A letter that has gathered 680 signatures from Jewish students at Columbia University declaring themselves to be proud Jews and Zionists, admonished those who co-opted their experiences and criticized the harassment and antisemitism they have been subjected to over the last six months has gone viral.
“Over the past six months, many have spoken in our name,” reads the letter addressed to the Columbia community. “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.”
The letter goes on to note the students who signed “are connected to our community and deeply engaged with our culture and history. We would like to speak in our name.”
The university has received national attention for many weeks of pro-Palestinian encampments that sparked a movement across the country and resulted in violence and antisemitic backlash to Jewish students at Columbia and elsewhere. It culminated in police being called in to remove protestors who had taken over a campus building and remove the encampment.
“We wrote the letter because the media was inaccurately portraying the Jewish community here,” said Eliana Goldin, one of the four authors of the letter. “We wanted to make sure that others understood accurately who we are and what we believe. Other people have been so focused on saying what the Zionist community believes and we wanted to highlight the richness of the Zionist community.”
The junior political science major from Atlanta is in a joint program with the Jewish Theological Seminary, where she is studying Talmud, and serves as co-chair of Columbia’s pro-Israel group. She said while she appreciates that those from outside the campus want to be supportive of Jewish students, their presence has only served to polarize the campus.
Goldin said the letter, which has been widely shared, has generated support and attention from the Jewish community around the world, although the university has had no comment.
“Most of us did not choose to be political activists,” reads the letter. “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.”
As part of that identity the student signatories said, “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.”
The letter cites Jewish texts speaking of the community’s connection to its ancestral homeland and the role Zionism continues to play for a people who have been kicked out of, and demonized in, countries throughout Europe and the Arab world.
“We were raised on stories from our grandparents of concentration camps, gas chambers, and ethnic cleansing,” it reads, while noting Hitler thought Jews “were not European enough,” resulting in 6 million murdered Jews.
“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,’” and the letter said Jews on campus have been told such things as “they are the oppressors of brown people, the Holocaust wasn’t special,” and have heard chants of “we don’t want no Zionists here, death to the Zionist state” and “go back to Poland.”
“We are targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist,” it reads. “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.”
The letter goes on to recount Israel’s status as the Middle East’s only democracy and notes its religious and ethnic diversity.
It also expresses disappointment with students and faculty who have physically blocked Jewish students from entering campus spaces.
“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,” the letter hopefully concludes. “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.”
Goldin said while the last few months have been terrible, Jewish students have been able to weather the storm and get through the difficulties by sticking together and keeping lines of communication open with each other through group chats and other means, which she found empowering. She, in particular, praised the campus Hillel for its support.
She said the antisemitic chanting, class disruptions and general sense of unease have mostly disappeared with the end of the school year, adding, “I just want to get back to a normal school.”
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
