nation / world
Student Campaign at Tufts
Urges Peers to Reject Even
Liberal Pro-Israel Groups
PENNY SCHWARTZ | JTA.ORG
B OSTON — University stu-
dent-led campaigns to boycott
Israel are not an uncommon
sight, but a new student movement at
Tuft s University is taking a form rarely
seen before in similar campus boycott
eff orts.

Tuft s’ Students for Justice in Palestine
chapter this week called for a strategic
boycott against Israel, asking students
to sign the group’s pledge not to buy
Israeli snacks sold on campus (such
as Sabra hummus). But in what some
observers say is a new and troubling
tactic, the group also asks students
to refuse to join campus groups or
programs “that normalize or benefi t”
Israel, including the student groups
Tuft s Friends of Israel, TAMID and
Tuft s J Street, a campus branch of the
liberal Middle East policy group that
advocates for a two-state solution.

Th e campaign also urges students to
not study abroad in Israel or partici-
pate in Birthright Israel; not to take a
university program entitled Visions of
Peace that focuses on dialogue between
Israelis and Palestinians; and not to
enroll in a summer fellowship sup-
ported by the Anti-Defamation League.

SJP went public with “Justice
Th rough BDS,” its latest initiative, on
Monday in an op-ed in a student pub-
lication that it shared on its social
media sites. Th e group supports BDS,
the boycott, divestment and sanctions
movement that targets companies that
do business with Israel.

In its statement, SJP accuses Israel of
violating human rights of Palestinians,
including with demolition of homes
and displacement dating back to 1948,
the year Israel gained statehood. It
describes Zionism as a form of “set-
tler colonialism” and uses the term
“apartheid” to describe its occupation
of Palestinian land.

Th e statement included a justifi cation
for opposing J Street: “While SJP recog-
14 A view of Tufts University’s Medford, Massachusetts campus
nizes that many Jewish people begin their
anti-zionist political journey through J
Street U, and appreciates that J Street U’s
Tuft s chapter agrees that antisemitism
and anti-Zionism are not synonymous, it
is crucial for students to refuse half-mea-
sures that condemn occupation while
normalizing colonization.”
Th e Tuft s SJP did not respond to sev-
eral requests for comment.

“We strongly oppose this renewed
campaign at Tuft s,” Patrick Collins,
executive director of the schools’ media
relations, said in a statement.

Collins expressed disappointment
that SJP chose to ask students to boy-
cott other student groups on campus.

Tuft s rejects the BDS movement, “ele-
ments of which we believe are rooted in
antisemitism,” according to Collins.

“As an educational institution, we
must encourage honest and open debate
about diffi cult issues, including those
in the Middle East. Students for Justice
in Palestine have an important role
to play in these discussions. However,
their most recent campaign is divi-
sive and harmful. It doesn’t help foster
MARCH 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
important conversations — rather, it
shuts them down while ostracizing fel-
low students,” Collins wrote.

Th e campaign could point to a larger
shift in strategy for proponents of Israel
boycotts, as a similar sentiment was
recently expressed by the leader of the
San Francisco branch of the Council
on American-Islamic Relations. In
November, Zahra Billoo delivered a
speech urging pro-Palestinian activists
to oppose “polite Zionists,” whom she
defi ned to include Jewish groups like
Hillel, the ADL and “Zionist syna-
gogues.” “Th ey are not your friends,”
Billoo said at the time.

Tuft s, a liberal arts college and
research institution with some 5,800
undergraduates and a large Jewish stu-
dent body, is located just six miles from
downtown Boston. Over the years, its
administration has taken a stand against
academic boycotts and has rejected ear-
lier eff orts by SJP to have the school
divest from Israeli companies.

Tuft s Hillel condemned SJP’s call
for a boycott against Israel and Israel-
related programming on campus.

Courtesy of Tufts University
In a statement on its Facebook page,
Rabbi Naft ali Brawer, the group’s exec-
utive director, and Allison Cohen,
Tuft s Hillel student president, said the
groups targeted by SJP represent a wide
spectrum of views on Israel.

