#Give Jewish students a voice
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"In Our Name: ..." an article written by Jewish students at Columbia University.
#antisemitism#jumblr#Jewish#Jewish students at Columbia university#Jewish students write article about their experiences at Columbia university#I/p war#Give Jewish students a voice#GIVE JEWS A VOICE#LET US SPEAK FOR OURSELVES WE DONT NEED YOU SPEAKING FOR US AND WE NEVER WANTED IT#Goyium listen up#A great article#Jewish Students a CLU#Let Jewish voices be heard now#Bring them home#fuck hamas#hamas is isis#i stand with israel#am yisrael chai#This is insanity
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What's new(ish) in the settler-colonial state of the US is that a series of bills have been passed in the House (the Baby Senate as I like to say) and are on their way to the Senate that make it harder to voice support for Palestinians while also making sure your direct taxes aid the genocide in Gaza.
These bills affirm the US's stance on the settler-colonial Zionist Entity and the implicit ties that the government has with Israel and really — just goes to show you how Israel is just one big base for American Imperialism.
Anyways, there's still time to call your senate and tell them that you don't want these bills that only further spiral the US into fascism so even if you think it might not do much — it's important that we document our dissent in official sources. And while you're at it — call your congressperson and tell them that if they voted for this you're not voting for them next election. If they voted against the bills, still call your congresspeople and tell them you support their decision to vote against these bills.
Here are the bills:
📍Resolution: HR 6126
Resolution Name: Israel Security Supplemental Appropriations Act
Description: Gives $14.3 Billion To Israel From The IRS (Taxes You Pay). Like straight up. Just takes it from an IRS project, which used our tax dollars to begin with, to give to Israel "defense."
Link to check summary: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr6126
📍Resolution: HR 798
Resolution Name: "Condemning the support of Hamas, Hezbollah, and other terrorist organizations at institutions of higher education, which may lead to the creation of a hostile environment for Jewish students, faculty, and staff."
Description: Will Penalize Students On American College Campuses For Supporting Palestine. This includes "Free Palestine" Protests as according to Rep Owens who introduced the bill (Click).
Link to check who voted: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/118-2023/h578
📍Resolution: HR 3266
Resolution Name: "Tolerance in Palestinian Education Act"
Description: They will be examining Palestinian education materials to see if it promotes "hate" or "violence" (aka are they teaching their children to become murderers??). Will inevitably require Revision Of Text Books In Palestinian Schools To Portray The Occupation In A Positive Light.
Link to summary: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr3266
📍Resolution: HR 340
Resolution Name: "The Hamas International Financing Prevent Action"
Description: Claims to stop financial support for "terrorist" organizations but considering that Gaza's government is run by Hamas, then this would mean Gaza will receive absolutely no aid and donating to people in Gaza could get you in legal trouble.
Link to summary: https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/118/hr340
There's a button for most of these bills that allows you to contact your representative directly. Please do take the time to contact them — while many of this isn't especially new to Palestinians, the difference is now that we have a larger power in numbers than we did in the past. Please make sure to advocate for you Palestinian comrades in the US whenever possible! Help us Free Palestine one step at a time!
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My very last comic for The Nib! End of an era! Transcription below the cut. instagram / patreon / portfolio / etsy / my book / redbubble
The first event I went to with GENDER QUEER was in NYC in 2019 at the Javits Center.
So many of the people who came to my signing were librarians, and so many of them said the same thing: "I know exactly who I want to give this to!"
Maia: "Thank you for helping readers find my book!"
While working on the book, I was genuinely unsure if anyone outside of my family and close friends would read it. But the early support of librarians and two American Library Association awards helped sell two print runs in first year.
Since then, GENDER QUEER been published in 8 languages, with more on the way: Spanish, Czech, Polish, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese and Dutch.
It has also been the most banned book in the United States for the past two years.
The American Library Association has tracked an astronomical increase in book challenges over the past few years. Most of these challenges are to books with diverse characters and LGBTQ themes. These challenges are coming unevenly across the US, in a pattern that mirrors the legislative attacks on LGBTQ people.
The Brooklyn Public Library offered free eCards to anyone in the US aged 13-21, in an effort to make banned books more available to young readers. A teacher in Norman, Oklahoma gave her students the QR code for the free eCard and lost her job. Summer Boismeir is now working for the Brooklyn Public Library.
Hoopla and Libby/Overdrive, apps used to access digital library books, are now banned in Mississippi to anyone under 18. Some libraries won’t allow anyone under 18 to get any kind of library card without parental permission.
When librarians in Jamestown, Michigan refused to remove GENDER QUEER and several other books, the citizens of the town voted down the library’s funding in the fall 2022 election. Without funding, the library is due to close in mid-2024.
My first event since covid hit was the American Library Association conference in June 2022 in Washington, DC. Once again, the librarians in my signing line all had similar stories for me: “Your book was challenged in our district"
"It was returned to the shelf!"
"It was removed from the shelf..."
"It was moved to the adult section."
Over and over I said: "Thank you. Thank you for working so hard to keep my book in your library. I’m sorry you had to defend it, but thank you for trying, even if it didn't work."
We are at a crossroads of freedom of speech and censorship. The future of libraries, both publicly funded and in schools, are at stake. This is massively impacting the daily lives of librarians, teachers, students, booksellers, and authors around the country. In May 2023, I read an article from the Washington Post analyzing nearly 1000 of the book challenges from the 2021-2022 school year. I was literally on route to a festival to talk about book bans when I read a startling statistic.
60% of the 1000 book challenges were submitted by just 11 people. One man alone was responsible for 92 challenges. These 11 people seem to have made submitting copy-cat book challenges their full-time hobby and their opinions are having an outsized ripple effect across the nation.
WE NEED TO MAKE THE VOICES SUPPORTING DIVERSE BOOKS AND OPPOSING BOOK BANS EVEN LOUDER.
If you are able too, show up for your library and school board meetings when book challenges are debated. Send supportive comments and emails about the Pride book display and Drag Queen story hours. If you see a display you like– for Banned Book Week, AAPI Month, Black History Month, Disability Awareness Month, Jewish holidays, Trans Day of Remembrance– compliment a librarian! Make sure they feel the love stronger than the hate <3
Maia Kobabe, 2023
The Nib
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wait I know why we hate AIPAC but what did ADL do? I thought the anti defamation League was good
The ADL is an Israeli/Zionist advocacy group at its core. It's main priority as an organization is to protect Israel and its mission for a Jewish Ethno-State. This is especially true under Johnathan Greenblatt's leadership who has said "antizionism is antisemitism"
It's easy to think that the "Anti Defamation League" has no underlying agenda given its history as a "civil rights organization" but it has constantly used that as a screen for extremely right wing positions on Israel.
Some of their greatest hits include:
Equating Students for Justice in Palestine, JVP, and CAIR to "white supremacists" simply because they strongly oppose an ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
A leaked ADL memo revealing how ADL plans to "soften" the news to Americans that Israel plans to annex the West Bank. (Source). In this leak Greenblatt recognizes that the annexation is a violation of basic human rights. To me this is a clear indication that they are less concerned with civil rights and more concerned with shaping the public image of Israel, especially in the US. Really urge you all to read this leak!
Supported South African Apartheid (surprise surprise) and participated in propaganda against Nelson Mandela and the ANC. They even employed a spy named Roy Bullock to infiltrate the anti-apartheid campaign in the US. They later settled a law suit for this. (Source)
That's not even close to the only time they've utilized spies. THIS recent leak of Greenblatt talks about ADL having spies in Jewish Voice for Peace and other organizations. It also talks about how they are having a hard time with the global youth no longer buying into their propaganda. Another source you should give your full attention to. PLEASE listen to that whole thing. It's truly terrifying. You're gonna hear them talk a lot about why Tiktok is a danger to their mission.
