Photo Credit: JewishPress.com
Jews are not safe in New York. Not in Manhattan where Jews are being beaten in the streets, and not at Syracuse University.
Our greatest nightmares as Jews are coming true. It is happening again.
On Saturday, on Holocaust Eve, a Jewish Syracuse student was beaten by a trespasser yelling “Heil Hitler” and no arrests were made. The day before, professors at the on-campus encampment distributed flyers saying, “Flood the Gates Escalate” and “We will not disavow any actions taken to escalate the struggle, including militant direct actions. We keep us (sic) safe by escalating.”
The Syracuse University Jewish community has requested a meeting with Chancellor Kent Syverud and the Chief of Police since October 7th and we have received no response. Nothing. He hasn’t responded to thousands of letters, calls or emails. Nothing. Not to Rabbis, elected officials, students or anyone.
As the ADL noted when providing a grade C to Syracuse University, “a group of Syracuse students and parents submitted a report to the US House of Representatives alleging the University is turning “a blind eye to antisemitism.” Since that report in April, it has only become more dangerous and unsafe.
Students are being threatened by people who walk the encampment fearlessly – not students, not professors – and they are permitted free passage. Professors, students and outside agitators are at the encampment with signs reading “Free Palestine”, and “From the River to The Sea”, and it is reprehensible.
On Sunday, together with other parents and students – as the leader of the Syracuse Jewish Parents Council – which represents more than 450 Zionist families involved with Syracuse University we demanded a meeting with the Chancellor. Sunday, I was arrested for non-violent civil disobedience for refusing to leave the encampment. As the grandson of Holocaust survivors at my childhoods university I was proud to raise a voice of moral conscience and stand against hatred.
There was no physical contact of any sort, and I – who employs countless Syracuse U. grads, and has lectured at the prestigious Newhouse school at Syracuse U this year – was removed from the University when Pro-Hamas, anti-American trespassers remain in illegal tents on a campus where Jews are unsafe and one pays $80K for tuition.
I asked where I, an American-Israeli Jew should go when they “Free Palestine”, as Jews are murdered and killed in Palestine. These are signs calling for violence against our people.
Its unfortunate Syracuse University has chosen to appease Anti-Semitic, Anti-American terror supporters. At Syracuse in 2024, Jewish Zionists are unsafe.
Shame on Syracuse University.
Am Israel Chai.
