I gave a college lecture on Jewish identity -- and confronted a mob of video vigilantes

[Behind the Aegis]

As I walked into the lecture hall on the Cal State University campus here, someone handed me a flyer. The headline screamed, “Genocide Enablers Are Not Welcome.” It denounced the evening’s speaker for being “actively involved in financing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza,” and asked how could the university have dared to invite him to campus.

The flyer featured images of human suffering in Gaza and, smack in the middle, my name. I was the speaker the university had dared to invite. I was the object of the angry protest.

It did not matter, apparently, that I was not there to talk about Israel or the war, but to deliver a lecture on contemporary Jewish identity in honor of one of the region’s great rabbis, Hillel Cohn. To the dozens of students and faculty members chanting and waving signs outside the auditorium, it seems, any Jewish leader is subject to attack.

I am grateful that they did not disrupt my talk, and I never felt physically unsafe (after the event, I was whisked away by campus police — Mick Jagger-like — and escorted not just to my car, but all the way to the highway).

more...

[Hekate]

1. Los Angeles Times, page 1, Sat. April 7: An act of interfaith goodwill ends in tears

It is all so heartbreaking. This is another article well-worth reading in full, if you can get a copy of the paper.
Hekate


An act of interfaith goodwill ends in tears
A Jewish temple in the Valley opens its doors to Muslims for Ramadan, but then an uproar breaks out over Israeli hostage photos and a guest speaker

It started with good intentions.
When a Jewish temple in the San Fernando Valley opened its doors to Muslims for the holy month of Ramadan, its rabbis hoped to offer a model of interfaith outreach.
“There is more that unites us than divides us,” Rabbis Stewart Vogel and Richard Camras wrote in an email to Hamakom L.A.’s congregation announcing their plan to rent their synagogue to the Islamic Society of West Valley, whose own house of worship was too small to accommodate everyone for the holiday.

The rabbis understood that their plan was unusual, particularly at a time when death and destruction in the Middle East weigh heavily on Muslim and Jewish communities around the world.
But they sought to transcend that. Their temple — formed last summer in the affluent neighborhood of Woodland Hills when two synagogues merged — would be a beacon of goodwill and understanding, a place where L.A. Jews and Muslims could gather in mutual toleration, appreciation and grace.

Hamakom is a strongly Zionist community that believes Israel has a right to self-defense and self-determination. Many in the congregation were shocked when they read the rabbis’ email.
Some worried about security. Others were bothered that their evening programs and Friday Shabbat service would move to a different location. Most of all they wondered: Why were they notified the same day of the first Ramadan prayer service?
The dissent might have ended there. But just a few hours before Muslim worshipers started to arrive at the temple, a photo began to circulate.
It showed that a display honoring Israelis taken hostage by Hamas in its Oct. 7 attack had been covered.
For many in the Hamakom congregation, the covering of Israeli hostages was a step too far. It represented an erasure of Israeli suffering and an unnecessary concession to political adversaries.
*****************

The partnership between the synagogue andmosque was the product of years of interfaith work.

When Shaykh Suhail Mulla joined the Islamic Society of West Valley in 2017 as resident scholar, Vogel and the other rabbis at Temple Aliyah invited him to speak at a Shabbat service to honor the legacy of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Later that year, vandals painted antisemitic graffiti, including a swastika, on the guard shack at the entrance of the synagogue. Mulla, 51, a former social worker who leads a spiritual and psychological wellness center, delivered flowers.
Vogel, who trained in interfaith dialogue between Christians and Jews in the 1980s,reciprocated by attending a communal iftar meal to break the fast of Ramadan.
Dialogue is important, Vogel said, “because it challenges us to look beyond our assumptions, learn from one another and work together towards a more inclusive and harmonious society.”
Over the years, Mulla and Vogel swapped notes over coffee and lunch about spiritual leadership and how to connect with congregants.
One of Mulla’s biggest challenges was that the west San Fernando Valley’s Muslim community was growing so fast that his congregants could no longer squeeze into his small mosque for Ramadan.
**************

The goodwill continued even after Oct. 7, ….. (much more at link, if you can get there)

