Thank you Sasha and thanks to everyone for joining us today uh I I think it’s been one of the craziest weeks that I can certainly remember and we’re grateful to have so many of you who are here and who we know care so deeply about this we’re going to
Start our conversation with a panel about what we’re seeing on campus and what you can do about it and then later in the hour we’re going to be joined by Jonathan greenblat CEO of ADL and we will also have an opportunity for question and answer you can just pop
Those in the chat as you go and we are taking a look at them and making sure that we’re tracking them all and with that I’d like to introduce our panelists please welcome Columbia University assistant professor Shai David excuse me Shai davidai who has been a notable
Voice in speaking out about Israel and about Jewish student safety on campus we also have the president of Georgia Tech Hillel student Talia seagull Talia is also a member of the Hillel International Israel leadership Network and last but far from least least we have adl’s senior director for advocacy
My colleague senior director of advocacy Sher Goodman all right thank you all so much for being with us today so I think first and foremost we want to start with what it’s feeling like on campus so with that you know Shai Talia I think you are going to be
Best positioned to answer those questions tell us a little tell why don’t you start tell us a little bit about what your experience has been like on campus if there’s been a change since October 7th and maybe even what you’re hearing from other friends and uh around the country at
Schools definitely um first thank you for having me here I’m really honored um so Georgia Tech is an interesting place because it’s really historically apolitical students are more focused on stem than on politics um they’re really more worried about doing their computer science homework um but this growing
This minority of people who really care about politics um is is growing longer or louder and stronger um and frankly Jewish students are scared um you’ve seen I’m sure on the news incidents of vandalism um rallies on campus and we’ve had that here as well um our a pie house was vandalized
Um there was a rally on the main Green in the middle of Campus um where people were saying from The River To The Sea um there also like the Muslim Student Association is doing a bake sale um which is their way of helping um the Palestinian people but unfortunately
That’s accompanied by them handing out flyers that are egregiously misinformed um and frankly I think dangerous um so it’s definitely a difficult time yeah I’m sure it is I can’t quite imagine what it would be like to be in college right now Shai maybe you can
Tell us a little bit about what it feels like from the professorial side and also what you’re hearing from colleagues around the country so I’m sorry I’m this is heavy on me I wish I could talk with everyone oneon-one um honestly I can’t uh for the sole
Reason but since October 7th I’ve been on campus twice uh I was once on campus to attend a the Jewish students rally that was opposing the pramas uh protest on campus and then a week later uh at an anti- vigil which is where I spoke some words and the video
That has been sh been seen by people around the world um I’m I’m scared now you know am I scared for my own personal physical safety no I’m I’m a 40 year-old man I can take care of myself but I’m I’m scared I’m scared for the students who are experiencing
Anti-Semitism for maybe the first time in real life such blatantly so um I am scared pred for the Israeli students that have joined our school maybe two months ago from Israel and they now feel less safe in New York City than their families feel in Tel Aviv in
A war zone um I was planning to go to the office yesterday um and then I saw a letter signed by more than a 100 Columbia professors calling what we saw the massacre of October 7th as a contextualized military response and I I saw two people that uh whose
Offices are in my building uh that have signed on to that letter and all of a sudden I realized I could go into the office and stand in an elevator with someone who sees my kids life as Expendable as less valuable um as just Justified their their their targeting
And I decided not to go um so I have been working from home I’m still building up the courage to go to campus and um just face these people I’ve been face a lot of my colleagues who are amazing people but are right now being silent because they’re worried about
Offending someone and uh it’s been painful it really I mean like my my heart has been broken three times this past month on October 7th on uh October 12th when there was the proas rally on campus and yesterday morning when I saw the letter yeah yeah I can’t quite imagine
What that must have felt like I’m glad to hear that yes please you know it’s it’s you don’t think you’d experience these kind of things in 20 2023 right I you know uh for after October 7th every time I closed my eyes to fall asleep which I
Couldn’t I would see the image of one kidnapped baby kir vivis who’s still being held in Gaza but after I saw the protest on campus I no longer see that image the image that I see in M When I close my eyes is the image a famous
Image from the Holocaust of a Jewish kid going like this um which I think a lot of us know that image because I really do think that that’s that’s the logical conclusion of everything that’s happening right now that’s where the train is going and if we don’t stop this train or completely
Derail it we know where we’ll end up and some people might see it as being paranoid or hysterical but we have to remember history has taught us from the pograms to the Holocaust from the farhood to of Iraqi Jews from the inquis from the um the massacre of Jews in
