'Being a Jew at NYU right now is scary': Students recall fear on campus as antisemitic sentiments rise
Two New York Jewish college students detailed the fear they have felt with the rise of antisemitic sentiments on campus since Hamas' terror attack on Israel last month.
Bella Ingber and Yola Ashkenazie spoke to "America Reports" Thursday about antisemitic radicalism on campus amid the war in Gaza. On October 7, Hamas launched a multi-pronged terror attack on Israeli army bases, civilian communities and a music festival that led to at least 1,400 deaths and 240 kidnappings in Israel. While many in the international community were initially horrified by the events, soon after, many teachers and students in American schools nationwide started expressing support for Hamas and antagonizing Jewish students.
"Being a Jew at NYU right now is scary," Ingber said. "We are seeing an uptick in anti-Israel protests that are turning antisemitic. There are signs that read ‘globalize the Intifada’ which is a historical call for the extermination of Jews and call for violence against Jews."
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Ingber went on to say that Jewish people are hearing chants of "gas the Jews" and "Hitler was right," leaving students horrified.
"As the granddaughter of Holocaust survivors, these statements being thrown around so carelessly and thoughtlessly [and] are extremely harmful," she said.
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"We are seeing a constant contextualization and justification of Hamas’ brutal terror attack at NYU, If this was any other minority group on any college campus or anywhere else in the world, everyone would be up in flames. There would be condemnation everywhere, and when it comes to Jews the world is silent."
Ashkenazie, who attends Barnard College, which is partnered with Columbia University, noted that Barnard president Laura Rosenbury recently released a letter detailing security changes for the campus. Roberts read the letter, noting that there had been posters in the halls that "justify the deliberate murder of innocent civilians, employ racial slurs, espouse misinformation, and call for the elimination of entire groups of people" as students walk to class with "bowed heads" in fear of confrontation.
But some faculty members, Roberts noted, had written an open letter denouncing her for writing the statement in the first place.
"I’m scared and disgusted by this faculty who are saying that condemning antisemitism is something that should be looked down upon," Ashkenazie said. "It’s ridiculous."
She then said that a group called Students for Justice in Palestine had agreed to host a speaker who "praised the second Intifada, something where there were suicide bombers who came into Israel, and they’re allowing this man to preach to our students on our campus? It’s disgusting."
Ingber noted that the current political climate has made students like her take a new, grim outlook on the community she lived in.
"We are analyzing the relationships we have made with our peers that are silent as calls for our death and our global extermination are running rampant across all college campuses and not just college campuses, in a lot of other major cities," she said.
Roberts then referred to another letter, one penned by faculty at Columbia University and Barnard, where they came out in support of a statement from students, faculty that had referred to the October 7 terror attack as merely a "salvo in an ongoing war between the occupying state and the people it occupies."
"It’s horrible, and knowing that these are the professors who are educating our students in my university is so scary," Ashkenazie said.
"The rape of women, the burning of babies, the beheading of babies, none of that is war," Ashkenazie argued. "There are rules to war and Hamas broke every single one of those rules on October 7th and anyone who calls this just another part of this ongoing war is naïve."
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