The research findings of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research regularly appear in both
print and electronic media. The Institute serves as a resource for reporters and contributes its own
editorials to the op-ed pages of major newspapers.
Edmon J. Rodman, Virtual Jerusalem, September 13, 2012
As we send our daughters and sons off to a new year of college, are they entering an environment that is friendly to Jews? Is what they bring from their cultural and political backgrounds welcomed as part of the campus discussion? Read more...
Aryeh Weinberg, Institute for Jewish & Community Research, September 7, 2012
As we send our daughters and sons off to a new year of college, are they entering an environment that is friendly to Jews? Is what they bring from their cultural and political backgrounds welcomed as part of the campus discussion? Read more...
From the outside, Western faculties appear as genteel oases of wisdom and knowledge. In truth, institutions of higher education are becoming brutal offspring of anti-Jew hatred. Read more...
Will Creeley, Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, April 4, 2012
One year after issuing controversial federal regulations that require colleges and universities to reduce student due process rights, the United States Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights (OCR) remains silent in the face of criticism from students, professors, alumni, university administrators, higher education lawyers, civil rights advocates, and the press. Today, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) renews its call for the revocation of the new mandates imposed by the letter. Read more...
Liberal and leftists groups ranging from women's rights, LGBT groups and human rights activists have all championed the Palestinian cause as a common denominator that unites or even embodies their respective causes. North American college campuses are the most successful environment for all these groups. Read more...
Kenneth L. Marcus, director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative of the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research, has been named director of a new center to combat anti-Semitism on U.S. campuses. Read more...
Lesley D. Klaff, Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism, March 2012
Lesley Klaff reviews Kenneth L. Marcus' Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge 2010), "a must-read for anyone who has ever questioned the 'dilemma of Jewish difference." Read more...
Naomi Zeveloff, The Jewish Daily Forward, March 13, 2012
A year and a half after the federal government extended a landmark civil rights law to cover Jewish students, Jewish groups have yet to succeed in using this law against what they see as anti-Semitic anti-Israel activity on campus. Read more...
Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser, The Jewish Daily Forward, March 2, 2012
The David Project recently issued an important "white paper" that identifies the campus as the "primary path by which anti-Israelism enters the American public debate." Read more...
Howard Fischer, Verde Independent, February 8, 2012
PHOENIX -- State lawmakers are moving to end what one says amounts to a "don't ask, don't tell' policy at universities and community colleges -- at least for political and religious conservatives. Read more...
In March 2011, IJCR protested a meeting between UC Irvine students and senior Hamas leader Aziz Duwaik in the West Bank. Now Duwaik has been arrested by Israeli authorities. Read more...
Barnard College was cleared of charges that a professor discriminated against an Orthodox Jewish student by steering her away from a class. Read more...
The Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has halted its investigation of a complaint that an academic-department chairwoman at Barnard College discriminated against a student by steering her away from a course on the basis of her Jewish background. Read more...
Naomi Zeveloff, The Jewish Daily Forward, January 13, 2012
The U.S. Department of Education has rejected a civil rights complaint alleging unfair treatment of a Jewish student at Barnard College, which is affiliated with Columbia University. Read more...
Sammy Roth and Jeremy Budd, Columbia Spectator, January 13, 2012
Barnard has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights, following allegations that a professor discriminated against a Jewish student. Read more...
Michael C. Duke, Jewish Herald-Voice, January 5, 2012
IJCR's report, "Alone on the Quad: Understanding Jewish Student Isolation on Campus," found that Jewish students often face anti-Semitism alone, contrary to many other minority groups, and that anti-Semitism is being normalized and underreported on campuses. Read more...
A new study conducted by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research, a San Francisco based think tank, suggests that more than 40 percent of American Jewish university students perceive anti-Semitism on their college campuses. Read more...
The Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism, December 20, 2011
ALONE ON THE QUAD: Understanding Jewish Student Isolation on Campus presents selected findings from a larger study of college student experiences with religious intolerance on campus. Read more...
Aryeh Weinberg, Institute for Jewish and Community Research, December 2011
ALONE ON THE QUAD: Understanding Jewish Student Isolation on Campus presents selected findings from a larger study of college student experiences with religious intolerance on campus. Read more...
Two of America's oldest, largest and most prominent Jewish organizations are suffering massive slides in public contributions as Jews appear to be turning away from large, multi-issue advocacy groups and toward single-issue organizations. Read more...
Bryan Schwartzman, The Jewish Exponent, December 7, 2011
The Philadelphia Jewish newspaper profiles the locally produced Journal for the Study of Antisemitism. IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus, who sits on the journal's board, is interviewed. The forthcoming issue, expected in January and focused on anti-Semitism on Campus, is being guest edited by Marcus. Read more...
Over a hundred faculty, students, and alumni of the California State University system have signed an open letter opposing the return of a study abroad program in Israel. Read more...
Brad Hirschfield and Erik Ludwig, The Jewish Week, November 22, 2011
Jews must carry on their tradition of insisting upon a fully integrated approach to Jewish philanthropy. We should care for the engines of Jewish thought and practice that are capable of inspiring the next generation of givers, while honoring the profound Jewishness of caring for the increasingly large and diverse global village in which we all live. Read more...
Kenneth L. Marcus, The Cutting Edge, November 11, 2011
IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus comments on the shouting of "Death to Israel!" at a former Israeli diplomat by Professor Julio Pino of Kent State University. Read more...
Kenneth L. Marcus, New Jersey Jewish News, November 9, 2011
IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus comments on the shouting of "Death to Israel!" at a former Israeli diplomat by Professor Julio Pino of Kent State University. Read more...
The veteran researcher examines public education systems biased against Israel--in Europe, but also in the US. He acknowledges IJCR's landmark analysis The Trouble with Textbooks by Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra.Read more...
The US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Deadly Medicine exhibit on Nazi race science is an occasion to reflect on modern questions, not only those that pertain to Germany.Read more...
The author asserts there are differences of opinion within the JCPA regarding the use of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect Jewish university students. The Jewish Council for Public Affairs is the representative voice of the American Jewish community with respect to community relations.Read more...
Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education, October 11, 2011
The Chronicle places the allegations of civil rights violations at Columbia in perspective, interviewing several experts in the field including IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus.Read more...
JTA reports on the U.S. Department of Education's investigation of Columbia University for allegedly discriminating against a Jewish student.Read more...
Sammy Roth, The Columbia Spectator, October 4, 2011
"The investigation centers around a Jewish student at Barnard, who was allegedly discouraged from taking a class with Professor Joseph Massad, a sharp critic of Israel." Read more...
IJCR recently filed a complaint with the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights alleging a Middle East studies department chair unlawfully "steered" a Jewish student away from enrollment in a class taught by controversial Professor Joseph Massad.Read more...
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has just issued its 2011 annual report, Peer-to-Peer Violence and Bullying: Examining the Federal Response, relying heavily on IJCR research to document the problem of religious discrimination in the American public school system.Read more...
In early August, the American Jewish Committee's executive director, David Harris, finally renounced his organization's highly controversial joint statement on campus anti-Semitism.Read more...
After summarily closing the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism earlier this month, Yale University has announced the creation of the Yale Program for the Study of Anti-Semitism.Read more...
NPR interviews IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus about Yale University's decision to shut down the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism..Listen to Marcus interview...
Veteran JWeekly reporter Dan Pine profiles IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus, Director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative, and describes the organization's work to document anti-Semitism and bolster civil rights protections for Jewish students.Read more...
By Bezalel Stern, Judaism and Civil Rights, Yeshiva University, blog of the Center for Jewish Law
Review of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America by Kenneth L. Marcus (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
June 14, 2011
Yeshiva University's Center for Jewish Law reviews Kenneth L. Marcus' latest book that explains the links between various concepts of Jewish identity and his efforts to attain civil rights protections for Jewish students.Read more...
IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus joins others in denouncing Yale University's decision to shut down its Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism for "clearly political" reasons.Read more...
