Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 27, 2024

[MUSIC PLAYING] CATHY WURZER: In about 20 minutes from now, a state Senate committee will hold a hearing at the Capitol on what they call a pattern of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish incidents at the University of Minnesota since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war as well as the administration's handling of these incidents. Included is accounts from Jewish students and community members about what they feel is an anti-Jewish atmosphere on campus. Also up for discussion, the university's decision to rescind an offer to Israeli historian Ros Segal to lead the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Joining us on the phone is DFL State Senator Ron Latz, the chair of the Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety. Senator, welcome.

RON LATZ: Hi, Cathy. Nice to be with you.

CATHY WURZER: Thanks for taking the time. Well, as you know, the protests seen on campus are protected by the First Amendment and many would argue are part of a freedom of expression on campus. Why do you think the legislature needs to get involved in this situation?

RON LATZ: Well, I don't know that we need to get involved. But we do have a priority we place on the value of the University of Minnesota as our premier public institute of higher education in Minnesota. There are not only an economic engine for the state, but they are national and international leaders in research on a whole variety of topics. And we have a diverse and very interesting student and faculty body there.

So issues relating to campus speech, safety, comfort are all important to the people of Minnesota. The legislature represents the people, so we have an interest in what happens there. We also fund the legislature quite substantially. So we want to make sure our tax dollars are used well.

CATHY WURZER: Right. What will you be looking for specifically? What in among the testimony will you be looking for as it relates to, say, issues related to the state Human Rights Act, as I mentioned, First Amendment, freedom of speech protections, academic freedom? What do you believe the university has violated if anything at all?

RON LATZ: Well, we're going to learn more about that. I'd like to hear what President Ettinger has to say about these topics. Certainly, freedom of speech is important under our Constitution, but it's not unlimited under our Constitution. We have lots of ways in which conduct, as it's reflected often in speech, can be restricted constitutionally. And we can put time, place, and manner restrictions as well on speech itself, all within the framework of the Constitution.

So some of the speech has certainly crossed over into hate speech on campus by some of the protesting groups. And I would characterize some of the faculty statements have perhaps crossed that line as well. So I think that has a damaging effect on the feeling of safety of students as they're walking around campus on their freedom to attend classes or choose to sign up for classes in certain departments and on faculty ability to not only perform their jobs effectively, but to work with other faculty at the university. So central administration has an important role in setting the tone and in setting the limits of what's acceptable or not acceptable on campus conduct and behavior. And that's what we're going to learn more about today.

CATHY WURZER: As you know, there have been some Jewish students who have participated in the pro-Palestinian protests. How might you weigh that information in the hearing?

RON LATZ: Well, look, everyone has a right to choose how they're going to approach issues. And what I would say is that those Jewish students who have participated and indeed some in the broader Jewish community who have expressed views don't necessarily represent the broad cross-section of the Jewish community. In fact, many of those Jewish voices would be considered outliers within the mainstream Jewish community. They've been amplified, and they are certainly media attentive amplifications that are involved there.

But I think It'd be a mistake to say that they are representative of Jewish voices. They certainly represent themselves and perhaps the organizations that they are a part of. But they've got a right to say what they want to say. But it does affect the campus atmosphere. And that's important to identify as well.

CATHY WURZER: And who from the Jewish community will be-- who will be on the docket here in terms of testimony?

RON LATZ: The Jewish Community Relations Council will be testifying-- Steve Hunegs, the executive director there. We will have the executive director of the Hillel on campus, which is a Jewish student organization on campus. We will also have representatives from Jewish community action from the Jewish Voices for Peace. I think there'll be some other testifiers under other umbrellas that are also Jewish. So there'll be ample input from, I think, the cross-section of the Jewish community.

CATHY WURZER: And anyone from the pro-Palestinian side of things?

RON LATZ: You know, we have reached out to the Students for Justice in Palestine and the Students for Climate Justice. We sent invitations when we could find contact information. We didn't hear back from any of those organizations. So I don't anticipate we'll have any testifiers from them.

CATHY WURZER: You mentioned that interim U of M President Ettinger will be there. Let's talk a little bit about the U's decision to rescind that office-- that offer, excuse me-- job offer to the Israeli historian to lead the U's Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Many think that that was overreach, that decision was an overreach. What do you think about the situation?

RON LATZ: You know, actually, I agree with the editorial in the Star Tribune this morning that the decision was not an overreach. Professor Segal, even though he's Jewish and Israeli, is a far left ideologue on these issues. Certainly from his academic standpoint, that's where he lands in the stream of academia.

And he's very controversial. Within six days of October 7, he had already concluded that Israel was engaging in genocide or was going to engage in genocide. And someone who takes that kind of a position has the academic freedom to do that. And I will note the university did not rescind his offer to join the history department as a faculty member.

But as a director of the Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies, that's a different kind of an institution. It's not only a creature of the university, but it also has a very important role to play in the Jewish community at large here in Minnesota and a lot of outreach, a lot of interaction with constituencies external to the University of Minnesota. And for the kind of mission that that center has or the kind of role it plays in the community, having someone who's an outlier within the viewpoints of the Jewish community, I think, would do a disservice to the role and its mission that it's supposed to play. So I think it was appropriate not to have a person with that controversial a position to be the director of that center, which has a long and very positive and productive history with the university and will going into the future.

CATHY WURZER: So you're going to hear from a number of different individuals. And I'm curious. As you know, Jeff Ettinger is done as interim president in less than a week. How might the university be held accountable perhaps for any follow up action that you think needs to be made?

RON LATZ: Well, this is an informational hearing. So our point is to pull together a variety of these voices in one forum, give an opportunity to hear them in juxtaposition to each other, and perhaps to dig a little bit more deeply into some of these questions of the Constitution and academic freedom, campus safety, and so on as they all interact with each other. President Ettinger I'm sure didn't anticipate that he had to deal with these (LAUGHING) kinds of issues when he agreed to be interim president.

And I think it's a good opportunity as he is preparing to conclude his service to the people of Minnesota and to the University of Minnesota to have a bit of an accounting, a bit of an explication of his observations, how things were handled, and also to thank him for the positive steps that he's taken to protect the university and also the somewhat controversial and what I would view as positive steps he's taken to address some of these issues on campus. Some of the steps he's taken, I have not been as comfortable with personally. And I know that the Jewish community has not been comfortable with it. And so we'll have an opportunity to have a conversation about that as well.

CATHY WURZER: Will the incoming president be at the committee hearing?

RON LATZ: I do not know.

CATHY WURZER: All right. I appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

RON LATZ: My pleasure. Thanks, Cathy.

CATHY WURZER: We've been talking to DFL State Senator Ron Latz. He is the chair for the Committee for Judiciary and Public Safety.

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Hearing on anti-Israel, Jewish incidents at UMN following Holocaust and Genocide department debacle - MPR News

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