THE ANTISEMITISM PROBLEM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
In 2019 alone the University of Illinois has experienced multiple incidents of antisemitic activity, including:
As unacceptable as these individual antisemitic expressions are, they pale in comparison to a recent attempt to institutionalize antisemitism by making a virulently antisemitic course a mandatory requirement for some university employees:
ANTISEMITES DON’T GET TO DEFINE ANTISEMITISM.
U OF I MUST ADOPT THE IHRA DEFINITION OF ANTISEMITISM.
Groups hostile to Israel and/or Jews urge adoption of their own definition that draws an artificial distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism. The U.S.A. and 30 other democracies have adopted a definition, along with examples, of antisemitism developed by International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). The United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights uses the IHRA Working Definition, along with its explanatory examples, to determine whether antisemitic discrimination has occurred. The university should take a leading role among higher education institutions and implement this definition for use in assessing potential instances of discrimination against Jewish members of the campus community.
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP
Contact Chancellor Jones, chancellor@illinois.edu , or leave a message with his executive assistant Wendy Bertram, wbertram@illinois.edu , and:
