In the News

Two universities are being asked to revisit the courses assigned to Professor Pnina Peri next year, and to mandate diversity and sensitivity training before her return to teaching. This came after Peri was caught on video mocking and shaming two men performing Jewish rituals.

A group of Orthodox rabbis called on the University of Maryland to halt courses by Professor Pnina Peri over shaming Jewish rituals.

In a letter addressed to the University of Maryland and the American University, the CJV said that Peri’s outburst demonstrated “unbridled hostility towards religious activity” which calls into doubt her ability to “demonstrate appropriate tolerance and accommodation of religious needs.”

The premise of the case was patently absurd.

Ellenson responded: “it does not occur to us at HUC-JIR to quash or vilify political criticism of Israel out of a preemptive fear of controversy.” He even claimed that Zaray’s tearful essay, bemoaning how Ellenson and Chabon “ambushed” and ruined her graduation, was testament to the diversity of opinion at HUC-JIR.

In an interview with Washington Jewish Week, CJV Managing Director Yaakov Menken said the purpose of the letter was to ask the university to mandate diversity training for Peri to “help her get past being offended by public personal displays of religion.”

Given the proven correlation between ‘anti-Israel’ activities such as this one and open Antisemitism, the school has created a hostile environment for its Jewish students, and even opened itself to a claim of liability should anything transpire.

The CJV cited three ways that the school’s moment of silence failed its educational mission.

The CJV called for two universities to revisit the courses assigned to Professor Pnina Peri next year, and to mandate diversity and sensitivity training before her return to teaching.

The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV), a rabbinic organization, was another early objector to Beacon’s moment of silence. “There are no two ways about it; claiming that Hamas operatives are ‘victims’ is to say that killing Jews is a peaceful activity,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, president of the coalition.