Students For Academic Freedom

Anti-Semitism: Intolerance Welcome to CAL Berkeley · 01 August 2003

By Daniel Frankenstein

Encountering anti-Semitism and intolerance at the bastion of free speech and liberalism-UC-Berkeley-was shocking to me. Having attended a very diverse public high school in San Francisco, my friends were from all racial and socio-economic backgrounds, and being in a family of Holocaust survivors taught me the supreme importance of tolerance and respect. When I came to UC-Berkeley, I was uncomfortable because I saw self-segregation and hatred running rampant. I wanted to change this, so I ran for and won a seat on the student government senate. To my astonishment, what I found among the leaders of Berkeley was even worse; I encountered anti-Semitic rhetoric and race baiting politics. This at Berkeley?

During my term, the glass doors of our Hillel were shattered by a cinder block, "F- Jews" spray-painted above the door. There was no coverage in the campus newspaper until I chastised them on the senate floor. An article finally appeared 4 days too late. I saw our largest academic building taken over by "divest from Israel" protestors, disrupting a 600-person midterm and obstructing hundreds of others from attending class. The University flopped on setting any sort of precedence on the issue of disrupting student academics by levying no punishment on the guilty students. University employees in the Office of Student Life were reluctant to prosecute these students because they were "championing a good liberal cause." Since when does the destruction of the collegiate academic environment go unpunished because of the congruence of ideology of those who do the punishing? During the end of the year senate budget meeting, I questioned an allocation to a racially specific organization, in the same way I questioned all group allocations that made little sense. Because of this, I was labeled a racist and was then intimidated by over 100 students belonging to that organization that packed the room, until I withdrew my objection.

Fast-forward to my junior year. I decided to run for student body president to challenge the intolerance on campus. I lost. I was attacked for being Jewish, not for my ideas to serve students.

My school political party, Student Action, has a philosophy to serve all students, not a political ideology. However, the opposition party, Cal SERVE, has a political ideology, and is extremely liberal on all issues and specifically markets themselves as being able to address minority concerns. In fact, to be slated to run for office with Cal SERVE, one must pass a political ideological litmus test. Since when does a student's view about America's foreign policy qualify him or her to provide student services?

Cal SERVE came at me with everything they had, spreading the word among student groups that I was a "conservative Zionist bastard." They herded minority-themed student groups to the polls telling them that I was "anti-minority" and a "racist." Students who bought into this hate followed me as I campaigned, spit on me, heckled me, and physically obstructed my ability to talk to students. I heard comments like, "I sure hope we don't elect a Jew to office," and "Frankenstein supports killing innocent children in the Middle East." On the first day of voting, there was a huge anti-Israel rally within earshot of the most popular voting location. I wonder what the tolerance level would have been if African-American, Asian, or Muslim were substituted for Jew or Zionist?

Losing the election did not upset me as much as why I lost. That intelligent Berkeley students would succumb to hate tactics absolutely astounds me. I tried to shift the paradigm on campus to have students see things differently-to vote for and believe in truth and justice. I found the enemies of truth and justice were the very people that espoused this sort of rhetoric.

"Free speech" at UC-Berkeley has enabled hate speech, racism and intolerance. The world must challenge this at every opportunity. I will continue to do my part.

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