Jews: ‘a problem people’

VIC Alhadeff (pictured) said he had one of “the most unpleasant experiences” he has ever had when he spoke to a class at the Workers Education Association (WEA), an adult education organisation, last Thursday.

Alhadeff, who is the chief executive of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD), spoke to the WEA class after he received reports that one of the lecturers made comments, which could be construed as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic, during a course titled “The Turbulent History of Palestine”.

Alhadeff wrote to WEA and was invited to speak to the same class.

“It was one of the most unpleasant experiences that I have had,” Alhadeff told the JBOD plenum on Tuesday night.

When Alhadeff said he had heard that the lecturer called the Jews a rapacious people, he was quickly told that was incorrect.

“A gentleman said he didn’t say Jews were ‘rapacious’, he said that Jews were a ‘problem people’.

“So I said that is a racist stereotype that I find offensive, but then another man said ‘well you are a problem people’, and then the lady in the front said ‘absolutely’.”

Alhadeff told the plenum it was a harrowing experience but didn’t blame the WEA.

He said they had taken appropriate steps to handle the matter by inviting him to speak with WEA staff members in the room, and by stopping the lecturer from giving further talks on the same subject.

WEA Sydney executive director Michael Newtown disputed that the lecturer made any comments that could be construed as anti-Semitic.

“I find anti-Semitism loathsome, as any other person would, but I don’t believe that the content of the WEA course led to the views of the people,” Newtown said.

“The students saw Vic coming in and may have believed that he had his own agenda and they may have believed a view was being forced upon them and they may have not reacted in the best manner.”

Apologising for any offence caused, Dr Douglas Golding, the lecturer at the heart of the dispute, insisted he hadn’t meant to cause any upset, and was simply quoting from sources used as part of the course. He told The AJN, “I’m not sure if I changed anyone’s opinion, but I believe that some of the students may have had an anti-Semitic view before they came in.”

JOSHUA LEVI