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Dec. 7, 2007
Student survey dispels myth
Canadian campuses disprove of academic bans.
PAT JOHNSON
Results of a poll commissioned for the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre are being greeted with enthusiasm by Jewish campus activists in British Columbia.
A poll released Nov. 21 by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre for Holocaust Studies, a Canadian human rights organization opposed to racism, anti-Semitism, terrorism and genocide, indicates that university students polled in Toronto are overwhelmingly opposed to recent attempts to ban Israeli academics and ideas. The poll came to help dispel the prevalent notion that Canadian campuses are bastions of anti-Israel sentiment, a reputation gained by vocal protests against Israeli speakers arriving on campuses in recent years.
Eyal Lichtmann, executive director of Vancouver Hillel, which operates Jewish student centres at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University and the University of Victoria, said he knows of no formal polling that has been done on B.C. campuses, but said the results of the Wiesenthal Centre poll reflect his intuition of the atmosphere at B.C. universities and colleges.
"These numbers are consistent with what we are hearing on our campuses," said Lichtmann. He credited work Hillel has done in conjunction with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver and the national umbrella agency Canadian Council for Israel Jewish Advocacy for successfully co-ordinating
Israel advocacy campaigns at non-aligned campus populations.
"Ninety per cent of students on campus know very little about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Lichtmann said. "A few years ago, anti-Israel activists were filling the vacuum with a very distorted narrative. Hillel and our allies have responded forcefully with facts in the hope that a generation of future leaders will form positive associations with Israel during their four years on campus. The results of the polling prove our strategies were correct and are working. These numbers are very, very heartening and, frankly, exciting. It's extremely encouraging."
The poll, which interviewed almost 900 students at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University in Ontario, indicate that students support – by a margin of nine to one – the positions taken by university presidents opposing attempts to boycott Israeli academics.
According to the release by the Friends of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, "Students surveyed said they would be opposed if anti-Israel activism was funded directly or indirectly by compulsory student fees given to the students association. By a margin of 8:1, students told the pollsters that anti-Israel activists should not be given student union funds to support such activity.
"At Ryerson, where the students' union called out for boycotting Israelis, the university president's anti-boycott stance was nonetheless backed by a margin of 5:1. At the University of Toronto, opposition to a boycott was even more overwhelming – 14:1."
The presidents of all three major universities in the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island have issued strenuous statements opposing the infringement on academic inquiry represented by an academic boycott.
Jeff Bradshaw, who oversees Israel programming for Vancouver Hillel, credited years of dedicated work for positively affecting the atmosphere on campuses across Canada, but especially here in British Columbia.
"Zionism has always been one of the important legs upon which Hillel stands," said Bradshaw. "But as soon as the intifada began in 2000, we entered a whole new era in the life of Hillel."
It was students, Bradshaw said, who came into Hillel in unprecedented numbers because, for the first time in a long time, they felt the sting of anti-Zionist extremism and the delegitimization of Israel and Jewish peoplehood.
"Our students came to us beginning in 2000 and said, 'We need help standing up to the lies and distortions that are clouding the atmosphere on campuses,' " Bradshaw said. "It was the students who initiated this tremendous mobilization of Zionist activism on campus."
The political atmosphere was part of the cause for Hillel's expansion to the second- and third-largest campuses in British Columbia, added Isaac Thau, chair of the capital campaign that is now raising funds for a new Hillel building at UBC.
"In 2005, we opened a Hillel House at Simon Fraser," Thau said. "Again, that was partly due to the messages we were getting from our students – from our own kids, as well as faculty – that we needed a permanent place on campus where Jewish students could feel secure, empowered and safe."
In 2006, a third Hillel House was opened – at the University of Victoria. The new building planned for UBC is necessary because Hillel in the province has experienced exponential growth.
"Ignorance and hatred drove many students into Hillel," said Thau. "Programming, friendliness and education have kept them there and brought along their friends."
"I don't think we would have seen these sorts of poll results five years ago," added Lichtmann. "When equipped with the facts, students are sympathetic to the realities of Israel's precarious security and unique challenges. That is what Hillel has done since 2000 – provided the facts to counter the tsunami of dishonesty, innuendo and misrepresentations spread by anti-Israel groups. This poll is one of the most tangible indications that the tireless efforts of Hillel students and staff are paying off."
Pat Johnson is, among other things, director of development and communications for Vancouver Hillel Foundation.
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