Staff members in attendance at an internal University of Wisconsin-Madison antisemitism training April 11 said there were several insensitive incidents and inaccuracies in anonymous feedback forms.
Staff members recalled anti-Black microaggressions, a joke about UW-Madison’s land acknowledgement and perceived inaccuracies in presentation materials on Israel in forms obtained by The Daily Cardinal.
About 30 staff members left feedback on the antisemitism training, with 10 staff members leaving positive or mixed feedback on the training indicating the content was informative and they wanted more opportunities to engage with similar trainings.
But many staff members said the training lacked professionalism and failed to provide specific ways to support Jewish students on campus.
“There were aspects of this training that were extremely harmful,” one staff member said in their feedback form. “One example was creating unnecessary parallels between the atrocities of antisemitism and racism. I believe it was not done well and felt like the oppression Olympics. I understand what [the presenters] were trying to do but it did not land well and did more harm than good.”
The April 11 training and an April 17 Islamophobia training were promoted to all Student Affairs staff members and open to other colleagues from related divisions, Jenny Bernhardt, communications director for the vice chancellor for student affairs told the Cardinal. Bernhardt said approximately 120 staff members RSVP’ed to each training.
Student Affairs is a group of campus administrators overseen by Vice Chancellor Lori Reesor focused on student services including University Health Services, the Wisconsin Union, the Dean of Students office, RecWell and campus identity and inclusion centers.
Lisa Armony, executive director of Hillel International's Campus Climate Initiative, spoke during the training with UW-Madison Hillel Director Greg Steinberger and Center for Interfaith Dialogue Director Ulrich Rosenhagen. UW-Madison and the UW System are both participants in Hillel’s International’s Campus Climate Initiative which trains university administrators on antisemitism and gathers and utilizes data from participating universities.
Staff reported anti-Black rhetoric and microaggressions
Many staff members mentioned “insensitive” comments and references to African Americans in their feedback.
“One of the slides discussing the Civil Rights Movement had the term ‘Blacks’ not Black Americans or African Americans. That term is derogatory to African Americans and is tied directly to the white supremacy that the presenter was trying to highlight and diminish,” a response said.
One attendee filled out a hate and bias complaint, referencing several instances when presentation materials or discussions during the training addressed African Americans as “Blacks.”
“When using the word ‘Blacks,’ they continued to mention that Black people's liberation during the Civil Rights movement was due to the Jewish communities support and that the core of white supremacy is antisemitism. They further detracted from the experience and racialized trauma of Black people in America by saying that Jim Crow impacted many social groups, ‘not just Blacks,’” the hate and bias complaint said.
“These statements were all inherently anti-Black and dismissive of the harm inflicted on Black Americans,” another staff member’s comment said.
A spokesperson from Hillel International told the Cardinal the organization was “appreciative of all of the participants who shared their feedback as we aim for every attendee to feel welcome and included in our trainings.”
“We look forward to continuing engaging campus officials on this important and urgent topic," the statement said.
Concerns over Rosenhagen’s introduction
Many attendees also said Rosenhagen made a disparaging remark about UW-Madison’s land acknowledgment, referring to it as a “downer” after reading it at the beginning of the event. The UW-Madison land acknowledgment recognizes the Indigenous history of land on campus.
A staff member referred to the comment as “not only problematic in its erasure of the native nations” but also failing to recognize the “parallels to the indigenous experience and the experiences of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples.” Another staff member described “perplexed” reactions to this comment.
Other staff members took issue with a comment Rosenhagen made during the beginning of the event that was described by one staff member as saying, “‘I thought Germany had some command in crowds, but I guess no’ as he was trying to get the group's attention.”
Two staff members also said Rosenhagen used the incorrect pronouns for a colleague.
In a statement to the Cardinal, Rosenhagen said he apologized and addressed his poorly received comments at the beginning of the next training.
“I am aware that some of the language I used negatively impacted some of my colleagues. I took that feedback seriously,” Rosenhagen said. “English is not my native language; the words were unscripted and I accidentally used a misnomer.”
Steinberger draws concern for MENA commentary
Steinberger, who added commentary during the presentation, also drew criticism from a few participants in the feedback forms.
One comment mentioned an instance in which Steinberger criticized Multicultural Student Center (MSC) staff members and Middle Eastern Northern African (MENA) Heritage Month programming.
“[Steinberger] chose to stand up and lie to the room about Hillel not being invited to participate in MENA programming,” one staff member said. “As one of his fellow white-passing males in the room, his public attack on women of color in the MSC made me lose all respect for him as both an individual and a professional.”
One comment described Steinberger as shouting his accusations against the MSC in a quiet room.
“The actions of Greg Steinberger during this session were unacceptable, unprofessional and absolutely uncalled for,” another comment said.
Bernhardt said “some of the issues raised related to specific individuals were addressed directly with those who were involved or affected” in her statement to the Cardinal.
In a statement to the Cardinal, Steinberger said UW-Madison Hillel appreciates “receiving feedback” and “aims for everyone to feel welcome and included in these educational programs we organize with the university.”
Participants confused over antisemitism definitions, resources for Jewish students
When participants were asked what they wanted to learn more about, many pointed to a lack of information on how to better support Jewish students on campus.
“Instead of learning more about antisemitism and ways to help our Jewish students, I was met with propaganda, attacks unchecked on colleagues and microaggressions,” one comment said.
Staff members also expressed confusion on interpreting differences between anti-Zionism and antisemitism.
“The definition of Zionism was not covered in a way that made sense,” one comment read. “The presenter continued to contradict themselves, often stating that Zionism is too complicated and too large of a topic to understand, and then would go on to state that it has nothing to do with geopolitics and just about affinity for Israel.”
In a November email from MSC Assistant Director and MENA Heritage Month coordinator Noreen Siquiddi to Reesor, Siquiddi said “MENA faculty and students would feel very supported by a university statement that would clarify that speech against the Israeli government is not equivalent to antisemitism.”
In UW-Madison statements since campus tensions on Israel and Palestine were re-ignited by the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israel, the university has not clarified how they are defining the boundary between antisemitism and anti-Zionism.
“The role of campus leadership is not to take sides in national and international debates, or to make special allowances for particular points of view, but to ensure that all participants in campus life have access to university resources for learning and growth,” Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin said in her email to all UW-Madison students and employees after she authorized UWPD to clear the pro-Palestine encampment on May 1.
During the pro-Palestine encampment, a group of Jewish students presented demands to Mnookin, including that the university adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism, which has been criticized by human and civil rights organizations as suppressing speech critical of Israel.
In a May 8 text, Mnookin said she viewed commenting on the IHRA definition of antisemitism as “not something for me ever to do in my institutional capacity.”
This is a developing story. Reach out to Noe Goldhaber and Gabriella Hartlaub to share more on these topics.
Noe Goldhaber is the college news editor and former copy chief for The Daily Cardinal. She is a Statistics and Journalism major and has specialized on a wide range of campus topics including protests, campus labor, student housing, free speech and campus administration. She has done data analysis and visualization for the Cardinal on a number of stories. Follow her on Twitter at @noegoldhaber.
Gabriella Hartlaub is the former arts editor for The Daily Cardinal. She has also written state politics and campus news. She currently is a summer reporting intern with Raleigh News and Observer. Follow her on Twitter at @gabihartlaub.