Against the backdrop of an investigation by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, UC Santa Cruz Jewish students and faculty, and IJCR's Anti-Semitism Director Kenneth L. Marcus, discuss the merits of federal involvement.Read more...
Marcus testified at the hearing on bullying based on race, disability, or religion. He offered a number of options for federal legislation to protect students from bullying based on religion. Read more...
Left-wing LGBT and Jewish critics of Israel level the charge that Israel is "pink washing" its treatment of Palestinians by touting its progressive record on LGBT rights. But isn't the protection of civil rights for minorities in a democracy part of the values shared by Israel and the West? Read more...
IJCR's director of the Anti-Semitism Initiative, Kenneth L. Marcus bemoans the "wave of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incidents" in California, "which has become an epicenter for the new Anti-Semitism in America." Read more...
One of the many dismaying things about anti-Semitism is its lack of originality. The rhetoric and setting change, but the substance persists.Read more...
Cinnamon Stillwell and Judith Greblya, Israel National News
April 26, 2011
Surprisingly, "faculty members at departments of Jewish Studies in the USA are evidencing anti-Israel (anti-Semitic) tendencies as do their colleagues in Middle East Studies." Read more...
Kevin Keckeisen, The Highlander (UC Riverside)
April 4, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is investigating a faculty member's claim that UC Santa Cruz failed to address anti-Semitic hostility being promoted by professors, departments and residential colleges on campus. [But] UC Santa Cruz is not the first UC campus to experience political discussions over the Middle East escalate into hostility. Read more...
Paradoxically, anti-Israel sentiment is flourishing at a time when colleges are providing welcoming environments for Jews, notes Kenneth L. Marcus, director of The Anti-Semitism Initiative at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research and author of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America (Cambridge University Press). However, Marcus adds, the last 10 years have seen something of a reversal in progress. Read more...
By Jeff Overley, The Orange County Register
March 31, 2011
Leaders of a UC Irvine program that studies the Israel-Palestine conflict are under fire for allowing students to meet with a Hamas official during a visit to the Middle East. "It is inconceivable that UCI would expose its students to a recognized terrorist organization," says a statement Wednesday by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Read more...
Anne Herzberg, SPME Reviews and Recommendations March 21, 2011
The initiation of the OCR investigation of UC Santa Cruz is a direct result of the tireless scholarship and advocacy of Kenneth Marcus, as reflected in Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America. Marcus can feel proud of the singular role he has played in helping to secure civil rights protections for Jews faced with antisemitic harassment and discrimination on US campuses.
Read more...
IJCR has issued formal comments urging the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) to make several substantial changes in its problematic proposed new policy on "Ensuring Academic Freedom in Politically Controversial Academic Personnel Decisions." IJCR has shown that the AAUP's new policy would undermine precisely the values that it purports to serve: academic freedom and academic integrity. Additionally, as IJCR has explained in The Quad, AAUP's new policy would have a detrimental effect on supporters of Israel in higher education. Read more...
By Jordana Horn, The Jerusalem Post
March 17, 2011
In what experts are calling a "strong signal to American higher education," the US Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into claims of anti- Semitism at the University of California Santa Cruz, examining claims of a hostile environment for Jewish students on the Santa Cruz campus. Read on...
Allegations of anti-Semitism at U.C. Santa Cruz have attracted the attention of the federal government.
In response to a June 2009 complaint filed by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin that the Santa Cruz campus had become a hostile environment for Jews, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights launched a major investigation this week into complaints of anti-Semitic activities at the school. Read on...
The Associated Press, MontereyHerald.com
March 16, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education is investigating a faculty member's complaint that a series of pro-Palestinian events at a California university crossed the line into anti-Semitism and created a hostile environment for Jewish students. Read on...
The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has opened an investigation into a professor's complaint that the University of California at Santa Cruz allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students on the campus. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a Santa Cruz lecturer, filed a 2009 complaint about the university's sponsorship of events that she believed had a pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel slant. Read on...
By Melanie Graysmith, examiner.com San Francisco
March 15, 2011
The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR) has begun an investigation into the claims of Anti-Semitism at the University of California at Santa Cruz. This investigation has just been announced by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR). A lecturer at the school, Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, filed a complaint in June 2009 that alleges the university was lax in addressing a hostile environment affecting Jewish students at the school. Although the complaint was filed a few years ago, the OCR deliberated as it examined the issue and has determined the case has enough merit for an investigation. Read on...
By Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 15, 2011
The U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has announced plans to investigate the University of California at Santa Cruz for anti-Semitism for suspicion, based on a lecturer's complaint ... [of] a hostile climate for Jewish people on the campus. The case marks the first major investigation of anti-Semitism on a college campus by the civil-rights office ... since its decision last fall to step up its efforts against such discrimination. Read on...
By Alana Goodman, Commentary Magazine
March 15, 2011
Just weeks after a former student sued the University of California at Berkeley for ignoring campus violence against Jewish students, the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights (OCR) has opened an investigation into anti-Semitism at the University of California at Santa Cruz, according to the Institute for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR)...Read on...
Jewish mega-donors are hardly news. It is also a commonplace that wealthy Jews allocate less than 25 percent of their giving to specifically Jewish causes. Of the two facts, the latter has understandably puzzled and frustrated fund raisers for Jewish causes as well as students of American philanthropy.Read more...
By Winston Pickett, The Jewish Chronicle
January 31, 2011
...Reports show that underlying the current hate on campus [in the U.K.] is an amply funded, coherently organized and multilayered campaign with front and behind-the-scenes efforts. Stemming the tide requires an equally sophisticated approach…British Jews may want to take a page from the American Jewish community's playbook and seriously consider legal intervention…At the end of the last Congress legislation was introduced to protect Jews…from discrimination at federally funded secular institutions. The bill, written by Kenneth Marcus, legal scholar and former director at the Office for Civil Rights in the U.S. Department of Education who directs the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish & Community Research, is part of a two-pronged strategy to strengthen existing civil rights legislation in a way that will protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment on campus. Read on...
By Aaron Howard, Jewish Herald Voice
December 23, 2010
A review of Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America by Kenneth L. Marcus
“When university students...believe their civil rights have been violated, there is a federal go-to organization ... But, not if you are Jewish. Your case would not be opened because the OCR doesn’t categorize Jews as a racial or national origin category. Jews are defined as a religion. Congress has never passed legislation prohibiting religious discrimination in American education. This is the Catch-22 identified by Kenneth L. Marcus in his book, Jewish Identity and Civil Rights in America" Read on...
A "study" recently appeared on the Palestinian Authority's Ministry of Information's website arguing that Jews have no claim to the Western Wall – which, historically has been Judaism's holiest site. According to the study, "The wall was never part of the so-called Temple Mount." The document accused the "Zionist occupation of falsely and unrightfully" claiming Jewish ownership of the Wall. Read on...
IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus warns in an Op-Ed that the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights must do more to enforce its policy to prevent harassment of Jewish students. Its success will depend on three factors: addressing incidents masquerading as anti-Israelism, balancing First Amendment and academic freedom concerns with protection of Jewish students from hate and bias, and formalization of the recent policy guidance so it endures.
Read on...
What are the limits to academic discourse? Are lies and calumnies from academics protected speech outside the classroom, as well as inside? Does "protected" mean immune from criticism or from direct consequences?Read more...
Op-Ed, Kenneth L. Marcus, The Toronto Globe and Mail
November 8, 2010
IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus, reporting from the second conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism, bemoans animus against Jews that "emanate from the very institutions usually thought to be bulwarks against irrational prejudice-the major research universities." Marcus points out the connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on campuses and advances three principles for universities: the treatment of anti-Semitism the same as any other bias, insistence on both equal opportunity and freedom of speech, and calling out anti-Semitism by name when it occurs. Read on...
"We recently learned that fifteen of America's wealthiest colleges and universities sold an unprecedented $7 billion in taxable bonds last year. The loans, needed to pay bills and restore reserves, will cost these schools $360 million a year in interest.
