Happy Pesach. I am writing to you as Passover ends about two matters I know you both care about: Israel and the misuse of the UW logo.
I have written a lot her about your efforts to prevent my father’s experiences in Buchenwald, his amazing writings and pictures, from coming into the public so everyone can take lessons. Those lessons relate not only to our family, but to the need we all should have to practice the Jewish ideal of Tikkun Olam, repair the world.
Your own efforts illustrate a devotion to repair of wrongs. You were so upset by this website’s writings about slavery in South Carolina and pornography and prostitution at the Super Bowl, that you made huge efforts to get the University to remove itself from any relationship to THE Ave. For two non alumni of the UW to write so many emails and threaten the UW with legal action if the administration did not force THE Ave to change its logo was truly a selfless act.
Since I now know of your sincere concern, I wanted to bring your attention another egregious misuse of the UW’s logo. The organization SUPERUW is using not only the logo but our team name, the DAWGS, to encourage a boycott of things made in Israel. To learn more you can either search Google or click on the logo to the right. You can als0 click here for their Facebook page.
Given your past concerns that THE Ave has given an impression that the UW promotes religious bigotry, racism and pornography, I think you may want to convey some of the following quotes to Jack Johnson and the Attorney General:
SUPER UW and MEChA de UW commemorate Israeli Apartheid Week together this year. We have built a wall to make visible the intertwining struggles for justice and liberation in the Americas and in Palestine. The ASA’s resolution responds to the call of over 170 Palestinian civil society organizations for a global boycott of Israeli academic institutions, whose complicity with the ongoing occupation of Palestine is documented. Students during the radical history tour learn about the founding of UW on occupied Duwamish land,
With all due respect,
Stephen Schwartz, Editor, THE Ave … a website that is of campus but off campus
Nothing in this email should be taken to represent my opinions as Professor of Pathology. As a member of the UW faculty for 40 years I attest that nothing I have learned in that time gives me the right to speak for the UW.