I am filled with awe and admiration for the students in the CUNY schools who are on the front lines taking the full brunt of the onslaught of the systemic antisemitism of CUNY campuses, and also some of their courageous faculty, and are bravely fighting back. (“CUNY Slammed for Antisemitism,” July 7, 2022). In my day, the New York City colleges like CCNY were the go-to colleges for Jewish students of lower income, mostly immigrant families, who aspired to, and in so many cases attained, very successful careers. Today these universities are hotbeds of antisemitism, woke agendas and cancel culture.

On the other hand, I am filled with outrage at the general Jewish population, especially the major Jewish organizations, and other “liberal” organizations who are supposed to be defending the victims of discrimination, but instead lead from behind in these fights, when they should be out front leading the charge. They protest and issue proclamations while safely behind their desks in the rear, just as they did after student and faculty harassment, or worse, during antisemitic incidents at Rutgers, Princeton, Harvard, Columbia, Penn, Georgetown and Berkeley, among so many other schools.

The bulk of the Jewish populations and organizations are generally silent or invisible, and in many cases, through the intersectionality network, actually cooperate in their woke agendas with the very organizations that are harassing the students and faculty on campus. Meanwhile, the students and faculty on campuses are left alone to bear the brunt of assaults by better funded, better coached and more aggressive adversaries.

Jews are often referred to as “people of the book.” Unfortunately, today the “book” is being increasingly taught at all levels of education, from elementary through graduate schools, by both faculty and “fellow” students, along with antisemitic and anti-Israel propaganda and harassment, while receiving little help or support from the greater Jewish community and organizations. This does not bode well for the future generations of our Jewish children.

“Im Ain Ani Li, Mi Li”