Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 4, 2017

Concerns regarding a new wave of anti-Semitism on college campuses were recently discussed at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center.

These concerns were raised during a panel discussion in an event presented by the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy-Skylake Synagogue alliance with the auspice and collaboration of ATJC.

Last year, Skylake Synagogue in North Miami Beach urged ISGAP, a global interdisciplinary research center based in New York dedicated to the academic study of anti-Semitism, to expand its reach beyond the walls of academic institutions and into Jewish congregations throughout the United States. As a result, a joint partnership was recently launched, and Skylake Synagogue serves as headquarters for ISGAP's U.S. Synagogue outreach program as well as a bridge between the organization and academic institutions in Latin America.

Charles Asher Small, executive director for ISGAP, said the center's goals in South Florida are, "to raise awareness, to help fund our programs and research projects in universities and the United States, to fund more professors to go through our program and to create awareness of the programs in the community and at the universities."

The panel discussion followed a screening of the documentary, "Hate Spaces The Politics of Intolerance on Campus," which exposes how hatred and bigotry against Jewish and Israeli students is being made fashionable and normalized on American college campuses. Small participated in the panel along with Rabbi Jonathan Berkun of ATJC, Luis Fleischman of ISGAP and Barry University, Rabbi Ariel Yeshurun of Skylake Synagogue and Bal Harbour Mayor Gabriel Groisman. There were also remarks by Guy Gilady, deputy consul general of Israel in Miami.

Small said, "It's sad that in 2017 we have to have community events on anti-Semitism. When I was growing up I thought that was a problem of my grandparents' generation."

Small was impressed with the audience's questions.

"It's good that the community is beginning to engage in the issue and take it seriously. I think more and more people are aware there's a problem. Once you realize there's a problem and begin to understand, we can fight it and defeat it."

During the panel discussion, Small told the audience, "What we do, through education, is to map and decode temporary anti-Semitism. There is no way we can stop anti-Semitism if we don't know what it is."

Fleischman stressed the importance of education regarding the realities of the Middle East as he stated that "90 percent of the new wave of anti-Semitism is related to the Middle East."

Yeshurun stressed that it's important to spread the truth. He also stated that Jewish hatred has a long history and if we are to stop this phenomenon, we have to go to the law and ban this.

Groisman expressed his confidence to the audience that the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement will fail but also mentioned that when he attended college at the University of Michigan, there were no anti-Israel demonstrations, but they are prevalent today at his alma mater.

Berkun urged the audience that they have to do their part to make sure they are instilling their children with a strong sense of Jewish identity.

Visit isgap.org for more information on the organization.

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New wave of anti-Semitism discussed at Aventura synagogue - Sun Sentinel

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