renowned Jewish and Muslim scholars, and was designed to identify and describe the problem and to explore possible ways of resolving it.  In so doing, the object of the program was to help make the prospect of peace more attainable. A video of the program is available on the JLJS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/depauljljs.

CHICAGO:
The anti-Zionist organization, Jewish Voice for Peace, organized an effort to convince the Music Box Theatre to cancel the Chicago Festival of Israel Cinema. Michael Deheeger, the Chicago Organizer for Jewish Voices for Peace, stated, “We want the Music Box Theatre to drop the festival. The festival itself should also be cancelled because it is part of a strategy of whitewashing of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians.” They protested in front of the theatre as it screened “Presenting Princess Shaw,” a documentary about the life of Samantha Montgomery, an African-American woman.”  When asked about this decision, Deheeger stated that he had not viewed the film. See HERE.

PHILADELPHIA:
On November 8th, the 78th anniversary of Kristelnacht, vandels in Philadelphia smashed shop windows and vandelished property with antisemitic graffiti.  On one shop window was written, “Sieg Heil 2016.”  See HERE.

SEATTLE:
A recent ugly incident of antisemitic arson occurred in Seattle. See HERE.

VIRGINIA:
Pro-BDS protestors tried to prevent a Virginia realtor from showing property because the company she works for does business in Israel.  The broker vows not to submit to such bullying.  See HERE.

A. Academic Organizations
The 3,000-member Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has endorsed the BDS movement.  See an enlightening article by Mitchell Baird HERE.

B. Antisemitism on Campus - Generally
Recent studies have confirmed the connection between BDS protests and antisemitic incidents on campus.  See, e.g., HERE, HERE and HERE.

C. Specific U.S. Campuses
1.   University of California – Berkeley:
By now, many people know that Berkeley offered an anti-Israel course describing Israel as a colonial power.  After criticism, the school temporarily suspended the course, but then reinstated it.  As to the course, see HERE.

One hundred and seventy-six faculty members and forty-seven civil organizations asked the President of the University of California system to prevent anti-Israel propagandists from “using the classroom as a pulpit for anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist political advocacy and activism.”  See HERE.

However, the problem with antisemitism at the University of California – and at Berkeley itself - goes far beyond this course.  See HERE.

Not just students, but pro-Israel professors are often too intimidated to voice their opinions.  As one article reports, “Pro-Israel professors are being squeezed out of progressive organizations when, encountering similar anti-Israel and anti-Semitic views, they drift away. Pro-Israel students, faced with surging, hostile, physically menacing mobs when pro-Israel speakers come to campus, may also grow quiet, or even drop out. Witness the ugliness at University College, London, of last week. It may have been extreme but it is far from unique. Similar campus riots have taken place all over North America.” See HERE.

Pro-Israel groups banded together at Berkeley to protest a “Day of Action Against Israel.”  See HERE.

 

2. Columbia University:
On October 25, 2016, the Center for Palestine Studies (CPS) at Columbia University and Columbia’s School of Law co-hosted a program entitled, “Human Rights, International Law, and the Israeli Occupation of Palestine.”  See HERE.

3.  George Mason University, Fairfax, Virginia:
Virginia legislators and others speak out against a pro-BDS conference at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.  The event, scheduled for next month, is the annual conference of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).  The event is to be hosted by a George Mason University student organization. Students Against Israeli Apartheid.  See HERE.

4.  Kent State University:
An op-ed was published in the independent student website “Kent Wired.”  In it, the president of the university’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter, wrote that SJP – along with the Spanish and Latino Student Association (SALSA), Ohio Student Association and Muslim Students Association (MSA) — consider a display honoring Golda Meir to be a “discriminatory…daily” reminder of racism on campus.  The op-ed demanded that the display be removed, alleging that Meir had engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.  See HERE.

5.  Portland State University:
The student government at Portland State University passed a pro-BDS resolution.  See HERE.

6.  University of Virginia:
A popular student housing complex at the University of Virginia was recently vandalized with Nazi-style antisemitic graffiti.  See HERE.

D. International Campuses
1. Canada:
Universities Canada, an organization regulating 97 Canadian institutions of higher education, declared that discrimination based on “place of origin” was now prohibited.  This should help protect against academic discriminations against Israelis.  See HERE.