HERE is an article about how the ADL has a long history of smearing black activists, working with Police/ICE, and its attempts to demonize the BDS movement.
I could go on and on about how terrible and deceitful the ADL is. The sources above are a good start to understanding why we shouldn't trust the ADL but please look into all the other things they've done like working with the FBI to spy on Arab Americans, infiltrating student organizations they find to be a threat to "Israel's image", surveillance, the people who fund/donate to them etc.
The best way to fight orgs like this is to share/spread this info as much as you can. It's clearly working because they're losing global support especially with the youth.
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The Shofar Breaks Your Heart
by Dane Kuttler
When you give a girl a shofar –
no, not a proper instrument of G-d,
but a rough-cut horn with no real mouthpiece
her aunt brings back from a trip to Jerusalem,
don’t make it easy.
Put it up on the shelf in the living room
where its curled promise of a shout
will tempt her until she can reach it on tiptoe.
Tell her no one has ever found its voice,
that she will only make it grunt, bray and sputter
like the animal it came from.
Then give her a few years.
Give her an empty garage and a neighborhood
Jewish enough to understand what it’s hearing
so she can practice until
tiny tekiot burst forth from the scrap of ram.
She will be the only one who can ever shape its sounds,
can bend the call to tekiah, round off nine drops of t’ruah wailing,
fling the anguished cry of a sh’varim from its mouth.
Let her brag about this. Remember that children
are not humble creatures, that the simple act of being heard
is their great triumph. Let her be heard.
Bring her to Hebrew school.
Teach her the story of the rabbi
who told his students that he would put the words of Torah on their hearts;
that the words would only find their way in when the students’ hearts broke.
Let her sit with that tale for as long as it takes
for her own heart to shatter, for torah and poetry and forgiveness
find their way inside,
play her Leonard Cohen. Let him croon about the cracks in everything,
that’s how the light gets in, let her begin searching for light,
ask her where she thinks the cracks come from,
give her Auschwitz, give her Torquemada, give her pogrom and
quota and blacklist, the ashes of all her burnt bridges,
give her avinu malkenu, ashamnu, ashamnu, ashamnu,
watch her break
her heart
with her fist.
Give her the shofar.
Let the horn steal her breath,
let her begin to understand that she’s not holding a dead piece of animal,
but a living prayer.
Teach her: after every blast
you can hear the echo
of the still small voice.
If you listen for it,
you can hear the calls for the wild cries they are;
salute them with a straight back when they yank you from your amidah;
and should you hear a shofar blower struggle and gasp and strain for each call,
imagine yourself a trapped animal, desperate to be heard.
When it’s over,
Close your eyes.
Be. Broken. Here. Before G-d and your people. Be. Cracked.
feel the light
and the words
come
in.
#they read this at shul tonight and it was so powerful and i thought i'd share it#jumblr#judaism#poem#poetry#shofar#rosh hashanah#high holidays#elul#jewish art#dane kuttler#yom kippur
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CALL ME BY YOUR NAME | 01
fic M.list | read this or dni
Somewhere in northern Italy.
It was summer, it’s been hot, unbearable hot the last few weeks. Your family, all Jewish, have a not so small cottage with the most gorgeous landscape ever, and that’s where you all spend any vacation or holiday that appears. Which is the current case.
Your mother’s and anthropologist, meaning she adores places with history like the small town you’re at, and teaching people since she can always learn new things as well. Your dad on the other hand, he’s just doing what a housewife would do, he’s a professor as well, just doesn’t really work since you were born, that’s the agreement your parents made.
So with that on mind you well knew this summer wouldn’t be any different, your mom with some new student who died to live the whole leaving in Italy experience and your dad being the perfect parent. Perfect family in a perfect place leaving and teaching the perfect live.
Not that you mind it though.
Coming to Italy means getting to see old friends, having new situationships with hot Italians and of course, visiting extravagant places your family likes going to and learning something new, whether it’s from reading another book like you’re used to, visiting museums or just going to somehow new anthropological areas that your mom adores taking you to.
It’s nice, and you never get bored even you do this at least twice a year. There’s always something new to experience.
You were currently in your room with what you considered an old friend, pretty close one. Curly hair, pretty, and stupidly in love with you. Marzia. The hot breeze that came from the window in your room filled the emptiness between both. You currently changing your clothes and her eyes purely fixated on your body.
That until the wooden floor of the house started to resound and vibrate, accompanied by the loud engineer of a probably old car. That was it “l'usurpatore” as you and Marzia called the new student your mom brought every holiday to your house.
Ignoring her basically eye fucking you, you decided to go and have a preview of this new person, just by the way its arrival sounded you could have an idea of how they would be. Probably on their thirties or forties, rich and a bit sophisticated because otherwise they wouldn’t have pay for this type of experience.
So you ran to the nearest window, not in your room to of course to one, avoid Marzia, and two, avoid the obviousness of your presence while criticizing whoever new guests you’d have to live together with for the next month.
The floor was old, and it was as loud as that engineer that kept sounding, until both stopped in unison, right on time so you could have a proper view. Interrupted, of course, by Marzia and some strings of her hair moving along with the air, right behind you but enough striking to catch the slightest of your attention. “E' fiducioso, eh?” you whispered once you hear It’s voice, she sounded pretty confident, loud.
There she was, a tall blonde woman with what it looked like a perfectly made braid ruined by both the unbearable heat of this place and the breeze that besides doing nothing but sending the hot of the air everywhere was also annoyingly loud.
She said something inaudible to both your parents, you could hear their voices but not loud enough to catch a word they said. By the way they shook hands and the way she kissed them on the cheek you assumed it was just a boring greet.
That meant two things, Marzia leaving and you having to take care of the guest for the rest of the week at least until they catch their pace. Yet before you even excuse yourself properly from Marzia the loud voice of your dad calling for you took you out of your thoughts, turning around and giving your curly haired friend a polite kiss on the cheek. “Devo andare giù” you said, letting her know you’ll be downstairs if not completely gone the moment your parents made you socialize with the woman.
Running and tryin your best to properly put on your clothes you went downstairs, accompanied by the loud sound of the wood along the whole floor and your sandals hitting the floor. There she was.
They were just coming inside the house to your moms office, now your own library too. Your dad motioned your hand so you would come in as well, murmuring a quiet and repetitive “come here”.
You made sure everyone was inside before coming in, getting a small peak of what this woman’s car looked like, again. It was fancy, clean and covered in a very shiny dark green. Suit her, you thought.
The moment you pass the door frame there it is, taller than you, stronger than you and with the most exquisite style you’ve ever seen someone wear. Maybe it was the way she knew how to combine both texture and color, or just her whole appearance, but she was by far the best looking guest you’ve ever had.
“This is our daughter” your mom said, stepping aside with a glass in hand, always so elegant. You said your name, the blonde woman smiled at you, extending her arm towards your direction to shake hands “Abby”
“You must be exhausted” she nodded, not as confidently as you saw her when she first arrived “may I bring your things up to your room?” a small "uhh" brushed past her lips before she ultimately agreed “my room?” you turned around, facing your dad who’s orders you already knew, followed by a silent nod. You replied the same way, slightly crouching to help Abby carry her bags to your room.
“follow her” some pats were heard after you turned around, probably your mom patting her somewhere in her body to do as she told her to, follow you to her room. After that you could only hear the silent footsteps behind you, until they overlapped with ones even louder. Marzia.
