- Jennifer Loewenstein
Jennifer (Sarin) Loewenstein is a Madison, Wisconsin, political activist and Associate Director of the Middle East Studies Program at the
University of Wisconsin – Madison, an administrative, not an academic, appointment. [ [http://www.jcpa.org/phas/phas-fishman-f04.htm A Case Study: Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.A.: A Battleground for Israel's Legitimacy - Joel Fishman ] ] [ [http://www.intl-institute.wisc.edu/Contact/ Contact Information for the International Instiute ] ] She is a member of the board of theIsraeli Coalition against House Demolitions -USA branch, founder of theMadison-Rafah Sister City Project [ www.madisonrafah.org/ ] [ [http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/0603/p02s02-ussc.html Midwest city feels conflict in the Mideast close to home | csmonitor.com ] ] and a freelance journalist. [ [http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein09222007.html Jennifer Loewenstein: Beneath the Hideous Veneer of Security ] ] Lowenstein is married toDavid Lowenstein , Professor of English at the University of Wisconsin. [ [http://www.wisc.edu/english/faculty/loewenstein.html David Loewenstein, English, UW-Madison ] ]Loewenstein lived in Israel in 1963 as a child when her father played first trumpet in the
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra . She went back in 1981 as a junior in college, and returned as an adult, living in Palestinian refugee camps in Beirut and traveling in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where she worked for five months in 2002 at theMezan Center for Human Rights in Gaza City [ [ http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2004/05/01/0405010174.php] ] and writing in thePalestine Chronicle that "The Israelis are masters in the art of destruction." [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/jul/24/israel3 What the papers say | World news | guardian.co.uk ] ] She has returned to Gaza a number of times. [ [http://www.democracynow.org/2006/11/2/casualties_mount_in_new_israeli_attack Democracy Now! | Casualties Mount in New Israeli Attack on Gaza ] ]Activism
As a local political activist, Lowenstein has charged Israel with being responsible for "the dehumanization and destruction of an entire people." [ [http://www.counterpunch.com/jalam1026.html M. Junaid Alam: The Wolf Who Cried Wolf] ] She regularly helps organize and attends political demonstrations in Madison. On the day after
Ariel Sharon 's election as Prime Minister of Israel she was among the organizers of an anti-Israel demonstration at which she labeled Sharon a "war criminal " and a "thug," [ACTIVISTS HERE LABEL ISRAEL'S SHARON A THUG, The Capital Times (Madison, WI) February 8, 2001 by Samara Kalk ] she helped organize protests against the war in Iraq, [ The Capital Times (Madison, WI) March 20, 2004 ] and she makes arrangements for political activists such asRobert Fisk to speak at American universities. [ Pity the Nation: The Abduction of Lebanon, by Robert Fisk, 2002, p. 685 ]In March of 2008, Lowenstein wrote in the magazine
Counterpunch that "the "We kill and You Die" warfare [is] the only type allowed by the Neo-Jewish Masters and their allies in the United States who have no intention of making a just peace with the lower forms of life in their midst." She further stated that "Israel and its US Master have long since resided in the lowest circle of Hell for betraying the name of humanity." [ [http://www.counterpunch.org/loewenstein03042008.html The Day the Earth and Sky Traded Places - Gazan Holocaust] , Jennifer Loewenstein, Counterpunch, March 3, 2008]The proposed Madison-Rafah Sister City Project occasioned an "anguished and bruising debate" in Madison. [ [http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2004/07/07/0407070167.php madison.com ] ] [ [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E06EEDE1E3EF93AA15756C0A9629C8B63 Proposal to Adopt a Palestinian City as a 'Sister' Creates a Family Feud for Madison - New York Times ] ] During the debate , Lowenstein called the executive board of the Madison Jewish Community Council "deeply racist." [ [http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2004/07/07/0407070167.php madison.com ] ] Board Member Lester Pines alleged that Lowenstein's project was part of a "movement to delegitimize the state of Israel." [ [http://www.madison.com/archives/read.php?ref=/tct/2004/07/07/0407070167.php madison.com ] ] The
Yemen Times has praised Lowenstein's work as deserving "all the honors one can bestow on a great journalist." [ [http://www.yementimes.com/article.shtml?i=870&p=opinion&a=1 In praise of Ms Jennifer Lowenstein - Yemen Times ] ]References
External links
* [http://www.mideast.wisc.edu/ The Middle East Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin]
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