Nathaniel Solley/Staff

The campus Jewish Student Union voted Wednesday to deny membership to J Street U at Berkeley, a Jewish student political advocacy group on campus whose application to join the union also was denied two years ago after the group faced accusations of being anti-Israel.

The bylaws of the Jewish Student Union, an umbrella organization for Jewish student groups on campus, stipulate that a member organization must not host speakers who demonize Israel, said Jewish Student Union President Daphna Torbati.

That requirement was a point of contention surrounding J Street U, which advocates a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Much of the disagreement focused on J Street U’s relationship with Breaking the Silence, an Israeli military veterans’ organization that criticizes Israel’s military operations in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem, said Elon Rov, a co-chair of J Street U.

“We are not afraid, as American Jews, to address those (difficult issues),” said Shayna Howitt, J Street U’s national communications co-chair. “We are not afraid … to host people who we might disagree with. We’re not afraid to stand up and question how we can best support Israel, because we’re committed to the safety of Israel.”

Breaking the Silence, however, has garnered serious criticism from other Jewish groups that belong to the Jewish Student Union. Torbati said she was concerned the group unfairly disparages Israeli soldiers.

Jewish Student Union members Avi Hecht and David Eliahu said Jewish students with connections to Israel would be alienated if J Street U were allowed to host Breaking the Silence under the Jewish Student Union umbrella.

“For a lot of members … the (Jewish Student Union is) the only place where they can express their love for Israel because of such an anti-Israel campus climate,” Torbati said. “A lot of people have said that they want the (Jewish Student Union) to stay a place they feel comfortable saying they love Israel.”

Hecht added that Breaking the Silence does not offer a fair picture of Israel’s military operations.

“Regardless of J Street’s intents, the effect of bringing a public event like BTS is detrimental to the image of Israel on our campus,” Eliahu said.

J Street U invited Breaking the Silence to campus in fall 2012, and its founder, Yehuda Shaul, will appear on campus again in November.

J Street U last applied to the Jewish Student Union in November 2011 but was rejected for inviting a co-founder of the Sheikh Jarrah Solidarity Movement to campus in spring 2010, among other reasons.

Members of J Street U said they believed their relationship with the Jewish Student Union had improved after working with the campus Jewish community against the ASUC Senate’s contentious divestment bill last spring.

“We did want and expect that the Jewish community was finally going to legitimize our voice,” Rov said. “But we were disappointed.”

J Street U needed eight votes from the union board and its member organizations to be admitted but received only two, with eight votes against it and two abstentions, Torbati said.

Howitt said that J Street U is not anti-Israel but that it is critical of Israel’s policies in the disputed territories.

“The best way to support Israel is not by refusing to talk about the politics that are often uncomfortable and scary — it’s by addressing those politics,” Howitt said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, a petition circulated online by J Street U calling for the Jewish community to be more inclusive had collected 166 signatures, including those of Jewish ASUC Senators Grant Fineman and Liza Raffi, according to Rov.

“We’re not appealing the decision,” Rov said. “We want to prove to the wider Jewish community that the decision does not reflect the vision of Jewish students … We think this decision is inconsistent with what Jewish students actually want.”

Contact Connor Grubaugh at cgrubaugh@dailycal.org

Clarification(s):
A previous version of this article implied that a number of students at last Wednesday’s meeting of the Jewish Student Union walked out in response to J Street U’s failure to secure membership. In fact, the vote on J Street U was the last item on the meeting’s agenda, so students left the room at the meeting’s natural conclusion.

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Derek Remsburg/Senior Staff

Editor’s note: This is one of four profiles that has been published on candidates for ASUC President. Stories on DeeJay Pepito and Jason Bellet appeared in print and online Monday.

Rafi Lurie knows something about small beginnings.

From kindergarten through 12th grade, the Student Action presidential candidate attended the same small school, graduating as part of a class of just 47 students.

Arriving at his first Chem 1A class on his first day at UC Berkeley, Lurie was overwhelmed by the hundreds of students cramming into a single lecture hall.

Born in London to South African parents, Lurie grew up in San Diego with his two younger brothers, Josh and Daniel. All three of them attended the San Diego Jewish Academy, where Lurie served as student body president during his senior year.

“Needless to say, the student government at my school did not have the resources they needed to provide for our student body, and moreover, it didn’t really do anything,” Lurie said during a presentation at the Berkeley Political Review last week.

It is a story he has told many times over the last week to crowds and to individuals on Sproul Plaza. He stands tall when he tells it, and it’s well rehearsed. For the next five minutes, the sophomore and intended electrical engineering and computer sciences major shows the audience that he takes his ASUC presidential bid seriously. He talks about his platforms aimed at revitalizing college spirit, engaging the new chancellor and making the university more accountable to students.

“Lurie doesn’t campaign for the numbers but to make real connections with the student body,” said Joey Lam, Student Action party chair.

Lurie knows about small beginnings but says he has big plans for Berkeley and believes in the importance of his platforms and, above all, the importance of diversity.

“Diversity is what makes life exciting, and so really experiencing that in my high school, having been with people of all different beliefs and creating a community where we could work together and co-exist together, is an experience I will take from high school onto the college campus as ASUC president,” Lurie said.

But his commitment to certain campus communities has come under fire recently following his controversial decision to vote against a senate bill aimed at improving the position of victims of sexual assault on campus.