You exchanged looks with her, pressuring to go upstairs again and passing by her completely. Until the silence was broken by a kiss on someone’s cheek, making you turns around to see both and just running your eyes at the ironic scene that thankfully didn’t last much in front of you.
Once in your now old room, the door slapped loudly, making the woman jump by the abruptly echo in the room. The light had gone darker, letting in a blue ish color to fulfill the whole room. The bags fell in the floor for you to finish cleaning the room you’ve just made a mess in while changing clothes, picking them and placing them disastrously in your closet.
Last thing you saw was her body lying on your bed shamelessly. Her white t-shirt wrinkling as she did “you have my room now, I’ll be next door” your would probably sounded like mumbled to her at this point but you were doing the usual protocol. She hummed a tiredly ‘mhm’ looking you from the corner of her eye.
“We’ll be sharing the bathroom, hope you don’t mind it” you got on the floor to pick one last pair of jeans you’d left in the room, smiling at the random appearance of quiet snores behind you. She’d fallen asleep, probably exhausted as your parents just said.
That made you wonder where was she from, that was usually information your parents didn’t share with you.
-
Hours passed by, the sky was alredy tainted dark blue fading into almost completely black. It was one of those evenings where you could hear the crickets chirping loudly in the outside, the air even though was warm it wasn’t annoying, it was refreshing enough, quiet and peaceful. Sooner you should be called for dinner.
Currently you were sitting at your desk, hand facing the cold of it as you kept staring at the score with some notes previously made with a sharpened pencil that had left some annotations impossible to erase. The low music coming from your headphones however wasn’t enough to silent the bell that, as you thought, made sure everyone knew and got ready for dinner.
So you stood up, placing everything displayed on your desk decently enough to give the look of tidiness. Grabbing then the sandals randomly placed on the floor and quietly walking towards the door that lead to your original room now occupied by Abby. Knuckles hitting the cold and tough wood that adorned the door, three times, no answer at all.
Getting inside, as the door squeaked loudly you took a glance of the inside. Eyes falling immediately on the still sleepy body of the woman. A giggle escaped your mouth as you noticed, she’d woken up sometime since the last time you saw her since the braid wasn’t there anymore, replaced by her natural long hair that somehow you didn’t see when she first arrived.
-
Next day you woke up to your usual routine. The heat that filled the room accompanied by the unbearable sun that came trough the window woke you up early in the morning, before you could start sweating you took a usual shower with the coldest water possible, that also came warm due the ambience being hot and the sun naturally warming everything.
Red t-shirt and a pair of shorts with some white tennis shoes, that was today’s fit. It was basic, not elegant or fancy at all but it looked good and was just right for the climate you were still getting used to.
Breakfast was ready before you even went downstairs so you took your time before doing so. Yet the moment you sat and took the first bite of the food the lady that helped at that house made just for you, there she was. Amazingly energetic compared to yesterday but talkative as you remember, greeting your parents with her loud voice and just murmuring a small ‘hi’ to you, which you replied the same.
As they spoke about how much Abby had slept yesterday and some other stuff you naturally ignored she mentioned something about a bank account, feeling the heavy look of both your parents directed to you “I can show you around” the warm smile you received from them made you pay attention back. This is when your job started, showing the town to every new usurpatore.
“That’ll be great thanks” probably the hunger combined with the energy she’s gotten from sleeping so much the day before is playing her dirty, because such woman can’t be so ignorant. She broke the egg, the simplest food to eat. Of course the silent chuckle that passed her lips and the way her cheeks noticeable tainted in a rose tone made you say nothing about it, or do something as you would done with any other person.
She looked nice, that played part on it too. She had a blue striped blouse and a pair of white shorts, everything perfectly well-off and suiting her toned body just right. Shirt opened enough to show a but of the tank top she was wearing under, showing also a collar, you couldn’t really tell what it was but it looked like it was something religiously. No judgment though.
-
After breakfast you took her out, to see the town, have a small tour and get an idea of where things were so she could move in her own later. You originally suggested bicycles but she’s apparently too sophisticated for that. So she took the two of you on her car, the one you saw yesterday when she arrived.
It took you two some minutes to get to the main town square, she wanted to get something fresh because of the hotness that was everywhere. There was a pretty famous bar nearby, so she basically dragged you there, naturally having some small talk with everyone inside the whole time you were there.
It didn’t last long though, she wanted to get back outside to “live the whole experience” so you’re currently sitting with her on some bench she found, covered by some trees yet still warm. “So, what does one do here?” she had what seemed like some random sheets with something related to your mom’s job. You’ve seen her work your whole life and being a very visual person you could always tell when there was something anthropology related.
You were reading a book, accompanying her in her small trip quietly and so far doing nothing but small talk with her. So when you heard her you took a moment to process her words, too focused on your own world. Closing and placing the book on the bench, between the two of you and letting out a heavy sigh before answering. “Wait for the summer to end” she chuckled, that’s when you saw her.
She had some front stands of her hair now loose from her slicked braid, gracefully dancing over her cheeks due the breeze. Her cheeks were slightly red and there was some not so visible sweat covering the entrance of her hair.
She did the same as you, placing her sheets down and covering them with your book so they wouldn’t fly away. Her eyes met yours probably for the third time since she first met you. “Yeah?” her tone clearly sarcastic elicited a smile on your face, fading before she let you say anything “And what do you do in the winter? wait for summer to come?” tilting her head to the side she rolled her sleeves up to her elbows, not breaking eye contact once at all.
Your words came out almost as a reflex, feeling her gaze piercing your whole body “We only come here for Christmas and other holidays…for vacation” your voices overlapped, yet none of you stopped “Christmas? I thought-“ “like Easter as well-“ “I thought you were Jewish”
“Well we are Jewish, but, also American…Italian, French, somewhat a typical combination” you responded once she finally shut up, thankfully, you thought. She didn’t speak again, just stared back at you, nodding and letting out a very inaudible ‘mhm’ “besides my family you’re probably the only Jewish that’s put a foot in this town”
Her face changed, she looked relaxed now, even let out a small laugh “oh so you noticed?” you nodded as an answer, proud of your gossipy self “Im from a small town in New England, I know what it’s like to feel different” so, she’s from England. That says a lot about her.
“So what do you do around here?” She’s been dying to ask that. Abby felt that you, being so young and just about to star your adult life, had lots of free time, and she needed to know what you did in such place like this town. She had no clue about you but she felt like you knew everything about her, she wasn’t so wrong on that though. “Read books, transcript music, swim at the river, go out at night, I dunno” you finally answered, unsure on what to say since deep inside you there was a craving for her acceptance “sounds fun”
After that she just casually putted together all the sheets she’d been reading or writing stuff on. “Thanks kiddo, see ya’” and she left.
You were confused, unsure on how to get back home with this painful weather and on why she randomly left after having a proper talk with you for the first time. You didn’t hesitated or anything, naturally waving at her as she left.
It’s not like she owned you anything after all, the plan was for you to show her the town and that’s all. Now you knew she took things literally.
Or that’s the impression she gave.
-
It’d been a whole day after that, you didn’t see her when she came back home. You spent all day in your room, finishing those music sheets you’ve been working on, reading and spending some time before dinner with Marzia.
At this point she basically lived with you as well, and honestly you never got why your parents let her. Maybe they were being a little too supportive.
Or you two were a little too obvious.
Today’s morning went as usual, the typical routine you’ve been repeating for some weeks already. Along Abby now, who spent some hours with your mom debating on some random stuff you didn’t even tried to pay attention to and debating on some etymological definition for some word.
