Back to the Future:
The Office of Jewish Affairs 1995-1998
by Larry Goldbaum
February 1998
Collaborative Programming
ALANA/Jewish Collaboration
Black/Jewish Collaboration
Muslim/Jewish Collaboration
The Dialogue Project
One by One: Descendants of the Third Reich and the Holocaust in Dialogue
A Palestinian/Jewish Dialogue for Peace in the Middle East
Transforming Hatred: Sowing the Seeds of Peace in the Middle East
Development of New Curriculum
History of Black/Jewish Relations in the U.S.
Major Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life
Improvements in Campus Policies
Residential Candle Policy
Days of Religious Observance
Jewish Affairs and Multicultural Websites
Jewish Affairs Website
Religious, Ethnic, and Racial Diversity on the Web
Anti-Semitism in the Media
Multicultural Theater Project
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COLLABORATIVE PROGRAMMING
ALANA/Jewish Collaboration
In the fall of 1995, the Office of Jewish Affairs (OJA), the Black Student Union, Hillel, and the Office of ALANA (Asian, Latino, African and Native American) Affairs collaborated to bring Southern Poverty Law Center founder Morris Dees, Jr., to campus to speak about hate groups in the U.S. In addition to a public lecture in the Fine Arts Center, Dees participated in a televised "Town Meeting" with two UMass faculty and 24 Jewish, Black, and Latino/a student leaders. This successful collaboration helped turn the tide of Black/Jewish relations on campus, which for years had been overtly hostile. The "Town Meeting" was honored at UVC’s annual awards banquet as the Best Program of the Year.
Black/Jewish Collaboration
In October 1996, a delegation of 20 African-American and Jewish students, staff, and faculty from UMass attended a conference in Washington, DC, to discuss "Black/Jewish Relations on the College Campus." After returning to campus, some members of this delegation continued to meet. The resulting "Black/Jewish Network," convened by OJA, collaborated on an issue of pressing concern in the ALANA community (namely the perceived disproportionate attrition of ALANA students due to financial hardship), further strengthening the tenuous bonds between these two communities.
Muslim/Jewish Collaboration
In the fall of 1996, OJA invited the Muslim Student Association to co-facilitate a workshop for UMass employees on Muslim and Jewish holidays. (In previous years only Jewish holidays had been included.) This mutually enriching collaboration is now an annual affair. The goodwill which it spawned has created other opportunities for Jews and Muslims to collaborate, notably the Holiday Poster Project and Arab/Jewish dialogue (discussed below).
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THE DIALOGUE PROJECT
One of the most effective ways to promote mutual understanding and respect between diverse religious, ethnic, and racial communities is through dialogue. The simple act of talking to each other can help build trust and friendship. Thus the Dialogue Project has become the centerpiece of our work. This year alone, we have sponsored three dialogue programs which have brought people together from across the vast cultural divides of the Holocaust and the Arab-Israeli conflict. We also collaborated with the Office of ALANA Affairs to bring Edward James Olmos, the celebrated Latino activist and actor ("Miami Vice" and "Stand and Deliver") to campus in March 1998.
One by One: Descendants of the Third Reich and the Holocaust in Dialogue
By sharing their personal stories, these German descendants of the S.S. and children of Holocaust survivors showed us how, through dialogue, we can begin to heal from the emotional scars of genocide. The families of the members of One By One were all directly involved in the Holocaust, either as its victims or as those responsible for its atrocities. Bitterness and shame might well have consumed them; and yet they have found a way to build a bridge to each other’s humanity and, in so doing, to heal their own pain. (See "Holocaust stories")
A Palestinian/Jewish Dialogue for Peace in the Middle East
Najat Arafat Khelil and Reena Bernards, cofounders of the Palestinian and Jewish American Women’s Dialogue Project in Washington, DC, discussed the difficult subject of Israeli-Palestinian relations, the seemingly moribund peace process, and their experience forging an honest yet respectful dialogue across a vast cultural and political divide.
Transforming Hatred: Sowing the Seeds of Peace in the Middle East
Four Middle Eastern students—a Palestinian, an Israeli, a Jordanian, and an Egyptian—spoke about their experiences living together for a month at a camp in Maine with those they had been taught to hate. In a rare public appearance, these graduates of the "Seeds of Peace" program also discussed how the Arab-Israeli conflict has affected them personally, and about their peace-making efforts after returning to their home communities of Nablus, Jerusalem, Amman, and Cairo—efforts for which they have sometimes been labeled "traitors" in their own countries. Although they come from opposite sides of an interminably bloody conflict, these young people have learned to trust and respect each other, where before they knew only hatred and suspicion. Despite impossible odds, these former enemies have become friends.
(All of the above-mentioned dialogue programs are available on videotape
from the Office of Jewish Affairs.)