“Unlike SJP, we fi rmly believe that
dialogue is the only route to deeper
understanding between people of
divergent views and a lasting peace
between Israelis and Palestinians,”
they wrote.

Th e latest SJP campaign goes well
beyond the conventional norms of
boycotts, according to Robert Trestan,
regional director of the New England
Anti-Defamation League.

Asking students to sign a pledge
refusing to associate with a range of
groups elevates Trestan’s concerns, he
wrote in a letter to Tuft s University
president Anthony Monaco that
Trestan provided to JTA.

“Th is list ... eff ectively creates a lit-
mus test that could be used to restrict
Jewish students from full participation
in the many facets of student life,” he
wrote. JE



Statue of Jewish Baseball Icon Sandy Koufax to be Unveiled
Jewish baseball legend Sandy Koufax will be immortalized this summer with
a statue at Dodger Stadium, JTA reported.

The Hall of Fame pitcher will join trailblazing teammate Jackie Robinson,
whose bronze statue was unveiled in the centerfield plaza in 2017. Artist
Branly Cadet, who made the Robinson statue, also created Koufax’s sculpture.

The Los Angeles Dodgers announced the statue in 2019, with its unveiling
originally planned for the summer of 2020. The new ceremony will be held
on June 18 before a game against the Cleveland Guardians. The first 40,000
ticketed fans will receive a replica of Koufax’s statue.

Koufax, now 86, became the youngest player to enter baseball’s Hall of
Fame when he was inducted in 1972 at the age of 36. That same year, the
Dodgers retired Koufax’s jersey number, 32, alongside Robinson’s iconic 42,
which is retired across the sport.

Among Jewish fans, Koufax is best known for a game he did not pitch.

Game 1 of the 1965 World Series fell on Yom Kippur, and Koufax famously
declined to play.

Idaho GOP Official Tried to install an Antisemite in Democratic
Leadership — as a Distraction
Dave Reilly is a longtime far-right activist with an extensive record of antise-
mitic, racist and misogynistic statements. So it would be hard to imagine him
as a Democratic Party leader.

But that’s exactly what a Republican Party leader in Western Idaho tried
to make happen, JTA reported, citing the Coeur d’Alene/Post Falls Press.

Dan Bell, the youth chairman for the Republican committee in Kootenai
County, tried to rally fellow Republicans to switch parties to become Democratic
chairs in a majority of 73 local precincts. The faux-Democrats would then elect
Reilly as party chair — and the ensuing controversy would drain attention
away from the Republicans’ bad-faith takeover of the Democrats.

Reilly, who attended the white supremacist march in Charlottesville,
Virginia, in 2017, has said that “all Jews are dangerous” and that “Jews pre-
tend to be white when it’s expedient for them.”
Bell told another Republican in a 30-minute phone call that the local news-
paper reported, Reilly’s inflammatory record would make him a sacrificial lamb.

Israel Ranks as World’s Ninth-Happiest Country
Israel placed as the ninth-happiest country in the annual World Happiness Report,
an increase from 11th in 2021 and 14th in 2020, The Jerusalem Post reported.

The World Happiness Report is a publication of the UN Sustainable
Development Solutions Network.

The report takes into account GDP, social support, life expectancy, free-
dom to make life choices, generosity and perceptions of corruption in devel-
oping its rankings.

Finland placed first for the fifth year in a row, followed by fellow Nordic
countries Denmark and Iceland. The Netherlands and Luxembourg ranked
fourth and fifth, followed by the Nordic states of Sweden and Norway.

The United States ranked 15th.

Afghanistan maintained its last-place status out of the 146 countries included.

COVID Cases Climb in Israel
The number of coronavirus cases in Israel has climbed in recent days, The
Times of Israel reported, noting almost 7,000 new cases on March 17.

The transmission rate climbed to 0.97; the rate represents the average
number of people infected by a confirmed patient. Numbers over 1 indicate
the pandemic is growing.

As of March 18, there were 40,242 active cases in the country, although
cases considered serious continue to decline and totaled just 291.

The country’s death toll stood at 10,417.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced on March 16 that the country will
keep its indoor mask mandate in place for, at minimum, another month. JE
— Compiled by Andy Gotlieb
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