Tripoli like we know how these things go it never ends with one program and that that’s my concern and a reasonable one so Talia shy walked us through a little bit about what his life is like right now um and specifically said that he does feel physically safe on campus which at least
Is is certainly something talk to us a little bit about how you’re feeling on campus and and what’s influencing that and maybe what you’re hearing from your friends at other schools yeah I do thankfully feel physically safe um I’m very lucky that the Georgia Tech police department has
Been working with us closely um in fact we had an event at the Jewish fraternity the other night um as like a memorial we did we read names um and the chief of police um attended the event and afterwards personally approached me to um introduce himself and say we’re here
We’re we want to make sure that you’re safe um and so I really appreciate how seriously our safety is being taken and I I do physically feel safe um but you know as as Shai said it’s these individual interactions that we’re having with people that are particularly
Challenging and that we feel betrayed by the people who have who are around us in our classes um I have a group project that I’m supposed to be working on with two girls who I saw attend the free Palestine rally um um and it’s difficult
You know I I can skip lecture I suppose but I’ll fall behind in class um so I don’t know if that fully answers the question but that’s kind of the feeling and thankfully I am physically safe I think may I jump in just one because I
Want to make so so first of all T I’m so grateful that that you feel safe but we have to remember one thing so long as we need even one police officer to protect us we’re not safe the fact that we need police officers outside of every Jewish fraternity outside of every synagogue
Outside of every hello the fact that you know that that we have increased police presence shows that we’re na safe right they are they are doing everything they can to protect us because the universities are not protecting us because the leadership of the universities is failing to do so so so
Don’t mistake our immediate sense of safety with Jews and Israelis on campus being safe because we’re not that is why the police is there so the causality has to be remembered it’s extremely well said Shai thank you for clarifying that point I think it’s a really good one and and
Talia I I love and you know you you did share this with me yesterday when we spoke but I just love that that police chief took you seriously and came up to you and and treated like you like the concerned adult that you are and and I
Think that speaks really well for your community um and hopefully the university will continue to take note of such things so I want to Pivot a little bit um and bring my colleague Shir into things Shira you know the question that everyone is asking what can I do what is
There for me to do what is ADL actually doing maybe you can shed some light on that for us sure and thank you for including me Talia and Shai thank you for being here and sharing with us so ADL and our campus Partners have been focused on improving campus climate and
Ensuring students are safe and feel safe as as T said and and Shai said it’s not just about being safe but feeling safe and there are many who unfortunately don’t feel safe right now students parents and alumni are communicating their needs and expectations and we need direct action by University leadership
And by our elected officials so ADL has been doing a few things over the course of the last few weeks and in fact our work on campus began before that so just before the October 7th attacks we had sent a letter to an open letter to campus asking universities to take nine
Actions to fulfill their obligations under the White House strategy to counter anti-Semitism we have continued to lift up that letter um and we are going to be putting that letter on our campus page of the ADL stand withth Israel website so you can share it with your universities that you’re affiliated with
As well as soon as as uh the attacks happened we reworked that letter and our regions in all 25 offices sent the letter to universities that they’re affiliated with explaining what was happening explaining that students would need support that the rhetoric that we were seeing that Shai has been talking
About is so dangerous and that universities can even and I saw some questions in the chat even in um a world where First Amendment and academic freedom principles are so highly prioritized can condemn those statements can distance themselves from those statements can make clear that those statements don’t stand for University
Values they also can make sure unfortunately as shy pointed out we need this that the demonstrations are safe and secure and that students are safe and secure and that when that rhetoric crosses that line from protected speech to action that they are taking action we’ve asked them to work with campus
Partners like hillow and kabad on campus to talk to the Jewish fraternities and sororities and see what they need we asked before this all happened for universities to create task forces with their Jewish students and Jewish faculty and alumni to deal with the climate on campus to work with hillo and their
Campus climate initiative and some universities we’re seeing are doing that now and we asked them to think about their obligations under title six of the civil rights law so just let me you know go into the legal stuff for one second Deb which is the title six does protect
Us and protect students um on campus prohibiting discrimination on race color national origin and not just for uh public universities but it’s for all activities are programs that receive federal assistance so that includes the financial aid program which means basically every University even if they’re not public and discrimination