It is odd that these institutions would be so cash-poor, since, even at the depth of the financial meltdown, their endowments totaled more than $100 billion. A tiny percentage of spending from such enormous troves would keep the lights on and the libraries open. But, instead of sailing effortlessly through troubled times, our wealthiest private institutions were reduced to feverish budget-cutting and to rattling tin cups.
Read on...
Several changes threaten the highly successful relationship between success and higher education, primarily outlandish costs and out of touch values. Each has a disproportionate impact on Jews.Read more...
Peter Schmidt, The Chronicle of Higher Education
October 28, 2010
In a move being hailed by some Jewish organizations as a major and welcome shift, the U.S. Education Department's Office for Civil Rights has signaled that it plans to step up its efforts to protect Jewish students from anti-Semitism under a federal law that bars colleges from discriminating based on national origin or ethnicity. Kenneth L. Marcus said he wants the civil-rights office to take the position-already adopted by the European Union's advisory agency on human rights and freedoms-that criticisms of Israel cross the line into anti-Semitism when they are based on anti-Jewish stereotypes. Read on...
Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) announced the introduction of legislation that would amend the Civil Rights Act of 1964, whose Title VI prohibits discrimination based on "race, color, or national origin," to include religion as well. "All students should be protected from discrimination and harassment on the basis of their religion as well as their race, color, and national origin," Specter said in a statement. Read on...
The signatories of this letter, including IJCR's Kenneth L. Marcus, participated in a conference on "Global Antisemitism, a Crisis of Modernity," held at Yale University from August 23 to the 25th, 2010, organized by the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitsm (YIISA). The sensitive nature of the conference, modern anti-Semitism, not surprisingly elicited unfounded reflexive criticism. The letter affirms the high quality of scholarship presented at the conference and support for the important work being accomplished at YIISA. Read on...
By Ryan J. Reilly, TPMmuckraker
September 15, 2010
Kenneth Marcus, who served as staff director of the Civil Rights Commission as a George W. Bush appointee, said, "I think every year every agency should have to ask the question -- are we still relevant, are we still required, what should we be doing, should we still have an agency?" Read on...
By Steve Linde, The Jerusalem Post
September 8, 2010
Jews are among the most generous givers in the world, both to Israel and to non-Jewish causes in their own countries. According to a study conducted by Gary Tobin, the richest Jews in America give mostly to non-Jewish causes. Between 1995 and 2000, Tobin found, the nation's 123 wealthiest Jews handed out 188 "mega-gifts" of $10 million or more, but of the $5.3 billion they dispersed (22% of the bigticket giving overall), only $318m. went to Jewish institutions.
Read on...
Dr. Catherine Chatterly, The Winnipeg Jewish Review
September 1, 2010
The director of the Canadian Insititute for the Study of Antisemitism publishes a thoughtful recap of the Yale conference and the participating major global institutes for the study of antisemitism including IJCR and its initiative for the study of antisemitism. Read on...
The conservative foothold in faculty lounges began to loosen as the seventies ended, and by the new millennium, academic Republicans had become much harder to spot, even in traditionally conservative disciplines. In the 2004 election, pollster Gary Tobin reported, John Kerry secured 72 percent of the faculty vote, with the candidate also getting 72 percent among science and math professors and even managing to win half of the business and management faculty. The trend of scientists voting Democratic has gone beyond the campus: according to a 2009 poll, only 6 percent of all American scientists called themselves Republicans, compared with 55 percent self-identifying as Democrats.
Read on...
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME) Faculty Profile of Kennth L. Marcus, Baruch College School of Public Affairs and Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Mr. Marcus also serves on the SPME Board of Directors, and is chair of the SPME Legal Task force.
Read on...
By Michael E. Bennet, Cleveland Jewish News
August 19, 2010
The Mandel brothers' strong identity with their Jewish heritage has resulted in their giving a larger proportion of their grants to Jewish causes than do most other Jewish foundations. In "A Study of Jewish Foundations" in 2007, authors Gary A. Tobin and Aryeh Weinberg found 21% of the total dollars from the 56 largest Jewish foundations went to Jewish organizations. The report listed the Mandels' foundations as giving more than 75% of their total dollars to Jewish organizations, a higher percentage than all but six other foundations.
Read on...
Bernie and Millie Marcus Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, spent some $200 million in building the Aquarium in Atlanta, where he is based. The aquarium and Marcus hosted an evening event at the annual conference of the Jewish Funders Network back in 2008. But if you want more Jewish, the Marcus foundation has a branch dedicated to Jewish giving. There's not a whole lot on the foundation's 990 tax form for 2008 going to Jewish causes - aside from a $4 million gift to the Jewish Federation of Atlanta and a $250,000 gift to the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco.
Read on...
The philanthropic world got a happy jolt last week when 40 members of the globe's wealthy elite announced that they would give away more than half of their money before they died.
Earlier this summer, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett officially laid down the gauntlet to their financial peers and challenged them to give away the majority of their wealth before they died by taking what they dubbed The Giving Pledge.
How this pledge will affect the Jewish world is yet to be determined. While many, such as the late Jewish community researcher Gary Tobin, might make the case that any dollar a Jew gives away to charity should be considered Jewish philanthropy, critics often chide the Jewish philanthropic elite for only giving a small fraction of their charity to overtly Jewish causes.
Read on...
One of the hot debates in academia is now reaching the courts. The question: Do universities discriminate against religious conservatives? Some professors and students say they do, but it's not an easy charge to pin down.
When Elaine Howard Ecklund began asking top scientists whether they believe in God, she got a surprise. Ecklund, an assistant professor at Rice University and author of the book Science Vs. Religion, polled 1,700 scientists at elite universities. Contrary to the stereotype that most scientists are atheists, she says, nearly half of them say they are religious. But when she did follow up interviews, she found they practice a "closeted faith."
"They just do not want to bring up that they are religious in an academic discussion. There's somewhat of almost a culture of suppression surrounding discussions of religion at these kinds of academic institutions," Ecklund says.
Aryeh Weinberg, who co-authored the study, says one reason for this is that there are relatively few evangelicals in academia.
"The question is, why? Do they self-select out, and if they do, why are they self-selecting out? Are they actually not hired? Are they trying to get hired but not getting hired? Are they getting hired then being forced out, not getting tenure?" Weinberg asks.
Read on...
Los Angeles philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad have pledged to distribute 75 percent of their total wealth, currently standing at $5.7 billion, "during and/or after our lifetimes." A 2003 study by researcher Gary Tobin found that Jewish mega-donors, those contributing over $10 million each year to charities, apportioned only 6 percent to Jewish causes, including support for Israeli institutions.
According to the Tobin study, the reasons for the modest proportion of big Jewish giving going to Jewish causes include the ever-growing integration of Jewish giving into everything that includes "repairing the world," and the timidity of Jewish organizations in developing projects for mega-donations. In Broad's case, while he says he believes in supporting Jewish causes, his philanthropic decisions are based on hardheaded business sense. Read on...
Two California city bodies called off votes on resolutions condemning Israel for intercepting a Gaza-bound flotilla.
Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman, who is Jewish, withdrew their proposal Tuesday night from the City Council agenda and referred the proposal to the Human Relations Commission, according to reports. Dozens of people attended the meeting.
According to the Tobin study, the reasons for the modest proportion of big Jewish giving going to Jewish causes include the ever-growing integration of Jewish giving into everything that includes "repairing the world," and the timidity of Jewish organizations in developing projects for mega-donations. In Broad's case, while he says he believes in supporting Jewish causes, his philanthropic decisions are based on hardheaded business sense.
Read on...
American Jewish groups briefed congressional staffers on the intimidation of Jewish students on college campuses.
The June 7 briefing, convened by Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.), the co-chairman of the Congressional Task Force Against Anti-Semitism, drew staffers from about 25 congressional offices, including those of leading lawmakers such as Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Energy Committee; Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee; and Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), the chairwoman of the foreign operations subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
Jewish groups represented included the Zionist Organization of America, the American Jewish Committee, Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life, and the Institute for Jewish and Community Research. Read on...
