By Donald H. Harrison
SAN DIEGO –Jewish students at three local universities plan to commemorate Oct. 7th on their campuses and, meanwhile, Hillel of San Diego is advertising a new position for a community relations director to spearhead such student activities as well as to interface with faculties and community supporters.
This was announced Wednesday evening, Sept. 18, in a Zoom presentation involving student activists from San Diego State University (SDSU), University of California-San Diego (UCSD), and the University of San Diego (USD).
Karen Parry, executive director of Hillel of San Diego, said pro-Israel vigils and demonstrations would occur on these campuses notwithstanding a “Week of Rage” announced by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and other anti-Israel groups that will commence Monday, Oct. 7, and continue through Yom Kippur on Saturday, Oct. 12.
Although Students for Justice for Palestine had been suspended from the UCSD campus in punishment for its activities last semester, SJP “can get around being under cease and desist like having other partner orgs rent the space instead,” Parry said.
Nophar Shalom, co-president of Tritons for Israel at UCSD, commented that space on campus have been already booked by other groups for Oct 7, “but through Hillel we plan to do education on campus that day, as well as having a self-care day either on the 7th or the 8th, which we really appreciate as it is a lot to handle.”
“Through Tritons for Israel and with the help of Hillel, we are also organizing a vigil on campus in the Free Speech area … to honor those who lost their lives on that day and those who are still being held hostage,” Shalom continued. “Right after our vigil we are taking a bus ordered by Hillel to the [Lawrence Family] JCC in order to participate in the community-wide vigil.”
Maya Gerassi, a vice president for special events for Students Supporting Israel at SDSU, said her group’s plan for Oct. 7 “is a memorial smack dab in the middle of campus. No one can’t see it. We are going to have all our Jewish organizations to work through Hillel.”
Materials will be set out on tables dealing with 1) sexual assault that Hamas invaders inflicted upon Israeli women on Oct 7; 2) the Nova Festival at which hundreds of dancers were slaughtered in the massacre; 3) the diversity of the victims; and 4) the hostages who were taken into Gaza by Hamas.
Then, to top off the event, SDSU President Adela de la Torre has been invited and may speak at the event, “which I think is going to be really powerful because students will be able to see the president of their school, whom they don’t see often, actually say words of kindness and support from SDSU,” Gerassi said. “And then we are going to bus them over to the JCC.”
Jed Edelstein, president of the Hillel chapter at USD, a private, Catholic-run university, commented that “we’ve had support from the faculty and administrators here. … We’re planning on having a more simple tabling right in the middle of campus, just to make our presence known so that we can show that we’re Jewish, that we’re here, and that we should not forget the atrocities that were committed.”
Edelstein said Jewish students and non-Jewish students have expressed support for Israel during other campus events. “Just the other day, we had our club fair, and we had a large table for Hillel, a massive Israeli flag, and we had plenty of [Jewish and non-Jewish] students come to us and say, ‘We support you guys; we’re here for you.’ It is that support from people that I’d never met before, people that I’ve never seen, that gives me an optimism that we’re moving forward, and that Jews will always have a place.”
Shalom said similarly at UCSD there is an event at the end of the year that “is a wonderful opportunity to share with the Jewish and non-Jewish students on campus.” The event is called ‘The Shuk’ which is practically a showcase of all the tapestry of Jewish culture,” she said. “We have different booths representing every single type of Jewish person, with different foods, cultures and traditions … Overall, it is just demonstrating and advocating for the diversity of the Jewish community and how we are all connected to Israel.”
At SDSU, Gerassi said, she derives hopes from “the entire environment at Hillel … We all come together and we share our ideas. We are loud and passionate. In the end, I know that everything that everyone has to say is because they love Israel, and they are going to keep fighting for Israel, for Hillel, for supporting the Israel club, to keep standing on their two feet…”
Parry said Hillel of San Diego’s new community relations director will be a pilot project for the national Hillel organization; if the position is successful here, similar positions may be implemented throughout the Hillel system. Information about the position along with an application may be accessed by clicking here.
The job has a variety of responsibilities, Parry said. “The first is going to be working with faculty and engaging faculty … giving them a space to build community, but also connecting them directly with students.”
Second, the community relations director will “help in building out opportunities for the community to engage in meaningful ways and impactful ways,” Parry said.
Third, the person hired, will also be involved in “our antisemitic incident response tracking and management of the process, so when someone reports… an incident.. [the community relations director will make sure that] it comes to an appropriate resolution.”
Fourth, the community relations director, will work with students on civic engagement, “teaching them how to be leaders and how to engage in student government, if they are interested; in club leadership, in non-Jewish spaces as leaders, and then empowering non-Jewish student leaders to engage and be anti-hate,” Parry said. “Not necessarily focusing on having pro-Israel leaders everywhere but … bringing civility back to the campuses.”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.