Federations seek action on Rutgers Hitler spoof
Letter asks university to suspend publication of satirical newspaper
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New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations executive director Jacob Toporek said Rutgers officials agreed that “perhaps the university could have done better with making this a teaching moment.”
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May 2, 2012
State Jewish leaders have asked Rutgers University to consider suspending publication of a campus satirical newspaper that mocked a Jewish student by invoking Hitler, pending the outcome of an investigation.
In a letter to university president Richard McCormick, the New Jersey State Association of Jewish Federations called the satirical op-ed, appearing in The Medium, “a personal affront and painful” to the student, Aaron Marcus.
The letter claimed The Medium and its staff had “crossed a red line” and engaged in bullying and harassment of Marcus. By invoking the Holocaust and Hitler, the authors “engaged in an overt act of anti-Semitism,” the letter claims.
While the association praised McCormick for condemning the fake op-ed as “extremely offensive and repugnant” and launching an investigation of the matter as a bias incident, the four-page letter asked that the results of the investigation be released swiftly and that the university “secure” an apology from the student editors.
“While we all respect the First Amendment as the bulwark of a free society, we do not believe the Medium should be allowed to hide behind a First Amendment claim,” the letter reads. “The Medium, of course, has a right to be offensive, which it exercises frequently. But we do not agree that the Medium has the right to appropriate Aaron’s name and image the way it did, and attribute this despicable and offensive article to Aaron, in a style and manner which reasonably convinced many people Aaron was indeed the author.”
The article, appearing in the April Fool’s edition of The Medium, used Marcus’s real name and photograph and attributed to him an article praising Hitler for the “good things he did.”
The letter was signed by State Association president Ruth Cole; president-elect Mark Levenson; Rutgers Hillel president, Roy Tanzman, and executive director, Andrew Getraer; Max Kleinman, executive vice president of United Jewish Communities of MetroWest NJ; Jason Shames, executive vice president/CEO, Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey; and Gerrie Bamira, executive director, Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County.
Stanley Stone, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Central New Jersey, who was on vacation when the letter was being circulated for signatures, told NJJN he is “fully supportive of the letter.”
‘Anti-Semitism tolerated’
In a response sent the same day to an April 30 inquiry from NJJN, McCormick said that Rutgers “is working hard with all the various members of the university community to safeguard the right of all students, including Jewish students, to enjoy an educational environment free from unlawful discrimination and harassment.”
Marcus, who wrote a column for The Daily Targum, is well known on campus for his strongly pro-Israel views and conservative politics. He is also at the center of a claim by the Zionist Organization of America that the university hasn’t done enough to protect him and other Jewish students from harassment for their pro-Israel views. The U.S. Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights is pursuing ZOA’s complaints under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
State Association executive director Jacob Toporek said the association waited to issue its letter until after the first meeting on April 25 of the university’s Advisory Council on Jewish Life. The council was formed by the university several months ago to “have a point of liaison” between the Rutgers administration and Jewish academics and organizations following a series of campus events involving pro-Palestinian students and activists.
Toporek said 25 individuals representing Rutgers Chabad, Rutgers Hillel, the State Association, and Rutgers’ Bildner Center for the Study of Jewish Life attended the first meeting. The university was represented by its vice president for student affairs, Gregory Blimling; university associate counsel Monica Barrett; and vice president for university relations, Kim Manning.
“They were very frank with us that’s there’s not much they can do,” said Toporek. “They’re running up against the First Amendment. They did agree with us that perhaps the university could have done better with making this a teaching moment.”
A group that defends First Amendment rights on campus also asserted that the satire was protected speech.
In an April 20 letter to university officials, Peter Bonilla of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education warned McCormick that the First Amendment’s protections of student publications extend to public universities like Rutgers. “Rutgers may not punish the newspaper, its editors, or any of its writers simply due to the offense it has caused Marcus and others,” Bonilla wrote.
The State Association also requested that The Medium remove the article from its website and shred all copies of the offending issue.
Criticism was also leveled at Ronald Miskoff, the journalism lecturer who serves as The Medium’s adviser, citing his “lack of oversight on content.”
“Not only did Miskoff admit that he did not read the article until after it was printed, but his later remarks were insensitive to Marcus and others who have lost loved ones in the Holocaust,” said Toporek in a news release, referring to an interview Miskoff gave to The Jewish Week.
In a May 1 e-mail to NJJN, Miskoff said his remarks were not meant to be insensitive. “A large part of my own family was killed in the Holocaust,” he wrote, adding, “That doesn’t place me above criticism.”
He explained that at college newspapers across the country, “advisers, except in rare cases, do not review written copy before publication.” He cited an article on the Student Press Law Center website stating that “Courts have consistently found it unconstitutional for state colleges to require material for campus newspapers to be submitted to faculty for review prior to publication….”
“College editors are expected to take responsibility for their actions,” said Miskoff. “If the adviser approved all copy, that would make the adviser the de facto editor.”
The State Association letter asks Rutgers to “address the lack of supervision and education that the Medium staff receives” from Miskoff and said it would also like to see him formally reprimanded, be required to issue an apology, and banned from faculty adviser appointments “for his outrageously insensitive remarks.”
Miskoff said he had not seen the letter nor been told that the State Association had asked that he be reprimanded. He said he would not be able to respond to the letter before this article went to press.
In a May 1 interview, Marcus said he believed the Medium article was “just another way anti-Semitism is tolerated here at Rutgers.”
He said the international attention generated by the satirical column helped dispel the belief among some students that he authored it.
“I really do believe the goal of the authors was to harm my reputation,” said Marcus. “Why else would they do something so hurtful?”
