Two U.S. College Students Receive AJC Campus Courage Award

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Jun 07, 2016, 03:19 ET

WASHINGTON, June 7, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AJC presented its inaugural Campus Courage Award today to Winston Shi of Stanford University and Milan Chatterjee of UCLA. The award honors students who have demonstrated unusual courage and moral clarity in standing up to anti-Semitism and the BDS movement.

"Winston Shi and Milan Chatterjee are shining examples of what it means to speak out in campus environments that, in some cases, are increasingly hostile to Jewish students and anyone who challenges the BDS movement," said Daniel Elbaum, AJC Assistant Executive Director, who, together with AJC Board of Governors members Ellyn and Jeffrey Stone, presented the awards.

"AJC is a remarkable organization, and I'm deeply honored to receive the inaugural Campus Courage Award," said Chatterjee, president of the UCLA Graduate Student Association (GSA), who is entering his third year at UCLA Law School.

He was honored for standing up to Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which sought his removal from office after he told a campus group that funding for a diversity event was contingent on a "zero engagement/endorsement policy toward Divest from Israel" or any related BDS movement organization. The GSA later found Chatterjee guilty of violating the student body's constitution, but voted not to take action against him.

"SJP, with the support of Palestine Legal and ACLU of Southern California, launched a vicious public relations and legal campaign against me, solely because my administration chose to remain neutral on the BDS issue," Chatterjee said. "Consequently, I gained first-hand exposure to how the BDS movement has created a hostile and unsafe campus climate at American universities. I especially empathize with my Jewish fellow students, who are being systematically harassed and bullied by this movement."

Shi, a columnist for the Stanford Daily and a member of the Class of 2016, received the award for unequivocally condemning anti-Semitic statements by student senator Gabriel Knight, who told a Student Senate meeting that "Jews controlling the media, economy, government and other societal institutions...is a very valid discussion."

"Nearly everybody encounters some sort of bigotry in their lives, and I've been lucky to have friends, many of them Jewish, who have tirelessly stuck up for me," said Shi. "I don't know how I would have looked my Jewish friends in the eye if I hadn't tried to defend them as well."

Shi expressed "hope that AJC will encourage other members of the silent majority to do the right thing. It's a lot easier than people like to think. It turns out that we just have to take the first step."

The Campus Courage Awards were presented at the AJC Global Forum, the advocacy organization's signature annual event. Over 130 college and university students are among the more than 2,700 attendees from across the U.S. and 70 countries around the world attending the two-day gathering. This year's Global Forum marks 110 years since AJC's founding.

SOURCE American Jewish Committee