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Friday, August 22, 2014

Campus Anti-Semitism

With the Israeli-Hamas war raging, anti-Semitism has been breaking out world-wide as the supporters of Hamas demonstrate, protest, and riot on behalf of Hamas. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin reminds us that it will only get worse as summer break ends and students return to campus in the fall.

http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/7/28/while-global-anti-semitism-surges-dont-forget-us-campuses?utm_source=Amcha+Updates&utm_campaign=c93a673e73-Vulnerability+Jewish+Students&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_81f4770217-c93a673e73-291629749#.U9bLgfldWSo=

Tammi is a friend and colleague with whom I have collaborated on issues of campus anti-Semitism within the University of California system. As a teacher at UC Santa Cruz, she has taken the brickbats from the anti-Israel crowd when she has called them out for their anti-Semitism. She has also never hesitated to call out radical teachers who use their classrooms as soapboxes to spout their personal views and shove them down students' throats. In addition, she calls out university administrators who lack the courage to stand up to anti-Semitic voices on their campuses.

Sadly, courageous faculty like Tammi are rarely found on our campuses.

4 comments:

Squid said...

When the "Radical and Chief" has the anti-Semitic Al Sharpton visit the White House on a routine basis and hires an Attorney General who defended Islamist terrorists in the U.S., uses Al as an advisor and has a Civil Rights unit that has been nailed by the Supreme Court for malfeasance, look to see nothing taking place to protect Jewish students on campus. This will become the "zeit giest" for the campus administrators.

Squid

Siarlys Jenkins said...

Sadly, narcissists like Tammi provide excellent straw men for devotees of Hamas.

Squid said...

I know Tammi and as a licensed MFT and LEP, I can say that she is no narcissist. Do you have a Ph.D in psychology Siarlys?

Squid

Siarlys Jenkins said...

I'm speaking in the colloquial sense Squid, the same sense in which I referred to the idiot granted Op-Ed space in the NYT to bemoan that he's not really equal so long as a Roman Catholic Church can decline to host his wedding to a fellow man, as a whining narcissist.

From all that Gary has posted here, she comes across as more wrapped up in her own words than interested in parsing facts.

The concept of narcissism, as far as I know, pre-dates the existence of Ph.D's in psychology. I suppose you could throw a liberal off their horse by waving your degree, but one aspect of the Progressive Era I view with skepticism is reliance on experts to know what is best for us all. Sometimes, experts can be very helpful. But when they really have something to say, they should be able to break it down into plain language the rest of us can understand. When they wave their degrees and say "Trust me, I'm an expert," they are just indulging in... a kind of narcissism. (Self-admiration, right? Its all about me.)

It has occurred to me from time to time that every time someone gets a Ph.D in psychology, a new mental illness enters the world. In any case, if you know Tammi, you are not an unbiased observer, so perhaps your friendship has blinded you to her narcissism.