Here can mean unwelcome conduct based on a student’s actual or perceived race color national origin ethnicity or ancestry and this includes country or world religion or where a person’s ancestors come from it includes harassment based on look or dress linked to ethnicity or An ancestry and the fact
That harassment involves speech does not relieve a university of the burden to respond speech can create a hostile environment universities have a burden to respond and the office of civil rights the Department of Education has complaints on this and takes complaints and not just students parents alone like
Others can file complaints and one of the things we’ve been talking about with the Department of Education is dealing with their backlog of complaints giv giving best practices to universities to address them looking at what’s happening auditing what’s happening and not just ADL and our volunteers who have been
Tremendous in reaching out but Congress has been doing this as well calling on Department of Education and college campuses to take action so last week the Senate passed up unanimously a bipartisan resolution thousands tens of thousands of folks um wrote to their Senators to ask them to do that and
We’ve just heard just before I signed on that the house is going to take up a similar measure tonight so I would ask and we’ll put this in the chat if you want to contact your US Representative to ask them to vote Yes on this simple thing to condemn Rising anti-Semitism on
Campus please text the word campus to 7257 two that’s the word campus to 7257 2 you’ll get a link which will if you click on it and then fill out the form we’ll connect do WR to your US Representative and we ask you to do this today because they’re going to vote
Tonight around six o’clock thank you for that I think we’re going to drop that in the chat for everyone in just a moment uh and for those who are asking yes we are absolutely recording this and it will be sent to you via email after we are completed here along with links to
Everything that we talk about so don’t worry we will make sure that you have everything that you need following this webinar so Shar those are some really great tactical things that ADL is doing and I know that there’s some other things too that we can get to in a
Minute um but I want to talk a little bit to Talia and Shai about what would make you personally you a student you a professor feel supported by the community in this moment Talia why don’t you go first sure I mean I know for a lot of us
The the worst part of this is just this feeling of helplessness that there’s not much that we can do to improve the situation um and and so I hope that I can give you something to do but it it’s difficult to to find really one thing um
I I think having platforms like this where student voices are elevated is incredibly valuable to us um you know we know our campuses best we know what we’re experiencing firsthand and so being able to like feel that our voices are valuable is is really something that I’m grateful for um secondly there are
Jewish organizations on campus like h and kabad which I really feel are supporting us um sort of on the front lines if you will um and you know not to sound like a walking advertisement for the two organizations but um they the really the work that they’re doing to
Support students right now is is invaluable um another thing to do which I I think maybe Shai is uh more equipped to talk about is holding Administration accountable um I’ve been lucky to have the um administration of Georgia Tech you know show up for us come to our Bago
Break events um and listen to us um and really make us feel like we’re supported but not every Administration is doing as good of a job at that um and so you know look at your Alma moer and see what they’ve done and and make sure that they are taking
Um uh you know the right approaches to support their students and the last thing I’ll say is that is not to underestimate the value of personal interactions with your family members and Friends um knowing that we have Community Support is really invaluable um today we actually had about 50 members of the
Atlanta Community come to Georgia Tech campus and just walk with us into the middle of Campus um and then walk to class with us um and this happened all across the state of Georgia at other campuses it was organized by Hills of Georgia um and so just like knowing that
The community support is there for us and that they see our pain and our struggle um you know it it’s really good to know that we have Community ah I I can only imagine how much community means in this moment when you’re physically on a campus so I I I
Want to address the elephant in the room Jonathan thank you so much for joining us we’re so glad you’re here are you calling me an elephant you know I I call him like I see him I’m very uncomfortable with that characterization sorry I’m sorry Jonathan I’m
Sorry I’m glad to see that I froze at the worst possible time you did it’s kind of funny I’m enjoying it yeah that’s great there go so first of all can I just say much I appreciated talia’s words a few minutes ago and what
A privilege it is for me to be on with Professor davidai from Columbia who’s like your that piece that you did and we could talk about Harry Potter later but like your your remarks were so strong and so needed I think I just really really appreciate you and your
Willingness to speak truth to power so thank you for that thank you so much and um you know I think aot video because wasn’t just I think your audio is unfortunately breaking up a little we’re having trouble hearing you supported being can you hear me I think we hear you
