The much anticipated showdown with the University of California, Irvine Chancellor Michael Drake went down Monday afternoon at the Hillel summit in Washington. Hillel was criticized for inviting Drake, who presides over a campus with a history of inviting inflammatory, anti-Israel speakers, with some criticizing the chancellor for not denouncing specific acts of anti-Semitic and/or anti-Israel activity. Hillel defended the invitation as a chance to engage the chancellor and allow him to hear the concerns of the Jewish community.

Well, here’s how it played out, in three acts:

Act I, Drake responds to a question put to him by ZOA President Mort Klein.

Act II, Klein confronts Drake after the forum directly (cutting me off in the process).

Act III, JTA tries again to get Drake to say how he feels about comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany. Drake’s response: the university must remain “content neutral.”

[Update] Leaders of four UCI Jewish organizations issued a release praising Drake and telling “off campus organizations” (read: ZOA) they don’t know what they’re talking about.

Download (Word Document)

See also: Hillel invite to Irvine chancellor spurs debate over campus issues

Southern Poverty Law Center

The Intelligence Report, the publication of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which covers all things racist all the time, has a fascinating article on Michigan State University’s Young Americans for Freedom club. According to the SPLC, it is the country’s only university sanctioned student group that is also listed as a hate group.

The MSU-YAF was reportedly simply a fairly right-wing conservative group, until MSU junior Kyle Bristow became its chairman in 2006.

Since then Bristow, according to the Intelligence Report, has pushed it over the racist edge.

In November 2006, the group held a “Straight Power” demonstration in Lansing to protest proposed local legislation to protect gays, lesbians and bisexuals. Protesters carried signs reading “End Faggotry” and “Go Back in the Closet,” according to the IR.

The group has also held such patriotic events as “Catch an illegal immigrant day” and a “Koran Desecration” competition.

Here’s the kicker: Bristow and other group members like to wear black cowboy hats, which means if you’re at MSU’s campus and looking for MSU’s Chabad rabbi, you might go terribly, terribly wrong.

Hillel got a shoutout on last night’s episode of the Simpsons, which had some sort of weird flashback thing going with Marge attending college in the ’90s.

The following image appears as she mentions “fraternity pledges in their beanies”:

Abe Foxman is taking it on all sides for calling on the University of St. Thomas to reinvite Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

The Zionist Organization of America issued a statement slamming the ADL leader.

At the same time, some of Foxman’s Jewish critics on the left who accuse him of attempting to stifle criticism of Israel, are giving him zero credit. For example, here are a few quotes that NYU professor Tony Judt gave to JTA reporter Ben Harris:

“Life is complicated. And sometimes people do the right thing for the wrong reasons.”

“It doesn’t mean I think he’s a completely reformed man.”

“This is a very particular case. To be seen to be censoring Desmond Tutu is to put yourself on the wrong side of history.”

If Columbia Univeristy officials ever figure out who hung the noose on Professor Madonna Constantine’s office door, they will probably expel the culprit.

Unless of course it turns out he’s a Holocaust and homosexual denier, who has a hand in killing American troops, a desire to see Israel disappear and an appetite for nuclear weapons.

In that case, they’ll invite him to deliver a public lecture.

Thanks to JTA staff writer Ben Harris for noticing this unreported detail from Ahmadinejad’s speech at Columbia on Monday: It appears as if someone made a point of making sure that the school’s name and insignia did not appear anywhere near the Iranian leader during his talk.