Tessa Veksler Stands Up to the Hate

Tessa Veksler is the first Shabbat-observant Jewish Student Body President in the history of the University of California Santa Barbara. Before October 7th, she was just another President who happened to be Jewish. After October 7th, everything changed. A day has not gone by without Tessa getting harrowing threats. But she is determined to follow in the footsteps of her ancestors who were also persecuted for being Jewish, and is standing her ground.

At only 21 years old, Tessa Veksler made history when she became the first Shabbat-observant Jew to become Student Body President at the University of California Santa Barbara. Her parents were non-religious Jews who immigrated from the Soviet Union. They sent her brother (20 years older than her) to Catholic school. By the time Tessa was of school-age, her parents enrolled her in public school and sent her to a supplementary Hebrew school.

“My parents raised my brother differently than me. They left the Soviet Union under duress and had been persecuted for being Jewish. When they first came to America, they were still terrified to practice any form of Judaism. By the time I was of school age, they were more open-minded to the idea of Jewish activities.”

But when Tessa turned 12, her parents refused to make her a Bat Mitzvah. “There were limits to how Jewish they wanted me to be. They saw me heading in a direction they didn’t want me to go towards.”

Because of all this conflicting messaging, as a teenager it was hard for Tessa to figure out where Judaism sat in her life.

She didn’t feel much Jewish unity or pride for Israel in high school, but all that changed when she visited Israel for the first time.

“When I was 17, my parents actually urged me to go on a trip to Israel with NCSY. They didn’t know NCSY was a Modern Orthodox group—they thought it was similar to Birthright. This trip transformed my entire life and made me want to pursue a more traditional type of Judaism for myself.”

When Tessa came back from the trip, she told her parents how incredible it was. “And by the way…” she added, “I’d like to start keeping Shabbat.”

They were confused and angry, and couldn’t understand what came over their daughter.

Tessa began the long journey of convincing them that being observant wasn’t a bad thing, and that it was a contribution to a beautiful life she was about to start exploring. She also started digging into her family’s past. She wanted to know what her family had been like before they were persecuted.

At a rally post Oct 7 in Santa Barbara. Am Yisrael Chai written in Russian on the poster

“I asked my parents, what did our family look like before my grandparents’ generation? I realized that if it wasn’t for the Soviet Union’s antisemitism, they would still be the proud, observant Jews they wanted to be but couldn’t be.”

Tessa’s involvement in NCSY grew and she made the bold decision to spend a gap year in Israel. This concept was foreign to her parents. “Let’s just look at the options,” Tessa insisted through their struggle.

She also applied to colleges and committed to UCSB. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit which led to the perfect opportunity to live in Israel.

Tessa deferred her first semester of UCSB and attended Bar Ilan University in Israel.

After Tessa’s grandmother passed away in December of 2020, Tessa returned to America for the funeral and to attend UCSB afterward. Covid-19 became rampant at that time and in-person classes were no longer an option anywhere. Tessa flew back to Israel on January 6, 2021. “The next morning,” Tessa explained in an Aish.com interview, “Israel went into total lockdown, shut down their airports, and no one was able to get in or out.”

Tessa was now able to continue her classes in Israel during the day, and attend her UCSB Zoom classes from 10:00 PM until 2:00 AM. “I was committed to a surreal situation where I had the best of both worlds.”

In May of 2021, war broke out in Israel. Tessa lived through this ten-day war called “Operation Guardian of the Walls.”

“The war exposed me to the harsh reality that Israelis have to experience all the time. This is their constant reality.”

The week after the war ended, Tessa was in a Zoom meeting fighting a BDS resolution at UCSB. That moment was turning point for her.

“I was sitting in a country that had just experienced an atrocity. I had personally experienced ten days of rockets launched towards Israel, and here I was having to defend Israel’s right to exist to a bunch of Americans across the world that had no idea what they were talking about.”

When Tessa returned home, she felt emboldened to become part of the Jewish community and student government at her university. In her first position in student government, she worked under an Israeli Student Body President. After just a few weeks of working for her, Tessa knew she wanted to eventually run for her position.

Speaking engagement at Sinai Temple in the fall

Eventually, Tessa was elected as Student Body President herself. “It didn’t matter that I was the President of Students Supporting Israel (SSI) at the time of the student government elections. People still elected me to represent the entire student body.” She became the first Shabbat-observant Student Body  President in history at UCSB.