Now okay there we go I think we’re okay sorry I apologize um I don’t need to feel supported I don’t need the university to support me I I reject the premise of the question this is not about being supported it’s about being valued I just need them to
Value my life right now the fact with my own University and so many universities around the country have yet to condemn what Kamas did is a signal to everyone in the community that my life as an Israeli and as a Jew is just slightly less valuable than everyone else’s life
The fact that universities can you know can they can write however fancy emails that they want about battling anti-Semitism the fact that they’re allowing student organizations to to use you know to to to use power and and celebrate the Hamas to me that is the most egregious thing it’s not about
Being support I don’t need to be supported I have an amazing family that supports me I have an amazing community that supports me and in the last two weeks I’ve been getting thousands of emails from people probably some people here but have been extremely supportive I don’t need universities to support me
I don’t think they should support us they should just come out and say Jewish lives are as valuable as everyone else’s lives and right now we’re not saying that that is what that to me is is the is is the most urgent thing um so what
Does that mean in practice it means one naming the Kamas because the univers many of the University leaderships have yet to even use the word Kamas even though the Hamas terrorists have taken full ownership they are themselves saying that they did it yet for some reason Colombia University can’t bring
Itself to say it two once you condemn this the Kamas for the vile act that they did you know take concrete actions to remove any pro Terror organization from campus and you know and we should be clear there every student could you know should have the freedom to say and
Think whatever they want but as an organization that is getting space and is getting a platform and a microphone from the University we should say no this is where we draw the line um you know and I me mention Harry Potter Jonathan thank you for reminding me you
Know the reason why Harry Potter resonates with kids worldwide and it doesn’t matter who the kids are is because there’s pure good and there’s Pure Evil and it’s clearcut where Humanity you know there it’s where the the wizards but where we where we stand no kid reads Harry Potter and then says
Oo I wish I was you know on the side of slivering no kids and and yet for some reason when we see pure evil in front of us the leaders of universities in the in this country are unable to say that it’s pure evil and it’s again it it doesn’t
Feel like 2023 it feels like 1933 it feels like they are waiting for a Jewish student to be murdered on campus so that they can then denounce it and I’ve had enough I don’t I’m I’m not willing to wait for that I want to be proactive rather and reactive here um
That’s why we’re all here and I hope we don’t stop fighting for this you’re here shy and that’s why we are all here um Jonathan I know you have some prepared remarks so I’m going to invite our other panelists to turn off our cameras for the moment and then we’ll turn to Q&A
After you’ve been uh after you finished does that sound good to you sure I’m gonna try to be very brief and I’m not gonna like read my remarks but just speak generally to the issues so I think it’s clear that we are here today at a
Time and what what what CH just said is right if this feels like 20 not 2023 but 1933 that’s because statistically that’s where we seem to be 2022 was the highest number of anti-Semitic incidents ADL has ever tracked in almost 45 years and last year um was about
500% plus more anti-jewish acts of harassment vandalism and violence than we had seen in a decade and in that environment of elevated anti-Semitism October 7th happened and the numbers have skyrocketed almost 400% since the massacre and we’ve seen assaults in broad daylight we’ve seen synagogues desecrated we’ve seen
Cemeteries set on fire we’ve actually seen not just you know Jewish businesses vandalized like kosher restaurants and kosher supermarkets although that would be enough we’ve seen quote unquote Zionist businesses vandalized like a c a cafe in Monto that happens to be owned by Jews or a restaurant in uh San
Francisco that or bakery that happens to be owned by Jews and many stories like this um and then of course the harassment our college campuses is through the roof I mean uh uh and I not just the physical harassment many of you may have seen the students at Harvard
University yesterday who were who were observably Jewish me they Kazan and they were being confronted and assaulted intimidated and molested by um quote unquote Pro Palestinian students many of you saw what happened at the Cooper Union where again visibly Jewish students were barricaded for their own
Safety by the campus police in a locked room and the mob outside banged on the windows and yelled globalize the inata many of you probably heard about the uh student storm that was set on fire at Drax many of you are probably aware of the death threats targeting um Jewish
Students at Cornell University many of you are probably aware of the students uped that got cut from the Yale daily news without any explanation I mean I could go on and on and on with these stories and so then the question becomes well why is this happening I mean I
Think the pramas movement on our campus is so revolting it’s um look I think groups like students for justice in Palestine which celebrate which Elevate the murderers who Massacre Jewish babies and infants these people deserve nothing but our contempt and when they express support for acts of Terror when they
