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Major Jewish organizations unite to urge protection of Jewish students
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 Kenneth L. Marcus, director of IJCR's Anti-Semitism Initiative, helped to draft a letter and recruit a coalition of Jewish organizations to press Education Secretary Arne Duncan to enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide Jewish students with civil rights protections. While head of the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights in 2004, Mr. Marcus was "unwilling to ignore the growing anti-Semitism problem at federally-funded universities."
Read the letter to Secretary Arne Duncan
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Texas K-12 curriculum guidelines for 2011 textbook adoption
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Dennis Ybarra, IJCR Research Associate, has been active on the ground and is monitoring the Texas curriculum update process. The Texas Board of Education approved a new social studies curriculum that will determine the content of social studies and history textbooks nationwide for the next ten years.
Read Texas Conservatives Win Curriculum Change by James C. McKinley, Jr., The New York Times, Mar. 12, 2010
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UC Berkeley Student Senate passes Israel divestment bill, student president vetoes
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The Associated Students of U.C. Berkeley (ASUC) passed a divestment bill by
a wide margin on March 18. ASUC President Will Smelko has since vetoed the bill, citing "the perception of the bill as a symbolic attack on a specific community of our fellow students." Mr. Smelko takes aim at the ideological attack implicit in divestment efforts, criticizing attempts to demonize Israel and create a hostile environment for Jews on campus. IJCR Research Associate Aryeh Weinberg writes, "the normalization of anti-Israelism" through divestment efforts "may prove just as damaging as any actual pulling of funds would have been," making Mr. Smelko's comments that much more impactful. The bill will return to the ASUC senate in early April in an attempt to overturn the veto.
Read U.C.Berkeley student president vetoes divest-from-Israel resolution by Amanda Pazornik, j. Weekly, Mar. 25, 2010
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March Articles of Interest
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Higher Education
 Irvine Jews speak out
By Ben Harris, JTA, Mar. 18, 2010
The U.C. Irvine student government passed a resolution of support for the 11 Muslim students arrested for shouting down Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren in a campus lecture. In response, Jewish students proposed their own resolution. Watch their testimony in a video clip.
 Free Speech on Campus, Depending on Who's Speaking
By Dr. Richard Cravatts, Canada Free Press, Mar. 15, 2010
We see yet more evidence that universities have become, at least where campus free speech is concerned, as Harvard's wise Abigail Thernstrom has described them, "islands of repression in a sea of freedom."
 Universities across the globe mark Israeli Apartheid Week
By Danna Harman, Ha'aretz, Mar. 14, 2010
University campuses in more than 40 cities around the world are marking the week with lectures, films, multimedia events, cultural performances and demonstrations. Israelis participate in some of them.
World
 'Serious threat to Venezuela's Jews'
By Haviv Rettig Gur, Jerusalem Post, Mar. 9, 2010
Human rights commission demands that Chavez government act against anti-Semitism.
Read the full report (acts against Jews are described beginning in Chapter VI, paragraph 780).
 Churches under attack in Muslim lands as mosques flourish in the West
By Gregg Rickman, The Cutting Edge News, Mar. 22, 2010
Persecution against Copts in Egypt is an example of the treatment of churches and synagogues under Muslim rule, yet thousands of mosques function across Europe and North America undisturbed by the Christian majority.
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