AMCHA Initiative’s Correspondence with UC President Mark Yudof
September 19th, 2011
The AMCHA Initiative co-founders sent a letter signed by over 5,200 members and supporters of the California Jewish community to UC President Yudof, urging him to address the problem of anti-Jewish bigotry on UC campuses forcefully, publicly, and promptly:
AMCHA Initiative’s letter to UC President Yudof, sent September 19th, 2011
October 12th, 2011
President Yudof responded to the AMCHA Initiative letter. Unfortunately, his response did not at all address the key concerns of the Jewish community:
President Yudof’s response to the AMCHA Initiative on October 12th, 2011
October 31st, 2011
The AMCHA Initiative co-founders responded to President Yudof’s letter, detailing why his response was wholly inadequate and offering recommendations for addressing the serious and worsening problem of antisemitism on UC campuses:
AMCHA co-founders’ response to UC President Yudof’s letter to the Jewish community, sent October 31st, 2011
December 16th, 2011
On November 4th, President Yudof addressed the Anti-Defamation League on anti-Semitism and hatred on campus. However, his speech was not only dismissive of the AMCHA Initiative’s serious concerns, it contained several misleading and misinformed statements about his efforts to protect Jewish students at the University of California. On December 16th, AMCHA co-founders sent him a reply to address these problems.
AMCHA co-founders’ reply to UC President Yudof’s address to the Anti-Defamation League, sent December 16th, 2011
January 20th, 2012
On January 19th, Israel arrested Aziz Dweik, a Hamas leader who met with UC students on a University-funded Olive Tree Initiative trip in 2009. In light of Dweik’s arrest, the AMCHA Initiative sent a letter to President Yudof on January 20th reiterating our call for the University of California to rescind all support for the Olive Tree Initiative.
AMCHA Initiative’s letter to UC President Yudof, sent January 20th, 2012
March 6th, 2012
In February, UC Davis and UC San Diego saw vicious anti-Israel demonstrations, including organized hecklers attempting to shut down a Jewish-organized event. AMCHA called on President Yudof to condemn these incidents of harassment and denounce the economic and academic boycott of Israel.
March 8th, 2012
Two days after AMCHA co-founders and supporters sent letters urging him to condemn a series of harassments against Jewish students at the UC, President Yudof did just that. In his open letter he addressed specific incidents and both condemned them and noted their terrible effects on the Jewish community across the UC.
March 16th, 2012
President Yudof’s condemnation of the series of harassments of Jewish students across the UC incorrectly asserted that the UC Davis officials “dealt appropriately” with the organized attempted shutdown of a Jewish event. In response, AMCHA co-founders sent a letter thanking him for the appropriate condemnations and outlining suggested steps to improve campus officials’ response to future attempts to disrupt and harass Jewish students’ events.
Later, in light of the murders in Toulouse, AMCHA co-founders sent another letter to President Yudof regarding campus climate.
March 29th, 2012
The AMCHA Initiative uncovered evidence that a UCLA professor has been using his official class website to promote an anti-Semitic boycott of Israel. AMCHA Initiative co-founders sent UC President Yudof, UCLA Chancellor Block, and leaders of the UC and UCLA Academic Senates the evidence, and posed one simple question to each of them: Is this protected by the UC rules of academic freedom?
April 19th, 2012
The AMCHA Initiative succeeded in eliciting a statement from Dr. Andrew Leuchter, head of the UCLA Academic Senate, regarding the promotion of an anti-Semitic boycott of Israel on a class website. After consulting with top UCLA administrators, he wrote in an email to the AMCHA Initiative that “it is not appropriate for a faculty member to post a political petition on which he is a signatory as part of a course…and that posting of such materials was a serious error in judgment.” Professor Shorter, at the request of Dr. Leuchter, was then counseled by his department chair not to repeat the mistake.
Dr. Leuchter’s statement is an implicit acknowledgement by UC faculty and administration, for the first time, that promoting the boycott of Israel is a political action and therefore subject to state laws and university policies that prohibit the use of public resources for political activities.
April 25th, 2012
In a letter to Dr. Andrew Leuchter, head of the UCLA Academic Senate, AMCHA co-founders addressed a letter sent to Dr. Leuchter by a group called “California Scholars For Academic Freedom,” which alleged that Dr. Leuchter’s recent statements against the promotion of the boycott of Israel are a violation of academic freedom. AMCHA co-founders showed that the primary concern of CS4AF is not the protection of academic freedom, but rather the protection of academics who wish to exploit the privilege of academic freedom in order to promote an academic boycott of Israel, which, ironically, itself been declared a violation of academic freedom.
