Pro-BDS CUNY Group Circulates Pledge to Have Jews “Unlearn Zionism” & Support Terror Against Israel

By: Fern Sidman

In order to strengthen their position of CUNY campuses across the city, the malevolent forces behind the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement that targets Israel and seeks to isolate it from the international community have sought to create a group that will have Jews “unlearn Zionism” and support all pro-Palestinian causes

The Post reported that the “Anti-Zionist Jewish Coalition at CUNY” recently began circulating a pledge with its goals, garnering 36 signatures from students, faculty and alumni.

The group was launched only days after the New York City council’s committee on higher education held hearings to investigate the level of anti-Semitism and Israel bashing on CUNY campuses. At the hearings both CUNY staff and students spoke of visceral Jew hatred on campus as well as threats and harassment directed towards Jews.

The documents that was passed around by the “Anti-Zionist Jewish Coalition at CUNY” took note of the fact that a dozen CUNY officials recently traveled to what the coalition calls the “illegitimate state of Israel,” as was reported by the Post. The group said that such a trip to the Jewish state is “an act of ultimate betrayal towards Palestinian students, workers, and their allies.”

The Post reported that CUNY Chancellor Felix Matos Rodriguez was excoriated for failing to attend the June 30th city council hearing on the rampant anti-Semitism on campuses. Instead, he sent an attorney to represent him.

Weighing in on the issue of Matos Rodriguez’s absence from the committee hearings was Bronx Councilman Eric Dinowitz, as was reported by the Post. Dinowitz, who is the chairman of the higher education committee and head of the city council’s Jewish Caucus said he was  “deeply disappointed” that Matos Rodriguez elected not to attend the hearings on a subject that is extremely important.

The Post reported that Dinowitz said that Matos Rodriguez’s absence and the remote testimony of other CUNY officials does not ‘fill me with hope” that CUNY (which oversees 26 public colleges in the city) will take a leading role in vanquishing hatred directed at Jewish students and professors.

Dinowitz read off some of the slurs and hate symbols that Jewish students who testified anonymously faced on CUNY campuses including, “We need Hitler again,” calls for the murder of Jews, the presence of swastikas, “jokes about Jews in ovens” and finding a Star of David smeared in feces, among others, as was reported by the Post.

The chancellor’s absence from the day of testimony caused him to miss out on the litany of horrific accounts of anti-Jewish prejudice that were related by students and professors at city universities.

The Post reported that former CUNY School of Law student Rafaella Gunz said she transferred to Yeshiva University because, “I feared for my physical and emotional well being” after she was demonized by other students over her Jewish faith and Zionist beliefs.

Joshua Greenberg, a Baruch College student, said he was assaulted for being a “Jewish, disabled student,” and complained about restrictions on prayer, as was reported by the Post.

“It’s completely unacceptable what’s going on at Baruch College,” he told the committee.

A CUNY rep said the university is “home to many membership organizations that represent students, faculty, and staff. These groups speak for themselves, and the opinions they express are entirely theirs, and do not represent the views of CUNY or the vast majority of the nearly 300,000 members of our community.”