Editor’s Note: The following letter was forwarded to San Diego Jewish World by Karen Parry, executive director of Hillel of San Diego.
Dear UC San Diego Administration and Community,
This is going to be a long letter, because it has been a long and painful seven months for us.
Last week, Jews around the world lit memorial candles honoring the lives of the more than six million Jews who were deliberately massacred in the Holocaust simply for the sake of their Jewish identity. Before the mass genocide, antisemitism was commonplace in Europe for centuries.
Today at UC San Diego, that same Jew-hatred is normalized and is even ignorantly
characterized as “peaceful.” We ask you to hear our pleas and acknowledge that what we’re
experiencing is blatantly antisemitic. “Never again” means nothing if you continue to turn a blind eye to the hateful and genocidal rhetoric that your Jewish students are assaulted with on a daily basis at this university. Why is such Jew-hatred acceptable and normalized in a way that no other form of hate or racism would be tolerated on campus? Why is it that others feel that they can define antisemitism for us? Who else would be expected to abdicate their own truth, history, and lived experiences?
We chose to attend UC San Diego for its reputation of inspiring social and political movements and fostering intellectually stimulating debates based on freedom of speech, however this cannot include incitement to violence. As students, we have a right to an education free of hatred and harassment. We have a right to attend classes without feeling like we have to hide our identity for a good grade. We have a right to exist openly and proudly as Jews at UC San Diego.
Since the October 7th massacre by Hamas, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, anti-Jewish sentiment on college campuses has surged, As Jewish students, our lives on campus have been endangered in every possible way, including, but not limited to:
— Jewish students have had to move out of residence halls after being harassed by their
suitemates, making them no longer safe in their own home.
— Jewish students have had to drop courses because of discrimination in the classroom
where professors touted biased and faculty-violating political beliefs.
— Jewish students have been – and continue to be – unable to speak out in class because
of fear of how it’ll impact our grades.
— Jewish students have had to take alternate routes to try to get around campus safely or
arrange for police escort.
— Jewish students have not been able to exercise or enjoy the UC San Diego Principles of
Community promised to us by the university when we accepted our invitations to enroll.
This atmosphere of fear is exacerbated by the prejudicial actions of professors, teaching
assistants, and academic departments, along with the student government, who have promoted revisionist and false history to promote an agenda that demonizes both the Jewish people and the State of Israel.
Following the October 7th terrorist attack in Israel, we reached out to fellow student
organizations to come out with a joint statement to proactively condemn all forms of bigotry on both sides, including antisemitism and Islamophobia, in an attempt to inspire civility on campus. Our request was ignored.
Then, after being called “murderers” at the November 29th Associated Students (AS) meeting, UC San Diego administration recommended we have a professionally mediated conversation. Again, it was rejected by these organizations.
Our AS has continuously displayed systemic bias and spread misinformation through BDS
resolutions, creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students, and double standards in policy and procedure applications. We were forced to justify our needs and rights to secure funding for Peace in Israel week, including the request for security, after discriminatory comments targeting Israel were made by members of AS.
Attempts to even have a discussion about what Zionism means — the Jewish people’s right to
self-determination in our ancestral homeland — and its role in Judaism, have been repeatedly
rejected. For the vast majority of Jews, Judaism cannot be separated from Zionism. The two are inextricably linked. Since our exile more than two thousand years ago, we have prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, and our prayers, culture, and holidays are filled with references to Israel, Jerusalem, Zion, and our desire to return to our ancestral homeland. Which means that to 90% of Jews worldwide, including most of the Jewish students at UC San Diego, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.
For months, our Jewish voices have been silenced and this vile hatred grew to new heights with the establishment of an illegal encampment on May 1st that violated the policies and
procedures and rights of all of the other students.
To be clear, any claim that those “protests” were peaceful could not be farther from the
truth. At the encampment, Jewish students were incessantly harassed and vilified, with
innumerable cases of antisemitism and calls for violence.
Here are just a few of the many examples:
–Stickers around the encampment showed an image of a bank blown-up with the words “hit them where it hurts.” SJP is already guilty of making claims that Jews control the banks and media at an AS meeting, and this sticker further perpetuates the age-old libel of the Jewish people controlling the banks. If this movement was not about Jew-hatred, would this sticker be posted?
–Another sticker depicted women with rifles in hand along with the phrase “resistance for a free Palestine.” Is glorifying gun violence in the name of “resistance” a symbol of peace?
–An identifiably Jewish student was told: “murder the Jews” next to the encampment. Does the targeting and intimidating of a student under threat of mob violence sound peaceful?
–Brochures were handed out with an image of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad Al Quds terrorist, and the encampment openly displayed chants and phrases such as “Glory to the martyrs,” “We don’t want two states, we want ‘48,” “Death to America,” and “End Israel.” Are
these clear endorsements of violence calling for the destruction of America and Israel peaceful?
–An image of Aaron Bushnell on fire was depicted in chalk outside of the encampment. This is a glorification of extreme violence and a praise of self-immolation, encouraging students to disregard their own safety and mental health in the name of the group’s cause. Is that peaceful?
–Genocidal chants like: “there is only one solution – intifada revolution,” “we are the intifada,” and “globalize the intifada” reference the years of ongoing terror attacks blowing up innocent civilians in cafes, busses, and at parties, as well as Jewish students at a university during finals week. Calling for the death of innocent Jews because of their heritage is undoubtedly antisemitic, no matter your opinion on the ongoing war. Is preaching the murder of your fellow students peaceful?
–The chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” was heard from the
encampment and throughout the past seven months, as well as seen on sidewalk chalk, on stickers, and in pamphlets. In April, congress passed a bipartisan resolution condemning the chant as antisemitic. How does our government condemn this yet our own university will not?
To believe that this illegal protest was peaceful is incredibly ignorant and naive and is
gaslighting Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students.
At the encampment, the police told Jewish students to avoid the area and only travel in
groups for our safety. If any student is told they cannot enter a space safely or need to travel
in groups for their own security, there is something wrong on campus that the university must address- not just for the Jewish students, but for all students.
Our tuition money should not go toward funding rides for arrested students who openly call for violence and genocide against the Jewish people. Our tuition money should not go toward
funding a student government that refuses to listen to and acknowledge our voices. Our tuition money should not go toward an institution that neglects us, isolates us, and fails to
protect us.
The last seven months on campus have been filled with harassment and discrimination for Jews at UC San Diego, and we have unfortunately learned the extent to which our classmates and professors are brazen in their Jew-hatred.
We call on the university to:
1) adopt and enforce the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working
definition of antisemitism and recognize Israel’s essential role in the Jewish religion,
culture, and identity;
2) increase education about antisemitism and all it encompasses, including anti-Zionism;
3) enforce all of its policies, procedures, and student rights and responsibilities equally
without any double standards in application and accountability;
4) unequivocally condemn and take disciplinary action — which may extend to expulsion
when necessary — against any students or university employees, who call for or commit
acts of harassment, violence, and genocide against Jewish students, the Jewish people,
and Israel.
Sincerely,
Triton Jewish Leaders
Hillel of San Diego
Chabad Jewish Student Group
Tritons for Israel
Alpha Epsilon Phi
Alpha Epsilon Pi
JHealth
IAC Mishelanu