Hundreds of Jewish students at @Columbia
just published one of the most incredible student letters I have ever read.
It's not only magnificently written, but it also clearly articulates their experiences on campus for the past six months.
Their letter tells the story of what's it like being a Jewish student right now better than any professor like myself could ever do.
Please take 4-5 minutes to read their letter.
Give Jewish students a voice.
docs.google.com
A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia UniversityIn Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia UniversityOver the past six months, many have spoken in our name. Some are well-meaning alumni or non-affiliates who show up to wave the Israeli flag outside Columbia’s gates. Some are politicians looking to use our experiences to foment America’s culture war. Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent “real Jewish values,” and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism. We are here, writing to you as Jewish students at Columbia University, who are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.
To the Columbia Community:
Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.
Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.
We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.
Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem. The land of Israel is filled with archaeological remnants of a Jewish presence spanning centuries. Yet, despite generations of living in exile and diaspora across the globe, the Jewish People never ceased dreaming of returning to our homeland — Judea, the very place from which we derive our name, “Jews.” Indeed just a couple of days ago, we all closed our Passover seders with the proclamation, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny. Our experiences at Columbia in the last six months are a poignant reminder of just that.
We were raised on stories from our grandparents of concentration camps, gas chambers, and ethnic cleansing. The essence of Hitler’s antisemitism was the very fact that we were “not European” enough, that as Jews we were threats to the “superior” Aryan race. This ideology ultimately left six million of our own in ashes.
The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “the oppressors of all brown people” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special.” Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here,” alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland,” where our relatives lie in mass graves.
This sick distortion illuminates the nature of antisemitism: In every generation, the Jewish People are blamed and scapegoated as responsible for the societal evil of the time. In Iran and in the Arab world, we were ethnically cleansed for our presumed ties to the “Zionist entity.” In Russia, we endured state-sponsored violence and were ultimately massacred for being capitalists. In Europe, we were the victims of genocide because we were communists and not European enough. And today, we face the accusation of being too European, painted as society’s worst evils – colonizers and oppressors. We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew, synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting.
We are proud of Israel. The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel is home to millions of Mizrachi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Central and Eastern European descent), and Ethiopian Jews, as well as millions of Arab Israelis, over one million Muslims, and hundreds of thousands of Christians and Druze. Israel is nothing short of a miracle for the Jewish People and for the Middle East more broadly.
Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It’s quite the opposite. For many of us, it is our deep love for and commitment to Israel that pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic. Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity; look no further than the protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms – from New York to Tel Aviv – to understand what it means to fight for the Israel we imagine. All it takes are a couple of coffee chats with us to realize that our visions for Israel differ dramatically from one another. Yet we all come from a place of love and an aspiration for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism, and subsequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish People. Yet despite the fact that we have been calling out the antisemitism we’ve been experiencing for months, our concerns have been brushed off and invalidated. So here we are to remind you:
We sounded the alarm on October 12 when many protested against Israel while our friends’ and families’ dead bodies were still warm.
We recoiled when people screamed “resist by any means necessary,” telling us we are “all inbred” and that we “have no culture.”
We shuddered when an “activist” held up a sign telling Jewish students they were Hamas’s next targets, and we shook our heads in disbelief when Sidechat users told us we were lying.
We ultimately were not surprised when a leader of the CUAD encampment said publicly and proudly that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that we’re lucky they are “not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
We felt helpless when we watched students and faculty physically block Jewish students from entering parts of the campus we share, or even when they turned their faces away in silence. This silence is familiar. We will never forget.
One thing is for sure. We will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists.
We came to Columbia because we wanted to expand our minds and engage in complex conversations. While campus may be riddled with hateful rhetoric and simplistic binaries now, it is never too late to start repairing the fractures and begin developing meaningful relationships across political and religious divides. Our tradition tells us, “Love peace and pursue peace.” We hope you will join us in earnestly pursuing peace, truth, and empathy. Together we can repair our campus.
Signed:
Please see original source for the names of those courageous enough to sign:
That protestor that thinks she is hungry, weak and "immunocompromised" now....just wait until she finds out the fine cuisine at Khan Yunis.
This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
Quoting myself; It's perfectly peaceful in the afternoon. Many students continue to walk through the Quad on the way to class. The best way to view it is not to enter the Quad itself but actually walk through the six liberal arts colleges that surround it from the North, South, or East sides, then just look out the windows in the doors to see what's going on. So I can get close without interacting. I wonder if they have a clue how vulnerable they are? The Quad is largely protected from wind, but that's it. It's low ground.Just another day at University of Washington. I had some business at the top floor of the new Founders hall. Looking north there was a big barbecue going on at Paccar hall for nearly graduating students, looking south the tents in the quad looked glum. They must know that they are losing now because the UW has stated that they won't cut ties with Boeing or Israel. There has been some vandalism in the quad.
I've been busy but will try to do a drive through the quad just after dawn tomorrow to take some pics.