Despite being listed as co-sponsor of SB 130 at one point, Lurie decided to vote against the bill — along with four other Student Action senators — after listening to Senator Rosemary Hua, a victim of sexual assault, state that she had concerns with the bill.

CalSERVE Senator Klein Lieu, who co-authored the bill, said he was shocked when Lurie voted against it on the floor.

“I would imagine that somebody that sponsors a bill, regardless of party, would advocate for it,” Lieu said. “He did completely the opposite.”

Lieu said he believes that Lurie’s change of heart was a result of both party politics — as all who voted against the bill were members of Student Action — and an attempt to remain on the good side of the campus administration.

In all, five Student Action senators voted against the bill, three voted to support the bill and one abstained.

“It is clear to me that certain elected officials — especially those running for this year’s campaign — are too afraid to stand up, and Rafi is one of them,” Lieu said.

Lurie has defended his controversial vote on the measure, claiming he believed the bill did not satisfy people who had been sexually assaulted.

“I voted no because there are members of the senate who are survivors of sexual assault that did not feel comfortable with the bill and wanted to work with our administration to rework the language,” he said.

Lurie said he wants to engage in a proactive process to ensure that UC Berkeley students feel safe from sexual assault.

Lam emphasized Lurie’s attempts to reach out to all sections of the community, including the students of the Middle Eastern, Muslim and South Asian Coalition, a community of students whose views may be contrary to those of Lurie, an Orthodox Jew.

Lurie is well-known as an active member of UC Berkeley’s Jewish community. Not only does he keep kosher, but at the end of last year, he was involved in setting up Friday services at the Hillel Center.

“If Rafi’s not at Friday dinner, he will definitely be at Friday service,” said Liza Raffi, a senate candidate with Student Action and a member of Hillel. “He’s always around.”

For Lurie, the issue of inclusivity has been a primary driver behind his campaign.

“I don’t want any student to ever feel like they are alone on this campus,” Lurie said. “I want them to know that as ASUC president, I am here to represent them — to make sure their voices are heard.”

Contact Eoghan Hughes at ehughes@dailycal.org.

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Student Action/Courtesy

Student Action announced 18 candidates Thursday for this year’s ASUC election — a season in which CalSERVE is running more candidates than it has in recent history and SQUELCH! is running its first fully nonsatirical slate.

Though the party’s slogan is “Every Student, Every Year,” Student Action has historically run candidates with strong connections to the Jewish community, engineering communities and Greek communities.

Student Action’s candidates are Norvan Berkezyan, Kayon Brantley, James Chi, Katherine Chung, Henry Grunzweig, Haley Lee, Jacob Mansour, Sahil Pandya, Liza Raffi, Kyle Shackleford, Lauren Week, Eric Wu, Nicolas Jaber, Karen Lee, Andrew Newbill, Pavan Upadhyayula, Courtney Chow and Quinn Shen.

The party has historically dominated ASUC Senate races, winning 11 senate seats in 2012 to CalSERVE’s six and SQUELCH!’s one. The other two seats went to one independent candidate and one candidate running with the Cooperative Movement, precisely matching the makeup of the previous two senates.

Student Action said in a statement that the nominees were chosen from a range of student communities on campus and that “their senate goals range from enhancing the quality of off-campus living, to unifying philanthropic groups and organizations, to expanding the presence of the ASUC in students’ academic lives.”

Though Student Action has historically run a full slate of 20 candidates, this year, the party has chosen the 18 that it felt best represented its interests, said Party Signatory Joey Lam.

Even with the increased competition, Lam said Student Action will not change its campaign strategies.

“We’re focused on us,” Lam said. “It’s not fruitful to worry about what the other parties are doing. If my candidates do their jobs in the way that they should and aim to connect with everyone in the community as they should, then we will be fine.”

Jason Bellet, SQUELCH’s candidate for president and a current ASUC senator, said he saw the increased competition as positive for campus political culture.

“Expanded SQUELCH! and CalSERVE slates will hopefully ensure that no single party will hold a majority of the ASUC Senate,” he said in an email. “The hope is that senators with different opinions will have to reconcile their beliefs with one another, promoting a more cooperative student government to cohesively serve the needs of students.”

Lam emphasized that Student Action does not single out any particular groups.

“We’ve never run our campaigns in that sort of way,” Lam said. “We have 18 candidates from all sorts of communities — our commitment to represent all students on campus stands, as always.”

Lauren Week, one of the candidates and a junior studying political economy and legal studies, said she aims to secure practice space for dance communities during the reconstruction of Lower Sproul and to create connections between Cal Athletics and student groups as part of her spirit platform. Week noted that she is the head of philanthropy for the Panhellenic Council and a campus ambassador.

“My last platform of increasing security and safety in the residence halls is also incredibly important to me as it is something that personally affected me and many peers during my residence hall living experience,” Week said in an email.

Nicolas Jaber, another candidate and a freshman philosophy and economics double major, cited “unprecedented fiscal and logistical constraints” as his motivations for running for senate and said that his pragmatic approach will allow him to represent communities equally.

Jaber’s main platform proposal is to enable students to use their meal points at local restaurants and businesses.

“This proposal is common sense,” Jaber said in an email. “Cal Debit Cards already have purchasing power with many dining fixtures on and around our campus. The next reasonable step is to open what is now a closed system, affording students the highest level of choice possible.”

The student government elections will be held April 9, 10 and 11.

DJ Sellarole covers the ASUC. Contact him at dsellarole@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @DJSellarole.

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