It is clear to many of us that environments on college campuses have transformed from institutions of academic learning into hotbeds of far-left activism, including and especially cultural Marxist and pro-Islamic activities. These colleges no longer serve as safe places to learn and explore; instead, they make conditions unsafe for far too many students, especially those who are Jewish and Christian and who are committed to Israel. The Department of Justice has started taking action against many of these schools such as UCLA, led by Leo Terrell, but attacks on Jewish students continue in a multiplicity of ways at smaller community colleges, such as Pasadena City College (PCC) here in Los Angeles.
This behavior is happening at high schools and junior colleges throughout the country, and I am only using PCC as the latest example because I have been called in and have personal experience with their institutionalized anti-Semitism. Most colleges around the country have Hillel programs: Jewish clubs with faculty advisors that provide support for Jewish students, are Jewish clubs working in conjunction with university administration, and create interfaith dialogue events so that Jewish and non-Jewish students learn more about each other and develop lasting relationships.
PCC is one of the few schools in the Los Angeles area that has no Hillel program. They do not even have a Jewish club of any sort, nor any faculty advisor who is there to help combat anti-Semitism. Conversely, they have a thriving Students for Justice in Palestine group: a national group devoted to furthering the Islamic goals of a worldwide Caliphate; a quasi-terrorist group that works in conjunction with Hamas, supports the Iranian regime, and is the responsible organization for the many violent riots that took place two years ago on college campuses around the country. While there is no Hillel program at Pasadena City College, the college officially supports SJP, despite, or possibly because of, its anti-American, anti-Semitic agenda. SJP has an official home at this community college in the Los Angeles suburb of Pasadena, where it meets weekly under the auspices of PCC.
The fact that this community college in Pasadena officially supports SJP and does not have a Hillel program at all says volumes about the environment at this college and what its values are. And these values are reflected in the overt behavior of its faculty and administration.
Some Jewish students recently experienced potential anti-Semitism in a class with a faculty member at PCC, and so they contacted me for help. As always, the first thing that I do is reach out to the faculty member himself to hear his version of the story. I reached out multiple times through both emails and telephone calls, and he did not have the courtesy to even return a phone call or email to a community leader. And so I escalated the issue and emailed him one more time, this time copying his boss at PCC, Matthew Barboza, the dean of business and enrollment management for the school. Still no email was responded to, and so I reached out directly via phone to Dean Barboza to ask him to encourage his faculty member to respond to me so that we could explore what really had happened without escalating the situation or making it more difficult for the students or the school. It was in this phone conversation with Dean Barboza where the systemic ugliness of bigotry and hate started to become clear.
Barboza was rude from the moment I introduced myself as a rabbi, but I assumed that this might just be a result of him being busy. When he asked what I wanted to speak with the faculty member about, I told him it was about potential anti-Semitism. Dean Barboza’s response was to yell, “If it is about anti-Semitism, I would not call you back either!”, and he hung up on me. It is difficult to believe that a supposed educator, let alone the dean of a school, would react in such an overtly anti-Semitic way, and it was a bit shocking that he felt so comfortable expressing his Jew-hatred so viscerally and openly.
So I reached out to Dr. Laura Ramirez, the assistant superintendent/vice president of the school to let her know the behavior of her dean. And Dr. Ramirez verified the validity of the old statement that “fish stinks from the head.” After explaining to her dean Barboza's behavior, as well as the initial potential anti-Semitism from a faculty member, I expected her to display shock or at least disappointment in her staff. Instead, Dr. Ramirez said that she could not tell any faculty what to do, and what did I want. When I told her that there needs to be education done with this dean about his behavior and attitudes, and ideally an apology in email or at least a dialogue on a conference call together, her only response was that she would talk to him. (Translation: “Rabbi, go pound sand.”) Although it would be inappropriate for her to ever relay to me any details of a conversation with her staff, I asked her to please let me know when she actually did have a conversation, and if the dean was open to having a conversation about his inappropriate behavior or my possible misinterpretation of it. Dr. Ramirez was clear that she had no intention of ever speaking with me or anyone else about anti-Semitism at Pasadena City College, about her dean’s behavior, or anything else.
I am using this example of the systemic far-left, pro-Palestine, anti-American behavior at Pasadena City College to demonstrate how important it is for the Department of Justice to continue to enforce American laws on all schools around the country, and not just large institutions like UCLA and Columbia. The DOJ is overworked, and there are far too many campuses in this country exhibiting anti-Semitic, anti-religion, pro-extreme leftist, anti-American values for the DOJ to tackle them all. The problem is huge, and the cultural Marxists are successfully conquering this nation through their well-funded and intense activities on college campuses, large and small, around this country.
So what can be done? We can rely on the marketplace and encourage our local, state, and federal officials to combat this enemy within that has been winning the war against Western Civilization on school campuses. Local and state officials need to stop being asked only about roads and taxes, and be forced to express their opinions on educational institutions and practices. For this is the arena in which we are losing the battle for the next generations and for the future of this country.
For all of us who have children or grandchildren who will be attending college in the future, we need to find out what the values of the institutions really are. Does the college have a Hillel chapter or a TPUSA Faith chapter? Is the university supportive of the work that Charlie Kirk, of blessed memory, began with TPUSA? Or is the school instead supportive of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine? And if the answer is that the college supports SJP but does not support TPUSA or Hillel, then we all need to use the power of the marketplace and boycott those schools. If a university is receiving the majority of its funding from Qatar or Saudi Arabia, we need to understand how that is reflected in the values of the institution. For if we ignore what is being taught in our schools, cultural Marxism will become the norm, and after 250 years, this country will have lost its soul.
It’s actually a pretty simple choice: TPUSA and Hillel or SJP? Islamic money or alumni donations? An American future that builds upon the last 250 years, or one that becomes part of an Islamic worldwide Caliphate run by Sharia law? And the individual actions of every one of us make a difference, whether it is encouraging our officials or hurting these far-left progressive schools in their financing. Each person can make a huge difference through their individual actions, and we all need to participate in this war for the future of America. To quote Professor Alan Dershowitz’s new book, we need to say “Harvard, Go Fund Yourself!”.
I originally became a rabbi in order to help people deepen their personal awareness of their relationship with God through a Jewish pathway and sacred texts, and to strengthen relationships between the Jewish and non-Jewish communities—to do what rabbis, and all clergy, have done for centuries: preach and teach.
But since the Covid “pandemic,” and then again since October 7, 2023, it seems that my life is less about preaching and teaching, and more about defending Jewish civil rights, fighting for people of all faiths, and advocating for students who just want to learn without being indoctrinated into cultural Marxism. During Covid, I helped hundreds of high school and college students get religious exemptions from schools that try to enforce vaccination passports. And the fight against Jew hatred for the last two and a half years has been constant. It is a fight we all need to take on… and a fight that is worth the struggle.
I have always remembered a teaching from the old movie The Godfather III. The family counselor, played by Robert Duvall, is relieved of his duties and replaced by a different counselor. When Duvall's character asks why he's being replaced, he is told that there is a time for a counselor of peace, and a time for a counselor in war. The battle for the soul of this nation is being fought on school campuses, and it is no longer time for counselors of peace, but for those who are willing to take on a fight.
And we must win this fight. Our nation’s future depends on it.
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