A CONTROVERSY over genocide commemoration at the University of Denver last week left Jewish students angry over cultural insensitivity, while encouraging them to seek dialogue between students with different or conflicting views about how such commemorations, and other campus activism, should be handled.
On Sunday, April 7, Jewish and non-Jewish students belonging to a campus organization called Never Again! put up a display to mark Holocaust and Genocide Awareness Week on DUs Driscoll Green.
The display, a Field of Flags, composed of hundreds of multi-colored flags to mark the different categories of all 12 million Holocaust victims, was timed to coincide with Yom Hashoah, the official day of Holocaust commemoration.
The dispute began on the night of April 8, when other students put up a counter-display adjacent to the Field of Flags, marking Genocide Awareness Week with flags representing Native Americans, Tibetans, Palestinians and other nationalities who, it was suggested, are victims of genocide.
The counter-display was put up in the dark of night, without the permission or foreknowledge of campus authorities, and without any attribution as to who or what sponsored or organized it.
Jewish students representing Never Again!, DU Hillel and Chabad of South Denver upset over what they considered cultural insensitivity to their own Holocaust memorial contacted DU authorities, who quickly ordered the counter-display to be removed.
Wendy Low, 19, a DU sophomore who serves as president of Never Again!, told the Intermountain Jewish News this week that the group is independent, devoted to Holocaust and genocide awareness, education and commemoration, and does not take specific political stances.
Its objection to the unattributed counter-display last week was based on the fact that it was done without university permission and that it showed disrespect for the Holocaust victims that Never Again!s display was meant to memorialize.
This was a Holocaust memorial, a way of giving the victims of the Holocaust graves, in a sense, and of giving them dignity. The other display sought to shift attention from the memorial and it was culturally insensitive.
The insensitivity charge, Low continued, is based on the idea that differing instances of genocide are somehow at odds with each other.
We at Never Again! do not determine what is genocide and what isnt, she said. Genocides should not compete with each other.
Had the unknown student group or individuals obtained the universitys permission for their display, or worked with Never Again! to coordinate it, Low said, there likely would have been no disagreement.
Theres nothing wrong with their message, Low said. Everybody is entitled to their opinion.
Nor was their objection based on the belief that the counter-display was necessarily anti-Zionist or anti-Semitic.
I dont think were calling it an anti-Israel statement because we dont know the group that put it up, Low said. There is an idea that there was an attempt to shift the focus to the political situation with Israel and Palestine.
Stuart Portman, the president of Chabad at DU and also active with Never Again!, echoed Lows comments.
The additional flags set up by the unknown group of people served to redefine the context of the Field of Flags Holocaust Memorial, Portman wrote in an email to the IJN.
The Field of Flags set up by Never Again! serves as a memorial for those that died in the Holocaust; it is inclusive of all groups, not just Jews. Its purpose is to serve as a dual reminder of the cost of hate and the cost of peace.
However, the group that set up additional flags attempted to turn this memorial to the dead into a political statement by including Palestinians under their Genocide Awareness Week cardboard sign.
Rabbi Yossi Serebryanski, who leads Chabad of South Denver and works closely with Jewish students at DU, summed up the students ire succinctly:
This was about victims of the Holocaust, the rabbi said of the Field of Flags, and the other was them trying to hijack that. What really upset the students is that they were politicizing what was in essence a symbolic gravesite.
STUDENTS active with Never Again! hope this months controversy over flags will serve as a catalyst for change to help boost pluralism and pro-diversity measures on campus.
The Field of Flags flap is only the latest in a series of campus incidents and trends that disturb Low, who cites controversy over DUs Denver Boone unofficial mascot and a recent Cowboys and Indians fraternity theme party.
I think we need to change the campus climate, says Low, who says she and other activists are working with the DU chancellor and provost, Hillel, Chabad, Center for Judaic Studies, Center for Multicultural Excellence, Students for Justice in Palestine and others to find ways for students to express political and cultural positions without offending other students.
Campus pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian groups, in particular, she said, are often at odds over each others events and speakers, which are often seen as insulting by the opposing factions.
These events have created tension between the groups, Low said. They need to talk, to come to the table and dialogue.
We absolutely respect and want there to be a diversity of opinions on campus.
Students for Justice in Palestine has the right to be on campus, but you have to respect your cause in a way that is not negative and not as the expense of others.
We think there is not a good forum for dialogue on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus now.
Portman would like to use the Field of Flags debate as a launching point to change the nature of student group interaction at DU.
There should be a standard way in which groups of varying perspectives interact, and as this is an institution of higher education, the discussion and presentation of opinions should reflect that.
The leaders of all Jewish groups on campus agree that we do not have to wait for an act of unbridled anti-Semitism to occur on campus before we act. The time to act is now, and such action will prevent hate from taking hold of the student population.
Rabbi Serebryanski admits that the specific issue of the counter-display to the Field of Flags wasnt a big incident in the scheme of things.
It struck me, quite frankly, as silly, he said. Its part of what I call the progressive orthodoxy, where you need to free Tibet, free Darfour, free Palestine, while I think some of the kids involved in this couldnt find some of those places on the map.
The controversy, however, does touch on larger issues related to diversity on the DU campus, and Rabbi Serebryanski said he was highly impressed with how Never Again! reacted to it, particularly the groups effort to initiate dialogue.
While he and DU Hillel director Josh Samet have been consulting with students in their groups, the rabbi says the students have themselves led the way in responding to the challenge posed by the counter-display.
The most amazing thing to me is the way the students got together and responded, Rabbi Serebryanski said.
They dealt with this in a very mature fashion that shows foresight and leadership. It is a testament to the work that Hillel does in their leadership training. Im just really, really proud of the way the students have reached out to the university and how the university has responded.
Copyright © 2013 by the Intermountain Jewish News
