JNS
“Imagine for Black History Month not letting the Black Student Union sponsor the resolution because they’re ‘political,’” Rabbi Daniel Levine, of the school’s Hillel, told JNS.
A resolution commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which the student senate at the University of California, Irvine passed unanimously on Jan. 20, distorts the Holocaust and disregards Jewish student voices, according to the public school’s Hillel, Chabad-Lubavitch center and Alpha Epsilon Pi chapter.
The three groups stated jointly on Jan. 22 that they are “deeply disappointed” by the student government’s actions for opting “to delay and significantly dilute legislation recognizing International Holocaust Remembrance Day by labeling it ‘political.’”
The student government “removed references to the documented rise in antisemitism over the past two years, erased Hillel at UCI student authorship, excluded all campus Jewish organizations and eliminated educational resources, including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem and relevant UCI courses on antisemitism and the Holocaust,” the trio said.
The original resolution, which JNS viewed, stated that there has been a “drastic increase in antisemitism over the last two years” and listed Hillel at UCI, Chabad at UCI, AEPi, Anteater Jewish Alliance and the school’s Center for Jewish Studies as endorsees. (The school’s athletic teams are the Anteaters.)
The resolution, before it was changed, also listed “educational resources, materials and courses,” linking to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, the USC Shoah Foundation, Hillel International’s three-part video series on antisemitism and university courses related to the matter.
The revised resolution posted to the student senate website does not list campus student groups, nor does it mention the rise in Jew-hatred over the past two years.
“The impacts of the Holocaust continue to be felt across generations, shaping the lived experiences of survivors, descendants and communities affected by genocide, displacement and mass violence,” it states. “Antisemitism, Holocaust denial and historical revisionism continue to affect our society today, present through the continued attacks on the Jewish community and the invalidation of historical realities.”
“Misinformation has been weaponized and widespread, distorting the lessons we can learn from the past and dismantling the moral guardrails meant to prevent such atrocities from occurring once more,” it adds. “To combat these effects, we must educate ourselves on the mechanisms that foster prejudice, remain consistently vigilant of systematic intolerance, and keep others accountable when discrimination is displayed.”
It encourages exploring “educational resources such as the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Center for Jewish Studies at UC Irvine and other references listed in the legislation, which together provide historical context, academic materials and opportunities for continued learning.” Those include links to the United Nations sites.
The final vote was 22-0 in favor of the revised resolution, according to the student senate website.
“This appalling act of Holocaust distortion and disregard for Jewish student voices dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered, marginalizes Jewish students and underscores the urgent need for Holocaust education,” the Jewish groups stated. (JNS sought comment from the student government.)
Rabbi Daniel Levine, of Hillel at UCI and a Jewish studies lecturer at the school, told JNS that Jewish students affiliated with the Hillel met with student senators and asked them to issue a statement on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The senators agreed and asked them to draft the statement, according to Levine.
After a “week-and-a-half of back-and-forth” between the senators and Jewish students, the senators asked for citations for everything cited in the resolution and for United Nations resource links rather than links to the Anti-Defamation League, which they said was “too political,” Levine told JNS. (JNS sought comment from the ADL.)
‘Took away from the Jewish community’
Lily Wright, a second-year student at the university who serves on the Hillel board and runs the group’s social media, told JNS that two Hillel student board members were the primary authors of the resolution, which was circulated among other Jewish student organizations.
On Jan. 15, a student senator told them that the vote would be delayed, since the student government saw it as a “political statement,” Wright told JNS. The student senator said that someone had “looked up Hillel, looked at their mission statement and saw that Israel was involved in the mission statement of Hillel,” she said.
“It came out that apparently some of the senators felt uncomfortable, because Hillel was the main sponsor of the resolution, and we are ‘pro-Israel,’ so then we’re political,” Levine told JNS. “There was nothing about Israel in the resolution.”
The student government then “rewrote our statement without any input from the Jewish community,” Wright told JNS.
In her view, the revised resolution “heavily took away from the Jewish community,” as “the original had a lot more focus on the Jewish community and the current issues that a lot of us are facing,” she said.
“They were also trying to open up the floor for the other groups that were oppressed during the Holocaust, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but they just took away so much from the Jewish community in that,” Wright told JNS. “It was definitely very upsetting.”
According to Levine, the student government has had no problem backing resolutions from the Black Student Union and Muslim Student Union on campus that promote political causes.
“Imagine for Black History Month, not letting the Black Student Union sponsor the resolution, because they’re political, because they want policies that are ‘left-wing,’” he told JNS. “This is the equivalent for Jews, and Hillel being connected to Israel.”
“This is one of these problems that only seems to be a problem when Jews are involved,” Levine said.
Wright told JNS that “the biggest contradiction that we all saw” was that the student government issued a statement about protests in Iran.
It “was definitely really upsetting to me and the rest of the community, seeing that our Holocaust Remembrance Day post is being rejected due to political reasoning,” yet the student government passed an Iran statement that was “a very clearly political statement,” she said. (Wright told JNS that she is not opposed to statements supporting protesters being killed in Iran.)
The Iran statement, which can also be found on the student senate website, passed 21-0 on Jan. 15.
It states that the student government “stands in solidarity with the people of Iran and with Iranian students and community members at UC Irvine, as they continue to witness and endure ongoing protests and unrest in Iran.”
“These demonstrations reflect deep-rooted calls for safety and accountability, as well as long-standing demands for fundamental human rights and freedoms,” it says.
Levine told JNS that he would still be upset if the student government’s revised International Holocaust Remembrance Day resolution had mentioned the Jewish student groups. But, he said, that wouldn’t have been “a big public thing,” since “it’s not like the two versions were drastically different.”
“Usually, what they do for these resolutions is, they tell people for LGBTQ+ Month, if you want to learn more about this, check out this club on campus, or if you want to learn more about the black community, check out this club,” he said.
“It’s just all part of the double standard of somehow any Jewish organization that has anything to do with Israel is necessarily cut out of good standing because they’re too ‘political,’” he told JNS. “It was our students who proposed this, our students who wrote it and our students who showed up to the council meeting to push for it.”
“Then to pretend they didn’t exist is kind of crazy,” Levine added.
The school’s office of inclusive excellence sent out an email on Thursday commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day that resembled the original resolution.
Levine shared a copy of the email with JNS. The email didn’t mention rising Jew-hatred but did list the Jewish campus groups. (JNS sought comment from the university.)
Wright told JNS that Hillel board members and staff have been in touch with university administrators, who have been “super cooperative.” The Jewish community “really appreciated” that the office of inclusive excellence sent out the email, she told JNS.
“Outside of the Jewish community, I think that’s our biggest support right now—is through the administration,” she said.