By Dr. Richard M. Swier Pelican Press (Sarasota, FL)
May 13, 2010
This letter is in response to the May 5 Pelican Press editorial, "District leaders must stand fast in the face of ignorance."
May I respectfully address the editorial in question and how it portrays those who object to Sarasota County School District textbooks that are fatally flawed? How do I know this? Because I read the textbook, as did Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra, co-authors of The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion. What Sarasota County parents, grandparents, concerned citizens, I, Gary and Dennis found was that "World History" distorted both history and religion. But beyond that it established one religion as superior to all the others. It placed Islam in a textually superior position as fact with other religions portrayed as belief systems. This textual portrayal may violate the establishment clause in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Read on...
By Patrick O'Callahan The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA)
May 10, 2010
If Elena Kagan -- a Jew -- replaces Justice John Paul Stevens -- a Protestant -- on the Supreme Court, the court will consist of six Roman Catholics and three Jews. Protestantism, still the country's majority religion, will be completely shut out for the first time in American history.
Evangelicals need not apply. This is an oversimplification, but Ivy League campuses and other high-prestige schools are not particularly hospitable to conservative Protestants. In fact, the professoriat in general seems hostile to evangelicals. I don't think professors dislike their beliefs per se so much as they view them as political Neanderthals who vote for the likes of George W. Bush.
Check out this 2007 survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research. It suggests that a large percentage of college faculty members positively despise evangelicals, an attitude that can't help but affect the atmosphere on campus and spill over into the classroom. Read on...
By Richard M. Swier Family Security Matters.org
May 5, 2010
There is a growing movement that began in Sarasota and is now spreading throughout the state of Florida and beyond. I recently met Aya, who was concerned about the Florida Edition of the McDougal Littel high school textbook World History: Patterns of Interaction. This textbook is on both the Florida Department of Education and Sarasota County School Board approved list of references. This textbook was one of 28 reviewed by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research. The Institute produced a comprehensive study in 2009 titled The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion. An Executive Summary of the report may be read by clicking here. The study found: "Textbooks around the world [including World History: Patterns of Interaction] are blatantly used as tools for propaganda. It is shocking to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism, and the Middle East as those in Iran."
Read on...
Are Jews an ethnic or a religious group? This perennial question is now at the heart of a Jewish communal effort to get the U.S. Department of Education more deeply involved in probing allegations of antisemitism on college campuses.
Thirteen national Jewish organizations have sent a letter to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan arguing that the department's Office for Civil Rights has adopted a policy that fails to protect Jewish students from antisemitic harassment on college campuses.
"The current policy is not to address antisemitism at all," said Kenneth Marcus, who headed the department's civil rights office from 2003 to 2004. "The only way a complaint will be addressed is if it's by a black Jew who faces racism, or a female Jew who faces sexism, or a disabled Jew who faces disability discrimination. But a Jew who faces antisemitism will not be addressed." Read on...
By Edward S. Beck Scholars for Peace in the Middle East
April 2, 2010
Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME ), has joined with a dozen other groups with a letter to US Secretary to Arne Duncan calling for him to enforce existing law to ensure that Jewish students are protected from anti-Semitic harassment, intimidation and discrimination on Campus. The letter urged Secretary Duncan to clarify the authority of the Department's Office for Civil Rights to protect Jewish students who are threatened, harassed, or intimidated on their campuses because of their religion or ethnic identity.
SPME Legal Task Force Chair Kenneth L. Marcus commented, "This is a hugely important letter, because it places the weight of the organized Jewish community behind efforts to reverse the Obama administration's recent statement that it would not extend civil rights protections to Jewish students under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. What we're asking for is to place Jewish students on an equal footing with all other groups." Marcus, who formerly headed the Office for Civil Rights, now teaches at Baruch College and is a director at the Institute for Jewish & Community Research.
Read on...
By now, you most likely know that Texas has become ground zero for the latest battles in the textbook wars. While conservatives and progressives take their stands on the issue, I wondered, what would America's founders think about this feud?
Interestingly, in 2009, authors Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research found some 500 imperfections and distortions concerning religion in 28 of the most widely used social-studies and history textbooks in the United States.
That is why, as reported even in a recent New York Times treatise, conservatives argue that most American history in textbooks basically avoids religion -- and thus changes and misrepresents history -- and prominent religious scholars are apt to agree with them on that point. Read on...
By Pablo Eisenberg The Wall Street Journal
November 11, 2009
It's hard to overstate the crisis facing charitable giving today. So let me just say it as plainly as I can: Much of current philanthropic giving, by foundations and individuals, neither meets the needs of our charitable organizations nor addresses some of our most urgent public needs.
Foundation practices today are too bureaucratic, inflexible and cautious, and too focused on short-term objectives. Too often, the process and procedures of grant making are more tailored to the needs of foundations and their trustees than to the requirements of nonprofits.
Read on...
Stanford University's Jewish community celebrated the first night of Sukkot eating the traditional festive meal inside the sukkah they put up every year.
The next morning, on Oct. 3, a student walked into the sukkah to discover that it had been vandalized: Someone had spray-painted large phalluses on the entrance flaps.
Campus police were called and the graffiti were covered with tapestries. Hillel alerted the entire campus with an e-mail blast.
Although the attack may have been shocking and upsetting, it was not unprecedented.
Read on...
By Martha Gies-Chumney Family Security Matters
October 8, 2009
Intense criticism of American public education makes The Trouble with Textbooks - Distorting History and Religion (Lexington Books 2008) by Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra even more relevant today. "This book is a case study of the information and message in American classrooms: how factual they are, how inclusive, how balanced." Textbooks today have what Tobin and Ybarra call a "booming authorial voice." Consequently, knowledge and scrutiny of the evaluation process of textbooks, supplementary classroom materials, and teacher in-services are needed as never before.
Read on...
New Fox News Documentary
"Do You Know What Textbooks Your Children Are Really Reading?"
featuring Trouble with Textbooks co-author Dennis Ybarra
The Trouble with Textbooks co-author Dennis Ybarra is interviewed by Fox News in a one-hour documentary: "Do Your Know What Textbooks Your Children Are Really Reading?" broadcast September 4-6.
The time has arrived again when Jews around the world greet one another with l'Shana Tovah, the traditional wish for a good new year, or Rosh Hashanah, which begins tonight.
But with job losses and the troubled economy taking their toll on synagogue membership, many congregational and denominational leaders worry that 5770, like 5769, will not be a banner year.
Read on...
By Lynne Munson and Donald Frey Inside Higher Ed
July 31, 2009
It's a dramatic tale: The story of the once-wealthy institution that houses America's smartest -- our leading university, perhaps the world's -- now just scraping by. Searches frozen and secretaries dismissed, hot breakfasts suspended, trash piled high: Harvard is "poor," its endowment "collapsed," according to Vanity Fair magazine.
Harvard isn't taking issue with this impoverished profile. In fact, the stream of leaked letters and memos pouring out of this typically proud and stoic institution seem to suggest it is unopposed to its characterization as strapped. But is it true? Is Harvard really poor? Read on...
Book Review: The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion
by Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld
Jewish Political Studies Review
Published July 2009
In recent years there has been increasing analysis of anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic events, as well as biased academic teaching, on American campuses. Little however is known about prejudiced teaching in high schools. Evidence of its extent is mainly anecdotal. Read on...
According to the recently released The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion, textbooks commonly used in America's schools are misinforming K-12 students about subjects ranging from history to religion and politics.
"It is shocking to find the kind of misinformation we discovered in American textbooks and supplemental materials being used by schools in every state in the country," said Dr. Gary A. Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, based in San Francisco.
...more
Christianity was started by a young Palestinian named Jesus and the 9/11 murderers were not Islamic Fundamentalists but simply a generic "teams of terrorists." That's the caliber of politically corrected crap many of our children are being taught in American public schools -- and it's past time all parents took serious notice...more
Jesus was a Palestinian? That's what one public school textbook says.
