On Wednesday night, December 18, the Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld Adult Education Center of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, featured a vital virtual talk on the problem of anti-Semitism at Yale University and across the country on college campuses.
Rabbi Stuart Verstandig, former president of the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills, welcomed everyone. He shared that Rabbi Fabian Schonfeld zt”l was the Rabbi of YIKGH for over six decades, and his fourth yahrzeit is the third day of Chanukah. He welcomed Rabbi Yoel Schonfeld, Rabbi Emeritus of the Young Israel and President of the Coalition for Jewish Values. He also welcomed the current Rav of the shul, Rabbi Daniel Rosenfelt.
The first speaker was Rabbi Dr. Moshe Goldfeder, Esq., who is the CEO and Director of the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Inc. Previously, he served as the founding Editor of the Cambridge University Press Series on Law and Judaism, a Trustee of the Center for Israel Education, and as an adviser to the Permanent Mission of Israel to the United Nations. The community was honored to have him speak.
Rabbi Goldfeder shared that there are five steps the Federal Government should do legally to counter anti-Semitism. He elaborated on each one and how the government has not followed through on these five points. He said that he is hopeful with the shift in the Executive Branch of the Federal Government that these points will be executed properly and stop all this anti-Semitism on college campuses and beyond.
One area he spoke about was that the Department of Justice and the Department of Education have an obligation to uphold limits and rules within free speech when it is unlawful and leads to hate and violence. Schools must ensure that everyone is protected. University officials should not allow SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) at NYU. The university has an obligation to make sure all students have a safe environment to learn. He quoted various laws, including Title 6, which says that institutions that take federal funds are required to ensure that all students are safe. He acknowledged that Jewish students and professors are afraid to go to class. The government and the administration of the universities have not enforced this law. It’s also a crime for student groups or universities to provide funding to terrorist groups. Again, this law has not been enforced.
Higher education is obligated to disclose foreign gifts. Again, this has not been enforced. Institutions that accepted undocumented funds had more anti-Semitic incidents. The Department of Justice and the Department of Education need to enforce these laws and to expose and break the network of groups of anti-Semitic organizations. He said that an example of this is the Ku Klux Klan Act. Going over the entire infrastructure will uncover funding sources and expose the organized groups. These groups are anti-Jewish and anti-American.
Rabbi Verstandig noted there have been 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents in the United States since October 7, 2023. This is the highest ever amount recorded since the ADL began tracking them in 1979. There were 1,400 incidents on campuses across the nation. Jewish students and professors have been harassed and attacked, mezuzos were torn down on campuses, and the unimaginable happened. There were physical assaults, building take-overs, vandalism, anti-Israel slogans, and encampments. The protestors now target university administrators at their homes and commit vandalism there. Rabbi Verstandig shared that we are witnessing a campaign of hatred and violence threatening the safety and well-being of Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
Following this, Sahar Tartak, a junior at Yale University and a leader at Chabad at Yale University, spoke. She is a strong advocate for Jewish students, and she wrote about the situation in The Wall Street Journal and testified in Congress. Sahar is a native of Great Neck’s Persian Orthodox Jewish community. She shared how, before October 7 last year, life at Yale was so different. When she applied to Yale, she wrote in her application essay that she looked forward to dialogue and debate. Her grandfather is a Holocaust survivor, and her mother escaped Iran. She grew up treasuring the freedom of living in America. It has always been very important to her. At Yale she first had a diversity of friends, and she enjoyed the fascinating experience of dialogue with them.
After October 7 last year, she saw the unexpected. Student groups were celebrating resistance and success. “Students I knew and had classes with were celebrating the atrocities.
“I had friends in the IDF.” She said there were hundreds of students who said resistance is justified against Israel’s “occupation.” This wasn’t just coming from the student body. Professors wrote that it was an exhilarating day. The university didn’t condemn this or the actions of her peers.
The school failed to provide moral clarity.
Sahar hosted a Shabbos dinner to show solidarity and to mourn the victims of October 7. A university administrator told her this was abusing her platform, and that she was supposed to remain neutral. “I was shocked,” she said.
This all happened during the month of October 2023. She used her writing skills to write in the Yale Daily News. She wrote an article condemning the Yalies4Palestine group, which is a group equivalent to SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine). She wrote in her article that if you are celebrating the atrocities of October 7, then of course you are a hate group. The response she received from students was, “What right do you have to call someone else a hate group.”
The Yale Daily News censored her article and took out references to Hamas beheading and killing Jews.
She emphasized, “At every level in Yale, there is a lack of respect for Jewish life and death!”
She then shared how Yalies4Palestine escalated on campus. They engaged in a turf war. They said if you aren’t in my mob, then you aren’t welcomed here. They gradually took over the Yale campus, culminating in an encampment.
During the spring semester, they took hundred-dollar bills and covered them in blood and launched them onto Jewish students who were eating in the dining room. When she filed a complaint about this, the university said that is political free speech.
She noted how Yale historically stood up for the war against Ukraine, for BLM, and other causes. Yet, students blowing bloodied money they said is just littering and that they can’t do anything about it.
The university refused to enforce their policies and said they didn’t want to escalate the student protestors. This policy is the opposite of what had to be done to stop a mob. The university cowed to the mob. Those students were emboldened, so they set up an encampment on campus because they knew they could get away with it. They put up flags and occupied space after space so there were multiple encampments. Hundreds attended with slogans like “River to the Sea” and “Palestine will be Arab.” They don’t believe that Jewish students have a right to life. They accused Jews of drinking blood.
“They encamped for multiple days, and they had a paramilitary force wearing yellow vests. If Jewish students tried to walk through the quad, groups in yellow vests would follow us and mob us.” She described how she was surrounded and followed by 500 students all calling for Jewish death and taunting her.
Someone wearing a keffiyeh hit her in the eye with a Palestinian flag.
She went to the campus police and told them it had gotten violent. Their response was that they only take orders from the administrators and that they didn’t have enough police to help.
She was very public about what happened. Friends were embarrassed to be associated with me. “My peers think I deserve violence and death. The only safe place on campus is the Chabad House.”
Sahar shared that she knows so many Jewish students who feel ashamed. They can’t stand up for Israel in front of their peers.
The BDS was passed with approval from 80 percent of the students at Yale. The Hillel didn’t protest the BDS and that is wrong.
“We as Jews haven’t combated it. As I said, the administration doesn’t exhibit moral clarity!”
She said that we as Jews have to be proud of being Jews. We have to be unapologetic. Jewish students need to understand the privilege and right of being Jewish. “We have to be proud of ourselves!”
There needs to be a cultural change for all students. A lot of students disliked the encampments, but they didn’t say anything. We can bring those normal groups out of the woodwork.
When asked what she would say to students who want to attend Yale, she responded they need to have a very strong Jewish identity and strong will to fight all this.
The community thanks Rebecca Wittert for coordinating this event and the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills for this very important and informative program.
By Susie Garber