Which only made both of your parents more exited about her presence since no other student had ever try and correct your mom. It made you smile, it was interesting to see someone like her interact with someone like your parents, like your family.
The plan for today was to spend some time with your friends, something your parents suggested when Marzia was present someday and that made you say yes to it because how could you deny anything to her?
Later have a small dinner, outside on the beautiful garden your dad loved to take care of. And of course Abby was included in everything, whether she decided to be there or not, the invitation was there.
The climate today wasn’t the most adequate for what you planned to do, it was hot, as it has never been before. The sun burned and the air wasn’t fresh, no shadow could bring comfort, no breeze or drink could get rid of the warm that was everywhere.
So when Abby took from you the glass with ice and cold water that you needed to drink it didn’t make you smile exactly. And she noticed your unpleasant expression, laughing at you. “Why’re your mad mhm? Don’t be so tense” there was something about those words that made you want to rip your skin. It was painfully annoying to hear people say anything about how you didn’t look so happy.
Maybe it was only you but every time those words were hear there was a context of someone purposely annoying you. And maybe it was the way you were raised and how this woman kept on ruining every opportunity she had to know you better but you just couldn’t take it.
So you shocked your head, feeling overwhelmed by your friends loud cheers to someone playing volleyball and the warm that was slowly consuming your body, almost burning every cell in your body.
“Yeah you are, here, take this” she returned the glass you were about to drink some seconds ago, too disgusted to mix saliva you hold it, trying to find comfort at least by holding it. And it wasn’t until she pressed her hands on your back that you realized what she intended to do.
A massage. So you would be so moody and tense and annoyed.
So you tried push her away, but besides she kept being insistent and her body was though er and stronger than yours you didn’t really care, not if she was the one giving you a whole massage session.
“Stop moving” she hissed, practically manhandling you and starting to move her palms on top of your back, pressing right on the muscle “Marzia, come here” you heard right next to your ear, naturally rolling your eyes and straightening your back. Why Marzia and not her?
-
-
“Don’t you think he’s rude when he says ‘later’?” you sat right in front of your mom, already changed into some more fancy clothes, still fresh for the hot that was somehow still in the air even though it was night and the stars were already shining in the sky, lightening everything along the moon. “Arrogant”
Your dad spoke, pouring some liquid you assumed was juice with some alcohol in it or frutal water into what seemed like your glass “l don’t think that’s the word” he extended the glass to you, which you took with a slightly fake but polite smile.
“That’s how she’ll say goodbye, with a stupid ‘later’ and then will never come back” maybe your mistake was your creativity because you could picture her like it, too real and accurate for someone like her “Well, we still have to be with her for six long weeks. Maybe you’ll grow to like her” your mom said, standing from her chair to grab something that was on your side of the table. “or maybe I’ll grow to hate her” your mom took advantage of her closeness, hitting your hand.
It was clear you were annoyed. It felt like everyone in that table knew something you didn’t and was making fun of it.
I could be Abby’s absence, but the idea of her presence fit better with your ideas. You hated how she was so confusing and impossible to read, how she ignored you and only played with you whenever she was in fact around. How she seemed always busy and only had patience and interest for your parents but also made you feel like an adult whenever she noticed you.
You hated all the mixed signals and shit she’s out you trough in so small amount of time.
You hated her.
-
#cmbyn 𓆝ˎˊ˗#abby Anderson#abby anderson tlou2#abby anderson fanfic#abby#abby tlou#abby tlou2#abby fanfiction#abby anderson fic#abby fic#abby anderson x y/n#abby anderson x you#abby anderson angst#abby anderson x reader#abby anderson fluff#abby anderson x female reader#abby x you#abby fluff#abby x fem!reader#abby x reader#abby x y/n#abby x black reader#ren masterlist ᵎᵎ ִ ۫ ּ ⊹
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Letter from Professor James Schamus
As Columbia survivors of last fall’s International Day of Jihad (sic), a not-surprisingly quite effective disinformation campaign, we still shouldn’t dismiss credible accounts of genuinely anti-semitic incidents on the rise, here and elsewhere. They deserve condemnation – as does the manufactured hysteria around them, weaponized in the movement to quell legitimate political speech on campus and elsewhere, mainly through the conflation of criticism of Israel with anti-semitism itself.
Let’s start with Rav Elie Beuchler, described in much of the recent massive press coverage of the terrors awaiting us Jews at Columbia as the “Columbia Rabbi” who sent an email to a few hundred students yesterday telling them to go home “as soon as possible” in fear for their lives and safety. One thing Beuchler is not, in fact, is the Columbia/Barnard Hillel campus rabbi; rather he is on the staff of the Orthodox Union-Jewish Institute for Leaning on Campus, run as a wing of the Orthodox Union.
To get a sense of the political mission of the OU-JILC, consider its Founding Director, Menachem Schrader, whose biography on the organization’s website attests he “has been community rabbi of Moshav Carmel in the Judean Hills and of Congregation Tiferet Avot in Efrat.” Carmel and Efrat are – and you can probably guess where this is going – illegal Israeli settlements located in the Occupied West Bank, centers of the Amana movement, the radical settlement arm of the violent, racist Gush Emunim. Amana was founded and led for decades by Ze’ev Hever, a Jewish supremacist terrorist who spent 11 months in jail for a Jewish Underground bombing plot before becoming a major establishment figure in the settlement movement. (Ironically, after his own car was vandalized in a violent “Price Tag” settler vigilante action in 2012, Hever himself, at least publicly, called for a reduction in settler rampages – one needn’t wonder whether his fanatical acolytes heeded that call.)
The OU-JILC actually brands itself as the “Heshe and Harriet Sief OU-JILC,” named, one assumes, after its major benefactors. Heshe and Harriet Sief, who are also major donors to Yeshivat Har-Etzion , which is located – you guessed it – in the Etzion bloc of settlements. It should be noted that funding for the Initiative, as with the Union itself, is opaque – the Union itself, given its prominent political activities, has been decried in Jewish philanthropy circles for its lack of transparency).
The Initiative has planted itself on thirty or so campuses in the United States, and has been welcomed into spaces controlled by International Hillel, which has become increasingly reactionary in its policing of Jewish students’ speech around Israel and Palestine.
That policing now threatens to engulf the University as a whole. Action based on genuine concern for the well-being and safety of our Jewish students and colleagues should be founded on the defense of the very principles and norms being assaulted by those hijacking that concern to give cover to the larger project of ethnic cleansing and settlement in the West Bank and, now, of course, Gaza.
a letter on the rabbi who said campus isn't safe and jewish students should stay home. yet again it should be noted that some of the students leading the protests are antizionist jews, and that columbia suspended the student jewish voices for peace organization several months ago, for which they are facing an ACLU lawsuit
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Hundreds of Jewish students at
@Columbia just published one of the most incredible student letters I have ever read. It's not only magnificently written, but it also clearly articulates their experiences on campus for the past six months. Their letter tells the story of what's it like being a Jewish student right now better than any professor like myself could ever do. Please take 4-5 minutes to read their letter. Give Jewish students a voice.
In Our Name: A Message from Jewish Students at Columbia University
To the Columbia Community:
Over the past six months, many have spoken in our name. Some are well-meaning alumni or non-affiliates who show up to wave the Israeli flag outside Columbia’s gates. Some are politicians looking to use our experiences to foment America’s culture war. Most notably, some are our Jewish peers who tokenize themselves by claiming to represent “real Jewish values,” and attempt to delegitimize our lived experiences of antisemitism. We are here, writing to you as Jewish students at Columbia University, who are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.