************

https://enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/latimes/default.aspx?token=42e23962a5d74614be16bae3d62d13e7&sfmc_id=6532a30f25b3640666bed99d&utm_id=34935325&skey_id=f0185674dd52c0ccd4b79cadf4d6840cd74dca950f70382e51f3c73188047081&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=ENP-email-Subs-eNewspaper-202445&utm_term=eNewspaper+Daily+Notify&edid=5566fb0d-a2b3-4a7d-82fc-4a4c9d9d870c

[SalamanderSleeps]

4. Netanyahu.

[Hekate]

5. Can you expand on that?

[AZLD4Candidate]

6. It's called collective guilt Bibi is Jewish so ALL Jews. . .

It was the same in China when I lived there and the shock I saw when I told them I don't celebrate Christmas. "But I thought all foreigners did." See, foreigner. . .the label for all non-Asians the CCP uses. News stories involving non-Asians also get that in China. If a Korean breaks the law, it's "A Korean citizen did this." Someone from Europe, North or South America, Australia, and Africa do the same, it's "A foreigner was caught doing. . ."

Thailand does the same thing in their news, then adds opinions in news articles like "foreigner come to take advantage of our open policies to let them in."

So, why should anti-Semites be different with passing on ALL Jews are responsible for Bibi because Bibi is Jewish? It's a standard anti-Semitic trope that has been used for centuries.

[tritsofme]

8. I can make it pretty simple. They don't like that Jew, so all Jews are open season.

[Lancero]

12. It's be open season either way, but pointing to him is a effective way to provide cover for their racism.

[Elessar Zappa]

7. What does Netanyahu have to do with the subject addressed in the article?

[LeftInTX]

19. Some people think he's all powerful like Putin

Netanyahu is a product of the people who support him.
Not a product of rigged elections.
Getting rid of him won't change anything because it won't change political dynamics in Israel, which is becoming more and more conservative due to demographic changes.

__________________

Some people are so obsessed with Gaza, they feel that shaming Jews in the US is just another part of their protest efforts. Hence shaming Jews and the word Netanyahu in one sentence.

[Cha]

2. Good on Elliot Cosgrove being

able to give his lecture on Jewish Identity without being harmed and the Campus Police escorting him to the Highway!

[tritsofme]

3. These people are vicious anti-Semites hiding under the cover of "anti-Zionism" it is utterly disgusting, and they fool

no one, except those who choose to play along...for obvious reasons.

And this is just a small look under the hood of your typical “pro-Pal” tool of Putin.

[SunSeeker]

10. Yup. This divisiveness only benefits Putin...and Trump. nt

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. There's nothing "vicious" or "antisemitic" described in the article

The author, Elliot Cosgrove, has been a strong supporter of Israel, and fundraiser for it, in the past 6 months. The protestors see the Israeli government's actions as genocide - a debatable point - and they protested his stance of supporting the Israeli government where they are allowed to (on their campus), in a manner allowing both their free speech and his - his lecture went ahead. After, they peppered him with questions (perhaps leading), and videoed it all.

He thinks that the permanent recording of everything, with the purpose of getting "gotcha" moments, worsens public debate, and increases division. but it was not "vicious", and it was not "antisemitic". There is no sign that objecting to the killing of 33,000 Palestinians makes you a "tool of Putin".

[SunSeeker]

15. Calling a New York author and Rabbi a "genocide enabler" is vicious and antisemitic.

You seem to justify the offensive epithet by the fact that he "has been a strong supporter of Israel, and fundraiser for it, in the past 6 months." What he has been fundraising for is the UJA Federation’s Israel Emergency Fund. The UJA Federation’s Israel Emergency Fund donates money toward equipping hospitals and first responders, aiding those in poverty and providing critically needed trauma counseling. https://www.ujafedny.org/israel-emergency-fund That is not funding or enabling genocide.

If someone repeats Hamas propaganda and attacks Dems with it, then yes, they are a tool of Putin. It only serves to depress the Dem vote, which will help elect Trump, who will let Putin "do whatever the Hell he wants."

