September 7, 2012
Re: Jewish community responses to campus climate report
Dear UC Advisory Committee on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion:
We would like to bring to your attention two op-ed pieces that appeared this week in the J Weekly, the Jewish newspaper of Northern California.
The first is written by Guy Herschmann, a Jewish student at UCSC, who commends the UC campus climate report on Jewish students, stating that it “accurately describes the experiences many of us have had over the last several years with anti-Israel bias and agitation”:
http://www.jweekly.com/article/full/66340/u.c.s-pro-israel-jewish-students-s
The second piece is written by Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and the Peninsula, the largest Jewish communal organization in the Bay Area:
Ms. Gorovitz writes that the UC Jewish student campus climate report and the unanimously-approved State Assembly resolution condemning campus anti-Semitism are both important indicators of anti-Jewish bigotry facing Jewish students at the University of California and the need to address such bigotry directly and forcefully. Gorovitz urges members of the Jewish community to read the UC report and then ask campus officials “if they have read the report and whether any of the recommended policies are in effect on campus,” and she challenges the UC system “to produce a report card within 12 months that highlights whether any of these policies have been adopted.”
We bring these two articles to your attention because we believe they are representative of how grateful the majority of Jewish students and community members are to your committee for commissioning a Jewish student campus climate report, and how important that report’s findings and recommendations are to the Jewish community.
Please note that among the recipients of this email are Jewish community leaders from across the state.
Sincerely,
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
CC:
Guy Herschmann, UCSC student
Jennifer Gorovitz, CEO Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, Marin, Sonoma and the Peninsula
UC President Mark Yudof
UC Regents
UC Chancellors
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
Speaker of the State Assembly John A. Perez
State Assemblywoman Linda Halderman
State Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal
California Jewish community leaders