Enable their message to travel we think they’re in violation of the law the US code prohibits citizens and individuals providing material support for Terror organizations and so when they you know pair of the Hamas line when they support these individuals this terror group I think they’re breaking the law which is
Why ADL and the Brandy Center for human rights wrote a letter last week to 200 University presidents telling them that they need to open up investigations of the their chapters of students for justice in Palestine that’s why we did it we are going to keep doing it and I
Think even beyond that the co-opting of much of the quote Progressive left has been just astonishing these groups that we marched with that we’ve supported and by the way will continue to support where it makes sense um but to see like the black lives M some of these black
Lives matter chapters totally overrun by anti-Semitism and hatred it’s despicable um and so we’ll call it out and we’ll keep calling it out we’re not going to stop calling it out because we are going to try to change the narrative and make clear what we know to be true that
Anti-zionism is anti-Semitism and we’re going to make sure that every body understands that because I don’t need to even make the argument anymore this is the absolute reality so we’re taking action at the universities working with Hillel working with kabad on campus working with AEI and we will continue to
Do that um helping prepare our students helping strengthen our institutions we’re and helping to call out the hateful groups like SJP or Jewish voices for peace to maybe some people on the zoom today who uh may be involved with Jewish voices for peace may have family members involved with
Jewish voices for peace Jewish voices peace is an anti-zionist organization an anti- Zionism is anti-Semitism plain and simple can Jewish people you know Express anti-Semitism you better believe it just like just being uh of a of a person of color doesn’t exempt you from necessarily being racist or having
Prejudice feelings yourself so we think that’s a huge problem um off-campus and by the way we should talk not just what ADL is doing calling out the media whether it’s MSNBC or CNN or the New York Times or whomever calling out the campuses universities large and small
Yes adl’s still working with zbt as well as AI whether it’s um you know working with businesses we think businesses have a role to play too which is why we’ve launched the workplace pledge to make it easy for companies to stand with their Jewish students and how do you stand with your Jewish
Sorry your Jewish employees we now have over a hundred companies Google Accenture Omnicom J crew Madewell uh I’m missing Apollo New York Life dozens and dozens and dozens of companies in the pledge that make we want to make sure that if you have a Dei training at a
Company you include anti-Semitism and an anti-Semitism based on the IRA definition same thing by the way for you universities as we’ve proposed to pen and now pen is doing um secondly if you have Jewish employee resource groups you should cover those as well thirdly you should make sure if your Jewish
Employees need religious accommodations you offer them none of this is very hard but so what I would say to you if you’re watching this now and you want to know what ADL is doing with companies with universities with politicians with the media with big Tech we’re working all of
Those angles and of course our Center on extremisms identif tracking the threats monitoring the extremists and trying to save lives but if you want to know what you can do if you’re a donor like I said before close the checkbook if your Alma moer isn’t supporting Jewish
Students if you’re an employee or a manager or CEO I know what can you do join the workplace pledge or push your company to do that if you’re a voter you want to know who to support look at their policies and see how what they’re saying are not saying in this moment and
Vote vote the way don’t vote right or BL red or blue don’t vote right or left vote right versus wrong um so these are and by the way if you can’t do any of those things follow ad on social media follow other great organizations on social media you can
Post you can like you can retweet Etc and and finally you know like you can give money and don’t give to ADL give to the organizations in Israel that are fighting to save lives today give to the hospitals give to the medical clinics that are saving Israeli Jewish lives and
Israeli Arab lives get to those organizations doing amazing work to support uh the community in need I’m sure my fundraising people are going to go crazy as I don’t give to ADL but my point is that in this emergency like if you want to fight anti-m at home you can
Support us but if you want to help people in Israel there’s amazing organizations they’re listed on our website go find them work with them because God bless we need them we really do okay I sorry I talk so much Deb but I hope that sets us up for a good Q&A um I
Think it absolutely does oh there we go uh I think it absolutely does um before I bring everyone else back I have a couple of questions that have come in for you that have seemed to be uh pretty thematic to what we’re seeing in the
Chat which PS I’ve never seen a chat on one of these with so many questions uh I mean we have a big group today but that’s unbelievable Jonathan how can people respond when there are claims of Free Speech uh like that we com like that that’s the that’s why they allow
These people to say things is that it’s free speech like how do you combat those claims what do you say to that look fre like the ADL is is an organization that’s been fighting for the First Amendment for longer than anyone on this Zoom has been alive literally for 110
Years uh ADL is ferocious about fighting for freedom of expression but freedom of expression is not the freedom to incite violence against kids when you say when you say uh Palestine will be free from the river to the sea that isn’t a call for um I don’t know what you think it’s
