A Jewish York University professor came under fire recently for an anti-Semitic statement he made in class.
The hell you say? Listen up: A 22-year-old senior named Sarah Grunfeld complained to local Jewish groups that Professor Cameron Johnston had the audacity to exclaim “all Jews should be sterilized” in his “Self, Culture and Society” class.
Except that, had Grunfeld not tuned Johnston out before leaving the classroom in a huff, she might have heard him say “‘All Jews should be sterilized’…would be an example of an unacceptable and dangerous opinion.”
Luckily, Johnston managed to talk the Jewish community down from their calls to have him fired. The incident was “a very unfortunate misunderstanding,” said Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs rep. Sheldon Goodman.
Grunfeld, however, is not backing down from her claim that Johnston is an anti-Semitic Jew: “The words, ‘Jews should be sterilized’ still came out of his mouth,” she told the Toronto Star, “so regardless of the context I still think that’s pretty serious.”
I guess Sarah has never heard of an hyperbole. No question our school system is producing very attentive and focused students. Let's hope her excuse is that the class starts at 8:30 am and she hadn't quite woken up yet. But every senior knows that you avoid classes before 11 am. In fact even the freshmen know that.
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Ms. Grunfeld would not have lasted very long in the buisiness law class I took at a Southern university in the mid seventies. The professor was an octagenerian, retired judge that chewed on a huge cigar and cussed as profanely as anyone I've ever had the pleasure to know.
This being the early period of the Women's Equal Rights movement, many college girls were very militant and several in the class had voiced disapproval of his vocabulary, to which the old "prof" made sure he ramped up the profanity.
The militants saw this as their chance to make a statement, so the plan was that on the following Monday, first offensive word out of his mouth would bring about their departure in protest with a march to the dean's office to demand the judge's removal.
Apparently the judge got tipped off and the Monday morning class began with his desire to discuss an article in the local newspaper about a large oilfield discovery in Nigeria and the mass of manpower that had been deployed from a local oil company to explore this area. He stated that the remote location of the oil field was making it a logistical nightmare and morale of the workers was critically low. He noted that the oil company deemed lack of companionship as the most important need and as a solution, they were recruiting a "boatload of whores to leave Thursday as a reward for all of their hard work."
Realizing this as their chance to strike, the militants jumped up all over the classroom and started for the door. Without missing a beat, the old judge pointed out that they must not being listening,"girls,the boat doesn't leave until Thursday!"
P.S. He was still teaching when I graduated. Probably had something to do with the fact that several buildings on campus had been named after the judge's father, a major contributor to the fine institution.
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