nation / world
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Feds to Investigate College
Where an Assault Survivor Group
Booted a Zionist Student
Andrew Lapin | JTA.org
T 14
JUNE 15, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
College Hall at SUNY New Paltz in New Paltz, New York, May 1, 2013.

investigations, adding, “We unequivocally condemn
any attacks on SUNY students who are Jewish,
and we will not tolerate anti-Semitic harassment
and intimidation on campus.” In the immediate
aftermath of the controversy, the school’s president
condemned antisemitism but indicated that, because
the student group was not formally recognized by
the university, administrators were limited in their
ability to respond.

The federal investigation will focus on two claims:
that SUNY New Paltz did not respond appropriately
to the exclusion of a Jewish student from a student
group, and that students were being harassed on the
basis of their Judaism.

The investigation itself does not mean the
department believes the claims have merit — only
that they fall under the purview of its Office of Civil
Rights under a section of the law known as Title VI.

The complaint focuses on an episode that CNN
featured as part of a prime-time special on antisemitism
in the United States last year. It was filed on behalf of
Cassandra Blotner, a Jewish student who was, according
to coverage by the campus newspaper, removed from
the student group New Paltz Accountability over her
pro-Israel Instagram post. It was also filed on behalf of
another Jewish student, Ofek Preis, who quit the group
in solidarity with Blotner. Blotner was a co-founder of the
group, which seeks to pressure the university to adopt
greater transparency in its sexual assault investigations.

As reported last year by the New Paltz Oracle, a
student newspaper, Blotner shared an infographic
on Instagram in December 2021 from pro-Israel
influencer Hen Mazzig reading, in part, “Jews are an
ethnic group who come from Israel,” and, “Israel is
not ‘a colonial state’ and Israelis aren’t ‘settlers.’ You
cannot colonize the land your ancestors are from.”
Shortly afterward, Blotner said, her fellow group
leaders messaged her to request a conversation
about her views on Israel. One wrote, “Personally,
I think Israel is a settler colonial state and we can’t
condone the violence they take against Palestinians.”
Blotner at first refused to have a conversation with
other members of the group, then later suggested
they talk to the school’s Jewish Student Union — at
which point, she said, the group kicked her out. Preis
then decided to resign from the group (administrators
said she had only been a prospective member).

“They told me that because I’m a Zionist, that that
crz4mets2 via Wikimedia Commons via JTA.org
he U.S. Department of Education has opened
an investigation into the State University
of New York at New Paltz surrounding an
incident in which a student-led group for sexual
assault survivors kicked out one of its co-founders
for sharing a pro-Israel Instagram post.

Pro-Israel legal groups filed a complaint with the
department last year alleging that the school did
not respond forcefully enough to the incident, which
they characterized as antisemitic discrimination.

They are calling on the school to improve its training
on antisemitism, which they define as including
targeting students for a “connection to Israel.”
Announced June 8, the investigation is taking
place under the auspices of the department’s
Office of Civil Rights, which looks into allegations
of discrimination at educational institutions that
receive federal funding. It is the latest in a series of
investigations opened into allegations of campus
antisemitism since the Trump administration
broadened the office’s mandate to include certain
kinds of anti-Israel speech in 2019.

It is also the first antisemitism investigation to be
opened since the Biden administration unveiled a
plan last month to combat antisemitism that includes a
section on higher education. The 60-page document
outlining the plan notes that “Jewish students and
educators are targeted for derision and exclusion on
college campuses.”
“No student should ever be excluded from campus
because of facets of their Jewish identity, let alone
survivors of sexual assault,” Julia Jassey, a recent
University of Chicago graduate who is the co-founder
and CEO of the college antisemitism watchdog
group Jewish on Campus, said in a press release
celebrating the investigation.

Jewish on Campus brought the federal complaint
in partnership with the Brandeis Center for Human
Rights Under Law, a pro-Israel legal group that often
involves itself in campus conflicts over speech about
Israel. The complaint was filed on behalf of two
Jewish students at the school, which is located in
upstate New York.

A spokesperson for SUNY New Paltz said
the university does not comment on pending



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means I’m an oppressor, and that means I’m not
against all forms of oppression, which means that
I’m not against sexual violence,” Blotner told CNN’s
Dana Bash in the antisemitism special.

One day after the publication of the student
newspaper article detailing the allegations against the
group, New Paltz Accountability appeared to defend
its opposition to Zionism in an Instagram post.

“Being against sexual violence but indifferent
to colonialism are conflicting ideologies,” the post
stated. “Justifying the occupation of Palestine, in any
way, condones the violence used to acquire the land.

This does not mean we do not support survivors or
students with different political beliefs.”
According to the Brandeis Center and Jewish
on Campus, Blotner requested that university
administrators provide her with a security escort
because her interactions with the group left her
feeling unsafe on campus, but they declined her
request. She graduated last month, thanking the
Brandeis Center, Jewish on Campus and Mazzig in
an Instagram post that said they “lifted me up when
I was down.”
In response to the incident, SUNY New Paltz’s
president met with Jewish students and issued
a strongly worded condemnation of antisemitism,
saying, “Excluding any campus member from
institutional events and activities on the basis of
differing viewpoints on such matters is a traditionally
defined form of antisemitism.”
The university, according to the Brandeis Center,
also said that it should adopt the International
Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working
definition of antisemitism. That definition has been
endorsed by dozens of U.S. universities, according
to the American Jewish Committee, but has drawn
criticism for saying that certain criticisms of Israel are
antisemitic. It is the first antisemitism
investigation to be opened
since the Biden administration
unveiled a plan last month
to combat antisemitism
that includes a section on
higher education.

The Brandeis Center has frequently called for
universities to adopt the IHRA definition, yet in
this case it said SUNY New Paltz had not gone far
enough and called on the school to change other
policies in response to the incident. Some previous
investigations into schools accused of antisemitism
violations have resulted in universities pledging to
make tangible changes to their diversity training
programs and other initiatives.

That was the case recently at the University of
Vermont, which was the subject of a federal civil
rights complaint that also partially revolved around a
student group for sexual assault survivors excluding
Zionists. In 2020, the University of Illinois pledged
to take steps to combat antisemitism days after
the Department of Education opened up a Title VI
investigation into the school.

But other campus communities faced with Title
VI antisemitism investigations into Israel-related
matters have seen the investigations prompt division
and distrust. George Washington University faced
its own investigation days after clearing a professor
of antisemitism allegations brought against her by
pro-Israel groups.

And the University of California, Berkeley saw
an investigation opened into its law school after
the Brandeis Center’s founder, a former Trump
administration official, alleged in an op-ed that it was
propagating “Jew-free zones” because an alliance
of student groups at the law school pledged not to
invite Zionist speakers. The Jewish dean of the law
school vehemently denied the charge. ■
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