BUSD students deserve better
I read your excellent reportage of the recent congressional hearings that questioned Berkeley Unified School District Superintendent Enikia Ford Morthel on antisemitism in our school district. (“Berkeley schools superintendent grilled in congressional hearing on antisemitism”). But I was amused, or perhaps disappointed, by the headline, which used the word “grilled” to describe the questioning. The Republicans proved themselves incapable of delivering a coherent question, while the Democrats plodded along with soft-core questions that inspired no answers. Absurdly, Congressman Jamaal Bowman managed to hijack the entire session by turning it into a referendum on racism toward Black America. His message was good, but his timing was atrocious.
Alas, the only thing we heard from Ford Morthel was how sensitive she is to her “babies” and that Berkeley is committed to fairness for all students. She actually had the chutzpah to say that, when used in the appropriate context, “From the river to the sea” could signal something other than an end to the state of Israel. Ford Morthel has now demonstrated to the world her ignorance of and disconnect from Jewish reality.
I have young Jewish cousins whose recent experiences at Berkeley High School are hardly a reflection of what the superintendent described. Some of them had the misfortune of studying with a teacher whose posting of “Free Palestine” on the classroom wall made every Jewish kid in the room not only uncomfortable, but also a target. When confronted by Jewish students, the teacher simply ignored their requests to remove the signage. This is not the evenhanded, balanced teaching Ford Morthel described in Congress.
Indeed, we know that the Berkeley public school system is a fairly toxic place to be Jewish at this time. Nonetheless, I don’t believe the school administration wishes to see an antisemitic thread coursing through the school. But its inability to discipline — or fire — those teachers who encourage an anti-Jewish agenda is despicable. Our “babies” deserve better.
Jeff Morgan
Berkeley
Cal’s leadership came through at graduation
My daughter graduated from UC Berkeley on May 11. Chancellor Carol Christ welcomed everybody and set the context and the tone. Thirty seconds in, she unapologetically and skillfully leaned in to address the elephant in the stadium — the campus protests.
She shared personal perspectives (not a checklist of say/mean/do-nothing platitudes) on the historical context of UC Berkeley’s leadership roles and contributions to the free speech movement, our passionate, structured approach to social justice and our shared current context — the awful events of Oct. 7, the awful reality of war in Gaza and the prevalence of antisemitism and anti-Palestinian attitudes on campus.
The chancellor (re-)oriented students, families and faculty about the purpose of elite higher education with a callout to the home team, UC Berkeley, to learn how to make our societies — local, regional, national and global — “better” places for everything: science, social relations, business, health, scholarship, opportunity, etc.
Shortly after the chancellor’s welcome and orientation, the chants and the flags started in the student section. As chants grew louder, more organized and frankly annoying and disruptive, another dean firmly and repeatedly (three times) asked the protesters to settle down and show respect to their classmates, families and all who attended graduation.
The UC leadership team stopped the graduation and played “Don’t Stop Believin’.” Following a two-minute intermission, the graduation speaker, Cynt Marshall, CEO of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, an African American woman and a Cal alum, raised everybody’s game by drawing us all back to what was special about graduation and about Cal.
This was genuine high-integrity leadership in action. They were prepared, with a game plan. They did not panic and they saw it through — expertly. Tensions rose and subsided. Everybody was treated with dignity. Nobody was forcibly removed, zip-tied, shot with rubber bullets or isolated.
At times, obnoxious and annoying dynamics captured all of us, yet our entire family is already talking about the memorable experience.
Reasonableness and respect were fully challenged. The masterful leadership of the chancellor and her team and the exceptional dynamism of Marshall brought us all together for an exceptional day.
Bruce Goldberg
UC Berkeley Hillel board member
Oakland
I felt welcome at tent encampments
Politicians and the media keep saying pro-Palestine encampments at universities are anti-Jewish. I’ve been to three in the Bay Area and found them to be the most welcoming places for Jews I have experienced.
On May 3, I went to a Shabbat service at the S.F. State encampment. About 80 other people were there, singing, praying and sharing. Organizers brought candles, challah and grape juice for Shabbat prayers. Non-Jews were walking around, and some joined us. People were united in mourning and seeking an end to the massacres in Gaza, but there was absolutely no anger against Jewish people.
The campus movement wants peace. They want the U.S. to stop supporting the massacre and starvation of children. Jewish people who don’t support genocide should feel at home there. Come to a campus near you and see for yourself.
David Spero
San Francisco
Leaving out crucial details
Professor David Myers describes a horrible scene of violence at UCLA (“I’m a UCLA professor. Why didn’t the administration stop last night’s egregious violence?” May 1). However, he refers to the pro-Hamas demonstrators as “demonstrators against the war in Gaza.” Myers later refers to them as the “anti-war group.”
He gives away his own bias by whitewashing who has been demonstrating, not just at UCLA, but at campuses across the country. If they were just demonstrating against the war, then they would be actively calling on Hamas to return all of the Israeli hostages, dead or alive, regardless of their status (innocent civilian, military, reserves, etc.) and regardless of the party holding them.
Certainly, Hamas is in a position to insist that all others in Gaza holding Israeli hostages free them. Any “anti-war group” would also be calling on Hamas to surrender so that the people of Gaza could return to their homes.
This war could be over in a few days. Since Myers fails accurately to describe the “demonstrators,” how do we know that anything he has reported is true? Myers has shown us what is wrong at UCLA and other campuses: When the police are called in, as at Columbia University, then the police and the administration are the problem. When the police are not called in, as at UCLA, then the police and the administration are the problem.
How many more Gazans will die because Hamas is not willing to end the war that it started, breaking a previous cease-fire? How much blame will Myers place on Hamas for the past and future deaths in Gaza?
Howard Hoffman
Kirkwood
UCLA failed Jewish students
The failure of the UCLA administration to protect students was not just on the day of the fight between pro-Israel/pro-Jewish groups and the pro-Palestinian/pro-Hamas encampment that demanded divestment from Israel. The administration has failed to protect the Jewish students’ right of safe and free use of the campus and easy access to classes. This occurred throughout the time that the encampment was in place.
A friend of mine, a Jewish UCLA senior law student involved in trying to get the administration and the UC Regents to take action to protect Jewish students on campus, told us that a Jewish female student was attacked and had blood gushing from her head, but that no campus police responded to her calls or anyone else’s.
The encampment had signs pointing in the direction of Jewish organizations to show those who might want to attack them exactly where to find Jews. She told us that she had to return to campus to attend classes and take her finals in person because the university had not put the classes on Zoom. She was frightened to have to go near that encampment. And a disabled student in a wheelchair was prevented from traveling to her class in the easiest way near the encampment, but was directed to take a more difficult route that meant she would have to travel up a hill.
My friend also described how the demonstrators would come during the day to enjoy nail painting, music, dancing and craft making, but at 4:30 in the morning Arab men would arrive and teach the demonstrators Muslim prayer. The encampment had taken down the U.S. flag and mounted the Palestinian flag and the Hamas flag instead. In other words, they declared that the UCLA campus was now a Muslim caliphate in miniature.
So after weeks of this encampment infringing on the rights of all students on the campus to engage in their studies or use of the library and other parts of the entire campus, the Jewish community organizations stepped up to stand with the Jewish students, and then the counter-demonstrators arrived.
Jewish students should not be required to stand quietly by and be attacked or be prevented from exercising their rights of free speech and freedom of assembly by those who think that antisemitism and the call for destruction of Israel is acceptable at UCLA or any other campus.
Dorothea Dorenz
Berkeley