Israeli government officials weighed in Sunday on the escalating and sometimes even murderous antisemitism on America’s university campuses.
“Appalled by the vile wave of antisemitism at Columbia,” Foreign Minister Israel Katz wrote in a post on the X social media platform.
“Silence is complicity! I urge NYC Mayor [Eric Adams], US officials and leaders to take immediate, unequivocal action to combat this scourge. Jewish students deserve safety, respect and action, not just words,” Katz wrote.
“Israel stands firm with them.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog likewise expressed outrage over the open death threats and physical intimidation faced by Jewish students at New York’s Columbia University campus.
The atrocious antisemitic actions at Columbia University are deeply disturbing. To quote civil rights activist Professor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – who marched side by side with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – we need a “Leap of action”. Indeed, firm and strong action must be…
— יצחק הרצוג Isaac Herzog (@Isaac_Herzog) April 21, 2024
“The atrocious antisemitic actions at Columbia University are deeply disturbing,” Herzog wrote on X.
“To quote civil rights activist Professor Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel – who marched side by side with Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. – we need a “Leap of action”. Indeed, firm and strong action must be taken to prevent antisemitism on campus,” Herzog wrote.
“American academia must wake up to the threat, a clear and present danger to academic freedom and to the very lives of Jews on campus,” he warned.
The Israeli Consulate in New York also weighed in, writing bluntly in a statement on X, “Jewish students are in peril.”
Last week @Columbia leadership admitted “We have a moral crisis on campus” & vowed to fix it.
This week the school’s Orthodox rabbi recommended Jewish students go home since the university was failing to keep them safe.
Anti-Zionism = antisemitism. Jewish students are in peril. https://t.co/SONmvRf9Pm
— Israel in New York (@IsraelinNewYork) April 21, 2024
The co-directors of Chabad at Columbia University weighed in as well, along with numerous local and national politicians, expressing horror and outrage at recent incidents, one of which included a protester dressed as a terrorist, holding a placard that threatened Jewish students on the campus would be “next” for “Al Qassam” — the military wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization.
“Dear Jewish Columbia Family,
We are horrified by what we witnessed last night on and near Columbia’s campus. In times like these, we’re reminded of the enduring spirit of our people, a spirit that has persisted through the generations, including ours — the current link in an unbroken chain since Sinai,” Rabbi Yuda and Naomi Drizin wrote.
“After leaving Egypt, our ancestors stood before the daunting Red Sea with the Egyptian army bearing down from behind them. In that pivotal moment, Nachshon stepped forward with unwavering faith, walking into the waters until they parted before him.
“We too must move forward with the same pride and confidence in our identity as Jews. Each step we take in faith has the potential to part the waters of adversity. For those who are on campus, we stand strong in our commitment to celebrating the redemption of our people during Passover night right here at Chabad at Columbia University,” the rabbi and his wife wrote.
“We will gather for seders, services, and festive BBQ lunches. It’ll be fun, meaningful and delicious,” they promised.
“We’ve hired additional security guards to chaperone students from the Chabad House to their dorm rooms,” they added. “We refuse to yield to the forces of hate. Instead, we’ll raise our voices in song and dance throughout the nights of Passover 2024. In the words of the Haggadah, we are reminded of G-d’s eternal promise to our forefather Abraham: “In every generation, they rise against us … but G-d delivers us from their hands.”
New York City Mayor Eric Adams also slammed the rising hate in a statement released Sunday by his office.
“I am horrified and disgusted with the antisemitism being spewed at and around the Columbia University campus — like the example of a young woman holding a sign with an arrow pointing to Jewish students stating ‘Al Qassam’s Next Targets,’ or another where a woman is literally yelling ‘We are Hamas,’ or another where groups of students are chanting ‘We don’t want no Zionists here’ — and I condemn this hate speech in the strongest of terms.
“Supporting a terrorist organization that aims to kill Jews is sickening and despicable. As I have repeatedly said, hate has no place in our city, and I have instructed the NYPD to investigation any violation of law that is reported. Rest assured, the NYPD will not hesitate to arrest anyone who is found to be breaking the law.
“We will not be a city of lawlessness, and those professional agitators seeking to seize the ongoing conflict in the Middle East to sow chaos and division in our city will not succeed,” he added.
Last Wednesday, while Columbia University President Nemat Minouche Shafik testified at a Congressional hearing on campus antisemitism, students at her institution were yelling their support for terrorist murders of Jews.
“O Al-Qassam Brigades, You Make Us Proud, Kill Another Soldier Now! Israel Will Fall! Palestine Is Arab,” they chanted.
Sadly, antisemitism on campus is far from limited to Columbia University.
In New Haven, Connecticut, a Jewish student at Yale University was jabbed in the eye with a flag pole waved by a pro-Hamas protester. The victim has been hospitalized.
Female Jewish student surrounded by mob of pro-Palestine activists forming a human chain, to block her from entering Yale University because she is Jewish.
Later in the evening she was also stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag whilst on campus.
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 22, 2024
Another Jewish student, also at Yale, was pushed by pro-Hamas protesters and blocked from reaching a building on campus.
1939 Nazi Germany mob mentality infests Yale University as rabid antisemites don't allow an Orthodox Jewish student to pass.
Recognize any of them?
Let us know!
DM's open. pic.twitter.com/DDQX1dbpT5— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) April 21, 2024
On October 7, 2023, Hamas operatives led some 3,000 fellow terrorists and their followers to invade southern Israel, where they tortured, mutilated, raped, burned alive and slaughtered more than 1,200 men, women, elderly, children and even infants. The terrorists decimated nearly two dozen villages and nearby military bases and abducted 253 people, dragging them into Gaza captivity.
In November, a temporary ceasefire and hostage deal with the terrorists freed 134 of the captives — each one in exchange for three incarcerated terrorists from Israeli jails.
But as the terror group has done each time in the past, Hamas violated the agreement and stopping freeing the agreed-upon hostages, re-igniting the current war.
Of the 133 hostages who remain captive, at least 34 have been confirmed to have died at the hands of their captors; the whereabouts and condition of the others is unknown.
