First it was a Bakersfield College student.
Now the Jewish Defense League maintains that a few members of the BC faculty are anti-Semitic. That’s according to a complaint filed with the league by a former student, said Shelley Rubin, assistant director of the JDL office in Los Angeles.
Rubin said the JDL has received complaints about anti-Semitic remarks allegedly made by several BC teachers in their classes. She said that a former student contacted the JDL, but she declined to identify that student.
She made her remarks during a Monday telephone interview regarding the league’s complaint against Isaiah Perez, a BC student, who wore a small replica of the Israeli flag with the Star of David crossed out on campus for one day about five months ago. Perez says he is against Israeli government policies but is not anti-Semitic. The league had asked for the college to punish Perez for what it maintained was “anti-Semitic propaganda.”
Dean of Students Beto Gonzalez has maintained that Perez’s actions were protected by free speech and that no disciplinary action will be taken against him.
Gonzalez said Wednesday that he had not received any complaints about faculty members being anti-Semitic.
“There have been no official complaints and I wouldn’t say that there’s any basis or foundation for those comments to be said about this institution or any other that I know of,” Gonzalez said.
But Rubin maintains that such attitudes do exist on the campus and that BC needs a “wake-up call.”
“The college can do whatever the college wants to do, however, the administration seems to pick and choose what free speech is on campus,” said Rubin.
Perez, who had stated in a previous interview that he was Democratic Club president, said on Wednesday, that his term as president had expired last semester.. Meanwhile, on Wednesday the BC Republican club called for Perez’s resignation from his student government post as environmental senator. Perez responded that he has no intention of resigning.
Helen Acosta, Democratic Club adviser, had described the controversy as “a horrible misunderstanding.” She said the club hopes to hold a tolerance forum in mid-March.
Rubin said that the JDL would attend the forum.
“I have been contacted by several people now supporting JDL’s position that there is a problem on campus, and furthermore, stating that if we go to campus they want to be there with us. It seems to me Christian and Jewish students on campus have felt that they are not safe speaking their views. It looks like we are going to have to take a trip to campus to make sure things change,” she said.
Rubin stated that if confronted violently, the JDL will fight back. She said that is “what makes JDL different from other Jewish organizations, because we believe that sometimes violence is necessary and when you have to defend yourself, that just goes hand-in-hand with defending yourself.”
Acosta described the JDL as an “extreme organization.”
“Even though the JDL is an extreme organization, they did bring to light a problem that we have on our campus and that’s that we have become ultra-aware of Islamic viewpoints and we haven’t at all become aware of Jewish viewpoints,” she said.
Perez had no kind words for the JDL. “They should call it the Jewish Offense League because they have been implicated in several attacks and murders,” he said.