Those Shameful Thoughts and What They Really Say about You
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U of T, a bastion of high academic ideals for which I have been proud to serve, is currently not a safe space physically, intellectually or emotionally, for Jews.
Earlier this month the University of Toronto joined other leading universities as hosts to uninvited encampments of “pro-Palestine” demonstrators. Many protesters are neither students nor staff at these universities. They nonetheless demand that U of T divest from investments in Israel and sever scholarly ties with Israeli academics. Media reports and editorials have praised the protesters’ support for human rights and compassion for Palestinians in Gaza.
I could not agree more with the need to protect innocent residents of Gaza from harm and endorse the right to peaceful protest and civil disobedience. But this encampment is not a peaceful protest. It is an intimidating and sometimes violent event that, while professing to be anti-Israel rather than anti-Jewish, deepens problems of antisemitism on our campus. This is evidenced by incidents related to me by faculty colleagues and my own experience.
I was physically prevented from entering and the person beside me was punched in the face.
Recently I witnessed physical exclusion from the encampment site through intimidation, harassment and physical assault by the occupiers. After speaking to people outside the enclosure I attempted to enter through the well-guarded entrance but was physically prevented from doing so. The person beside me was punched in the face. I heard chants of globalizing the intifada and was told that Jews should go back to Europe. Signs glorifying the “resistance,” clearly referring to acts of October 7, and “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea”, referring to ethnic cleansing of Jews from the Middle East, were prominent.
Peaceful co-existence was absent from the rhetoric.
Prior to the encampment, U of T announced that it would neither tolerate hate speech nor attempts to impede people’s movement around campus. Now these forms of illegal activity are taking place openly. The fence erected to protect the King’s College Circle grounds has been repurposed by protesters as a primary weapon for intimidation and exclusion of those who do not support their agenda. This includes the vast majority of Jewish faculty and students whose belief in the indigeneity of Jews to Israel shapes our identity. Whether or not one agrees with this belief, the encampment is decidedly and aggressively discriminatory to this community within the University of Toronto.
U of T has abandoned its promise.
This disobedience is not civil. The demonstrators controlling access to university property are masked, as are many of the protesters around the site, avoiding accountability for their hateful and illegal activity. Unfortunately, U of T has permitted these operatives to occupy a public central campus space, establish prejudicial criteria for entering that space and enforce them with aggressive and intimidating means.
People on campus — not only Jews — have learned that hate speech, intimidation and bullying prevails over constructive debate in Canada’s largest academic institution.
In the recent past, U of T has acknowledged that antisemitism is a serious problem on our campus and promised to respond to it as firmly as it would to any other bigotry. Its tepid response to the encampment marks a failure to live up to this commitment. As hateful and intimidating conduct directed towards a large proportion of Jewish faculty and students continues unimpeded, it is clear that this is now being tolerated on our campus. U of T’s wish to avoid confrontation seemingly outweighs its inclusivity policies, including its explicit commitment to protect its Jewish members from hate. This would not be tolerated for any other group.
The message is clear: people on campus — not only Jews — have learned that hate speech, intimidation and bullying prevails over constructive debate in Canada’s largest academic institution. The University of Toronto, a bastion of high academic ideals for which I have been proud to serve, is currently not a safe space physically, intellectually or emotionally, for a specific and targeted population. By not acting, U of T is choosing in favour of the purveyors of hate, intimidation and silencing of free speech, empowering others who wish to promote their hateful agendas by trespassing on university-protected property and intimidating those who do not agree.
Perhaps we should counter “ Arabs go back to Arabia “
BUT! I also know that G-d will call His people back to Israel. I’m guessing that the time is coming fast.
The Jewish Nation is behaving like the pack herd animals, that faced with threat from an enemy, without thought, runs forth at break neck speed, only to hurl themselves over a cliff.
Stop.
Stay where you are. Get their psychology out of your head. Implant HaShem's wisdom back in your head.
