NORTHRIDGE : Anti-Semitism Forum Stuck for Definition

It was a workshop intended to bring more awareness about anti-Semitism to students of different ethnic backgrounds.

But many students attending the event Thursday at Cal State Northridge were unable to get a clear definition of anti-Semitism from the start.

Nearly 100 students showed up for “Responding to Anti-Semitism On Campus,” the first meeting of its kind on the campus led by CSUN Jewish studies faculty members and representatives from the Anti-Defamation League, a civil rights organization that combats anti-Semitism and other forms of bigotry and discrimination.

Several members of CSUN’s Black Students Union, which represented nearly 25% of the entire group, questioned the purpose of the meeting.

Dawn Price, president of the BSU, said she thought the meeting was “ineffective.”

“They (moderators) failed to define anti-Semitism. They failed to address what we came to hear and understand.”

“What racism is to blacks is what anti-Semitism is to Jews,” said Jerry Goldstein, full-time rabbi on the CSUN campus. “Our hope is to develop a system for dealing with multicultural disagreements. This campus has no minority, just like the city of Los Angeles. We want this university to be a laboratory for working out multicultural differences.”

Jody Myers, director of CSUN’s Jewish Studies Program, said the workshop was intended to help students explore their feelings, problems and strategies regarding anti-Semitism.

Shoshanna Gershenzon, Jewish studies instructor, said that she expected certain groups who attended the meeting to feel uncomfortable, but that she believes it was a good way for students to begin understanding their own ethnic differences and concerns.

“We wanted to focus on dealing with issues around bigotry by taking students to a more emotional rather than intellectual level,” said Debra Stogel, ADL assistant director of training for the western states.

A total of 1,730 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States were reported in 1992, according to a nationwide survey released by the ADL. This figure, the second highest in the 14-year history of the survey, includes a 12% increase in anti-Semitic incidents on 60 college campuses throughout the country.

Avi Burkwitz, a senior and history major, said the meeting was a “rehashing” of information he already knew.

“There will be differences everywhere, and hostility wherever you go, no matter what race you are. The students in the BSU had every right to question the definition of anti-Semitism. . . . we (Jews) know what it means because we’re Jewish. But others think it has a different meaning.”