Examine what is said, not him who speaks. – Arab Proverb
According to The Forward, it’s tough times for City University of New York trustee, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld, the man who opposed awarding winning playwright Tony Kusher an honorary degree last week. But Wiesenfeld, a former FBI counterintelligence agent who grew up on the Bronx streets getting bullied by the Irish and Puerto Rican kids, is tough. After much noise and embarrassment CUNY reversed their decision, though Wiesenfeld remains opposed. “There are people who don’t like the fact that there are tough Jews,” says one of Wiesenfeld’s friends, Hank Sheinkopf, about the Kushner affair.
Another of Wiesenfeld’s recent shandas: his service as chair of Stop the Madrassa: A Community Coalition, a group formed to oppose a dual-language Arabic public school in New York. “Taking the point of view that he was really anti-Arab is absurd and ridiculous. What he was opposed to was Shariah law,” Sheinkopf said. “He was opposed to the madrassas because he felt that Shariah law would be imposed.”