PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Alex Jacobs on CUNY's Response to Antisemitism and the Lippman Report
4:50:42
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123 sec
Alex Jacobs, a New York resident, provided testimony on CUNY's response to antisemitism and the Lippman report. He expressed confusion about proposed mask bans, criticized the conflation of antisemitism with criticism of Israel, and argued against equating Zionism with Judaism.
- Questioned the effectiveness of a mask ban in promoting safety on campus
- Criticized council members for focusing on political polemics rather than addressing structural issues
- Argued that anti-Israeli propaganda should not be conflated with antisemitism
- Expressed concern about the conflation of Judaism with Zionism and support for Israel
Alex Jacobs
4:50:42
Good afternoon.
4:50:43
Thank you.
4:50:43
My name is Alex Jacobs.
4:50:45
I wanna begin by saying I'm not a CUNY student or a faculty member, so my comment is strictly made as New Yorker, and I can't speak to anyone's experience on campus.
4:50:52
And I have very little desire to engage on the inside baseball student activism, but I can talk on what's been shared and advocated for in the report and in this meeting.
4:51:01
First, judge Lippmann's report seems mostly focused on the structural and procedural hurdles that some people have to reporting hate crimes and seems agnostic on any specific protest.
4:51:11
So I'm a little bit confused on how a mask ban promotes safety.
4:51:15
The report is also somewhat silent on this, but the council, for some reason, wasn't.
4:51:19
I think it's mighty big of council member Vernicoff to be so concerned with safety and what people bring to protests when we know that she brings a gun to them.
4:51:26
So masks are apparently this terrifying thing, an impediment to public safety.
4:51:30
But our takeaway should be that to councilor Vernicoff, guns are fine.
4:51:35
But since so many council members seem more concerned on making political polemics, let's recognize the report notes that the different definitions of anti semitism have multiple shortcomings.
4:51:44
The obvious issue being the antisemitic conflation of Israel and Zionism with Jewish people.
4:51:49
For what it's worth, there are more Christian Zionists in this nation than Jewish, so I'm not sure how Zionist should be a protected class or conflated with being a Jew.
4:51:57
But that aside, I'm not sure why anti Israeli propaganda is the subject of a discussion on antisemitism to begin with.
4:52:03
Israel is a country.
4:52:04
It's not a Jew.
4:52:05
To be clear, it's a country that's perpetuating as a genocide and has been doing so for multiple decades.
4:52:12
Excuse me.
4:52:13
I'm a little bit sick.
4:52:14
A Jew is a person.
4:52:15
A Jew is not a Zionist or an Israeli.
4:52:18
Zionism is a racist genocidal project.
4:52:20
Hillel isn't only a Jewish organization.
4:52:22
It's a Zionist organization.
4:52:24
It's wholly irrelevant if someone holds it to be a fundamental part of their identity because you're not justified to feel safe just because you claim racism is an immutable part of who you are.
4:52:34
And it's abundantly clear that council members are not really concerned with protecting Jews, students, or protest.
4:52:39
In fact, council member Yeager has said Palestine does not exist, but apparently, that's not hateful.
4:52:44
But God forbid that somebody supports the