Not a political slogan that’s a call for ethnic cleansing and it’s wrong it’s like telling an indigenous an indigenous person from America that you believe in Manifest Destiny and like you know I mean it’s wrong it’s hateful and it’s not okay so I think you know at the end
Of the day say I’m I’m all for freedom of speech but I’m not for supporting terrorism I’m not for in I by the way like I don’t believe in I mean it’s funny I’ve always said Deb as you know I don’t believe in safe spaces on campuses
Give me a break it’s College you need Brave spaces where everyone can have hard conversations and by the way hate speech folks hear me crystal clear hate speech is the price of free speech speech you detest speech you deeply disagree with we need it in a democracy we just
Do but you know what that’s different than demonizing people dehumanizing people and saying it’s okay to Slit their throats or to burn their dorm rooms or to rape their women or to murder their babies and so on and so forth so let’s just acknowledge that you have freedom of speech but you don’t
Have the freedom to slander you have the freedom to express an idea you don’t have the freedom to assault people and so that’s where we draw the line I mean it’s obviously a very important distinction thank you for that that was uh very direct into the point
And also rather eloquent if I may say so I’ll also thank you I’ll also let folks know that a variety of resources are available on our website I know that the stand withth Israel page has been dropped into the chat um and the regular Ado website as well that can help you
Talk about things like what to say when people talk about Israel is an apartheid state to say when people talk about genocide you know what to say like Jonathan just uh articulated for us when people ask about what about freedom of speech so I encourage you to take
Advantage of all of those resources which I believe will really be helpful and we will include in our follow-up email following this call all right so uh panelists please uh please come back to us please turn back your uh cameras on all right thank you so much so one of
The questions that I I keep seeing in the chat and that frankly I have myself with a stepson who is now applying to college what advice do we give these kids in how to choose a school there’s so many different things on the table right now what are we telling them like
Is there somewhere they shouldn’t go is there somewhere that they definitely should and how do parents look at like well this is the University I’m giving my money to I think it’s a complicated question um but why don’t we go first T let’s go to you I I’d love to hear your
Perspective on this yeah um it pains me to say this um I unfortunately think that in this day and age you’re going to find anti-Semitism and all of these things at any University I think that’s the unfortunate reality um what we can do is prepare high school students to be ready
For that um the first time that I was faced with um sort of anti-semitic criticism of Israel it came from my best friend at the time it was two years ago and I remember in that moment feeling stuck and helpless because I I just didn’t have the language to be able
To defend myself I didn’t have the language to be able to explain why Israel was so important to me and why the things that she was was saying was incorrect um so I think that like making sure that high school students are equipped before they get to college with
The language to be able to CL themselves um to know that they’re going to face these things um and and just be ready for it um and also know the organizations that will be there to support them because they exist and um like ultimately they will be okay thank you for that
Talia Shai at the risk of of of frightening viewers uh I’m gonna ask you to also please respond and do so honestly yeah um yeah that’s might I might not tow the party line here but I’m sorry I mean as a parent and I assume every parent on this call feels
This you have three things that are extremely important for you for your children and they come in this specific order number one is that they are safe number two is that they’re healthy and number three that we are happy right and we right now we’re at number
One we’re not at number three we’re at number one we need to make sure that when you send your kid to to any school high school college wherever graduate school as well but they are safe I I agree with Talia that they need to be prepared for dealing with
Anti-Semitism because the Beast is Raising its its head but that’s putting the honors and the burden on the victim the victim should not be the one uh to to do this so what I suggest is when you go to campuses you you tour campus campuses and you look at the facilities we have
Amazing facilities in Columbia and you look at the professors and you look at the the mascot and they show you where the dorms and they show you everything I think you should also ask a simple question what are you doing to fight anti-Semitism right there are a few or
Maybe not a few there are many schools around the country that are actually taking concrete steps let’s flood those schools with a million applications of our best students and reward those tools for actually taking action and and it pains me because this might affect my student population but unless any University unless University
Takes concrete action you should reconsider where you want to send your kids be maybe in three years or four years these universities will align themselves with Humanity but right now a school that is not even able to condemn the Hamas cannot even bring itself to condemn raping of women and remember it’s not