That 33,000 deaths figure you cited came from Hamas, and Hamas includes Hamas fighters and noncombatants in that total, and includes deaths from any cause.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper was interviewed on CNN by Anderson Cooper a couple nights ago. He said Israel has taken out 16 of the 20 Hamas battalions in Gaza. The remaining 4 battalions are in Rafah. When asked about civilian casualties in Gaza, Esper said 1/3 of the total casualties reported are Hamas fighters. He added that the number of civilian casualties in Gaza is equal to or lower than the civilian casualties caused by the U.S. and other western nations during urban warfare.

This is especially remarkable given that Gaza is densely populated and Hamas is embedded among the civilian population and using them as human shields.

Esper added that the fact that Israel is engaging in ground fighting, rather than exclusively bombing Gaza, has lowered the rate of civilian deaths while placing Israeli troops at greater risk.

Israel is defending itself, like we would do (and did), yet when Israel does it it's called genocide. The Nazis "Final Solution" killing 6 million Jews was a genocide. The Hutus killing of 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda was a genocide. Gaza is not a genocide. Holding Israel to a different standard than other countries is antisemitic.

[EX500rider]

17. Yeah I've been pointing out the IDF has been having a better track record in urban warfare then the US

Last edited Sun Apr 7, 2024, 02:20 PM - Edit history (1)

It's one of those "close your eyes" & quickly go on the next post to the "genocide" believers.

US fighting in the 1st & 2nd Gulf Wars
1st: 87% civilian causalities
2nd: 67% civilian casualties

Hamas "claims" 32,900
The IDF claims 13,000 are Hamas
That's around 60%

[SunSeeker]

18. I never realized how many people I thought were progressive hated Jews, until now.

I thought antisemitism was a right wing thing, like the Charlotte nonsensical chant about "The Jews Will Not Replace Us!" And the nut jobs shooting up synagogues. But the progressive folks I know mindlessly eating up the Hamas and Putin propaganda has me really depressed about the future.

I have an elderly relative in Eastern Europe who is glued to his RT (Russia Today) programs on TV and soaks up right wing and anti-vaxx stuff on the internet. He is a bigot and, up to now, would say horrible stuff about Muslims. He loves Putin and Trump. But last night, he passed along a clip on Viber that purports to show an outdoor market in Gaza and a man laying on the ground. The captions are in Cyrillic so he translated it for me: "Israeli army in Gaza Strip brutally attacks civilians and children celebrating fasting days!" Mind you, this is the same guy who thought Muslim refugees from Africa were taking over Europe and would end western civilization.

It certainly serves Putin's aims to have this genocide propaganda flooding the internet, and juicing these protests in the US against Jews and Democrats. Funny how these protesters don't show up to protest Republicans.

[Behind the Aegis]

13. And never a shortage of those making excuses for it.

Oh, and the ones who like to blame anti-Semitism on Jews, also real popular.

[SunSeeker]

9. "It was clear the students' goal was not dialogue but performance."

It was clear the students’ goal was not dialogue but performance. I told them I would be happy to talk, to listen, and to debate, on the condition that they put their phone cameras down. An exchange of ideas — by all means. A clip for their Instagram feed — no way. 

They refused; I walked away.

It was all so very sad. An opportunity for dialogue and discourse, a chance to challenge someone’s views and have my own views challenged, a chance to see that despite our differences, we can dignify each other’s humanity. A lost chance, perhaps, to build a bridge.

https://forward.com/opinion/600424/college-campus-protest-student-israel-gaza-rabbi-lecture/?utm_source=The+Forward+Association&utm_campaign=097d4f8a5f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2023_10_24_08_39_COPY_02&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-d59f448279-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

[betsuni]

14. Performance. Really bad over-acting.

[Beastly Boy]

16. "It was clear the students' goal was not dialogue but performance."

Sadly, I encounter this first-hand way too often. What upsets me most in these encounters is not the act of performing itself, whose merits I am fully aware are not meant to be questioned. What upsets me is the dearth of factual information, critical thinking, and the proliferation of fallacies that these performances rely on do drive their narratives.

[Igel]

20. I sort of misunderstood the flyer mentioned.

I was glad that the police and organizers kept those that would enable genocide out of the auditorium.

Then I realized maybe it meant Jews.

[brooklynite]

21. He's lucky...protestors disrupted my neighborhood association meeting last month.

We have never had a foreign policy position.

[SunSeeker]

22. Do you have Jewish members? That seems to be all it takes. nt