Vampire Weekend's Surprising Jewish Stories
6 min read
Anti-Israel protests are happening across American college campuses. Donors and brave students are fighting back.
Since the war broke out in Israel and Gaza – after Hamas terrorists brutally murdered 1400 Israelis the weekend of October 7 and captured hundreds of hostages – anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment has spread across the U.S., particularly on college campuses.
According to research from Israel on Campus Coalition, which unites pro-Israel campus organizations and provides fellowships to students to strengthen support for Israel, there have been more anti-Israel protests on college campuses in the U.S. than pro-Israel rallies. They include places like CUNY in New York, George Washington University, and Indiana University. Jewish college students say they are scared and blame their universities for not speaking up in solidarity. Brandeis University, once a predominantly Jewish school, was graffitied with “From the River to the Sea,” and a Jewish student’s door at Drexel University was set on fire.
Harvard University has been in the news multiple times, with pro-Palestine students sending out a letter in support of the terrorist attacks, saying it held, "the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence." Some students who signed the letter have lost their job offers and faced public scrutiny. At NYU, the same thing happened to Ryna Workman, a law student who said that Israel was fully responsible for the attacks and subsequently lost a job offer at a law firm. Another NYU student, a former ADL intern, admitted to ripping down posters of the kidnapped children that were hanging on campus.
Many campus groups throughout the country have even celebrated the kidnapping, assault, and murder or Israeli civilians.
At Cornell University, History Professor Russell Rickford stated at a rally that the Hamas attacks were "exhilarating" and "energizing.” And at a rally for Palestine at the University of Washington, a Jewish student tearfully pleaded with an administrator to shut down the rally, saying, “They want our people dead. They want us killed… How are you allowing this? Why aren’t you putting a stop to this?”
“As the Jewish community processes the horrors of Hamas’ recent terror attack on Israel, antisemitism has surged on college campuses across the United States,” Micah Gritz, a student at Tufts University and COO of Jewish on Campus told Aish. “Many campus groups throughout the country have condoned—or even celebrated—the kidnapping, assault, and murder or Israeli civilians. If your moral compass dissolves for Jews and Israelis, if you justify these heinous attacks, the message is loud and clear: Jews don’t count."
Despite all the anti-Israel protests, there are rays of hope: Last week, Eitan Moore, a sophomore at MIT and Israeli who served in the IDF, gave an impassioned speech for Israel on the steps of an administrative building, with Israeli flags hanging behind him.
“Never again is not just a hashtag. It’s a pledge. It’s a pledge to speak up against the injustice, and the antisemitic atrocities that our nation faces,” he told the crowd of 250 Jewish and non-Jewish students and supporters. “Hamas doesn’t want a solution. They want the final solution.”
In an interview with Aish, Moore said, “The community has really come together: Jewish and Israeli undergraduates, graduate students, and faculty. I know that many Jews in the community have felt unsafe. Many have refused or been hesitant to publicly support Israel or be interviewed. It was quite appalling to see the MIT Palestinian Group justify the horrific actions, and rally in support two days after everything went down.”
Other powerful rallies and vigils for Israel were held at Baruch College, Duke University, and Mount Holyoke College. And there has been pushback: Just this week, the Wexner Foundation, which is connected to billionaires Leslie Wexner and his wife Abigail Wexner, former owners of Victoria’s Secret, terminated its relationship with Harvard.
“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard's leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians.”
“We are stunned and sickened by the dismal failure of Harvard's leadership to take a clear and unequivocal stand against the barbaric murders of innocent Israeli civilians,” the Wexner Foundation's leaders said in a statement.
The University of Pennsylvania is also losing donors after failing to condemn Hamas, with the latest being David Magerman, an alma mater who helped to build Renaissance Technologies. He stated he will “refuse to donate another dollar to Penn.”
Wall Street CEO Marc Rowan, who works at private equity giant Apollo Global Management, also pulled out of funding for UPenn. Rowan, one of university’s wealthiest donors, wrote in an op-ed, “Why is UPenn repeating tragic mistakes of the past? Words of hate and violence must be met with clear, reasoned condemnation, rooted in morality from those in positions of authority.”
Campuses have long been a place of anti-Israel sentiment, with groups like the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement and Students for Justice in Palestine perpetuating it.
Jewish students may be worried and distressed at this time, but it’s not going to stop them from being proud Jews, supporting Israel and continuing Israel advocacy on campus.
Maya Sobel, a student at the University of Vermont, said these past few weeks have been traumatizing – but she isn’t cowering in the face of fear.
I view it as my responsibility to shut down any form of hate.
“I am feeling overwhelmed balancing my classes and Jewish activism,” she said. “Campus has become more vocal about Israel and students often apply antisemitic tropes to the country without realizing it. I view it as my responsibility to shut down any form of hate, but I am still grieving all of the death and it is difficult to do everything at the same time.”
She continued, “I wear my Jewish necklaces with pride and I have spoken multiple times in front of the community in support of Israel in the last week. I am confident in my identity, and I believe that scares the antisemites more than they could ever intimidate me.”
10.22.23 7:55 PM ET CNN’s Jim Acosta@Acosta Hosts David Magerman,
a University of Pennsylvania @Penn
Backer as he explains why he is halting donations (5:29) pic.twitter.com/3YH0K0AbPj— Jeff Storobinsky (@jeffstorobinsky) October 23, 2023
Why should our youngsters be shut in a library to shield them from the threats of criminal Arab-lovers? Education will solve many problems, above all the cowardice of our Jewish youth. Here is my proposal - a gift for their Bar/Bat Mitzvah: one year or more of lessons in Krav Maga; optional addendum - teaching of weaponry. I'd like to read that the antisemites beg the deans, college presidents and other aristocrats to defend them against the ghastly Jews, not the other way.
From the river to the sea-Israel must be SAFE!