Although Jesus lived in a region known in his time as Palestine, the use of the term "Palestinian," with its modern connotations, is among the hundreds of textbook flaws cited in a recent five-year study of educational anti-Semitism detailed in the book "The Trouble with Textbooks: Distorting History and Religion."
Authors Gary Tobin and Dennis Ybarra of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research found some 500 imperfections and distortions concerning religion in 28 of the most widely used social studies and history textbooks in the United States.
...more
The Jewish Journal
By Lilly Fowler
February 25, 2009
For more than three years, Dennis Ybarra did what many schoolchildren loathe to do for even one day: He pored over textbooks.
As part of a five-year study launched by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, an independent think tank based in San Francisco, Ybarra read 28 social studies, history and geography textbooks widely used in both public and private schools nationwide.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
By Gary Tobin
January 15, 2009
Now that nearly a month has passed since news of the Bernard Madoff scam broke, it is time to put the scandal in perspective. Much has been written about the horrific effects on Jewish philanthropy, and how the fraud reaches deep into Jewish nonprofit life.
I recently read a book that deserves the widest possible readership. The book is "The Trouble with Textbooks - Distorting History and Religion" by Gary A. Tobin and Dennis R. Ybarra. I have never met or talked with either of these gentlemen, but I can't say enough good things about this book. For all who believe that there is a fairly objective rendition of history that we are obliged to teach our children, this book reveals how shockingly far from that objective American education-and particularly school textbooks-have fallen.
Boston Globe
By Lynne Munson and Donald Frey
December 19, 2008
President Richard Levin admitted this week that the institution's endowment has lost 25 percent of its value, or over $5 billion. Harvard University's endowment is down $8 billion. These losses are difficult to appreciate unless their value is translated into real goods. For $8 billion Harvard could have provided 25 years of Crimson undergraduates with a free education. Or built the largest particle accelerator in the world.
Wall Street Journal
By ELEANOR LAISE and DENNIS K. BERMAN
December 16, 2008
"In the Jewish world, we've just taken a major, central player, and introduced fear and uncertainty all over the system. It's like finding out your brother is a murderer" said Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, which studies Jewish philanthropy. Dr. Tobin estimated the total amount of such giving in the U.S. to be as much as $5 billion annually.
In 2004, the Institute for Jewish and Community Research, a San Francisco think tank, launched an effort to address "anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism" in American education, from K-12 to higher education. Its book, The UnCivil University, focused on the USA's colleges and universities.
...more
San Diego Jewish World
By Norman Manson
October 29, 2008
This is an exhaustive, well researched study of a problem that is given too little attention in critiques of the American educational system - named, the prevalence of biases in the textbooks that students in all grades rely on for their views on key issues. The authors have pored through 28 history, geography and religion textbooks in minute detail, and have found more than 500 "specific and notable problematic entries."
Read on...
The Jerusalem Post
By Jacob Berkman
October 16, 2008
Mouchly-Weiss also sits on the executive committee of the UJA-Federation of New York, and is on the boards of the New Israel Fund, the Abraham Fund and the Israel Policy Forum.
Her message is clear: With nonprofits facing a shrinking fund-raising pool as funders either lose money or become more tightfisted, organizations will have to come up with an effective pitch for convincing donors that they are running tight ships. And nonprofits have to recognize that their messaging may be their meal tickets. ...more
FrontPage Magazine
By Steve Frantzman
October 16, 2008
A new study of American elementary school text books by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research has found that the history of ancient and modern Israel has been politicized by modern interpretations of the 'conflict' in the Middle East.
...more
The Wall Street Journal
Posted by Dennis K. Berman
October 15, 2008
Deal Journal: So what are the direct effects of the Madoff scandal? GT: There are three effects. The first is that at least hundreds of millions of dollars in foundation assets have disappeared. Major Jewish foundations have lost 50% to 100% of their assets, which means tens of millions of dollars on an annual basis won’t be given away. ...more
A new study reveals that if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wanted to criticize the nation of Israel before the United Nations, he could use American public school textbooks to do so.
...more
J. The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
By Amanda Pazornik
October 3, 2008
If your child brought home a history book that said Jesus was a Palestinian, or that Jews contributed little to the arts and sciences aside form Old Testament poetry, how would you react? Would you rush to the principal's office, tear out the pages or do nothing?
...more
The New York Times
By Paul Vittello
September 28, 2008
Gary A. Tobin, director of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco, said such partnerships marked "the convergence of the two major trends in Jewish life: the expansion of the most successful movement in world Jewry, which is Chabad, and the undeniable fact that Jews are becoming birds of passage like everyone else, less likely to belong to a synagogue but still searching for the authentic religious fundamentals."
...more
The Jerusalem Post
By Haviv Rettig
September 26, 2008
American elementary and high school textbooks contain many "gross misrepresentations" of Judaism, Christianity and Israel, according to a book-length study released this week by the San Francisco-based Institute for Jewish and Community Research.
"It is shocking to discover that history and geography textbooks widely used in America's elementary and secondary classrooms contain some of the very same inaccuracies about Christianity, Judaism and the Middle East as those [used] in Iran," the IJCR said in a summary of the findings of the five-year study.
...more
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
By Suzanne Perry
September 4, 2008
The Institute for Jewish and Community Research, in San Francisco, conducted a study of more than 8,000 donations of at least $1-million each made from 2001 to 2003. The biggest proportion — 44 percent of total dollars — went to colleges and universities, followed by health and medical institutions (16 percent) and arts and culture groups (12 percent). Groups that provide social services received only 5 percent of the pot."The disparity among nonprofits is so stark that it was inevitable that elected officials would start to to take a look at this," says Gary A. Tobin, the institute's president. ...more
The Jewish Journal
By Brad Greenberg
August 20, 2008
"Whether there are more or less anti-Israel demonstrations on campus really misses the point," said Gary Tobin, president of the Institute for Jewish & Community Research. "The real insidious nature of this ideology is what takes place in the classrooms and in the writings of faculty in their research -- all of those are far more significant, dangerous and insidious. The legitimacy that Walt and Mearsheimer and Jimmy Carter have given to anti-Israelists has been huge. Just take a look inside the office of the academic affairs director at the Israel Consulate in Los Angeles."
...more
A recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found 44 percent of American adults have switched away from the religious affiliation in which they were raised. Cause for concern? Maybe, maybe not.
One of the report's major findings is that Catholics and mainline Protestant denominations are the big losers, while evangelical and non-denominational Protestants are the big winners. ...more
Dr. Gary A. Tobin knows how to make a point- even if it's not always easy to hear what the well-known demographer and President of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research in San Francisco has to say. Tobin challenges traditional ways of thinking about Jewish communal life. He tackles hot topics like the increasing trend of megagifts being donated outside of the Jewish community, antisemitism in America's educational system, new ways of looking at intermarriage and conversion to Judaism, and the need to embrace today's growing number of racially and ethnically diverse Jews. ...more
Raising a biracial Jewish daughter, a mother finds herself answering many questions: from her child, from total strangers, and from her own heart.
"Mommy, you became Jewish when you had me."
That's how Mae, my eight-year-old daughter, explains it, and she's right. Sort of. Mae was seven months old when her father walked out and I became a single mom. At that point in my life, I'd never been so far from Judaism. I was firmly planted in motherhood, but it would take me a while to see that I needed my religious roots to unfold.
...more
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Staff Writer
July 3, 2008
In these tough economic times, some Jewish nonprofit organizations are reducing the size of their staffs and programs, reports The Jewish Week, in New York.
