An incident last month at UCLA, in which a Jewish student was briefly prevented from serving on a student judicial board because her faith would ostensibly lead her to be biased, is part of a trend of anti-Semitic sentiment, especially on college campuses, that has been “on the rise across the country in recent years,” according to a report published today in The New York Times.
When a hearing was held in February for Rachel Beyda, an applicant to join the judicial board, Fabienne Roth, a member of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, asked her, “Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community, how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?” Beyda’s application was voted down before a subsequent revote allowed her to serve on the judicial board.
The bigotry expressed in the question prompted outrage on campus.
But the Times contextualized the incident in terms of a growing trend of hostility expressed towards Jews nationwide.
“We don’t like to wave the flag of anti-Semitism, but this is different,” Rabbi Aaron Lerner, the incoming executive director of the Hillel chapter at U.C.L.A., said of the vote against Ms. Beyda. “This is bigotry. This is discriminating against someone because of their identity.”
Reports of anti-Israeli or anti-Jewish sentiment have been on the rise across the country in recent years, especially directed at younger Jews, researchers said. Barry A. Kosmin, a Trinity College researcher and a co-author of a study issued last month that found extensive examples of anti-Semitism directed at college students, said he had not come across anything as striking as what happened at U.C.L.A.
“It’s egregious and startling,” Mr. Kosmin said. “If they had used this with any other group — sexual, racial, any kind of identity group — they would have realized it was illegal.”
For more on how anti-Israel activists at UCLA intimidate Jewish and pro-Israel students, read Why Are Student Leaders and Jewish Bruins Under Attack at UCLA?, written by UCLA student Tessa Nath for the June 2014 issue of The Tower Magazine.
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