Comments
rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg
May 03, 2012
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We, Dr. Rosenberg’s students, are now completely appalled. We have found out from one of our fellow students, that indeed, there are those who have targeted him with Anti-Semitic remarks and who really want to silence him. Since this was just discovered and made public by another brave student, we do not understand why the school newspaper will not do the story (unless the administration has threatened them) and we demand an explanation why he was targeted for a meeting for using his Twitter and Youtube, when recently, the home news did an article quoting a Rutgers professor, that they are the new media.. We are, as a group, prepared to go to the media, or to demonstrate, as we find this beyond disrespectful, disgusting, and outrageous. It is terrible that so many of the Deans are of a Jewish decent but still, there is no compassion for anti-Semitic. While you may tell Dr. Rosenberg that he has no rights, and the union says the administrators control his appointment, we the students pay your salaries. Dr. Rosenberg is not just a professor to us, he is a mentor. You kept asking him to prove his allegations of anti-Semitic - well, now he has proof. We will not remain silent.
He is not teaching this summer, and was not even given the courtesy of being notified. He has been teaching summer courses for numerous years and we know for a fact that many of our fellow students have been waiting anxiously to take his class, since every semester, his classes are filled to capacity. Every summer, students from other colleges take his course due to his reputation. We do not understand the explanation that was given, ?summer course registration was low,? because his would definitely have been filled.
We understand that Dr. Rosenberg being a part time lecturer has been informed that he has no rights, but we as students do. We do not understand how our beloved instructor who has proven to be the best teacher that we have had in college can be harassed and bullied by members of this school. While his union may have said this is okay, we as students on moral ground refuse to accept this. You have accused him of showing his instructional YouTube video in class and have found some way to make that an issue. We understand that one student has complained on the first day of class, but how can one student represent the majority of students in one class? By turning a mole hole in a mountain you have stripped us of an educational opportunity that we would have only received by taking his class.
Jamie Lesko
Rutgers: School Of Engineering (2012)
Civil Engineering
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Jamie Lesko Rutgers: School Of Engineering (2012) Civil Engineering .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Rutgers Concrete Canoe Captain President, Rutgers Outdoors Club
rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg
May 03, 2012
To whom it may concern,
My name is Mena Beshay, a junior at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ. The
purpose of this email is to inform and raise awareness of one of the most
significant issues that threaten this university. It is very unfortunate that a
university as diverse as Rutgers, does not do enough to protect its faculty,
staff, and students from harassment and persecution based on religion. This is a
very serious issue that I unfortunately witness too often. As part of the Coptic
Orthodox Fellowship (COF) here at Rutgers I have personally been harassed in
many instances by Muslim students. On my way out of COF meetings or events when
walking out with my Priest we will be looked at, pointed at, laughed at, cursed
at, and hear phrased like “Allah we Agbar” or “Salam Aleekom” which are two very
common Islamic phrases. Instances like these unfortunately occur too often on
Rutgers Campuses. I know for a fact, because i personally heard it that Rabbi
Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg who wears a skullcap and is outspoken on behalf of the
Jewish community is a target from many of the Muslim students on campus. I know
this because being a student in his class i have heard this from students in a
variety of ways. In fact, Dr. Rosenberg’s letter to Rutgers which he shared in
class is very plausible. I have never heard of a student that would
intentionally bring a teacher up for charges after one day of class for such a
ridiculous accusation such as using his Twitter page and YouTube, which i see in
almost every class here at Rutgers. The fact that the professor uses his book in
addition to the required one should not be a reason to take him to task as at
least half of the professors at Rutgers do the same. It undoubtedly raises the
question of why Dr. Rosenberg is the one being singled out. Living and growing
up in Egypt, instances like this are all too common for me, it is clear that
someone intended on destroying him based on his religion and beliefs. he is one
of the most popular teachers on campus and it is impossible to get into any of
his classes from how much students respect and admire him. His public speaking
class is one that i am eagrly waiting to attend because it is one of the few
classes I actually enjoy and learn from. i am not Jewish , I am a Coptic
Orthodox Christian and I can verify there is anti-semitism on campus, and that
Rabbi Dr. Rosenberg.
Concerned Student,
Mena Beshay
rabbi dr. bernhard rosenberg
May 03, 2012
Hello Mr. Bleiweis,
My name is Chike Achebe and I am one of the students currently enrolled in Dr.Rosenberg’s public speaking course. As a student leader on campus and honors student, I have taken over 40 courses during my time here at Rutgers with various distinguished faculty and I have yet to meet another professor who has exemplified the type of hard work, dedication and commitment to students Dr.Rosenberg has. Dr. Rosenberg has taught at Rutgers University for over 23 years, and has consistently been one of the highest rated instructors within the department. It is because of Dr.Rosenberg’s excellent reputation within the student ranks that I decided to register for his Public Speaking course. I, along with Dr.Rosenberg’s fifty other current students have come to appreciate the depth of knowledge we acquire through the analytical teaching techniques of Dr.Rosenberg. Upon taking his public speaking course, we have come to genuinely enjoy the way he led us students to think beyond our normal limits and strongly feel he is one of the best professors to facilitate our academic and intellectual needs for this course.
Jacob Malki
July 10, 2012
Greetings,
I read with concern what happened at Rutgers. Unfortunately this is not an isolated incident, but it is indicative of the growing and tolerated anti-semitism around Europe and the USA. Insults, threats, bullying and physical confrontation against Jews and supporters of the State of Israel are daily news. Denial and denigration of the Holocaust are becoming an accepted ‘mode’. All this has to stop.
It is responsibility of the University leadership, a duty of the State an Federal authorities to intervene and with determination. We cannot turn away from our sacred values: freedom and democracy.
Remember, forget not.
Jacob Malki