Jewish Students Fear for Safety as Antisemitic Protests Sweep Universities from Columbia to Yale

Anti-Israel protests sweeping American universities reached a fever pitch Monday as Jewish people prepared to celebrate the start of Passover. Dozens of arrests were made at Yale and NYU, Columbia canceled in-person classes, and pro-Palestinian encampments are sprouting up on college campuses as Jewish students fear for their safety.  

Columbia University students have taken over the campus to protest Israel and support Gaza. (Photo by: Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/IPx 4/20/24)

Just outside Columbia’s campus, a disturbing video laced with expletives shows Jewish students enduring threats with calls to “go back to Poland” where the Holocaust took place, as the students tell each other they’re scared and ask where the police are.

And a shocking photo posted on X shows a demonstrator standing in front of pro-Israel students while holding a sign with an arrow that reads “Al-Qasam’s next targets.” Al-Qassam is the military wing of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

Photo posted to X by Alan Malki, M.D.

A Jewish professor who was trying to take a group of pro-Israel protestors to the same part of campus as the pro-Palestinian demonstrators reportedly had his badge deactivated and was denied entry to the campus while school officials look on.

“I am a professor here, I have every right to be everywhere on campus,” said Shai Davidai, assistant professor at Columbia Business School. “You cannot let people who support Hamas on campus and me, a professor, not go on campus. let me in now.”

“MY card has been deactivated? Why?” – Shai Davidai, Pro-Israel professor at Columbia attempted to swipe his card to go inside the ‘Liberated Zone’ encampment with his supporters.

Video by @yyeeaahhhboiii2 [email protected] to license pic.twitter.com/Poyt1JekGP

— Oliya Scootercaster (@ScooterCasterNY) April 22, 2024

With demonstrations growing more radical, Jewish students are fearing for their safety, leading one rabbi to tell students to stay away because the school can’t protect them.

“I was there today and it made me physically sick hearing the things they were saying and doing,” one Jewish Columbia University student told a reporter. “So, over this holiday I kind of just want to try to avoid it as best as I can for my own safety.”

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On Monday, the school went to online classes only as New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) came to see the situation firsthand.

“Students are scared, they’re afraid to walk on campus, they don’t deserve that,” said Hochul. “I’ve never seen a level of protest that is so person to person, that is so visceral. And I’m calling on everyone, people need to find their humanity, have the conversations, talk to each other.”

The protests, however, are rapidly spreading to other schools in the Northeast.

“It felt like a page out of a dystopian novel.”

Jewish Columbia student Jessica Schwalb and her friends were surrounded by pro-Palestine protesters at the Gaza encampment last night. pic.twitter.com/gysFbbw52v

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) April 23, 2024

On Monday night at NYU, police clashed with protestors while making arrests as they tore down a pro-Palestinian tent encampment.

At Yale, police arrested 45 students for trespassing as their peers celebrated them as heroes.

Pro-Palestinian students at MIT have declared part of their campus a “liberated zone.” 

At Harvard, officials shut down Harvard Yard until Friday to prevent similar protests.

The University restricted access to Harvard Yard until Friday in apparent anticipation of student protests, amid a wave of high-profile pro-Palestine demonstrations at universities across the country including.@mnamponsah and @joycekim324 report.

— The Harvard Crimson (@thecrimson) April 22, 2024

Rabbi Moshe Hauer from the Orthodox Union told CBN News this needs to be stopped.
 
“The reaction is simply horror,” said Hauer. “It’s been happening in one place after the other at different degrees, and if it’s not addressed properly and efficiently, it will continue to grow.”

“If they’re doing things which break the law, they should have consequences as defined by the law, but they must have consequences,” continued Hauer. “The answer can’t be, ‘We spoke to them.'” 
 
President Biden condemned the antisemitic protests Monday while also condemning those he says don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.