“I wanted to normalize the idea that I was proudly Jewish and proudly observant in a predominantly non-Jewish atmosphere. I wanted to show that I was able to lead the student body well, not despite my observance but because of it. Taking 25 hours off every week would help me be a better leader. Being part of a community that went through many challenges would also help me be a better leader.”

But October 7th, 2023, changed everything.

The Aftermath

The massacre in Israel took place on a Saturday morning, which was also the holiday of Simchat Torah. Because Tessa is Shabbat-observant, she turned off her electronics on Friday in the late afternoon. When she woke up in the morning on Shabbat, her two housemates were sitting in her bedroom, waiting for her to get up.

As soon as she opened her eyes, they said, “Tessa, there is a war in Israel.”

Tessa shrugged it off. “There is always a war in Israel. I lived there for two wars.”

“No, this is different. It’s not what you think.” They began to describe what happened and Tessa shrunk with shock and dismay.

When she turned on her phone after the holiday, she realized it was the worst attack on the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

On October 9th, Tessa created a post on Social Media.

“Standing up for Jewish human rights is not political. Being Jewish shouldn’t be a safety hazard. Being Israeli shouldn’t be a death sentence.”

Starting that very day Tessa was harassed, bullied and threatened, and the intimidation has not stopped since.

Antisemitic students began a targeted campaign to remove Tessa from her role as Student Body President. But Tessa stood her ground and refused to step down for being a Jew. They tried to impeach her but failed. Tessa was not going anywhere and planned to finish her term with pride.

For months Tessa tried to remain silent and handle the intimidation and threats in a quiet manner. “I tried to speak to the administration to see if we could find a solution. They made it clear that there was no solution. They claimed it fell under the category of free speech.”

The final straw was when the Multicultural Center displayed several signs targeting Tessa. You can run, but you can’t hide, Tessa Veksler, and Zionists not allowed were some examples. She and other Jewish students started receiving open threats of bodily harm.

Tessa fought back with dignity and strength. She maintains, “maybe Zionists are not allowed, but we aren’t going anywhere. No matter how much you tell Jews they can’t be here, we absolutely deserve to be in the same space that non-Jews are in.”

 

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A post shared by Tessa Veksler (@tessaveksler)

She has been told that because the harassment was not pervasive—i.e. she wasn’t suffering enough—and there is nothing to be done.

“Jews don’t fit into this box of victimhood. When Jews are told we can’t succeed somewhere, we create our own business. We prosper in places we are told we shouldn’t. People didn’t expect someone like me to experience the level of harassment I did and still stay on as President, taking on this endless barrage of hate.

“Because I’m strong, people think, ‘oh it must not be that bad.’ In our society, you’re the oppressor if you show strength in the face of adversity.”

Insights on Antisemitism

Tessa believes that antisemites will hate you regardless of whether you choose to succeed or choose to succumb to their hate. “As a Jewish person, you should never live life the way an antisemite tells you to live it. They will still find a reason to despise you, so maintain your position and role.”

UCSB students at the senate meeting that determined Tessa’s future as President by voting no on my impeachment election

She also states that living as a proud Jew is the antisemite’s worst nightmare. “I am even prouder in every space that I go now. That’s a valuable contribution to humanizing Jews and making people understand being Jewish is not a negative thing, it’s the greatest gift you can possibly have.”

Tessa would like to see more support from the non-Jewish community in their fight against hate. She asks, “How different would things be if on October 8th, the world got together to ban Hamas? What if all college students bound together to fight for the release of hostages? The outcome on college campuses and globally in the aftermath of October 7th would have been very different.”

A world that chooses not to stand up only fuels antisemitism.

Tessa maintains that college students need to be empowered to speak up for others being persecuted. She does not think students should worry about selecting colleges based on how bad antisemitism is.

Student leaders at the White House for Jewish American heritage month

“We are going to fight to make sure the next generation is better off than it was for us. We won’t allow it to continue. We are at the pinnacle of a discussion of what is and isn’t consistent with free speech. Those conversations will change the narrative of what the future will be like. All this hate can be channeled in a positive way to strengthen Jewish pride and commitment to Judaism.

“Leadership doesn’t come in one form. Every person has a role, big or small, loud or quiet. Everyone can do something in this battle. 80% of people don’t know what to believe. Having uncomfortable conversations with non-Jews is already half the battle.

“As Jews, we are a resilient people. As long as we continue being proud by succeeding and contributing to Jewish and non-Jewish society, the rest will fall into place.”

You can follow Tessa on Instagram @TessaVeksler