DEVELOPMENT OF NEW CURRICULUM
History of Black/Jewish Relations in the U.S.
We have consistently advocated the creation of a course on Black/Jewish relations, to raise the level of campus discourse surrounding this volatile issue. As a first step in that direction, Professors John Bracey and Maurianne Adams led a faculty seminar in Spring 1996 under the auspices of IASH, with the expectation that a three-credit course will premiere in the fall of 1999. We have been instrumental not only in lobbying for this course, but more recently in raising funds to support its creation
Major Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life
In the fall of 1996, students asked for our assistance in creating a course addressing some of the issues facing Jews today—issues such as assimilation, religious pluralism, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The result is a three-credit course, "Major Issues in Contemporary Jewish Life," which Larry Goldbaum has co-taught with Professor Jay Berkovitz in the spring of 1997 and again this semester [Spring 1998].
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IMPROVEMENTS IN CAMPUS POLICIES
Candle Policy - In the fall of 1995, Housing Services adopted a more restrictive candle policy which prohibited students from lighting candles in the residence halls. Working with the student leadership of Hillel and housing officials, we successfully negotiated an interim compromise policy which would allow Jewish and other students to light candles for religious purposes in designated lounges. While we support the University’s commitment to fire safety, we continue to lobby for a policy which would allow students to light candles in their own rooms, by prior arrangement and following prescribed safety procedures.
The Days of Religious Observance policy was both clarified and better publicized as a result of our efforts, making it easier for students to avoid or resolve conflicts with faculty. We also provide counseling and advocacy for students who are unable to resolve such conflicts by themselves.
JEWISH AFFAIRS and MULTICULTURAL WEBSITES
Jewish Affairs Website
Until the fall of 1997, the only Jewish resource on the UMass Web page was the so-called "Jewish Student Center"—actually Chabad House, the Hassidic student center. Recognizing the need for a more comprehensive resource, we began developing a website which would provide easy access to all Jewish resources both on and off campus. Our website provides prospective students and their parents with an accurate picture of Jewish life at UMass, while enhancing the lives of current students.
Religious, Ethnic, and Racial Diversity on the Web
In February 1998 we began researching websites concerned with religious, ethnic, and racial diversity, and collaborating with other campus groups concerned with these issues, with an eye toward creating a truly multicultural website for UMass. Our leadership should ensure that the issues of religious and ethnic diversity will not (as so often happens) be neglected.
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ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE MEDIA
Anti-Semitism in Campus Media
The Massachusetts Daily Collegian and The Graduate Voice have published a plethora of anti-Israel and anti-Zionist articles over the past several years, which many people in the Jewish community consider to be anti-Semitic. This has been an intractable problem, both because it involves issues of free speech and because the majority of articles have appeared in the so-called "diversity pages"—pages created for ALANA (Asian, Latino/a, African, and Native American) students to redress complaints of racism in the Collegian. OJA maintains a comprehensive database documenting the actual extent of the problem, and we have engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Collegian staff members, Jewish organizations, and other concerned individuals in an attempt to find a reasonable solution to this complex problem. The problem has abated this semester—thanks in part to the new editorial policies adopted this year by the Collegian. But the problem seems unlikely to disappear entirely, and we will continue to monitor it. (See "The Many Ugly Faces of Anti-Semitism")
Exposing the racist "Spotlight"
The Spotlight, a racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic newspaper published by the Liberty Lobby, appeared in town in October 1997. After receiving a barrage of complaints, the OJA played a central role in orchestrating a community-wide response—disseminating information about The Spotlight and Liberty Lobby to local newspapers, clergy, the Not in Our Town Coalition, campus groups, and Jewish organizations, and addressing the Amherst Civil Rights Review Commission on December 9, 1997. The issue received front-page coverage in the Daily Hampshire Gazette (12/5/97) and, apparently as a result of our efforts, The Spotlight has now disappeared from campus and from town. Throughout the process, we resisted demands that The Spotlight be banned, instead advocating a strategy of education and moral condemnation. (See "Extremist Paper Comes to Town")
MULTICULTURAL THEATER PROJECT
Barebones Theater (1996-97)
This collaboration between OJA and the Theater Department demonstrated that peer theater can be used effectively as a tool for exploring issues of identity and diversity. Unfortunately, it also demonstrated the difficulty of combining the concerns of Jewish and ALANA students. The scenarios enacted by Barebones Theater were conceived from the life experiences of the student actors; and although a third of the group was Jewish (two-thirds were ALANA students), their personal experiences of anti-Semitism were relatively minor compared to the racism which the ALANA students had experienced, and thus were not very effective as theater. So the pilot project was discontinued after two semesters.
This article was originally published in the Spring 1998 issue of "Shofar"
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