The best way to deal with bullies is to live your life knowing they are sick, harmed people.
Be a decent, upright soul regardless.
Continue with your lives and live them well.
There is no grace for you to do aliyah out of fear, and before Moshiach invites you.
He would be disappointed in you.
All the influx by aliyah has served to do is cause displacement of people from their ancestral homes; contention; hard sinning, one fellow human being to another, and, fighting in the land.
This type of response “wait for Moshiach to invite you “, Makes me feel sick”.
It has led to the death of many Jews in the past unnecessarily. Where in the bible did the Jews not fight to defend themselves and their land? You talk about displacement of people , what about towns like Lakewood etc. causing displacement & disruption in the American surroundings? People can not live like ostriches and just feel superior
This is the FEW trying to convince the many of the unsupportable
It's shocking and deeply saddening to read this post. In addition to the hatred and prejudice that Jewish people are experiencing there, others are also being harmed. The vast majority of U of T students are not anti-semetic and are there to work hard and earn a meaningful degree, which will help them get a good job. Their goals and rights are also being violate. When they graduate, their degree will be worth far less than when they applied. No one will ever view a U of T graduate in the same way again. This is the blindness and stupidity of all of these institutions. Who is still applying to these universities for next year?
These protesters are essentially 'paper tigers', they are cowards, who when push comes to shove will just run away.
Don't be intimidated. Know that good always vanquishes evil.
Do you doubt that on October 7th that both the leaders and the citizens were dancing and cheering in the streets?
They distinguish themselves in unity to do evil and silence when there is wrongdoing by their members to speak up and condemn it.
Does this sound like it isfrom HaShem to you?
These actions establish evil in the world and operation against One and Only Living God Almighty, our Witness.
It is all of humanity's job to fight against this kind of evil, and root it out.
Never should have been allowed to get set up in the in the first place.
Those very same people, vacant null and void of humanity, not taught any lesson in limits will go out in to society and be criminal menaces there as well.
And socuety will have only themselves to blame for being cowards in the face of evil bullies.
They are trying to defend a people who are being punish for committing unwarranted heinous root evil criminal actions to begin with.
They make a mockery of righteousness and truth and feed it to you; and, instead of gagging and spitting it out, you swallow it whole because you too have lost your humanity valuing your life even over establishing HaShem's righteousness upon this earth, so you are getting a just dessert for cowardess in the face of adversity.
U of T, like the American schools, should lose its accreditation.
I have visited the "encampment" three times. During two of those visits, I was intentionally intimidated and assaulted, leading to police investigations.
The encampment is guarded through both physical and emotional violence. The individuals there have no qualms about assaulting others, and intimidation is a constant presence both inside and outside the fence. The occupation of UoT grounds by these individuals and the atmosphere of terror they create is a disgrace to UoT.
Israel Apartheid Week originates from UFT with a long history of Antisemitism. Massey College is named after Vincent Massey, who was instrumental in the antisemitic “None is too many” immigration policy with respect to Jews. No change of name here like the undeserving name change of Ryerson University.
This report gives the impression that outsiders are (solely?) to blame for the unforgivable chaos the writer describes, but this is difficult to believe.
More likely, as everywhere else, they are merely vociferous and potentially dangerous participants in the turmoil started by rabble-rousing students and (silently or otherwise) supported by too great a percentage of the faculty and administration.
Antisemitism is a cancerous disease that, from the look and sound of it, has reached Stage IV!
Some Jews residing in Toronto ARE licensed to possess firearms and are proficient at using them.. If Doctor Schwartz is having ANY difficulty entering his faculty another Jew so licensed and legally carrying a firearm right beside him likely would provide sufficient pause to ANY individual(s) seeking to impede his intent to go about his business...They would get the message..
You haven't mentioned who's funding them?
Too close to home. The founders of Zionism have stated "The antisemites will be our best friends" towards reaching their goals- the control of any dissenting voices.