Many of us sit next to you in class. We are your lab partners, your study buddies, your peers, and your friends. We partake in the same student government, clubs, Greek life, volunteer organizations, and sports teams as you.
Most of us did not choose to be political activists. We do not bang on drums and chant catchy slogans. We are average students, just trying to make it through finals much like the rest of you. Those who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.
We proudly believe in the Jewish People’s right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity. Contrary to what many have tried to sell you – no, Judaism cannot be separated from Israel. Zionism is, simply put, the manifestation of that belief.
Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem. The land of Israel is filled with archaeological remnants of a Jewish presence spanning centuries. Yet, despite generations of living in exile and diaspora across the globe, the Jewish People never ceased dreaming of returning to our homeland — Judea, the very place from which we derive our name, “Jews.” Indeed just a couple of days ago, we all closed our Passover seders with the proclamation, “Next Year in Jerusalem!”
Many of us are not religiously observant, yet Zionism remains a pillar of our Jewish identities. We have been kicked out of Russia, Libya, Ethiopia, Yemen, Afghanistan, Poland, Egypt, Algeria, Germany, Iran, and the list goes on. We connect to Israel not only as our ancestral homeland but as the only place in the modern world where Jews can safely take ownership of their own destiny. Our experiences at Columbia in the last six months are a poignant reminder of just that.
We were raised on stories from our grandparents of concentration camps, gas chambers, and ethnic cleansing. The essence of Hitler’s antisemitism was the very fact that we were “not European” enough, that as Jews we were threats to the “superior” Aryan race. This ideology ultimately left six million of our own in ashes.
The evil irony of today’s antisemitism is a twisted reversal of our Holocaust legacy; protestors on campus have dehumanized us, imposing upon us the characterization of the “white colonizer.” We have been told that we are “the oppressors of all brown people” and that “the Holocaust wasn’t special.” Students at Columbia have chanted “we don’t want no Zionists here,” alongside “death to the Zionist State” and to “go back to Poland,” where our relatives lie in mass graves.
This sick distortion illuminates the nature of antisemitism: In every generation, the Jewish People are blamed and scapegoated as responsible for the societal evil of the time. In Iran and in the Arab world, we were ethnically cleansed for our presumed ties to the “Zionist entity.” In Russia, we endured state-sponsored violence and were ultimately massacred for being capitalists. In Europe, we were the victims of genocide because we were communists and not European enough. And today, we face the accusation of being too European, painted as society’s worst evils – colonizers and oppressors. We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist. We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew, synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal. We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting.
We are proud of Israel. The only democracy in the Middle East, Israel is home to millions of Mizrachi Jews (Jews of Middle Eastern descent), Ashkenazi Jews (Jews of Central and Eastern European descent), and Ethiopian Jews, as well as millions of Arab Israelis, over one million Muslims, and hundreds of thousands of Christians and Druze. Israel is nothing short of a miracle for the Jewish People and for the Middle East more broadly.
Our love for Israel does not necessitate blind political conformity. It’s quite the opposite. For many of us, it is our deep love for and commitment to Israel that pushes us to object when its government acts in ways we find problematic. Israeli political disagreement is an inherently Zionist activity; look no further than the protests against Netanyahu’s judicial reforms – from New York to Tel Aviv – to understand what it means to fight for the Israel we imagine. All it takes are a couple of coffee chats with us to realize that our visions for Israel differ dramatically from one another. Yet we all come from a place of love and an aspiration for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism, and consequently does not understand the essence of the Jewish People. Yet despite the fact that we have been calling out the antisemitism we’ve been experiencing for months, our concerns have been brushed off and invalidated. So here we are to remind you:
We sounded the alarm on October 12 when many protested against Israel while our friends’ and families’ dead bodies were still warm.
We recoiled when people screamed “resist by any means necessary,” telling us we are “all inbred” and that we “have no culture.”
We shuddered when an “activist” held up a sign telling Jewish students they were Hamas’s next targets, and we shook our heads in disbelief when Sidechat users told us we were lying.
We ultimately were not surprised when a leader of the CUAD encampment said publicly and proudly that “Zionists don’t deserve to live” and that we’re lucky they are “not just going out and murdering Zionists.”
We felt helpless when we watched students and faculty physically block Jewish students from entering parts of the campus we share, or even when they turned their faces away in silence. This silence is familiar. We will never forget.
One thing is for sure. We will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists.
We came to Columbia because we wanted to expand our minds and engage in complex conversations. While campus may be riddled with hateful rhetoric and simplistic binaries now, it is never too late to start repairing the fractures and begin developing meaningful relationships across political and religious divides. Our tradition tells us, “Love peace and pursue peace.” We hope you will join us in earnestly pursuing peace, truth, and empathy. Together we can repair our campus.
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By Isabel Vincent
The cash from Soros and his acolytes has been critical to the Columbia protests that set off the national copycat demonstrations.
Three groups set up the tent city on Columbia’s lawn last Wednesday: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Within Our Lifetime.
At the “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” students sleep in tents apparently ordered from Amazon and enjoy delivery pizza, coffee from Dunkin’, free sandwiches worth $12.50 from Pret a Manger, organic tortilla chips and $10 rotisserie chickens.
An analysis by The Post shows that all three got cash from groups linked to Soros. The Rockefeller Brothers Fund also gave cash to JVP.
The fund is chaired by Joseph Pierson, and includes David Rockefeller Jr, a fourth-generation member of the oil dynasty, on its board of directors. The non-profit gives money to “sustainable development” and “peace-building.”
And a former Wall Street banker, Felice Gelman, a retired investment banker who has dedicated her Wall Street fortune to pro-Palestinian causes, funded all three groups.
17Free sandwiches from upscale takeout joint Pret a Manger are on offer at the encampment, worth up to $12, and $10 rotisserie chickens. Cash for the encampment has come from billionaire investor George Soros.NYPJ
Both SJP and JVP were expelled from Columbia University in November for “threatening rhetoric and intimidation.” JVP blamed Israel for the Oct 7 Hamas terrorist attack that left 1,200 Israelis dead.
“Israeli apartheid and occupation — and United States complicity in that oppression — are the source of all this violence,” JVP said in a statement on its website.
SJP called the terrorist strike on Israel “a historic win.”
17Also on offer for the thirsty anti-Israeli protesters camped out at Columbia is free coffee from Dunkin’. Behind the scenes, the groups organizing the encampment have received cash from Soros and another former Wall Street banker.NYPJ
An analysis by The Post shows how Soros and Gelman’s cash made its way to the students through a network of nonprofits that help obscure their contributions.
Soros has given billions to the Open Society Foundations which his son Alexander — whose partner is Huma Abedin, Hillary Clinton’s top aide and the estranged wife of pervert Anthony Weiner — now controls.
In turn, Open Society has given more than $20 million to the Tides Foundation, a progressive nonprofit “fiscal sponsor” that then sends the cash to smaller groups.
Those groups include A Jewish Voice for Peace, which between 2017 and 2022 has received $650,000 from Soros’ Open Society. Its advisers include the academic Noam Chomsky and the left-wing feminist author Naomi Klein.
JVP has been a prominent part of the protests at Columbia and one of its student members was among a group expelled from the university for inviting the leader of a proscribed terrorist group, Khaled, to the “Resistance 101” Zoom meeting.
Soros has also donated $132,000 to WESPAC, called in full the Westchester People’s Action Coalition Foundation.
#george soros#columbia university#open society foundations#rockefeller brothers fund#jewish voice for peace#gaza solidarity encampment#within our lifetime#students for justice in palestine
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Hi do you have any posts on the BDS movement? I think most don’t oppose it solely because it calls for a boycott of Israel, but because the org has unnecessarily called for boycotts found unjust and apparently doxxed Jewish people.. do you know anything about that?
