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Seventh candle for Concordia Hillel

International Hillel lights seventh candle in support of Concordia Hillel. On the international website for Hillel, a call went out yesterday to stand in solidarity with Concordia Hillel. While we were in the Hall building lighting our menorah, Hillel chapters around the world were lighting theirs as a sign of support.

Hillel: The Foundation for Jewish Campus Life calls on Jewish students the world over to light the seventh candle of the Chanukah menorah this evening in solidarity with Jewish students at Concordia University who this week were denied the right to meet on campus by the Concordia Student Union.

“Chanukah is the festival of freedom. Tonight as we light a candle for Concordia we assert our right to celebrate our Jewishness. The Jewish people fought intolerance in ancient times and we will fight it today,” stated Hillel President and International Director Richard M. Joel.

On the one hand, the expression of support is wonderful. On the other hand, I’m kind of ashamed to realize just how much Concordia’s international reputation has been damaged. I graduated from that school. It’s on my diploma and my resume. I had a pretty good three years there – DESPITE the idiots. They are not the majority and they do not represent most students, and most of the time I had no problem just going about my business and ignoring them . . . and getting a damn good education in the process, I might add.

It disheartens me to realize that people are giving up on Concordia instead of fighting to take it back from those who have hijaked it. Would they be so quick to give up on McGill, or Harvard, or Princeton? Would they be so quick to just shrug and say “the school’s been taken over by the professional shit-disturbers, good riddance”? I doubt it. No, they’d fight for their school.

To any Concordia student who may be reading this: the power ultimately rests with you, at the voting booth. Get informed, get involved, get organized, and make a change. Victory may be difficult at Concordia but it’s not impossible. And the rewards are great: reclaiming the school for the students, in the name of democracy, freedom, and the right thing.

{ 6 comments… add one }
  • Shlinkin 12.06.02, 3:11 PM

    Having spent a few years at Concordia myself, I share your feelings. However, when anyone mentions going to Concordia – jew/gentile – I tell them don’t do it. Concordia is simply an evil school, and there is no need to go to such a place. My experience in other schools was so “normal,” I question why anyone bother with COncordia.

  • segacs 12.06.02, 3:20 PM

    But Concordia doesn’t belong to them. It belongs to us – you, me, everyone. Students, former students, and the general taxpayer population (being a public university funded primarily with public funds). Letting them win there is tantamount to surrendering the whole place, and that’s not right.

  • Shlinkin 12.06.02, 3:37 PM

    Sorry Segacs, but let’s be fully realistic here. Concordia does belong to them. They have a hardcore group of jew haters, an apathetic group of students, and a general society that has always been hostile to jews. I don’t understand how a single jew can lend their minds or tuition to the name Concordia. I assure you, there is no better way to hurt Concordia than for the jews to leave. Let them stew in their own hate for a while, as Concordia’s academic ranking and reputation fall even lower (as if possible). Many from Concordia will tell you – the first question an emplyer asks is “oh, that crazy school.” And those are the ones willing to interview CONcordia students in the first place.

  • segacs 12.06.02, 3:41 PM

    I know all that! That’s exactly the reason we need to reclaim it. It was hard enough finding the job I’m working at now . . . but the value of my degree falls a little more every day. I worked hard for that degeree, dammit, now I want it to be still worth something in 10 years.

  • Shlinkin 12.06.02, 3:44 PM

    Segacs, should you ever lose your job, I recommend you post your resume on your blog, and mention you are looking for a job. You have 2000 hits already, and you will get many more. In fact, this blog is turning the useless ConU degree into gold.

  • Lent 12.06.02, 4:35 PM

    At some point, particularly what was evidenced with the radicalism and anti-social behaviour of the pro-“palestinian” clan when Bibi was going to give his speech, people will realize that something is amiss at Concordia. Unfortunately it will not be anytime soon, particularly when we have a Liberal government which almost routinely votes against Israel at the U.N. What we see at Concordia is the fallout from bad leadership in our government. The belief that being anti-zionist cannot be equated with anti-Semitism. The belief that Israel is the regional bad-guy in the ME. The belief that Israel is a quasi-colonial presence in the ME, etc. All these are reflected in the pathetic voting record of Canada at the U.N.

    Concordia is just one of many universities who have a cadre of growing vocal groups (usually Islamic but with numerous conscripted leftists) along with a number of sympathetic professors who find it trendy and sexy to denounce Israel for one reason or the other. The difference at this point is that Concordia just seems to have the most vocal of all. To that extent, and without any meaningful opposition from the general student population, Concordia can be reasonably impugned as reflecting the worst elements of this new “anti-zionism” current.

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