'In our name': The strong message from hundreds of Jewish Columbia students to antisemitic protesters

Hundreds of Jewish students at Columbia University published an open letter to their peers ho have been participating in antisemitic protests at the academic institution.

In the letter, the students state that while they are grateful to those who have expressed support for Jewish students at the university, they feel it is necessary 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," the students note. And they stress that "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." However, they make it clear that the demonization they are subjected to by anti-Semitic protesters has "forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities."

The students also respond to those who attempt to remove blame by differentiating antisemitism from anti-Zionism. "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," they say in the letter.

"Our religious texts are replete with references to Israel, Zion, and Jerusalem," the students continue. "The Land of Israel is full of archaeological remains of a Jewish presence spanning centuries. Yet, despite having lived generations in exile and diaspora around the world, the Jewish people never stopped dreaming of returning to our homeland - Judea, the very place from which our name derives: Jews," they argue. And they stress that in fact, a few days ago, they all ended their Passover seders by saying, "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," the students say. And they stress that the recent experiences at Columbia "are a poignant reminder of just that," namely, the necessity of the existence of the State of Israel.

The students also compare the antisemitism expressed by the unusual alliance between Islamists and progressives at the university to Nazism. "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," they argue. They add: "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," they say, noting that the Jewish people have been and continue to be used as a scapegoat, as those responsible for the social evil of a given era. And they provide some examples of the persecutions suffered by Jews throughout history, highlighting the irrational, contradictory and inconsistent accusations against them. "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 they stress that today, "We face the accusation of being too European ... colonizers and oppressors," they say. "We are targeted by those who misuse the word Zionist as a sanitized slur for Jew," using the term as a synonym for racist, oppressor or genocidal. "We know all too well that antisemitism is shapeshifting," they assert in the letter.

The students also state that they are "proud of Israel" for being "the only democracy in the Middle East" and for the diversity, pluralism and freedom in which millions of people of different backgrounds, cultures and faiths can live. It "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."

In the letter, the students clarify that being proud of the Jewish state does not imply agreeing with all of Israel's policies. "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." They add, "We all come from a place of love and an aspiration for a better future for Israelis and Palestinians alike."

The students point out that the noisy demonstrators do not understand the meaning of Zionism or the essence of the Jewish people. They also add that despite having condemned the antisemitism they have been subjected to for months, their concerns "have been brushed off and invalidated," so they list some of the warnings they have been making while the authorities looked the other way.

The students recall the protests held against Israel days after the Oct. 7 massacre, "while our friends’ and families’ dead bodies were still warm"; the protester who held up a sign saying that Jewish students were Hamas' next targets; a leading activist who said publicly that "Zionists don't deserve to live"; students and professors blocking Jewish students from entering the campus; among other similar situations.

Through it all, the students assure that they will never stop defending themselves. "We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists," they state. And they conclude the letter with a call to the protesters to change their attitude to improve the situation at the institution: "We came to Columbia because we wanted to expand our minds and engage in complex conversations. hile 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."