SPRING 2026 Update

01/23/2026

Oct7th +840

06:00 hrs UTC-8 

Dear Reader,

     This will be my last ‘update’ as a student. I still have some to write, but by the time I fully release it, I will no longer be a student. My time in higher education has been loosely defined by advocacy. I spent my community college years in student government trying to get a grasp of educational and university policies. When I transferred to university in Fall of 2023, I thought I’d leave that life behind. History had other plans. 

     The horrid events of October 7th 2023 and the stateside campus response to these events would prove too extreme for me to sit out, with the targeting of Tessa Veksler at UCSB proving my concerns and suspicions correct. Since then, my advocacy has looked different to that of my previous student government days. Gone is the neutrality, and any attempt to seem impartial. For the moment of history I find myself in no longer requires such niceties.

    I'm aware that amongst those who read these disorganized messes of words that I publish from time to time, are a variety of people, who have been convicted to act because they feel that they can no longer live with their idle selves anymore. For me it was October 7th and the explosion of antisemitism on campuses that has only escalated since. For some of you it may be the same. For others, it may have been the shooting of Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky at the Capitol Jewish Museum on May 21st 2025. For others, it may have been the assassination of Charlie Kirk at Utah Valley University on September 10th 2025. And for others still, it may have been the terrorist attack on a Hanukkah event at Bondi Beach on December 14th 2025. Whatever it may be, we all have had that one moment that hit us so hard we can no longer ignore it. That's the Hand of History forcing you to act, and you may feel like you have a choice not to act, you really don't. 

     So do I have a message to those getting decisions now from the university applications? Actually yes, and it's oddly simple. Now I'm aware it’s going to be different depending on your major, your situation, your personality etc., but the message I have still stands. For those concerned about antisemitism and looking through universities through their handling of Jew-hatred, I don't really have good news, since many schools did absolutely next to nothing within months of October 7th. Sure some have taken to officially banning SJP and/or BDS adjacent movements (Israel War Room). But these moves came years after the fact. I wouldn't get your hopes up. Personally, I'd say simply look for the school that works best for you academically, and financially. No matter where you end up, I’m pretty sure there is a nest of joy being maintained by a bunch of birds like myself at every campus. You just need to keep looking. That's how the world is, I didn't make the rules. Also if your future potential career doesn’t require university, understand that you can absolutely not go or go with the expectation that you’re there for the social experience of being a college student. Not sure why you’d do so but hey, more power to you.

     And one final thing before I finish this update. If for some reason, you find yourself ridiculed for your beliefs or worse, your identity, understand that most who ostracize you are blind to the danger that you see, therefore you look and sound crazy to them. I’m not saying to pass out pity like it's a buffet, but it's a frame of mind any Jewish, Zionist, Conservative, or an indifferent student needs to adopt these days. Campuses, once forums of critical thinking, are now arenas of conformity. I'm not saying “don't have an open mind”, since that will be intellectually irresponsible, but that you need to be clear to yourself where your moral boundaries are, just as we have social boundaries, moral boundaries are more important than ever. I can't tell you where those are for you, that's for you to sort out. 

     I will at some point be no longer able to observe and discern the constantly evolving campus cultural shenanigans long after I leave. I may still work or observe but my perspective will soon be dated or tinted with a pentina that comes with being on campus the day everything went into the toilet. This is where folks like you come in. I may have words of advice for you, and please try to see if they work for you now like it did for me, and I pray a day will come that my advice won’t be needed. Not because universities became hate-fests, but because students, regardless of their identity or faith, can be students again. 

    But for now, I’ve seen and continue to see the tongues of fire and riots flaring, the news of foemen and their extremism near, and to deeds of daring History will call on you as it did me. Short your sleep shall be, as was mine. Ere the morrow's morn is breaking, you will have a rude awakening, roused by History’s Cruel Hand. We will have guts to stand but never march to glory, this will ever be our story. And may you keep these burning words before ye, as Maccabees, Welshmen, and the Men of Lexington before ye. We will not yield.

Am Yisrael Chai

Your Friend in the Shadows