Lawyers respond to UWM professor’s anti-Semitic protest

A University of Wisconsin Milwaukee (UWM) professor is responsible for leading an anti-Semitic protest at Milwaukee Jewish Federation on Tuesday.

UWM History Professor Rachel Buff, who is Jewish, called for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation to stop funding genocide in Israel.

Buff led the protest by a group called Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which, according to the ADL, is an anti-Semitic group and only represents the views of 4% of the world’s Jewish Population. The same group is responsible for disrupting the New York Stock Exchange last week.

“We want to assert that … we oppose this genocide being committed in our names and being supported by the Federation,” Buff said during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Tuesday.

Buff has been a vocal opponent of Israel’s right to exist and runs a Twitter account with the name “From the River to the Sea.”

“From the River to the Sea” is phrase terrorists have chanted during protests that have called for the total destruction of Israel.

According to a former student of Buff’s, she lectures on similar topics in class on the UWM campus. Buff’s salary is at least partially funded by Wisconsin taxpayer dollars. Buff’s salary as of 2022 was $107.071, according to GovSalaries.

According to a 2023 survey by the Economist, one in five young Americans think the Holocaust is a myth, which has prompted concern from conservative groups that there’s a lack of ideological diversity in faculty and it is actually changing how people perceive the past.

University of Wisconsin – Milwaukee (UWM) remains silent on Anti-Semitism

The Wisconsin Law Journal reached out to UWM communications general mailbox, as well as to Howard Magner and Angelica Duria, spokespersons for the university. The Law Journal also sent emails to the above UWM officials on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and followed up with multiple voicemail messages. To date, UWM officials have not responded.

UWM made headlines earlier this year for its failure to enforce state law regarding the illegal pro-Hamas encampments, which ultimately led to the resignation of the UWM police chief.

UWM senior teaching faculty member Jessica McBride told the Wisconsin Law Journal on Thursday that “Professors have academic freedom and freedom of speech, but the university also has an obligation to ensure that all students, including Jewish students, feel safe on campus. I believe the university failed in that mission last spring by allowing the encampment to continue as long as it did, but they’ve taken some important steps with their new policies this fall. I believe instructors should keep their personal politics out of the classroom, but their speech off campus or at a protest is a much more complicated matter and, from a university perspective, likely falls under freedom of speech and academic freedom concerns, even if it is speech I completely disagree with. I say that as someone who finds a lot of this professor’s rhetoric to be completely outrageous. I do believe the rise in anti semitism in society in general is deeply troubling.”

In response to Buff, on Wednesday JCRC executive director with the Milwaukee Jewish Federation Roberta Clark said, “This isn’t genocide it’s war. It’s a response to the Oct. 7 attacks.”

Oct. 7 represents the deadliest attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust. On Oct. 7, innocent, women and children were kidnapped, raped and murdered by terrorists that JVP supports, according to Clark and the ADL.

“They (JVP) are an organization that is choosing to say things that are not true,” Clark said.

Milwaukee’s legal community also responded to Buff’s anti-Semitic comments.

“There have always been self-hating Jews,” said Milwaukee Attorney Sue Colburn during an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Thursday.

“Clearly (Buff) is uneducated. She just doesn’t get it,” Colburn added.

Colburn said it doesn’t make sense for liberals or feminists to support terrorist groups like Hamas.

“These people believe that women are here to serve men. Palestinians believe that a bird has more rights than a woman,” Colburn added.

During an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Wednesday, Milwaukee Attorney Michael Maistelman, who serves on the board of the Federation, said that he thinks Buff’s logic is flawed.

“To hold the Milwaukee Jewish community responsible for a government that is over 6,000 miles away is ridiculous. If that logic works it would seem even more the case that every American is responsible for Donald Trump’s decisions while he was in office,” said Maistelman.

Milwaukee Attorney Ann Jacobs, who serves as Wisconsin’s Election Commissioner and also on the Federation’s board, agreed with Maistelman.

“I was really struck by the fact they decided to protest the Jewish Federation, which protects the safety of Jews across Wisconsin. The Federation supports Jewish institutions and funding for Jewish schools and recreation,” Jacobs said.

Jacobs noted how the Federation also supports care for the elderly, specifically at the Milwaukee Jewish Home, where Tuesday’s protests also occurred.

“And here we are, caring for our elders and they come and try to disrupt it,” Jacobs said.

“It’s really beyond pale. The part that really bothered me was trying to disrupt the organization that does so much for the Jewish community, and did so by disturbing them all because there is a democracy in the Middle East and they don’t like what they are doing,” Jacobs said.

“The protesters are willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of Jews here albeit it to their own political wants,” Jacobs added.

Clark agreed.

“It’s sad to see members of the Jewish community strike out at the mainstream Jewish community because they disagree,” Clark said.

Ahead of the protest, Milwaukee police told the Wisconsin Law Journal that they respect protester’s First Amendment rights.

“The Milwaukee Police Department is aware and is monitoring the situation. We respect the rights of all individuals who wish to peacefully express their First Amendment rights,” MPD officials said in a written statement to the Wisconsin Law Journal on Tuesday.

Milwaukee Mayor Johnson’s office issued a statement on Thursday.

“It is our office’s understanding that the demonstration was peaceful.  We respect the constitutional rights everyone has to voice an opinion.  We have an expectation demonstrators act with civility, disavow intimidation, and avoid hate speech,” said Jeff Fleming, Director of Communications and Public Engagement for the City of Milwaukee Office of Mayor Cavalier Johnson.

On the scene of the protest, MPD officers told the Wisconsin Law Journal that Tuesday’s protest was peaceful and no arrests were made.

As previously reported by the Wisconsin Law Journal, the Milwaukee Jewish Federation said it had been working closely with law enforcement agencies in anticipation of a protest Tuesday afternoon in Milwaukee.

During an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Tuesday, vice president of Federation Security Ari Friedman said the group planning the protest is the Milwaukee chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace.

The organization has been called out by a number of groups, including the Anti Defamation League, which noted in the weeks following the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israelis, JVP chapters have been active on social media and have sponsored or co-sponsored dozens of anti-Israel rallies across the United States. In several instances, JVP or attendees/speakers at its rallies have expressed explicit support for terror against Israel or even overt anti-Semitism.

During an interview with the Wisconsin Law Journal on Tuesday, Clark said, “JVP is targeting members of Wisconsin’s Jewish community for decisions made by the state of Israel, in which we have no control or influence.”

Also as previously reported, over the summer, Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson sharply condemned anti-Semitism and called for justice during Milwaukee’s Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) annual meeting.

“The resurgence of this sort of hatred is disgusting,” Johnson said after citing hate crime statistics from the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Ashleigh Lund contributed to this report.