2. The United Kingdom:
Recent events on U.K. campuses have been mixed.  On the one hand, there was an ugly, violent antisemitic protest at the University of London that required police intervention.  See HERE.

In addition, the University of London’s rugby team recently endorsed BDS. See HERE.

The Israeli Embassy in London forcefully condemned an alarmingly antisemitic speech by Thomas Suarez at a leading London University, SOAS.  See HERE.

Moreover, the former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, the Lord Jonathan Sacks, who has traveled the world, revealed that the only time he felt genuinely afraid was when he lectured at Oxford. See HERE.

On the other hand, the UK’s leading regulator of universities imposed a 3000 pound fine against the Sheffield Hallam University in the north of England for failing to respond adequately to a Jewish student’s complaint of  harassment by pro-Palestinian students.  See HERE and HERE.

 

The Governor of Pennsylvania signed into law a statute that prevents governmental agencies from contracting with entities that engage in boycotts against Israel. See HERE.

1.  United Nations
a.  UNESCO has adopted resolutions that deny the connection between Israel and Jerusalem.  These actions have generated considerable opposition not only from Jews but also from Christians.

For a sampling of relevant articles, see HERE, HERE, and HERE.

A number of recent articles have adduced evidence confirming that the fundamental historical connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

See, e.g., HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

b.  There are also other complaints against the antisemitic actions or inactions by the United Nations.  See, e.g., HERE.

2.  Interpol recently rejected the Palestinian Authority’s Attempt to Gain Membership.  See HERE.

3.  Canada
Pro-BDS stickers were found on products in department stores at one of Canada’s largest shopping malls.  See HERE.

4.  France
The High Court of Paris convicted a Kuwaiti student of a hate crime based on antisemitic messages posted on Facebook. See HERE.

5.  Germany
The Nuremberg City Council banned an antisemitic photography exhibit.  Shouting and violence ensured.  See HERE. 

6.  The UK
a.   A recent poll showed that an increasing percentage of Brits oppose boycotting Israel. See HERE. 

b.  A rabid, expletive-filled verbal abuse against Jews recently occurred in a Manchester train.  See HERE.

c.  Antisemitism expressed in Britain’s Parliament
Baroness Jenny Tonge blamed Jews for the Holocaust and compared Israel to Islamic State, and alleged that Zionists controlled Parliament. See HERE. 
 

Advisory Board Chair:
Sheri Hokin

Advisory Board Co-Chair of Programming:
Mitchell Lipkin

Advisory Board Members:
Kenneth Anspach

Marc Bassewitz

Charles Bergen

Paula Kaplan Berger

Sarah Blenner

Marc N. Blumenthal

Brian Davis

Michael Dorfman

Stephen Durchslag

Larry Fleischer

John M. Geiringer

Andrew  Glatz

Melinda Jacobson

Bill Kanter

Robert D. Kreisman

Arnold Landis

Stephen Landes

David Levitt

Rabbi Leonard Matanky

Robert B. Millner

Alan E. Molotsky

Rabbi Michael Myers

Judge Michael Panter

Patti Ray

Rabbi Barry Robinson

Curtis Ross

Orin S. Rotman

Michael Rothmann

Matthew Rudolph

Joelle M. Shabat

Keith Shapiro

Arnold G. Siegel

Alan E. Sohn

Sheldon Stern

Steve Towbin

Paul H. Vishny

Harvey Abramowitz, Purdue University Calumet

William D. Adler, Northeastern Illinois University

Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology

Eliot Bartky, Indiana University- Purdue University Fort Wayne

Miriam Ben-Yoseph, DePaul University School for New Learning

Ellen Cannon, Northeastern Illinois University

Sherman Cohn, Georgetown Law

Amy Elman, Professor of Political Science, Kalamazoo College

Wiley Feinstein, Loyola University Chicago

Richard Herman, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Ken Krimstein, DePaul University

Jacob Lassner, Northwestern University

Phyllis Lassner, Northwestern University

Michael H. LeRoy, School of Labor & Employment Relations & College of Law University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Wayne Lewis, DePaul University College of Law

Charles Lipson, The University of Chicago

Arthur Lubin, Illinois Institute of Technology

Alan J. Malter, University of Illinois at Chicago

Cary R. Nelson, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, Northwestern University

Richard J. Ross, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, College of Law and History

J. Samuel Tenenbaum, Northwestern University School of Law