Jack Langson Library at UC Irvine. Photo: wiki commons.

JNS.org – Several Jewish organizations have written a letter to top California education officials to express concern regarding anti-Semitism at California state schools.

The AMCHA Initiative, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, StandWithUs, and the Zionist Organization of America noted their concerns on the “safety and well-being of Jewish students on California State University campuses,” in light of an event being hosted by the San Francisco State University (SFSU) College of Ethnic Studies on Thursday.

The event, titled “Report and Discussion From Members of the North American Based Academic and Labor Delegation to Palestine 2014,” features a seven-person delegation consisting of SFSU professors Rabab Abdulhadi and Joanne Barker, along with five other academics and activists who are “leading advocates for the academic boycott of Israel.”

According to the letter, the Jewish groups are particularly concerned about meetings the delegation has had with Palestinians who argue “for the use of armed violence against the Jewish state,” and about the fact that “at least two of the meetings were with individuals affiliated with U.S. State Department-designated terrorist organizations responsible for the murder of numerous Jews worldwide.”

The Jewish groups asked the California education officials, including SFSU President Leslie Wong, to “speak out forcefully against this event” and to monitor for “anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli animus.”