AMCHA’S Responses to Antisemitic Activity at Tufts University
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2. Jewish students were excluded from full participation in campus life when a divestment vote was held during Passover, despite the repeated objections of the Jewish community to merely postpone the vote so that Jewish students could have a voice and vote in the matter.
- INCIDENT: A student group, Students for Justice in Palestine, made a calculated decision to place an anti-Israel divestment resolution on the Senate agenda on the evening before the Jewish holiday of Passover, at a time when many Jewish students would be unable to attend the student government meeting. Despite widespread outrage within the Tufts Jewish community and the fact that more than 50 students had emailed their senators, pleading with them to postpone the vote until after the Jewish holiday, the Tuft’s Community Union Senate ignored their request, went ahead with the vote, and thereby concurred in the targeted and deliberate exclusion of Jewish students.
- 4/27/17 – AMCHA’S RESPONSE: AMCHA Initiative coordinated a coalition letter of 45 groups to President Monaco stressing, “The actions of the TCU Senate and promoters of the anti-Israel divestment resolution have demonstrated a clear disdain for the most fundamental values of the University and resulted in a serious violation of Jewish students’ rights.” The letter then went on to detail five recommendations the University could take to “ensure that Jewish students, and all Tufts students, are free to express their opinions, beliefs and identities and to fully participate in campus life, now and in the future.”
1. At least one swastika, and possibly several, were painted on vehicles early Saturday morning, March 29, 2015, outside the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity.
- INCIDENT: At least one swastika, and possibly several, were painted on vehicles early Saturday morning, March 29, 2015, outside the Theta Delta Chi Fraternity. This is the fourth antisemitic incident at Tufts University in less than two years (April 2013, June 2014, December 2014 and March 2015).
- 4/2/15 – AMCHA’S RESPONSE: AMCHA Initiative coordinated a coalition response of 21 groups who signed a letter to President Monaco stressing, “These antisemitic acts often follow anti-Israel BDS campaigns and other anti-Israel activity, such as the Students for Justice in Palestine-sponsored “Israel Apartheid Week” earlier in the month, which included a panel with Tufts faculty members…Campus antisemitism is a serious and growing problem…In the last year, more than 15 college and university campuses around the country have been defaced with swastikas, in each case causing particular distress to Jewish students…We encourage you to take the following steps immediately to deter future acts of anti-Jewish bigotry…”