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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums'They got me. I'm afraid': Swastikas spray-painted on a Jewish professor's office at Columbia
The psychology professor pulled open the heavy oak doors of Horace Mann Hall, which boasts 16-foot ceilings and varnished wood floors, and headed to her fourth-floor office. Filing in behind her were students preparing for a 1:30 p.m. lab meeting on Wednesday. As they entered her workspace, they passed a mezuzah, a small box containing Hebrew religious texts, affixed to her doorpost.
But the sight that met them next made the professor and her students stop in their tracks.
Anti-Semitic graffiti had been spray-painted on the office walls of Elizabeth Midlarsky, a clinical psychologist and Holocaust scholar at Columbias Teachers College on the Upper West Side of New York. The vandalism included swastikas and an anti-Semitic slur, Yid, painted in bright red on the white walls of her office foyer. The outer door had been closed but not locked, one student said.
I was shocked. I couldnt believe it, she said in an interview with The Washington Post. Im usually not a fearful person, but they got me. Im afraid.
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Dorian Gray
(13,493 posts)she shouldn't be made to feel threatened in her place of work. (Anywhere.)
This type of intimidation is rising, and it's disturbing as hell. How do we tackle this?
Behind the Aegis
(53,956 posts)It won't always be easy nor will it always be against our "enemies", but anti-Semitism, as well as other forms of bigotry, must be called out, dealt with, and not excused.
octoberlib
(14,971 posts)The episode comes amid mounting concerns about anti-Semitism, rebooted for the 21st century as memory of the Holocaust begins to fade. In February, the Anti-Defamation League reported that the number of anti-Semitic incidents was nearly 60 percent higher in 2017 than in 2016, marking the largest single-year increase on record and the second-highest number reported since the organization began collecting incident data. Meanwhile, many Americans lack basic knowledge about the Holocaust, such as the name of a single concentration camp, according to a survey released in April.
How can Americans not know the name of even one concentration camp, for god sakes?
LuvNewcastle
(16,846 posts)Too many couldn't even find the U.S. A very significant number of Americans think that history has no relevance to the world today. That's why we're where we are now. People don't realize how bad things are because they have no knowledge of anything to compare it to.
DFW
(54,378 posts)These "fine people" now feel enabled, empowered, and, especially ALLOWED to do this kind of thing.
watoos
(7,142 posts)Once we build that wall on the southern border this should all stop, right?
yardwork
(61,608 posts)certainot
(9,090 posts)assholes as examples when they do something that gets the attention of the rw think tanks or rw media - or trump - stuff that they can use as extreme examples of political correctness or if a liberal teacher gets noticed for something anti trump etc
but they are the real political correctness cops
like when limbaugh calls climate scientists traitors or anita hill or blasey ford a liar, and they get death threats
UniteFightBack
(8,231 posts)lives.
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)are assuming this came from someone on the right. After what this university has allowed in terms of speakers, I wouldn't be so sure. Anti-semitism is where the far left and the far right meet.
certainot
(9,090 posts)bigotry and treatment of palestinians, and israeli support for republicans that pisses people off and that's not anti semitism
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)Or are you just comfortable saying all Jews are responsible for what Israel does?
certainot
(9,090 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)If all the speakers at Colombia were merely whining about Israel, why attack THIS professor? You don't see the problem there? Feel free to continue proving my point though.
certainot
(9,090 posts)like i suggested in response above she could have just made waves with the right re some research or comment that caught some attention
or it could just be some standard bigot with a bad grade
if you're suggesting critics of jewish republicans are anti semitic that's just standard republican bullshit
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)So you admit you don't know WHY she was targeted. She could just be Jewish and therefore a target of anyone who associates all Jews with Israel (as you seem to be comfortable enough with that you aren't condemning it). Why the fuck you want to deflect to Jewish republicans is beyond me other than simply deflecting from the problem that YOU are highlighting beautifully.
certainot
(9,090 posts)perpetrated by liberals angry about israeli abuse of palestinians or some israeli lobbying organization trying to get republicans elected to get us into an attack on iran etc?
maybe she parked in someone else's spot
it's possible.....
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)Neither do I and that's the point. That it happened at this particular school - with its anti-Israel reputation of their speakers - leads me to believe it's FAR more likely this came from the left than the right. And to answer your question - I think attacks on Jews regarding Israel is on the rise and has been for quite a while. I wish it only came from the right - that would make a convenient foil but I know better than that. All intelligent Jews do.
certainot
(9,090 posts)i know there are anti israeli generalizations from the left but i wouldn't know how much of that is anti-semitic. the swasticas and the fact she is a holocaust scholar suggest RW to me.
in this case i would still not be surprised to learn if some of her recent work or comments referenced trump or the right in the US and that got attention
Scholarly Interests
Altruism and religiousness through the life span. Rescue during the Holocaust and responses by survivors and their progeny. Aging and gender issues. Development and consequences of altruism, violence, and religious faith.
Selected Publications
"Helping as Coping" (Sage Publications).
"Personality correlates of heroic rescue during the Holocaust" (Journal of Personality).
"Helping by siblings of children with mental retardation" (American Journal of Mental Retardation).
"Altruism in Later Life" (Sage Publications).
"Anorexia Nervosa in post-menopausal women" (Journal of Mental Health and Aging).
"Altruism and the Vietnam War veteran" (Journal of Traumatic Stress).
"Eating disorders in middle-aged women" (Journal of General Psychology).
"Violence in schools: Cross-national and cross-sectional perspectives" (Springer Publications).
"Religiousness and Psychological Distress in Jewish and Christian Older Adults" (Clinical Gerontologist).
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)about Colombia. She's brave to even want to teach there. And my entire point was whether it came from the right or the left, it wouldn't surprise me at all.
Mosby
(16,311 posts)I'm curious how you define "jewish fundamentalism"? I've never heard that before.