The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, an international relief agency, and the Jewish federation umbrella group United Jewish Communities recently cut dozens of jobs, and several Jewish groups and programs have closed. ...more
With Economic Questions Looming, Nonprofits
Weigh Options
The Forward
Anthony Weiss
June 18, 2008
With food and oil prices skyrocketing, the stock and housing markets in tatters, and the threat of a recession looming on the horizon, now is not the easiest time to ask donors to open their checkbooks. Across the country, these economic ills are being felt not only by individuals and families, but also by a whole range of Jewish institutions, from synagogues to food banks to social service not-for-profits that depend upon the generosity of donors to stay afloat. ...more
National Association of Scholars
By Glen Ricketts
June 6, 2008
A recent empirical survey of religious attitudes among college and university faculty suggests strongly a widespread pattern of hostility towards evangelicals by professors. In Religious Beliefs & Behavior of College Faculty (San Francisco: Institute for Jewish & Community Research, 2007), authors Gary Tobin and Aryeh Weinberg affirm unsurprisingly that academics, although certainly not monolithic, are generally less religiously inclined than the larger public.
...more
By Rodney Stark and Gary Tobin
Religion News Servce
March 2008
A recent report by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found 44 percent of American adults have switched away from the religious affiliation in which they were raised. Cause for concern? Maybe, maybe not.
One of the report's major findings is that Catholics and mainline Protestant denominations are the big losers, while evangelical and non-denominational Protestants are the big winners. ...more
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Debra E. Blum
December 11, 2007
Colleges, hospitals, and museums, long at the top of the list for America’s biggest donors and grant makers, are receiving a growing slice of multimillion-dollar gifts, according to a new study. ...more
Institute for Jewish and Community Research
Gary A. Tobin, Ph.D.
December 11, 2007
San Francisco – (December 11, 2007) - According to a new study released by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research (IJCR), higher education, health, and cultural arts organizations receive the lion’s share of the largest gifts that individuals, foundations, and corporations contribute to American philanthropy. ...more
NEW YORK (JTA) -- The country's largest Jewish foundations give about a fifth of their funds to Jewish causes - and that number could fall, according to the researchers behind a report released this week... more
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, fresh from an investigation of the student loan industry, is out with a plan he says will "help reverse the crisis in college affordability." Kennedy's Robin Hood approach takes $18 billion from lenders and applies it to reducing loan repayment costs for students, among other purposes.
Sparks didn't fly during an event hosted by Students for Israel (SFI) and attended by members of Anti-Racist Action (ARA). Students from both groups said the meeting on campus anti-Semitism and civil rights was productive, and though they will not give up their personal beliefs, they are ready for debate without name-calling. ...more
To cap off what has been a banner inaugural year, StandWithUs/Michigan, which has proudly supported local students on the ground and out front in challenging anti-Israel bias and hostility in the classroom and on campus, is honored to bring the director of the US Commission on Civil Rights to educate our community about the troubling rise in campus anti-Semitism. ...more
At this point, even the Warren Commission probably wouldn't buy the National Jewish Population Survey's numbers.
The United Jewish Communities-sponsored 2000-2001 NJPS, the largest and most expensive survey of American Jews yet, raised eyebrows when it found only 5.2 million Jews in the United States, a drop of 300,000 from the UJC's 1990 tally. ...more
Almost two-thirds of American faculty members say their colleagues are sometimes reluctant to express their true opinions when those opinions contradict dominant views on campus. That number should be zero. ...more
41% of faculty members in U.S. universities see the United States and Israel combined as the greatest threats to the world. For humanities faculty, 56% list the U.S. and Israel, compared to just 41% who list China, Russia, and Iran combined. ...more
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Robin Wilson
October 19, 2006
A report released on Wednesday on the political views of faculty members accuses professors of liberal "groupthink," a stance that the report says puts them at odds with the beliefs of most Americans on national and international issues. ...more
J, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California
Saul Singer
July 28, 2006
It's too soon to tell. We still have to hold our breath. But the Jewish people may be slowly gearing up to save themselves. About 700 day schools are now in America, enrolling 200,000 students - double the number in 1978. ... more
Combined Jewish Philanthropies
Chanan Tigay
May 9, 2006
In February, news broke that the Jim Joseph Foundation would give some $25 million a year to Jewish education.
The previous month, the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, Md., received a $15 million gift from a family foundation. In late 2004, a group of anonymous families made a $45 million donation to three Boston-area day schools. ... more
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California
Ron Kampeas
April 28, 2006
The effort by an alliance of Jewish groups to hold government-funded Middle East studies departments accountable took two strides forward in recent weeks: one legislative and one moral. ...more
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Jennifer Jacobson
April 14, 2006
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted last week to recommend that Education Department officials protect college students from anti-Semitism by "vigorously enforcing" Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. It also called on university leaders to denounce hate speech on their campuses and to ensure that all academic units, including departments of Middle East studies, "respect intellectual diversity." ...more
The United States Commission on Civil Rights is calling on
Congress to amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to explicitly protect Jews
against anti-Semitic harassment on America's campuses. ...more
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reports that many college campuses have a "serious problem" with anti-Semitism and urges universities and government agencies to take corrective steps. ...more
The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, responding to allegations that an anti-Israel bias is rampant on
college campuses, approved recommendations Monday aimed at ensuring that Jewish college students
are protected from anti-Semitic harassment. ...more
Anti-Semitism on campuses is a "serious problem" that merits a campaign to inform Jewish students of their rights, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said. ...more
Northwestern University President Henry Bienen has upbraided tenured engineering professor Arthur Butz for his repugnant embrace of Holocaust denial. For that, the academic community and the American public should be grateful. Leadership in America's universities on basic moral issues is sometimes slow and sometimes absent, especially when it comes to calling anti-Semitic speech by its real name. ...more
University Business Caryn Meyers Fliegl
February 1, 2006
THE UNCIVIL UNIVERSITY: Politics and Propaganda in American Education
Consider this: The NCAA last year required several schools to stop using Native American mascots. George Will, the conservative columnist, called the demand to rid the University of Illinois of Chief Illiniwek "chief among silliness."
The Campus Truth Foundation, a nonprofit group, will soon rate campuses on tolerance, providing a new index for IHE comparison. ...more
Shortly after noon recently at the University of Miami, students shuffle into a classroom. They're lucky to be here -- the class is full, and there's a waiting list to get in. The course, Introduction to Islam, is one of a growing number of Islamic studies courses being offered by universities across the country.
In the wake of the September 11 attacks, interest in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies has surged and universities are scrambling to meet that demand. But they face a shortage of qualified professors, as well as accusations of bias in the classroom. ...more
Funding Will Allow for Expansion of Israel Advocacy Program
JNF Press Release San Francisco, CA January 18, 2006
On the heels of a successful pilot year, Koret Foundation Funds of San Francisco has renewed its support of Caravan for Democracy High School Edition by awarding the program with a $100,000 matching grant.
"After funding the inaugural year of this program, we are happy to once again participate in the Caravan for Democracy High School program in Northern California," said Jeff Farber, Executive Director of Koret. "Surely our support recognizes Caravan's work in high schools to better acquaint students with the positive aspects of Israel, and ways in which to advocate for Israel once they reach college."
Caravan for Democracy High School Edition (HSE), a program of Jewish National Fund, Media Watch International, and American Friends of Likud, empowers high school juniors and seniors to advocate for Israel and respond to anti-Israel sentiments when they go off to college. The program has filled a void in Jewish education that previously left many students unprepared to support Israel when faced with opposing viewpoints or hostility. ...more
On September 17, 2002, Harvard President Larry Summers delivered his traditional remarks in honor of the beginning of the academic year. However, in an admittedly unprecedented fashion, Summers decided to come out against the burgeoning anti-Semitism among academic communities. ....more
In an era when Saudi nationals are best known for flying planes into buildings or funding radical Islamic groups that espouse terror and spread hatred, it is almost a relief to see a Saudi royal donate money to two U.S. universities for a benign-sounding cause. Harvard and Georgetown announced this week separate gifts of $20 million each from Prince Alwaleed bin Talal to fund Islamic studies.....more
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California Gary Tobin
December 16, 2005
Each spring, well-rehearsed university graduation ceremonies fill the halls of ivy and public venues. The ancient robes, the stirring music, speakers' calls to high-minded purposes feed the public's perception of universities as special institutions deserving of respect, the sacrifices of students and parents, and above all, an ample supply of taxpayer and philanthropic dollars.....more
Daily Colonial, George Washington University Melissa Key December 11, 2005
A number of pro-Israeli and civil rights advocates called on public officials last week to act against anti-Semitism and anti-Israel bias on college campuses.
