When Rutgers University sophomore Joe Gindi was recently asked to be one of nine students from colleges and universities across the country to testify about campus antisemitism at a Congressional hearing he delivered a blunt message: “I am here today because Jew hatred has become rampant at Rutgers University.
“I didn’t come to college to study in a living laboratory of antisemitism, which is what Rutgers has become,” he told the hearing. “Jews at Rutgers are afraid. We feel like we’ve lost all support lines and don’t know where to go.”
Gindi is a Brooklyn native but has been shouted down on the New Brunswick campus for being a “European colonizer” even though he is of Syrian ancestry and none of his ancestors have ever lived in any place but the Middle East.
“It comes from a place of both ignorance and genuine hatred,” he said in a phone interview. “I came to Rutgers to study but have been forced to deal with this.”
The hearing was held by the House Committee on Education and the Workforce under the leadership of Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and also involved student representatives from Stanford, Harvard, Columbia and Tulane universities; University of Pennsylvania; Massachusetts Institute of Technology; University of California Berkeley; and Cooper Union in New York City.
“It has become clear that some members of the school’s administration and faculty are complicit in allowing and even encouraging this hate to grow,” Gindi told the committee, adding he hoped his remarks would be a starting point in allowing Jewish students to feel safe and welcome and “not harassed, threatened and invisible.”
Gindi has been involved in Jewish life on campus and is active in Hillel and Chabad. He is also a CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting) on-campus fellow on the events track, hosting events through Rutgers that give a more accurate image of Israel and the Israel-Arab conflict. Gindi attended the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School and is majoring in economics and minoring in Jewish studies, history and Arabic, the latter so he can study classic Jewish texts from scholars such as Maimonides, some of which were written in Arabic, as well as those in Hebrew.
He is a research assistant in the university’s department of Jewish studies and was appointed to an advisory council, formed by Rutgers-New Brunswick Chancellor Dr. Francine Conway to address issues of antisemitism, and has helped initiate a roundtable dialogue between Muslim Palestinian and Jewish students that has shown some success.
Gindi, who plans to go to law school, already has experience in interacting with political leaders having served as a legislative affairs intern in the office of Gov. Phil Murphy.
At the hearing he shared several examples of events that have taken place on campus, including a November incident in which Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) “stormed” the College Avenue Student Center on the main campus and took it over. Gindi said he was standing outside during the incident and was called a “murderer” while others screamed at him, “We don’t want Zionists here.”
Although horrified as he watched students flee the center, he said what shocked him most was that campus police, at the direction of the school administration, did nothing to stop the takeover.
Later that month SJP overran the business school disrupting classes and making Jewish students afraid to enter the building while other Jewish students were afraid to leave classes. Gindi said faculty members reported “being terrified of this mob.”
He accused Rutgers administrators of facilitating the disruption by “literally opening the door for agitators to enter the building.”
At another rally Gindi said a Rutgers program coordinator screamed a profanity laced tirade at Jewish students while calling them colonizers and Zionists. He said actions such as this deny Jewish students equal access to campus resources and makes students feel unsafe about reaching out for help.
Gindi noted, like at many other campuses, there seemed to be “selective enforcement” of campus codes of conduct and rules when it comes to Jewish students.
SJP was suspended by Rutgers because of the building incidents and Jewish students being targeted with hateful speech by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. It has since been reinstated for a one-year probationary period.
The federal Department of Education is also investigating Rutgers for a Title VI violation of the Civil Rights Act for alleged failure to protect Jewish students from harassment. In response Conway, the chancellor, also has initiated a number of other strategies to be implemented, including establishing a task force on faculty, student and staff codes of conduct, reviewing and updating current policies and procedures, and defining Islamophobia and antisemitism for the university community. Rutgers has both one of the largest Jewish and Muslim student bodies in the nation.
During the phone interview Gindi praised both Conway and Rutgers President Dr. Jonathan Holloway for having an open ear to the concerns of Jewish students. Holloway has continued his practice of coming to some Shabbat dinners at Hillel and engaging with students, has been vocal about the hate on campus, and has spoken out about the atrocities of Oct. 7.
“So many administrators want to make Rutgers a better place but the problem is for every administrator who wants to help there are more that don’t,” said Gindi. “It is deeply embedded in the Rutgers infrastructure. They are very slow to take action at Rutgers. By the time one issue is resolved another two have popped up.”
Yet, Gindi sees many positives at the university. His non-Jewish friends have been very supportive and he believes Rutgers is “in a much better position than most universities,” especially after hearing about the situation at their schools from other students who testified about their campuses.
“Rutgers has an administration that wants to fix the problems,” he said. “I credit President Holloway because he was vocal after Oct. 7 calling out the problems we’re dealing with. The advisory council will hopefully make Rutgers a more welcoming place for Jews. I’m very optimistic that Rutgers is in a very good place compared to other universities. It has the people in place and the desire to make it a better place.”
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.
