by Tiferet Schafler

On May 28, a disturbing video went viral, in which blatant anti-Semitism – specifically anti-religiosity – is demonstrated by an unlikely source in an unlikely place: a Jew, in Ben-Gurion airport.

Rabbi Meir Herzl, director of Chabad in Pisgat Zeev, Jerusalem, approached Gad Kaufman, a businessman traveling to Europe at the time, and asked him if would like to don tefillin and pray. Kaufman agreed.

The video, taken by Kaufman’s friend, begins with Pnina Peri, a visiting assistant professor in University of Maryland’s Joseph and Alma Gildenhorn Institute for Israel Studies, interrupting Kaufman and Rabbi Herzl, telling them that they should not be doing this in a “public place.” Kaufman requests from Peri allow him a few minutes to pray with concentration. Peri does not comply and starts making mocking comments accompanied by coarse, derisive laughter.

Rabbi Herzel does not say a word to Peri over the course of the video, and simply tells Kaufman not to pay attention to her.

“Multiple people brought the video to my attention, at least one of whom encouraged us to comment on this,” said Rabbi Yaakov Menken, managing director for Coalition for Jewish Values. The CJV, an Orthodox advocacy group based in Baltimore, sent out a letter to the university to immediately review the course load assigned to Professor Peri for the upcoming semester.

“We also requested, not that Professor Peri lose her job, but that she receive diversity and sensitivity training before her return to teaching,” said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Eastern Regional vice president of CJV.

“This incident was repugnant to our notion of religious freedom and sensitivity to others,” said Rabbi Pruzansky, “and certainly, as a professor of sociology and Israel studies, Professor Peri should be setting an example of tolerance.”

“If a person displays that level of bias to someone engaging in a simple religious ritual, imagine what can be said or done behind closed doors in the classroom: Is she going to give [her students] fair grades, or mistreat them?” said Rabbi Menken.

Peri’s husband, Professor Yoram Peri, holds the Abraham S. and Jack Kay Chair in Israel Studies, the department in which Peri works. One Orthodox student, Andrew Korman, a sophomore at the university, said he “took a course taught by her husband (ISRL342), and he openly mocked daati Jews in a couple of lectures.”

In response to the uproar, Pnina Peri released a statement, proclaiming what “actually happened.” She stated that when she was waiting for her flight in Ben-Gurion, two men arrived and “started laying tefillin right on top of me.” Peri said she politely asked them to give her space and, in response, “they called me names and cursed me out, saying ‘it’s too bad Hitler didn’t kill you and your entire family.’” As a daughter of Holocaust survivors, Peri claimed this led to her outburst.

Rabbi Menken, in response to Peri’s statement, compiled a list of 10 “clearly verifiable statements about what transpired, all of which appear to contradict her account.” Rabbi Menken notes that “on the video, the terminal is uncrowded, with plenty of space… it is still more improbable that people would stand over a third party while engaging in a two-person interaction, given the available space.”

Additionally, he said, “it appears that Prof. Peri is approaching from the next row away, at some distance from the two men. They are not in her personal space, neither is she in theirs. She does not say, “Don’t stand over me”; she says that their presence in a public place is disturbing her and that because they want to perform a religious ritual they should go “over there, where there is no one.”

Rabbi Menken also comments that “she engages in false, coarse laughter, not shouting at them for having called her names…her demeanor is one of ridicule, not of hurt or anger at having been personally attacked.”

He noted finally that it is Kaufman himself who posted the video of the incident. If he had been the instigator and in the wrong, Rabbi Menken argued, “it is vastly more likely that he would have posted nothing at all, desperately hoping his behavior would never be revealed.”

Gad Kaufman himself posted on his Facebook page (in Hebrew): “An amazing incident took place this morning at the airport, when I was politely asked by a Chabad man if I wanted to put on tefillin? I said yes, and then a woman with a crazy look jumped up and started cursing, harassing and disturbing! It is really shameful that being a Jew in this country means being persecuted by the leftist Bohemian. If I were a Muslim or a Christian, would it be more legitimate for her…? ”

“This incident is part of a larger dialogue that’s going on in Israel,” said Rabbi Menken, “about religious intolerance from secular Israelis.”

“There is a broader problem of a certain aggressiveness Israeli society has taken against Torah,” said Rabbi Pruzansky. “This is something that has to be combatted. The CJV advocates for Jewish values: among Jewish values is showing respect for Torah and mitzvot. So we did not want this event to disappear without a lesson being taught.”

The Jewish Press requested comment from Professor Peri, her husband, University of Maryland’s Dean William Cohen, but all were “unavailable to speak.”

In reply to a request for comment addressed to Dean Bonnie Thornton Dill, the University sent its current statement regarding the incident, which reads in part:

“This truncated video shows only part of the interaction… her position is confirmed through another video taken of the incident that they have reviewed… the University’s academic leaders acknowledge her apology and support her ongoing contributions to the institution… The University is committed to core values of freedom of expression and civility in discourse, values shared by Dr. Peri…the University appreciates and values her contributions on campus.”

This article appeared exclusively in the print edition of The Jewish Press, p. 11.