The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law (LDB) and Scholars for Peace in the Middle East today issued a Joint Statement in defense of University of California at Santa Cruz lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin. Rossman-Benjamin, an activist known for her opposition to campus anti-Semitism, has recently been the target of a public campaign of character assassination because of her advocacy for the civil rights of Jewish college students. LDB and SPME joined together today to defend Rossman-Benjamin against these smears and to denounce efforts to suppress advocacy for the civil rights of university students.
Rossman-Benjamin is a co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, an organization that combats anti-Semitism on American college and university campuses. She is also a member of the Brandeis Center’s Academic Advisory Board and a former member of SPME’s Board of Directors. Rossman-Benjamin has famously accused her university, UC Santa Cruz, of harboring a hostile environment for Jewish students. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into Rossman-Benjamin’s complaint, which is now pending.
On June 20, 2012, Ms. Rossman-Benjamin delivered a speech at the Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts. During the course of that speech, Ms. Rossman-Benjamin described anti-Semitic incidents at the University of California. Ms. Rossman-Benjamin attributed some responsibility for contemporary campus anti-Semitism to two organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association. Rossman-Benjamin also stated that some members of these organizations have had connections with terrorist organizations. In response to that synagogue presentation, student activists at the University of California have launched a campaign to condemn Rossman-Benjamin. As a result of this campaign, in March 2013, Associated Students at the University of California (ASUC) at Berkeley adopted a resolution that called on outgoing UC President Mark Yudof to condemn Rossman-Benjamin’s remarks.
LDB and SPME jointly announced: “We find the accusations against Rossman-Benjamin to be false, scurrilous, and unjustifiable. Over the years, Rossman-Benjamin has tirelessly campaigned against anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli harassment. Perversely, Rossman-Benjamin is now being branded a purveyor of hate speech and Islamophobia precisely because she attempted to expose hate speech which her accusers would prefer to shield from scrutiny.”
LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus commented, “I have worked with Tammi Rossman-Benjamin over the years, and I consider her to be a bold and courageous fighter for the civil rights of Jewish college students. It is reprehensible that some people are targeting her for abuse because of her fight against campus anti-Semitism.”
SPME President Richard Cravatts added, “We are issuing this statement to set the record straight. We have carefully reviewed the allegations against Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, and we consider them to be completely disingenuous and false. Rossman-Benjamin should be commended for her campaign against campus anti-Semitism, rather than subjected to this sort of intimidation and abuse.”
Professor Alvin H. Rosenfeld, Director of The Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism at Indiana University, personally joined the Joint LDB-SPME Statement. “I know Tammi Rossman-Benjamin well,” Rosenfeld commented, “and have the highest respect for her work. The allegations against her are patently false. Rossman-Benjamin is a tenacious advocate for students’ rights as well as free speech. Hers is a vital, much-needed academic voice, and efforts to silence or intimidate her for her dedicated opposition to campus anti-Semitism need to be strongly resisted.”
The LDB-SPME joint statement provides in full as follows:
Joint Statement in Support of Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law are committed to the civil and human rights of all students and professors in higher education, and we are firmly opposed to all forms of anti-Semitism and anti-Muslim discrimination. We are also strongly opposed to frivolous assertions of bias that are used to squelch the free exchange of ideas or to intimidate civil rights complainants. For this reason, we must publicly assert our support for University of California at Santa Cruz lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a civil rights activist who has lately been subjected to a campaign of calumny, character assassination, and abuse as a result of her courageous advocacy for the civil rights of Jewish college students.
Ms. Rossman-Benjamin is a co-founder of the AMCHA Initiative, an organization that investigates, documents, educates about, and combats anti-Semitism at institutions of higher education in the U.S. In response to Ms. Rossman-Benjamin’s complaint, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights opened an investigation into such incidents on her own campus.
On June 20, 2012, Ms. Rossman-Benjamin delivered a speech at the Ahavath Torah Congregation in Stoughton, Massachusetts. During the course of that speech, Ms. Rossman-Benjamin described anti-Semitic incidents at the University of California. Ms. Rossman-Benjamin attributed some responsibility for contemporary campus anti-Semitism to two organizations, Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association. Ms. Rossman-Benjamin also conveyed widely published reports indicating ties between the MSA and terrorist organizations.
In response, one of these organizations has launched a campaign of character assassination against Ms. Rossman-Benjmain. This campaign has included the use of flyers, blogs, and social media, as well as efforts to influence student governmental organizations. In March 2013, Associated Students at the University of California (ASUC) at Berkeley adopted a resolution “condemning Islamophobic hate speech at the University of California,” and called on outgoing UC President Mark Yudof to specifically condemn the “inflammatory, hateful, and racist assumptions by UCSC lecturer Tammi Rossman-Benjamin against Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian students, and Palestinian rights activists.”
Like the ASUC, we also condemn Islamophobic hate speech, both at the University of California and wherever else it occurs. However, we also condemn false invocations of Islamophobia that are used to silence or intimidate advocates for civil and human rights.
The ASUC resolution singles out Rossman-Benjamin for her alleged “hate speech,” contending that it is part of a continuing pattern “to mischaracterize and chill Palestinian activism” as the result of “a lawsuit filed in July 2011. . . against the UC Regents . . . containing extremely Islamophobic and anti-Arab rhetoric referring to Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslims Students Association as ‘anti-Semitic’ and ‘pro-terrorist’” and that her comments “constitute inflammatory, hateful, and racist assumptions . . . against Middle Eastern, Muslim, and South Asian students, and Palestinian rights activists.” Ms. Rossman-Benjamin is not a party to the 2011 lawsuit.
We are also concerned about reports indicating that the University of California at Santa Cruz may be taking retaliatory action against Rossman-Benjamin based on her civil rights advocacy and her expression of constitutionally protected free speech. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has recently warned recipients of federal financial aid that they may not retaliate against civil rights complainants and witnesses. In April 2013, Acting U.S. Secretary of Education advised educational institutions that the “ability of individuals to oppose discriminatory practices, and to participate in OCR investigations and other proceedings, is critical to ensuring equal educational opportunity in accordance with Federal civil rights laws.” The failure to do so may be a violation of federal civil rights laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
We find the accusations against Rossman-Benjamin to be false, scurrilous, and unjustifiable. Over the years, Rossman-Benjamin has tirelessly campaigned against anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli harassment. Perversely, Rossman-Benjamin is now being branded a purveyor of hate speech and Islamophobia precisely because she attempted to expose hate speech which her accusers would prefer to shield from scrutiny.
Student organizations properly enjoy freedom of speech to express their opinions at public universities, even when those opinions are factually and morally unsupportable. But those who wish to enjoy protected speech and unfettered expression on campuses also should expect that others, with dissenting viewpoints, will, and should, express those as well, especially if, as is the case with Rossman-Benjamin, they perceive the conduct of campus activists to be inimical to a civil community of scholarship and harmful to a targeted group of students.
If victims of anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice are not allowed to protest instances of this hatred, without fear of persecution, then civil rights violations will go unchecked. Those who wish to exploit academic free speech for their own causes certainly cannot deny that same freedom to others in the marketplace of ideas.
