'I'm ready to leave this campus': Jewish students at Columbia react to tidal wave of antisemitism

• Published date: 20 April 2024
• Author: JACKIE HAJDENBERG/JTA
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Galler has an apartment that looks out onto Broadway, which divides Columbia University's campus from Barnard, its women's college. Each night this week, she has heard crowds of protesters banging pots and pans, chanting "Intifada, revolution" and calling for the Ivy League university to divest from Israel

The street protests accompanied a much larger on-campus demonstration that devolved into unrest on Thursday, when the university asked police to dismantle an encampment pro-Palestinian students had set up; more than 100 people were arrested. The scenes from Thursday drew global attention, a statement from the mayor and passionate debate over the limits of campus civil disobedience.

For Galler, though, seeing hundreds of students - including some she knows - protesting Israel brought her back to a different time of trauma, not long ago: The days after Hamas attacked Israel, killing some 1,200 people and launching the war in Gaza.

"Wednesday at Hillel felt like October," she said. "I remember speaking to one of the Hillel professionals, just telling her that all I feel is anger and I feel like I'm being radicalized and I don't want to be."

Campus tensions

She added, "I just want to be able to think clearly and in a nuanced way and rationally but I am so overcome with these emotions."

In the months since October 7, Columbia has at times felt like a battleground as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students have faced off against each other and, often, the university administration. Thursday's protest represented an escalation of those tensions, with police entering campus and loading students into NYPD vans.

Reflecting on Thursday's unrest, Jewish students, most of them in and around the Kraft Center for Jewish Life, where Hillel is housed, told JTA that they felt uncomfortable and unheard on campus. Some said they're glad the school year is almost over.

Daniel Barth, who graduated last semester and will be participating in commencement ceremonies next month, said he appreciated his time at Columbia and the vibrant political debates on campus. But Barth, who wears a kippah and a Star of David necklace, says that practice has been "tested" recently, including when someone spit near him.

"I'm ready to leave this campus," he said. "I thought it would be a lot more bittersweet, but I think it's just a sense of relief. I'm not necessarily attached to being here anymore."

Ezra Dayanim, also a senior, is enrolled in Columbia's joint undergraduate program with the...