At Cornell University (my alma mater), Henry Schechter, a Jewish student, writing in the Cornell Daily Sun, describes how “I couldn’t do anything but applaud” when the call to genocide, Gaza will be free from the river to the sea, drowned out his class.
His complaint? He objects to their tactics. “Breaking the law and spray-painting profanity on sidewalks doesn’t advance your cause.” In other words, supporting barbarism is okay, but you need better public relations. The message Zionism=Genocide on Campus Road on October 25th is okay, but it should be held on a sign, not painted or chalked on the sidewalk.
“Gonna shoot up 104 West”
Shechter’s column is dated October 30th. Just a few days earlier, on Oct. 28 and Oct. 29, a Cornell student wrote a series of posts threatening rape, murder, and beheadings at the University’s kosher dining hall and the Center for Jewish Living (CJL). Both are located at 104 West.
How would you hope that a proud Jewish student would react?
What would you hope would be an appropriate response from a student such as Shechter, who describes himself as a “proud Jewish American”? Perhaps camp out at the CJL or eat all his meals at the kosher dining hall? To attend a class at the campus Hillel? Nope, it was to applaud the pro-Hamas demonstrations.
It wasn’t just to applaud. He was left with no choice and no agency. “I couldn’t do anything but applaud.”
Where did this “proud” Jewish student go off the rails?
His old friend Sal, a Texan with a Palestinian grandfather, taught him to see “the errors in my own modes of thought that used to border on Zionism.”
Sal, we read, gets extra security screening from the TSA. His parents’ shoes are checked for explosives by Israeli security. Somehow, in Shechter’s mind, it all makes sense. Kidnapping babies from Israel is okay. Not spending your money on desalination or sewage treatment so that you can build rockets and terror makes perfect sense.
How will your kids respond when they encounter Students For Pogroms?
When your kids go off to high school and college, will they be equipped to deal with Hamas supporters calling for Genocide in front of the student union? The Cornell history professor who was exhilarated by the mass murder on October 7th? How will they respond in a class with one of the 130 faculty members at Columbia University who signed an open letter describing the massacre, kidnapping, rape, and mutilation of Jews on October 7 as a “military action.”
You have agency
The investments that you make today in terms of Jewish literacy, Jewish education, Jewish pride, Israel visits, Jewish summer camp, youth groups, and knowledge will empower your kids to resist the prevailing orthodoxy on campus. The time to act is now.
Katriel Reichman
Working hard to match clients and therapists (therapyeverywhere.com, psychologyeverywhere.com), and enthusiastic advocate for nuanced thinking.
