A Letter from Your Friend in the Shadows

 Dear Reader, whoever you may be…

     It’s been at least some 60 weeks if not more since I wanted to write this, a sum of my thoughts perhaps, it's not the most coherent so please forgive me. 

    First before I move on, who am I? I am simply a university student studying chemistry, one of a generation who’d be the last influenced by the Greatest Generation, one of many who never witnessed the horrid terrorist attacks that were September 11th, 2001, yet grew up in its shadow. I was raised in a Christian home, but that’s neither here nor there. During middle and high school, I spent much of my free time oddly, studying, it wouldn’t be until community college I realized I was a bit of a workaholic. During this time, I’d study various subjects including but not limited to legal codes, chemistry, and history. The history bit would be important later. During community college, before transferring to university, I spent my days as a part of its student government, learning and understanding the different facets of academic systems and how equity in opportunity should be considered when attempting reform. I’ve seen the great fruits of an equity focused-Merit based educational system and how it impacts its local community and I had spent many years advocating for more opportunities for my fellow students. What happened next would shock me.

     It was October 7th 2023, I was in my university cafeteria at the time when the news came on my phone. Israel attacked, in what would be the worst attack on Jews since the Holocaust. As I am writing this, I still have no words to describe how I was(and still am) feeling about October 7th. 1300 if not more killed, 250+ taken hostage into Gaza(101 still remain as of time of writing). Why? Just because they were Jewish. Within the next few days, details came out, horrid details of atrocities committed by terrorists against innocent civilians just because of who they were. Details I will not write about for my own sanity. I do not know if this is respectful to write as such. But in my mind, the thought came to me,

“This is the 9-11 of my generation, the Pearl Harbor of my time…”

    However, what occurred stateside was not something I had expected. Within weeks, numerous demonstrations of ‘keffieh’ clad protesters, those not dissimilar in age to me, started amassing on university campuses, city streets and their affiliate organizations praising the attacks on October 7th. Like…WHAT THE FLIPPIN F###?! Imagine if immediately after 9-11 there were mass demonstrations in support of Al-Qaeda at Ground Zero. More importantly, as the weeks passed, I had both read and witnessed various attacks and harassment on students, faculty, and staff at various university campuses just because they were either Jewish, Pro-Israel, or silent on the matter of Oct. 7. In one tragic video I had seen on social media, a girl at a university in Washington state, I’m unsure which one, was crying profusely at a university administrator about the pro-terrorist demonstrations saying, “They(demonstrators) want My People dead…”. A business professor, Shai Davidai, at the University of Columbia would be suspended and later banned from his own campus, just because he was proud and outspoken of his Jewish identity. Then Student Body President Tessa Veksler would be targeted in her office and various posters with antisemitic rhetoric would be plastered all over her workplace and office door, just because she was Jewish and released a statement stating her stance with Israel and the Jewish People. What broke my heart and angered me more, was seeing videos of demonstrators taking down posters and stickers of the hostages out of pure hate. Why and where on this earth did all this Jew-hatred allowed to fester for so long? What’s worse, was the silence, it was deafening! Imagine for a second, if Shai or Tessa were of a different minority, say they were Chinese or African American, and the same amount of harassment and racial preferential treatment was put upon them. There would be rageful outcry, and rightfully so. So why is it that when it comes to Jews, there’s nothing but silence? So alongside my studies in Chemistry, I threw myself into figuring out why this was the case, with a side quest in learning what Hamas was and the Iranian-backed terrorist mess that fueled it. After months of digging, and rummaging around different DEI policies at different universities, of those I read through, Jews weren’t mentioned anywhere. Why? Jews have been a minority in the United States since at least 1680 CE if not even further before. Rabbis and Jewish Communities were great allies of the African American communities throughout the Civil Rights movements of the 1960s. Why were Jews omitted? Is this really equity in education? Is allowing rioters to lock and barricade a library full of students just because they were Jewish equity in opportunity? Is allowing demonstrators to chant ‘From the river to the sea’ outside a restaurant hosting a Shabbat dinner for Jewish students allowing for a safe academic environment? Is allowing speech targeting Jewish organizations and safe-spaces (Hillel, SSI, Chabad, etc.) free speech? University administrators seem to think so, even if they don’t say it. It is no wonder that 72% of Jewish University/College students feel unwelcome and some 50% of Jewish students have been targets of antisemitic attacks. And glaringly, 67% of Jewish Students feel that their university’s administrators have not done enough, if at all, to address the rampant antisemitism on their campuses (Source: New York Post, StopAntisemitism). Nothing but ‘disappointment and anger’ can describe what I feel about this cesspool of antisemitism that university campuses are infested with. 

     I have told friends of mine before, that if I hadn't pursued Chemistry, I’d have taken a History major with intent to go to Law School afterwards. What’s important is to consider what history I was studying throughout my ‘free time’ in highschool, alongside American History, Chinese History and European History, I was studying about the History of the Jewish People. I’ll admit, my mom definitely had influenced me in this direction, not something I will discuss here. What I find, throughout at least the past 600 years, bear with me my memory and history is trash, were a series of major attacks and harassments of Jewish communities throughout the Diaspora culminating in the Holocaust. What's worse, especially in the case of the Holocaust, was how antisemitism and blind hate was central to the reasonings and motives of these attacks and atrocities. In Nazi Germany, antisemitism and hate was baked into government policies (evident in the Nuremberg laws), political rhetoric, even in military occupational policies. Now, this is the most extreme of examples, but this is an example of what happens when hate goes unchecked and allowed to fester. So considering the above, I was sickened and rocked to the core, not by demonstrations, but by the silence of administrators whose job it was to protect all students, including their Jewish students, who have been attacked and harassed just because of who they were. Who knew silence would be so deafening. As someone who had witnessed the anti-Asian madness immediately after the COVID-19 Pandemic had begun, but importantly the relatively good response that university administrators have had to the sudden outburst of anti-Asian hate, I.E. understanding and emphasizing the consideration of AAPI Issues in terms of safety and equity. So why has there been nothing but a load of thin air and silence when Jews are the ones being victimized, harassed, and attacked? Some say the solution may need to be more education, or awareness, or honestly I don’t know.      

     If this was a pamphlet, or an activist writing this disorganized mess of words, this would be where some kind of call to action may be written, but I don’t know what to write, as I am merely a student, not one who can do much on this matter. However, I will continue to act in the shadows, as change, no matter how overwhelming, starts from one person to the next at a personal level. More importantly, I will stand with my Jewish Friends and the State of Israel. Nobody should be harassed, attacked, banned from their campus or have hateful posters plastered in their office just for being who they are.

Am Yisrael Chai

From a friend…

P.S. These are merely my thoughts and things I’ve needed to say but never had a chance to over this past year. This is why I have committed my thoughts and feelings to paper, and to the best of my ability, in a respectful manner. I know it's disorganized, but please understand that this comes from a place of deep emotion and compassion.