March 19, 2016
This article was written by Dean Schramm and Janna Weinstein Smith
To the editor: The Times complains that a report including a Statement of Principles Against Intolerance to be considered by the University of California Board of Regents “goes dangerously astray: It conflates anti-Zionism with antisemitism.” However, it is not the report that conflates the two, but many of those who engage in antisemitic hate speech at UC campuses. ("UC's intolerance policy goes dangerously astray on antisemitism," editorial, March 16)
While not all criticism of Israel is antisemitic, the reality on UC campuses is that many students and faculty who purport to be “merely” anti-Zionist routinely deploy antisemitic tropes that have existed for centuries. Framing those tropes as directed at “Zionists” rather than at “Jews” does not make them any less offensive, or any less antisemitic.
The UC regents are right to shine a light on this dangerous and inflammatory rhetoric — and they are right to state that anti-Zionism can be a pernicious manifestation of antisemitism and should be called what it is.
Dean Schramm and Janna Weinstein Smith, Los Angeles
The writers are, respectively, regional president and regional director of the American Jewish Committee Los Angeles.
This article was originally published by Los Angeles Times.