At a Nov. 18 hearing before the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, representatives of four Jewish and education rights groups said that anti-Semitism at American colleges and universities is a widespread problem that needs to be realized. ...more
The Chronicle of Higher Education Jennifer Jacobson
December 2, 2005
Representatives of Jewish groups have told the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that anti-Semitism and
anti-Israel bias are rampant at colleges and universities across the country, and should be halted by campus
officials or, if necessary, through federal and state government intervention.
....more
The effort by some Jewish groups to establish a government review procedure for claims of anti-Israel bias at universities scored a victory in the U.S. Senate, but at the expense of a mechanism some advocates say is crucial to addressing campus anti-Semitism.
The Senate passed legislation earlier this month that would require the Department of Education to consult with an array of U.S. security and diplomatic agencies before renewing grants to institutes of higher learning....more
humaneventsonline.com Ivy Sellers December 1, 2005
A student at Columbia University recently reported being pulled aside by the professor during a classroom discussion on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and told to stay out of the discussion. "You have no voice in this debate," he said. "See, you have green eyes. You’re not a Semite. … You have no claim to the land of Israel." ....more
When it comes to raucous anti-Israel rallies, it’s quiet on the nation’s campuses.
Too quiet, San Francisco’s Gary Tobin says.
The chaotic, often violent anti-Israel campus demonstrations of 2001 and 2002 caught the attention of the media and provided an easy example for pro-Israel activists to say, "See? This is what we’re up against." ....more
A panel of Jewish academics recently presented evidence to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights that anti-Semitic programs on college campuses are increasing.
The commission heard testimony from Gary A. Tobin and Susan Tuchman, director of the Zionist Organization of America, that Jewish students at the University of California at Irvine, Columbia University and other campuses have recently experienced hostility and intimidation. ....more
By Francis Helguero
Christian Post
November 18, 2005
At the monthly meeting of the Congressional Working Committee on Religious Freedom on Thursday, leaders and representatives in their respective fields reported on their concerns over religious restrictions and civil rights violations at home and abroad.
The group gathered in the Capitol building gave brief reports on issues including Israeli-Palestinian tensions in the Middle East, anti-Semitism in universities, a Chicago Christian cemetery and difficulties with laws about the expansion of a nearby airport, as well as Saudi Arabia and extreme forms of Islam. In attendance through part of the meeting was also Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.)...more
Wall Street Journal Op-Ed
James Piereson
November 18, 2005
Students at Yale University's School of Music -- and aspiring musicians hoping to go there someday -- must have been jumping for joy two weeks ago when the school announced that it had received an anonymous $100 million endowment gift that would guarantee them all free tuition. A few days later Tufts University, not to be outdone, announced that it had received its own $100 million gift. This one was from Pierre Omidyar, alumnus and founder of eBay, who did not specify how his money was to be used, only that the principal must be invested in "micro loans" to small business enterprises in poor countries in Asia and Africa... more
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Tzvi Kahn, Jewish Telegraphic Agency
July 22,2005
When Carol Vavra, a major and tactical airlift navigator in the U.S. Air Force, returns home from the Middle East at the end of July, her husband will have a surprise waiting for her.
Paul Vavra, a recently retired Air Force major and an avid classic rock fan, bought his wife a pair of tickets to a Rolling Stones concert for $760 on eBay. In the process, he made a substantial donation to the UJA-Federation of New York... more
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Rob Eshman, Editor-in-Chief
June 24, 2005
I have a friend who may come into a large sum of money. Not millions, but tens of millions. Sometimes, she told me, she daydreams about all the charities and causes she'll donate to.
"That's what I want to be, one of those people who sits around all day and gives out money," she said... more
Sankara Saranam's book is about establishing a personal relationship with God, unhindered by dogma, creed, or ritual. The ultimate goal is to spread peace and understanding.
Is religion gaining ground in America, or are people simply looking harder for answers? Religion and spirituality books are selling strongly, while the number of Americans not identified with a religion is rising. It appears that more and more people are seeking God on their own rather than through established belief systems...more
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California Editorial May 20, 2005
Few Jewish communities are as rich in leadership as the Bay Area. Our region has produced sterling leaders, some of national prominence, in every realm of Jewish communal life...So why run a story about the serious shortage of qualified Jewish community leaders?. ...more
Shortage of executives impacts Jewish organizations
j., The Jewish News Weekly of Northern California Dan Pine, Staff Writer May 20, 2005
Dick Rosenberg gazes out the window of his downtown San Francisco office. Somewhere out there, across the fruited plain, is the next chief executive officer of the S.F-based Jewish Community Federation. ...more
Jewish Journal Marc Ballon, Senior Writer
March 11, 2005
In the center quad at UC Irvine, Amir Abdel Malik Ali stands before a crowd of 150, his hands clutching a podium bearing the message, "Desperation of the Zionist Lobby."
"Zionism is a mixture, a fusion of the concept of white supremacy and the chosen people," the Oakland-based Muslim religious leader and teacher told the audience at the Feb. 2 Muslim Student Union (MSU)-organized event....more
American Enterprise Magazine Online
John R. Lott, Sonya Jones, Mark Steyn, Alan Dowd, Naomi Riley, and Laurie Vuoto
February 4, 2005
Within three weeks of the Asian tsunami disaster, private donors in America had given even more than the $350 million in official assistance pledged by the U.S. government, note researchers Gary Tobin, Alexander Karp, and Aryeh Weinberg in a forthcoming study entitled "American Mega-Giving." With private contributions continuing to pour in, and $6 million per day of relief assistance being carried out by nearly 20,000 U.S. troops, total U.S. aid for this disaster will exceed $1 billion... more
Philanthropy Magazine
Alexander C. Karp, Gary A. Tobin, and Aryeh K. Weinberg
November 1, 2004
Is it a coincidence one of the world's freest, most entrepreneurial, and most religious nations is also the world's most philanthropic nation? Americans donate like no other people, whether you look at total donations, per capita giving, size of gifts, or types of giving. And as our wealth increases, so does our generosity. ...more
LA Times
K. Connie Kang, Times Staff Writer
October 30, 2004
The proportion of Americans who say they have no religious affiliation doubled over the last decade and now stands at 16% of the population, according to a new study on religious identity...more
San Diego Union-Tribune
Sandi Dolbee, Religion & Ethics Editor
October 12, 2004
In an election year dance that has seen Roman Catholics swaying toward the GOP and Muslims stepping to the Democratic ticket, pollsters are scrambling to keep up with the choreography...more
United Press International
San Francisco, CA
September 22, 2004
A new survey by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research concludes that religious identity in the United States has declined over the past decade...more
Jewish Press Sen. Sam Brownback September 28, 2004
Editor’s Note: The following remarks were delivered last week on the floor of the U.S. Senate
Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Pennsylvania for addressing the topic of anti-Semitism and anti-Israelism expanding in the world. I have comments to add to this issue as well...more
CNSNews.com Melanie Hunter, Deputy Managing Editor
March 15, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - Mel Gibson's
film "The
Passion of the Christ" is lessening hostility towards
Jews contrary to what the film's Jewish critics predicted,
a new poll shows...more
Mel Gibson's new film "The
Passion of the Christ" may
be reducing anti-Semitism, according to a new poll. Not only is "The Passion" not
producing the much-feared anti-Semitic backlash, it
has actually created an empathy for Jews, according
to a poll released by the San Francisco-based Institute
for Jewish and Community Research (IJCR)...more
You heard it here first: Mel Gibson's "The