I LOVE Case people. Back when I was involved in College Radio, we made DAMN SURE that the night watchman and EVERY maintenance person we met was TAKEN CARE OF. Didn't matter what they needed from us we FOUND it for them, or made one.
We never had ANY issues about how close we went to the rules, either.
Engineering school, KWIM??
(Well, OK. The campus locksmith hated all of us, individually and severally. WE just didn't like master keys working in our doors.)
This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?
Why should they have to??? Remember they are all chanting Death To America... Where are you going to go?This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?
Because they are American citizens, and this sort of shit isn't supposed to happen here.This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?
Because they are American citizens, and this sort of shit isn't supposed to happen here.
Most people don't realize it, but there are as many Jewish people in America as there are in Israel. This is "homeland" and safe haven for those whose families escaped eradication in Europe by coming to America, or were here early in our history, and were safe from the last European attempted genocide.
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I wasn't targeting you specifically. I know you weren't being unkind. It's just an aspect of the situation and the history that so many people don't think about.It isn't supposed to happen here. You're right -- my comment was insensitive, and I apologize to any Jewish members that we may have here. That was a case of typing the first thought that popped into my head without thinking it through first....
Why should they have to??? Remember they are all chanting Death To America... Where are you going to go?
This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?
There is no limit on the number of Jews that can enter Israel. Israel has the Law of Return which states that all non-Israeli Jews and Gentile converts to Judaism are entitled to settle in Israel and receive full Israeli citizenship.I thought Israel had a limit on how many can enter the country at any given time?
Be Smart!!
Be Safe!!
Situational Awareness.
ALWAYS have an exit path!!
I thank you kindly for the reminder.Be Smart!!
Be Safe!!
Situational Awareness.
ALWAYS have an exit path!!
I think that is exactly God's purpose in allowing this--This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?
Posted for fair use......
Campus ProtestsUniversities Make Arrests, or Deals, to Protect Commencement Events
May 10, 2024, 1 hour ago
Protesters were arrested Friday at the University of Pennsylvania, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Arizona. Two other schools have bowed to student demands and canceled speeches by the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.
Here’s what we’re covering:
- A U.C.L.A. meeting to consider formally rebuking the chancellor ends without a vote.
- After arrests at Arizona State, the campus police chief is put on leave.
- Two universities cancel speeches by the U.S. ambassador to the U.N.
- Police arrest protesters at M.I.T., where suspensions have ramped up tension.
- New York’s commencement season opens with barricades and empty campuses.
Here’s the latest on campus protests.
Universities where protesters have pitched tents, occupied buildings and been arrested by the hundreds face another test this weekend: graduation.
Some of the campuses that have experienced the most turmoil over the war in Gaza, including Cal Poly Humboldt, Emerson College, the University of Texas, Austin, and the University of California, Berkeley, will try to hold commencement ceremonies without major disruptions.
Even high-profile speakers have become a potential flashpoint, with the author Colson Whitehead pulling out from speaking at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, after arrests there, and the comedian Jerry Seinfeld, whose ardent support of Israel has become divisive in some circles, set to appear on Sunday at Duke University.
Arrests continued on Friday as more schools sought to secure their ceremonies, including at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Arizona. And the University of Wisconsin-Madison joined a handful of schools that have managed to strike deals with their demonstrators to clear out ahead of graduation.
Here are other developments:
- A handful of people interrupted the ceremony for law school graduates at U.C. Berkeley on Friday with pro-Palestinian chants. Speakers, including Erwin Chemerinsky, the law school dean, and Elizabeth Prelogar, the solicitor general of the United States, struggled at times to be heard.
- Asna Tabassum, the University of Southern California valedictorian whose graduation speech was canceled after she was criticized by pro-Israel groups, received her diploma on Friday morning. Students and families in the audience gave her a long round of applause, with a few standing ovations.
- Xavier University in New Orleans this week became the second school to rescind an invitation to Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the American ambassador to the United Nations. The University of Vermont announced last week that she also would not be speaking there, agreeing to a key demand from student demonstrators.
- Arizona State University has put the chief of its campus police department on paid administrative leave. The decision came after complaints were filed related to the chief’s actions in late April, when the campus police broke up a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrested dozens of people.
- Administrators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison announced that they had reached a resolution with protesters, and that the encampment there would be cleared on Friday. The school said protesters agreed not to disrupt graduation in return for meeting with decision makers to discuss the university’s investments.
- More than 2,800 people have been arrested at pro-Palestinian protests on U.S. campuses since April 18, according to New York Times tracking data.
— Matthew Eadie, Mattathias Schwartz, Anna Betts, Coral Murphy Marcos, Jacey Fortin and Jonathan Wolfe
Perhaps because most of them were probably born and raised in America, not Israel.This might sound harsh, but I don't mean it to be - and I don't harbor any ill will towards these jewish students...
But they can see the handwriting on the wall here and in Europe, so perhaps they should summon the courage to go to Israel and actively support their homeland. Why remain in places where they face discrimination?