CSUN Student Senate Denounces Letter

The student Senate at Cal State Northridge on Tuesday voted to denounce a letter by a black students group that accused Jewish students of using “Hitlerian tactics” to protest last week’s speech by Nation of Islam minister Louis Farrakhan.

The CSUN student leaders adopted a statement saying they were “angered and saddened” by the Black Student Union letter and found its allegations “degrading and insensitive” to the university’s Jewish students, said Associated Students President Steve Parker.

The student Senate had considered the same issue at a regular meeting a week ago Tuesday, two days before Farrakhan’s Thursday speech, but became stymied over the appropriate language to use and asked a committee to draft this week’s resolution.

The controversy arose well in advance of the speech when Jewish students, unhappy with Farrakhan for past remarks widely considered anti-Semitic, announced plans to hold an alternative event, along with several other campus groups, on the same night of his speech.

BSU President Leslie Small then signed a BSU letter that accused Jewish students of trying to stage a coup. The letter contained the “Hitlerian” reference along with allegations that Jews had supported slavery, mass murder of blacks and apartheid through history. Jewish leaders called the allegations false.

Small later apologized for the letter’s tone, saying he was angered by what his group perceived as an effort by Jewish students to upstage Farrakhan. But he and other black students have stuck by the historical allegations, and tensions have been high between blacks and Jews on campus.

The statement by the student Senate said they “strongly disagree with and are offended by the sweeping generalities” in the letter, Parker said. And while the Senate said Jews were entitled to hold their event the same night, the group said they should have billed it differently.