Passion of the Christ" is good for the Jews. So
says demographer Gary Tobin, whose San Francisco-based
Institute for Jewish & Community Research released
a new poll this week concluding that the movie changed
Christian attitudes toward Jews and the crucifixion for
the better. "In general, people are less inclined
to see Jews as responsible for killing Christ" after
seeing the movie, Tobin said...more
Film made people re-examine their views, less willing to
cast blame, survey finds
San Francisco Chronicle Don Lattin, Religion Writer
March 18, 2004
Despite fears that
it could promote anti-Semitism, the new film by Mel
Gibson "The Passion
of the Christ'' may have made Americans less likely to
blame Jews for the death of Jesus, according to a new
survey...more
(CBN News) - Despite concerns that "The
Passion of The Christ" could inflame anti-Semitism
in America, a survey out this week shows it may have
had the opposite effect...more
Pittsburgh Post-Gazettte Ann Rodgers
March 21, 2004
Nearly a month after its release, "The Passion
of the Christ" has made hundreds of millions of
dollars for producer-director Mel Gibson but remains
a focus of concern among scholars over its portrayal
of Jews...more
Racially prejudiced people are more likely
to end up as jurors in death penalty cases and also more
likely to say they would feel worse about letting a murderer
go free than they would about convicting an innocent
defendant -- two reasons why blacks are overrepresented
on Death Row, claims sociologist Robert L. Young of the
University of Texas at Arlington...more
My current theory is that Christians
and Jews see two different films when they watch Mel
Gibson's "The
Passion of the Christ." For example, when Satan
slithered through the crowd, I saw nothing objectionable..more
WASHINGTON - Four weeks after it
came to the cinemas, Mel Gibson's controversial "The
Passion of the Christ" about
he last hours in the life of Jesus continues to make
headlines... more
Jews fighting is hardly news - after all, the joke about two Jews and three synagogues is familiar to Jewish communities around the world.But when the quarreling Jews also work together, it makes their jobs difficult. That's often the case with the lay-professional relationships at the top echelons of American Jewish organizations...more
Los Angeles Times
Teresa Watanabe
September 16, 2004
As the Jewish High Holidays start today and synagogues prepare for their largest annual crowds, questions are growing over whether younger, more assimilated Jews can be coaxed into the fold as future leaders...more
Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
Gaby Wenig, Staff Writer
July 2, 2004
Melina Gimal has been a Jewish community professional for most of her life. As a young girl she worked at Jewish Community Centers in Argentina, and later at Hillels in Washington and Miami. But most of her peers aren't doing the same...more
The year's Forward 50 list of the Jewish community's most influential
members includes rabbis and entertainers, activists and philanthropists,
artists and community leaders. They don't share a single perspective or a
common approach to their work -- in fact, one notable figure isn't even
Jewish -- but they have all made their mark on Jewish life in America.
One of the deans of American Jewish social research, Gary Tobin has been raising eyebrows for the past decade with his maverick liberal views on conversion, adoption and racial diversity within the Jewish community. This year the San Francisco-based scholar, 55, raised eyebrows yet again by launching a partnership with the neoconservative Foundation for Defense of Democracies. So far the partnership has produced two major Tobin studies, both pro bono: one on American attitudes toward Israel, the other on anti-Israel trends on campus. Meanwhile, Tobin's own Institute for Jewish & Community Research, founded in 1997 after he left his tenured post at Brandeis University, continues to produce important new religious data. A study of professional development in Jewish organizations, released this fall, showed a deep rift between volunteers and staff and documented the persistent glass ceiling facing women staffers. Another, released in October, found that the fastest growing religious group in America is, the election results notwithstanding, people with no religious identity at all....Read On
A snapshot of some of the largest Jewish charities reveals that Jewish fund raising generally is stable. But nuances in the numbers reveal who's up, who's down and why.... more
A group of anonymous donors has given $45 million to support Jewish day schools in Boston, the largest one-time donation ever made to the city's Jewish community... more
The Chronicle of Philanthropy Endowments: A Special Supplement
Ben Gose
May 27, 2004
Harvard University is sitting on nearly $20-billion
in cash and wants much more. Guide Dogs for the Blind
has cash reserves of roughly $260-million, nearly 10
times its annual budget. And Shriners Hospitals for Children
maintains an endowment of more than $7-billion, a sum
so vast that it covers 90 percent of the annual operating
costs at the organization's 22 hospitals... more
Apr. 20, 2003 - Jewish Week Surprise!
U.S. Jewry May Be Growing
On the eve of a much-anticipated national Jewish population survey, a
leading demographer has found that there are 18 percent more
Jews in
America than earlier reports have stated...more
Mar. 15, 2003 - Washington Post Jewish
Organizations Worried About Backlash for Iraq War
American Jewish organizations, deeply divided over the wisdom
of invading Iraq, are increasingly worried about an anti-Semitic backlash
blaming Jewish officials in the Bush administration for any U.S. casualties...more
Jan.21, 2003 -Washington Post Values
Survey Finds Odd Bedfellows
Atheists, Muslims and Mormons led the list of groups viewed by Americans
as the least like themselves in terms of basic beliefs and values, according
to a national survey by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research...more
Jan.19, 2003 -Washington Post The
Sick Economy Watch out: Whenever Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Alan Greenspan does his part to help jump-start
a sluggish U.S. economy, it just might kill you...more
Jan.17, 2003 -Foward Staff Brothers'
Judaism Swings to an East African Beat
Having a tough time finding a good Jewish day school for your kids? Have
you considered Semei Kakungulu School outside Mbale, Uganda?...more
Jan.17, 2003 -Jewish Week New
Fears Cloud Run By Lieberman
As Sen. Joseph Lieberman begins his run for the Democratic nomination
for president, concern surfaced this week that with so many critical
world events tied to U.S. policy in the Middle East, 2004 may not be
as opportune a time for a breakthrough Jewish candidacy as 2000...more
Jan.17, 2003 -Philadelphia Inquirer Survey
gauges anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism is widespread among America's young adults, with a fourth
believing Jews control the media and Wall Street, according to a survey
released this week by a Jewish research group...more
Nov. 10, 2002 - Marin Independent Journal New
study tracks spirituality and religion in Marin
Marin residents are less likely to go to church than their counterparts
nationwide, but are far from spiritually disenfranchised, according to
a study by a San Francisco-based religious think tank...more
Oct. 9, 2002 - NY Times Survey
of U.S. Jews Sees a Dip; Others Demur
A major survey released yesterday estimated the Jewish population in
the United States at 5.2 million, a decline of 300,000 from 10 years
earlier...more
Oct. 4, 2002 - The Forward American
Jews Stand Up To Be Counted
Counting Jews, whether for demographic research or for communal policy
planning, is a difficult task. Ours is a highly dispersed community..more
May 1, 2003 - The Chronicle
of Philanthropy Getting
Megagifts to the Neediest Causes
Big gifts from wealthy donors and foundations are made
primarily to a small group of very large charities, with
the result that many causes -- and almost all small and
regional groups -- are cut off from a substantial source
of funds, according to a new study...more
April 17, 2003 - The Chronicle of Philanthropy Most
Big Gifts Benefit a Handful of Large Charities, Study Finds
Megagifts -- donations of $10-million or more -- are a critical component
of American philanthropy. Such donations accounted for more than $29-billion
of the donations that charities received from 1995 to 2000...more
Apr. 1, 2003 - JTA Among
the wealthiest Jews in U.S., most give most to non-Jewish
causes
In his 74 years, Arthur Sackler made a fortune in medical book publishing
and amassed a collection of rare art and sculpture. In 1999, his family
foundation gave $100 million to the Smithsonian Institution, where an
Asian art gallery bears Sackler's name....more
Mar. 23, 2003 - San Jose Business Journal Revealed:
Where the wealthy give away their money
The vast majority of mega-gifts -- gifts of $10 million or more -- are
concentrated in three areas: education, health, and arts/culture, according
to a new study by the Institute for Jewish & Community Research of
San Francisco...more
