RUSS REPORT - Last month, District 30 Congressional Candidate, Mark Reed issued a Press Release calling on Congressmen Howard Berman and Brad Sherman to ask for a federal investigation into the Anti- Semitism and racism throughout UC system. Reed said that incidents of Anti Semitic behavior, intimidation and harassment of students and teachers are fueled by tenured Professors who encourage anti Semitic rhetoric. He specifically referenced Professor David Klein’s “Boycott of Israel” website hosted by California State University- Northridge (CSUN).
Professor Klein teaches Mathematics and listed his “professional” interests on his faculty website to include Mathematical Physics, General Relativity and Cosmology, Statistical Mechanics, Climate Science, Mathematics Education.
The CSUN “Boycott Israel” page has little to do with Klein’s purported professional interests and more to do with the Middle East for which he pres ents an unbalanced, false and defamatory list of links.
While Klein has every right to display such animus, he cannot do so on a 501(c)3 taxpayer funded website.
Reed’s request for a federal investigation came on the heels of a letter to California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris from Attorney Kenneth Leitner- (Director) Global Frontier Justice Center (GFJC) expressing the same sentiments.
In his April 2 letter to Harris, Leitner formally advised Harris that Klein is in violation of State law. Because of their continued support of Klein’s endeavors, CSUN is complicit in those crimes. Leitner asked that Harris prosecute these violations.
Leitner noted, “CAL. GOV’T CODE § 8314 forbids use of public resources for “outside endeavor[s] not related to state business. It is necessary to review the content of Klein’s speech to determine whether the speech is within his state business or outside of it. That content review poses no constitutional problems and is, indeed, a necessary part of the constitutional analysis. See Pickering v. Board of Education, 391 U.S. 563 (1968).”
Leitner acknowledged his support of Klein’s academic freedom but warned “using public resources for private purposes, as (Klein) has, is a crime.” Harris has yet to respond to Leitner’s letter.
Within the last few weeks, Klein has added a new link to his Boycott Israel page- a first line item- that personally “targets” Tammi Rossman-Benjamin, a lecturer at University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC).
Klein’s most recent addition to his “Boycott Israel” page on the CSUN site includes a link to Tony Greenstein’s website who wrote an article titled, “Rossman-Benjamin: A Good Example of the Low Academic Standards of US Zionist Jewish-Holocaust Studies Departments.” Greenstein calls himself “socialist, anti-Zionist, anti-racist” and denounces anyone who decries his point of view.
Greenstein launched a verbal assault on Benjamin saying, "Rossman-Benjamin reminds me of the court academics who prostituted themselves in 1933 when the Nazis came to power” and accused her of "climbing into bed with Hitler supporters." Greenstein called Benjamin such names as "police state academic," a "junk academic," a "zombie," a "fruit cake," and a "McCarthyite apparatchick," and insinuates that she is part of the "racist right."
Is this “academic freedom?” Should this kind of false and inflammatory rhetoric be linked to a taxpayer funded website? Is this a First Amendment issue for which Interim CSUN President Harold Hellenbrand so aggressively defends? It is not!
Benjamin co-founded the AMCHA Initiative along with Leila Beckwith, Professor Emeritus in Pediatrics at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). Their Mission Statement “strives to bring together Jewish people from all over California so that they might speak in one voice in order to express their concern for the safety and well-being of Jewish college and university students.”
Hellenbrand disparaged AMCHA Initiative with an official statement titled "J'ACCUSE! THE NEW ANTI-ANTI-SEMITISM," posted as the April '12 "Provost's Message" on the Academic Affairs home page. In his report he referred to Benjamin and her co-founder as “religious zealots and agents of a foreign government.” Emails were sent to all CSUN faculty and administrators.
The First Amendment does not protect various obscenities, defamation, breach of the peace, incitement to crime, "fighting words," and sedition. The Supreme Court has said false speech deserves little, if any, First Amendment Protection. Even the California Constitution Article 1 Sec. 2 warns that those who exercise that right must be responsible for the abuse of that right.
The silence from lawmakers on this important issue and their blatant disregard for the safety of Jewish students is stunning. District Attorney Steve Cooley told GFJC in a letter that he cannot enforce the law due to a lack of resources.
Meir Katz, GFJC Legal Counsel said, “Pursuant to the statute, it is obligation of the state, not private citizens, to enforce these laws.”
CSUN President Harry Hellenbrand has recently made quite clear that he actually supports Klein’s misuse of state resources. Hellenbrand actually went so far as to suggest in a recent letter that those who object to Klein’s advocacy violate the separation of church and state because they support ‘self-appointed sectarian panels that pronounce upon political correctness according to conformity with the covenant. “This is bizarre. Here we have a case of the fox guarding the hen house,” said Katz.
In closing, Katz added, “All California taxpayers should be upset about this—regardless of whether they support Klein’s opinions or not. We support Klein’s right to speak his mind, even if we disagree with what he is saying. And so should all Americans. But what he is saying is not the issue. The problem is that he is misusing taxpayer money and violating state law in order to say it.”
(Katharine Russ is an investigative reporter. She is a regular contributor to CityWatch and to the North Valley Reporter. Katharine Russ can be reached at: [email protected] ) –cw
Tags: Katharine Russ, Russ Report, anti-Semitism, CSUN, Professor Klein
CityWatch
Vol 10 Issue 42
Pub: May 25, 2012