I have a rant on them here, but not a lot else. But put simply, I think they are evil. they have doxed Jewish people, there was the whole map debacle, and they often used highly antisemitic rhetoric.
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
the art boycott is pissing me off. working to isolate Israel from the global art world is fucked (how are people supposed to be exposed to other opinions if you refuse to let them interact?), but the people that suffer the most from it are Palestinian. the worst tendency of it is that if a Palestinian artist want to preform before Palestinians within the green line, they face huge backlash, and often just cancel their shows. And I can tell you that arranging shows in Gaza in fucking hard due to both Hamas's religious fundamentalism and Israel and Egypt's sieges, and the West Bank is tough because of Israel's tight ass border control that is so fucking annoying that many artists don't have the ability to fight with! So they are helping to keep Palestinians culturally isolated!
AND this block Israelis from interacting with big name international Palestinian artists which is making my life harder when I am trying to expose Israelis to Palestinian culture in order to deradicalize them! Also, I have some Palestinian artists I would like to see and it suck that the BDS will give them such hell for that, that it might not be a possibility.
I understand the desire to vote with your money, to boycott, and I give zero fucks about it. your money, your choice. My problem is how violent it is, how it attacks everyone, how they spew hate and malice. I have no problems for the original core values of the BDS (ending the occupation in the west bank, having full equality for Arab-Israelis and following Resolution 194), even if I disagree with the phrasing of some. but over the years there have been calls for violence against Jews (shoot a Jew is one of the more blunt ones), death threats against people who wanted to go to Israel, doxing and working with SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine). SJP in a shit show by itself, and often tokenise and drown Palestinian voices so a bunch of white American colonizers could play their fantasies of being oppressed and getting to be violent.
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aita for telling on a classmate??
(tw for homophobia and antisemitism)
🪻
(emoji so i can recognise it)
this is like really long, im sorry, i tend to ramble.
also my native language isnt english so i translated a few words i didnt really know with google translate which may be unreliable (talking specifically abt supervising teacher here, but i explained what it means just in case)
also i use all pronouns, listed my gender here as 'idk', so putting this here to clear it up
ok so this might sound really dumb but listen, in my (15idk) class there is this one guy, lets call him wit (15m) and ever since we started high school he's been really troublesome for other people. for further context hes very strongly catholic and frequently talks about his political opinions.
many students of our scholl agree that this would not be much of a problem if he kept at least some respect for others while doing it. wit is infamous in our school for making extremely homophobic and antisemetic comments, ranging from usage of derogatory language and insulting a guy in our class because he's partially ethnically jewish, to stating that homosexuality and transgenderism is mental illness, to saying gays should get shot, making up crazy statistics about pedophilia in the lgbtq+ community and taking a photo of himself doing the nazi salute while holding the flag of the third reich (we live in a country very heavily affected by the holocaust to this day. jesus christ dude). (note that our school has a quite large number of queer people so making these comments in such a public space is already a bit iffy imo.) he also states his opinions as fact, and when somebody tries to debate him on these things (he claims he's up for it) he keeps interrupting them, and in some cases calls them an idiot.
wit actually was in another class before, he switched to ours because his classmates and supervising teacher (translation might be wrong, went off google translate - i mean the teacher held responsible for what the kids in their class do) couldn't stand him (there are rumors that he tried to sue her actually?). our supervising teacher (29m) is well aware of this.
today, he was grading us on our behavior (idk if american schools do this?? it has to end up on our report cards at the end of the year here, we're graded once per semester) and the topic of wit's behavior came up. the day before this, he had gotten into an argument with this one girl, let's call her gabby (15f), because she had 'taken his seat' in our physics class (we don't have assigned seats, and the teacher invited a few kids from another class to write some missed assignments, so there were more students than chairs). wit started off calm, when gabby told him she was there first, he got mad and started shouting at her, and when she didn't want to give up her seat for him (she was calm about this!), he started to attempt to physically get her off the seat by pulling or pushing her off. as far as i know, three people in our class recorded this exchange.
wit got graded 5/6 for his behavior (very good) after our teacher vowed to lower it because of the amount of complaints he was getting about his behavior. this was before our teacher found out about yesterday's situation. today we had two classes with him and he was going to dedicate both to talking about our behavior grades, so we told him about how wit acted yesterday. our teacher was reasonably a little pissed at wit for getting physical, as well as shouting at a classmate. wit tried to defens himself saying he was calmly telling 'this unruly, undeserving of such respect girl' to piss off, but as i said, several people in our class had video evidence of what he did.
the conversation quickly shifted from just the fight in physics to wit's respect for others (or, more appropriately, the lackthereof). this is when his rampant homophobia was brought up. several people in our class voiced their concerns about how most of us feel really uncomfortable when this dude's out there wishing death on all queers. our teacher was really mad at him for continuing making his homophobia this public when he was already repeatedly told that he makes people uncomfortable with it. we also brought up him calling people who dare not have the same beliefs as him idiots and left-wingers (as an?? insult??).
wit's behavior grade was changed to 4/6 (good)
after class, our class president (15f) and i went up to our teacher to show him screenshots of wit being transphobic, not to humiliate him further, but to provide proof of the claims about him still openly hating the lgbtq.
wit seemed to notice this because a few hours after school he texted me to talk about this situation. it started with him being frustrated about getting a 4, then saying he believes he should get at LEAST a 5 (note: he cited 'i respect others' as a reason, lol) and then it very quickly spiraled into him shit-talking gabby and our class president (he called gabby 'wild' and our prez toxic). i told him that he should be happy hes only being graded based on two months (our teacher said he's only taking the time wit was in our class into account, imo this isnt fair at all but ok), when his behavior was somehow better here than previously and that the girls deserved their grades (gabby got a 5, prez got a 6, both are very helpful and in my experience very kind people) and that the reason his grade was lowered was because of the lack of respect for others he was demonstrating right in that moment. he then said i was fake and called me a kabel (polish slang for snitch basically)
i talked to my parents about today, and they said wit is a bad person, but is in the right in my conversation with him. i disagree tbh but im also not entirely convinced im right either because i might have taken it a bit far, but idk, aita??
also im so so so sorry this ended up being ao long, i didn't realize how chaotic this story is until i wrote it all down lol
What are these acronyms?
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Daily update post:
In my daily update post yesterdy, I mentioned two attack drones sent by Hezbollah, that invaded Israel's north. It was later published that one of the drones managed to carry out its attack, and it killed a 53 years old man, Yechezkel Azaria.
It's not surprising anymore, but the IDF found another terror tunnel shaft hidden underneath a baby's crib in Gaza.
The Iranian Islamic regime, which has been murdering girls and women for "immodesty" (meaning, if they happen to wear their hijab improperly), has been using a network of Iranian girls to seduce Israeli soldiers with nude pics of themselves, while fishing for info, according to the Iranian oppositionary website, Iran International.
For the first time since the start of the war, aid trucks entered Gaza directly from Israel, rather than be checked here, and go into Gaza through Egypt.
Two days after rockets were fired from Gaza into Jerusalem, some of the debris was found, including in a kindergarten's playground.
A Canadian teenager has been arrested for his part in an intended terrorist attack against Jews in Ottawa, for passing on instructions regarding how to build explosives, and orders to carry out the attack. This teen is the fifth to be arrested for terrorism related activity in Canada since June. Looking forward to people condamning Canada as a terrorist state for arresting kids.
