Update: Both sides described their versions of events in the Stanford student newspaper. See bottom of article for links to both op-eds.
In February, when UCLA student Rachel Beyda was seeking a place on the Student Council’s Judicial Board, she was asked how she could “maintain an unbiased view” considering she was “a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community.“
The question was widely condemned as discriminatory, and the New York Times, covering the incident, noted that it “served to spotlight what appears to be a surge of hostile sentiment directed against Jews at many campuses in the country.”
That surge, it seems, has not abated. And a Jewish student from Stanford may be its latest victim.
According to The Stanford Review, student senate candidate Molly Horwitz, who identifies as “a proud South American and as a Jew,” sought an endorsement from a powerful student organization. During her interview with the group, Horwitz says she was asked, “Given your strong Jewish identity, how would you vote on divestment?”
The group is entitled to ask about how a candidate plans to vote on issues, including divestment. But tying the question to a students ethnicity is a form of discrimination that has no place in campus politics.
According to the report, Stanford is looking into the incident, telling Horwitz in an email that it “does seem problematic.” The students involved in the interview did not respond to inquiries from the paper before publication.
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However, the interview was not recorded and may come down to her word against the word of the leaders of the powerful Students of Color Coalition (SOCC), an alliance of six campus organizations, including Muslim Student Awareness Network (MSAN), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the Stanford American Indian Organization (SAIO).
In a letter to the anti-Defamation League about the incident, Nanci Howe, an associate dean at Stanford, said the associate vice provost of student affairs spoke to the students involved and “learned there are different accounts of what occurred.”
There are important differences between the question posed to Beyda and the question allegedly posed to Horwitz. Most significantly, Beyda was questioned in the context of a hearing for a student position, which should be agenda-free, while Horwitz was being quizzed by a student group with a openly pro-divestment agenda that was looking for a candidate to advance its political program.
However, in both cases, it was the students’ Jewish ethnicity that was allegedly at issue – and made them suspect in the eyes of people in power.
A year ago, Commentary magazine observed that it was becoming taboo on some campuses to speak out in defense of Israel. Today, being proudly Jewish is enough to rouse suspicions against students seeking a place on college governments.
The divestment debate has often been contentious on campus, and with the demonization of Israel sponsored by the BDS movement, it’s a slippery slope to outright discrimination against Jews as well.
Update:
The Stanford Daily has published op-eds by Horwitz and the SOCC about the incident.
Featured image: CC BY-NC Adam Reeder via flickr with additions by HonestReporting
