I owe Fred Astren an apology.
He finally stood up publicly.
I was hasty in earlier judgments... but I sometimes tend to be hasty.
I imagine that I will have a few more words concerning this in the weeks to come, but it is vitally important for our local leadership to make a hard stand when necessary.
Good for Professor Astren.
Marc Dollinger and Fred Astren
After six face-to-face meetings over the course of a year with San Francisco State University President Leslie Wong, we are obliged to report that there is no resolution in sight for problems plaguing Jewish student life on campus.Read the rest.
The history of conflict involving Jews at S.F. State is not a new story, but the inability or unwillingness of the university administration to speak out and act in the face of the marginalization of Jewish students is bewildering and alarming.
A hard stand would be a 100% total boycott by all Jewish students and staff. Followed by a federal lawsuit for civil rights violations, promoting hate speech and domestic terrorism. Followed by a civil lawsuit for 1 billion dollars.
ReplyDeleteI studied under this guy.
DeleteI'm happy that he stood up.
I agree with Trudy. They should be occupying the administration building and refuse to leave. They should be demanding Wong's resignation. What is going on is not okay. If it's unacceptable, students need to act like it's unacceptable. I don't think they'd get far with a lawsuit alleging domestic terrorism, but the rest sounds good.
DeleteThat is dark and depressing prediction. I hope you are wrong. I also believe it spells trouble for the USA as a whole.
DeleteMaybe Jewish students could do what Trudy says and sue the shit out of the state university system. We do have some lawyers on the payroll, don't we?
DeleteBDS SFSU
DeleteIn truth, I do not really know what, if anything, I want to do about this story.
ReplyDeleteThe most important thing for me is that Astren stood up.
That matters.
As far as the fight against antisemitism on that campus goes Astren is an important figure needed to say "no" in a public manner... as he and Professor Dollinger just did.
When I was writing all of those pieces lambasting the holy shit out of SFSU for its contempt of its Jewish constituency - and even one piece going after Astren directly - I always wondered what he, and his Jewish friends on campus, were doing behind the scenes.
Now we have a bit of a glimpse at it.