Just a small reason to smile... Israeli soldiers from the Jewish Yemenite community, were walking through the Machne Yehuda market in Jerusalem, when they happened to catch Jewish Yemenite music being played, and they spontaneously started dancing to it. One of the steps they're doing is known in Israel as "the Yemenite step" and it's very popular among non-Yemenite Jews, too (this is also the daily reminder that Israeli Jews are not European. As a side note, based on their shoes, they're either paratroopers or completed a parachuting course).
Here's a vid from Daniel Ryan Spaulding, a gay, non-Jewish comedian, who has decided to take a firm stance against antisemitism. Most of his vids are hilarious, this one is from a serious panel he participated in, and he speaks about the rage people felt, when he dared go to the UN to hear the testimonies about the sexual violence committed by Hamas on Oct 7.
instagram
Lastly, this is 27 years old Inbar Haiman.
Inbar was a student, who was volunteering at the Nova music festival when Hamas invaded. She was taken hostage, and yesterday we got confirmation that she was murdered in captivity.
The past 70 days have been a nightmare of on going trauma and grief, because every single day, we learn of more people we've lost due to the Hamas massacre. Every single day I listen to the news, to the loved ones of those who are gone, giving interviews, or their eulogies being broadcast, I hear their voices breaking, and my heart breaks along, and it's 70 days of this hell, and it's not going to stop any time soon. Nothing that I write on Tumblr will ever convey the full impact, loss and pain of Oct 7, lasting 70 days and counting.
(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)
#israel#antisemitism#israeli#israel news#israel under attack#israel under fire#israelunderattack#terrorism#anti terrorism#hamas#antisemitic#antisemites#jews#jew#judaism#jumblr#frumblr#jewish#Instagram
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By: Michael Powell
Published: Apr 22, 2024
Yesterday just before midnight, word goes out, tent to tent, student protester to student protester—a viral warning: Intruders have entered the “liberated zone,” that swath of manicured grass where hundreds of students and their supporters at what they fancy as the People’s University for Palestine sit around tents and conduct workshops about demilitarizing education and fighting settler colonialism and genocide. In this liberated zone, normally known as South Lawn West on the Columbia University quad, unsympathetic outsiders are treated as a danger.
“Attention, everyone! We have Zionists who have entered the camp!” a protest leader calls out. His head is wrapped in a white-and-black keffiyeh. “We are going to create a human chain where I’m standing so that they do not pass this point and infringe on our privacy.”
Privacy struck me as a peculiar goal for an outdoor protest at a prominent university. But it’s been a strange seven-month journey from Hamas’s horrific slaughter of Israelis—the original breach of a cease-fire—to the liberated zone on the Columbia campus and similar standing protests at other elite universities. What I witnessed seemed less likely to persuade than to give collective voice to righteous anger. A genuine sympathy for the suffering of Gazans mixed with a fervor and a politics that could border on the oppressive.
Dozens stand and echo the leader’s commands in unison, word for word. “So that we can push them out of the camp, one step forward! Another step forward!” The protesters lock arms and step toward the interlopers, who as it happens are three fellow Columbia students, who are Jewish and pro-Israel.
Jessica Schwalb, a Columbia junior, is one of those labeled an intruder. In truth, she does not much fear violence—“They’re Columbia students, too nerdy and too worried about their futures to hurt us,” she tells me—as she is taken aback by the sight of fellow students chanting like automatons. She raises her phone to start recording video. One of the intruders speaks up to ask why they are being pushed out.
The leader talks over them, dismissing such inquiries as tiresome. “Repeat after me,” he says, and 100 protesters dutifully repeat: “I’m bored! We would like you to leave!”
As the crowd draws closer, Schwalb and her friends pivot and leave. Even the next morning, she’s baffled at how they were targeted. Save for a friend who wore a Star of David necklace, none wore identifying clothing. “Maybe,” she says, “they smelled the Zionists on us.”
As the war has raged on and the death toll has grown, protest rallies on American campuses have morphed into a campaign of ever grander and more elaborate ambitions: From “Cease-fire now” to the categorical claim that Israel is guilty of genocide and war crimes to demands that Columbia divest from Israeli companies and any American company selling arms to the Jewish state.
Many protesters argue that, from the river to the sea, the settler-colonialist state must simply disappear. To inquire, as I did at Columbia, what would happen to Israelis living under a theocratic fascist movement such as Hamas is to ask the wrong question. A young female protester, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution, responded: “Maybe Israelis need to check their privilege.”
Of late, at least one rabbi has suggested that Jewish students depart the campus for their own safety. Columbia President Minouche Shafik acknowledged in a statement earlier today that at her university there “have been too many examples of intimidating and harassing behavior.” To avoid trouble, she advised classes to go virtual today, and said, “Our preference is that students who do not live on campus will not come to campus.”
Tensions have in fact kept ratcheting up. Last week, Shafik called in the New York City police force to clear an earlier iteration of the tent city and to arrest students for trespassing. The university suspended more than 100 of these protesters, accusing them, according to the Columbia Spectator, of “disruptive behavior, violation of law, violation of University policy, failure to comply, vandalism or damage to property, and unauthorized access or egress.” Even some Jewish students and faculty unsympathetic to the protesters say the president’s move was an accelerant to the crisis, producing misdemeanor martyrs to the pro-Palestinian cause. A large group of faculty members walked out this afternoon to express their opposition to the arrests and suspensions.
As for the encampment itself, it has an intifada-meets-Woodstock quality at times. Dance clubs offer interpretive performances; there are drummers and other musicians, and obscure poets reading obscure poems. Some tents break out by identity groups: “Lesbians Against Genocide,” “Hindus for Intifada.” Banners demand the release of all Palestinian prisoners. Small Palestinian flags, embroidered with the names of Palestinian leaders killed in Gaza, are planted in the grass.
During my nine-hour visit, talking with student protesters proved tricky. Upon entering the zone, I was instructed to listen as a gatekeeper read community guidelines that included not talking with people not authorized to be inside—a category that seemed to include anyone of differing opinions. I then stood in a press zone and waited for Layla Saliba, a social-work graduate student who served as a spokesperson for the protest. A Palestinian American, she said she has lost family in the fighting in Gaza. She talked at length and with nuance. Hers, however, was a near-singular voice. As I toured the liberated zone, I found most protesters distinctly nonliberated when it came to talking with a reporter.
Leaders take pains to insist that, for all the chants of “From the river to sea” and promises to revisit the 1948 founding of Israel, they are only anti-Zionist and not anti-Jewish. To that end, they’ve held a Shabbat dinner and, during my visit, were planning a Passover seder. (The students vow to remain, police notwithstanding, until graduation in May).
“We are not anti-Jewish, not at all,” Saliba said.
But to talk with many Jewish students who have encountered the protests is to hear of the cumulative toll taken by words and chants and actions that call to mind something ancient and ugly.
Earlier in the day, I interviewed a Jewish student on a set of steps overlooking the tent city. Rachel, who asked that I not include a surname for fear of harassment, recalled that in the days after October 7 an email went out from a lesbian organization, LionLez, stating that Zionists were not allowed at a group event. A subsequent email from the club’s president noted: “White Jewish people are today and always have been the oppressors of all brown people,” and “when I say the Holocaust wasn’t special, I mean that.” The only outward manifestation of Rachel’s sympathies was a pocket-size Israeli flag in a dorm room. Another student, Sophie Arnstein, told me that after she said in class that “Jewish lives matter,” others complained that her Zionist beliefs were hostile. She ended up dropping the course.
