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Majoring in Anti-Semitism at Vassar
(Wall Street Journal) Mark G. Yudof and Ken Waltzer - Anti-Israel sentiment mixed with age-old anti-Semitism has reached a fever pitch at Vassar College. It is time that faculty and administrators take a stand against this toxic brew on behalf of academic values. The most recent incident was a talk on Feb. 3 by Jasbir Puar, a Rutgers associate professor of women's and gender studies. Ms. Puar began by exhorting the students to support a boycott of Israel as part of "armed" resistance. Ms. Puar passed on vicious lies that Israel had "mined for organs for scientific research" from dead Palestinians - updating the medieval blood libel against Jews - and accused Israelis of attempting to give Palestinians the "bare minimum for survival" as part of a medical "experiment." Now there is a resolution before the Vassar student union, in part seeking a boycott of Ben & Jerry's, on the grounds that the company - founded by two Jews - sells ice-cream "transported on Jewish-only roads to be sold in Jewish-only settlements." These events are transforming a prestigious institution into a parody ripe for ridicule. Mr. Yudof, former president of the University of California, is chairman of the Academic Engagement Network, where Mr. Waltzer, professor of history emeritus at Michigan State University, is the executive director.