This said, the students I interviewed told me that physical violence has been rare on campus. There have been reports of shoves, but not much more. The atmosphere on the streets around the campus, on Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue, is more forbidding. There the protesters are not students but sectarians of various sorts, and the cacophonous chants are calls for revolution and promises to burn Tel Aviv to the ground. Late Sunday night, I saw two cars circling on Amsterdam as the men inside rolled down their windows and shouted “Yahud, Yahud”—Arabic for “Jew, Jew”—“fuck you!”
A few minutes earlier, I had been sitting on a stone bench on campus and speaking with a tall, brawny man named Danny Shaw, who holds a master’s in international affairs from Columbia and now teaches seminars on Israel in the liberated zone. When he describes the encampment, it sounds like Shangri-la. “It’s 100 percent love for human beings and very beautiful; I came here for my mental health,” he said.
He claims no hatred for Israel, although he suggested that the “genocidal goliath” will of course have to disappear or merge into an Arab-majority state. He said he does not endorse violence, even as he likened the October 7 attacks to the Warsaw Ghetto uprising during World War II.
Shaw’s worldview is consistent with that of others in the rotating cast of speakers at late-night seminars in the liberated zone. The prevailing tone tends toward late-stage Frantz Fanon: much talk of revolution and purging oneself of bourgeois affectation. Shaw had taught for 18 years at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, but he told me the liberated zone is now his only gig. The John Jay administration pushed him out—doxxed him, he said—in October for speaking against Israel and for Palestine. He was labeled an anti-Semite and remains deeply pained by that. He advised me to look up what he said and judge for myself. So I did, right on the spot.
Shortly after October 7, he posted this on X: “Zionists are straight Babylon swine. Zionism is beyond a mental illness; it’s a genocidal disease.”
A bit harsh, maybe? I asked him. He shook his head. “The rhetoric they use against us makes us look harsh and negative,” Shaw said. “That’s not the flavor of what we are doing.”
We parted shortly afterward. I walked under a near-full moon toward a far gate, protesters’ chants of revolution echoing across what was otherwise an almost-deserted campus. I could not shake the sense that too many at this elite university, even as they hoped to ease the plight of imperiled civilians, had allowed the intoxicating language of liberation to blind them to an ugliness encoded within that struggle.
[ Via: https://archive.today/ziQes ]
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At the core of what they call "anti-Zionism" is the belief that "Jews control the world." Left-wing conspiracy nuts and right-wing conspiracy nuts are now collaborating, it seems.
Zionism | ˈzīəˌnizəm |
noun
a movement for (originally) the re-establishment and (now) the development and protection of a Jewish nation in what is now Israel. It was established as a political organization in 1897 under Theodor Herzl, and was later led by Chaim Weizmann.
Somehow this justifies slaughtering over a thousand, raping dozens, and kidnapping hundreds. And for brain cell-starved students to defend and support terrorists who would happily slit their throats.
It's hard to take the "we're anti-Zionism, not anti-Jew" thing when they intimidate and attack Jews without bothering to ask them what they think. In reality, it's just cover for their antisemitism. When they don't make the distinction, we should stop pretending it's a distinction at all.
#Michael Powell#Columbia University#useful idiots#hamas#hamas terrorism#hamas supporters#pro hamas#student protesters#student protestors#antisemitism#israel#palestine#pro palestine#islamic terrorism#islam#religion is a mental illness
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by Dion J. Pierre
A University of Massachusetts-Amherst student has been arrested for allegedly punching a Jewish student who was carrying an Israeli flag during a gathering held to call for the release of the over 240 people kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from Israel on Oct. 7 and taken to Gaza.
After the alleged punch, the assailant snatched the Israeli flag held by the Jewish student and spat on it, according to details of the incident reported by the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, the campus newspaper for UMass-Amherst.
The incident occurred on Friday but first came to light over the weekend, when the school’s Hillel chapter released a “security message” detailing what happened.
“Toward the end of the event [which was sponsored by Hillel], a student approached the gathering and walked through the crowd, aggressively giving people the middle finger,” the statement read. “After the event had concluded and event security had left, the same student returned to the site of the event and punched a Jewish student holding an Israeli flag, then took the flag and spit on it.”
UMass staff witnessed the incident, according to the school’s Hillel, which noted that a police report was filed and that UMass police arrested the individual.
“We know this incident is disturbing to many of us, particularly during a time when tensions, emotion, and concern are heightened on our campus,” Hillel added. “But we must not let the most extreme voices and actions create undue fear or dominate the campus climate. It is vital that our campus community model civility, as the Jewish community did on Friday in publicly and peacefully showing solidarity with the 240 hostages.”
The perpetrator was later released on bail, “with conditions prohibiting them from returning to campus,” according to a statement put out on Monday by university officials, who said the student will be subject to the legal consequences of their actions.
“What this student is accused of is reprehensible, illegal, and unacceptable,” said UMass vice-chancellors Shelly Perdomo-Ahmed and Tyrone Parham. “Antisemitism, Islamophobia, or any form of bigotry have no place in our community, and we are committed to ensuring that our community’s engagement with opposing viewpoints is maintained in a respectful manner.”
US college campuses have seen a sharp surge in antisemitic incidents — including violence, harassment, and other forms of discrimination against Jewish students — since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, murdered 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and took over 240 hostages back to the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
Last month, for example, an Israeli student at Columbia University was beaten with a stick by another student who had been ripping off flyers with names and photos of Israelis that Hamas had taken as hostages.
Two weeks later, a melee ensued at Tulane University in New Orleans in which an anti-Israel activist broke a Jewish student’s nose.
Intimidation and death threats have increased as well. At Harvard University, a mob — some clad in Palestinian keffiyeh scarves — jostled and harassed a Jewish student as he walked across the campus. Among the mob was Ibrahim Bharmal, the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review — a publication whose past editors include former US President Barack Obama. At Cornell University, someone threatened on a social media forum to commit acts of murder, rape, and mass shooting against Jewish students and a kosher dining ball on campus. Patrick Dai, a 21-year-old engineering student at Cornell, was arrested on a federal complaint for allegedly making the threats. He faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 fine.
Responding to the latest outrage at UMass-Amherst, the New England office of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) said on Sunday that what happened is “an example of the disturbing reality for Jewish students on campus right now.”
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On Nov. 8, confrontations broke out at the mezzanine of the Hall building between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students. Since the incident, Quebec mainstream media has portrayed Palestinians like animals.
When the confrontation between SPHR and StartUp Nation occurred, rather than send reporters to cover the altercation with on-the-ground reporting, papers like the Montreal Gazette published statements by organizations that weren’t eye-witnesses to the events on campus. While the newspaper updated their original articles since Nov. 8, the damage had already been done.
Despite hundreds of students being on the scene of the incident, the Gazette relied on sources such as the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) and far-right Honest Reporting Canada (HRC) as primary sources.
Canadian journalists love to boast themselves as impartial, objective and ethical reporters with the highest standards. Yet, when reporting on an ongoing genocide, legacy papers like the Gazette decided to embed tweets from Zionist organizations in their article. We would like to remind our audience that HRC is the same institution that denies the Israeli Defence Force murdered Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh almost two years ago.
By not adequately giving Concordia students proper voices in their coverage, media outlets excluded an essential element of the story. They failed to adhere to the most basic of reporting principles like verifying the identities and backgrounds of their sources and seeking documentation to support their reliability.
Continue Reading.
#cdnpoli#canada#canadian politics#canadian news#concordia university#montreal#quebec#free palestine#racism#islamophobia
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The most succinct example I can give that supporting arming Israel has nothing to do with protecting the Jewish community:
Jewish Voices for Peace was suspended by Columbia University for being attacked with chemicals that IDF regularly uses on civilizans.
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