That we’re not condemning rape we’re not condemning Jewish women who raping of Jewish Women that’s the difference they in every other way you know they are they they’re Humane in every other way they realize that beheading babies is wrong but raping is wrong but kidnapping the elderly is
Wrong unless and this is where we’re caveated it unless it involves Jewish lives so while I think that kids should be ready and prepared to deal with anti-Semitism and my my specific advice to everyone I’ve been talking with is do not engage if you can from a distance
Take a picture take a video there are websites like stopantisemitism.org where you can upload and they will deal with it they will find who that person is they will make them you know yes you have Free Speech but that’s not freedom from accountability but at the same time we should not
Reward the institutions that you know are willing to take our money but are not willing to give anything back so you know that’s my view it’s easier said than done when you your kid your oldest is seven rather than 17 but if that’s the reality that we’re
In now would you send your kids to an amazing University the University of Berlin in 1938 even if they would have accepted you you wouldn’t have sent them there so that’s that’s the relationship there and you know and and I want people to remember you know it’s okay to be wrong
And we should also be forgiving if a student shouts from The River To The Sea because they don’t know what that means because it’s trendy because it makes you look cool on Tik Tok we should be forgiving but if the student again shouts it after they have learned what it means no more
Forgiveness because from the river to the Sea is exactly the same as Germany for Germans it sounds nice it sounds sensical but they know what it means and we know what it means and it’s this is this is the definition of of dog whistling thank you sh I can go on for
On so I’ll shut up just quickly thanks um that numbers don’t always tell the whole picture of what’s going on on campus um I know for example at Georgia Tech I believe the Jewish population is probably under 5% um but we have an incredibly tight-knit like strong but Mighty um community and
So I think that you know any high school high schooler or parent who wants to know more about the Jewish community on campus from the inside um reach out to kabad and Hill like we’re happy to have students talk to you and talk to prospective students um and and give
Them like a real inside look I appreciate that thank you Talia Jonathan what’s your take on that you’ve navigated this process before it’s a whole new world now how do you suggest parents look at it and students look at it well I’m a father of two College age
Kids um we’re two kids in college I guess uh so look we had these hard conversations when my kids were applying and I will tell you um I don’t think that chai is exactly right but I don’t think that chai is exactly wrong I don’t think it’s like sending your kid
To Berlin and to you he was been 1938 but I do might be like s your kid to the invis in in 1933 right and the attitude on these campuses I can’t understate and again Shai has spoken to this it is almost impossible to imagine how corrupted the academy is on these
Issues and it’s a broad problem especially at Elite universities I’m not sure if the problem is as bad at like and not to diminish any educ higher institutions to be clear but like last week the president Pepperdine University which I think is the top of angelical school or Protestant School in the
Country did a great session with uh my friend um the the head of um Yesa University which is pretty cool um I mean they don’t have any issues there at either I mean obviously at either of those institutions and I don’t know if there issues everywhere but I just think
About like University of California this letter to Shai’s point the UC professors put out like unwilling to call Hamas terrorists and basically advocating for anti-Semitism is inexcusable like we actually need it’s funny I’m listening to myself we need a refor Reformation of the academy we need a Reformation of our
Universities we need a Reformation of a field of scholarship that thinks anti-zionism is permissible as a political project anti-zionism is anti-Semitism and the SJP and these kids who are pushing it are like the Hitler Youth sorry I know people don’t like it when I say that but it’s true and what
Shai said before spot on Palestine will be freed from the river to the sea is Germany for Germans here and now so is it as bad as it was then no so what do you tell but it’s still bad and getting worse so what do you tell your kids number one does
The University have strong Jewish institutions that will help support you the academy is a word for higher education rivka uh number one do you have uh Jewish institutions like a strong kabad a strong Hill a strong Jewish fraternal system that’s number one Greek system number one number two
Does the University leadership have a record of standing up against anti-Semitism so like do they have a Dei program that includes anti-Semitism as one of the issues that gets taught during freshman orientation do they have h a hotline or a resource center in case there’s a hate crime or a bias
Incident and then number three I mean I think social media has a lot of downsides but one of the good sides about social media is you can read and this is kind of T’s Point like to get under the hood and see what’s really going on what are the students were
They’re saying about the mood and the attit udes on campus so like I’m just going to say loud and clear the problem that I have with pulling back from all these institutions is I’m not willing to seed these institutions to the lunatics I’m not willing to surrender these great
Institutions that we help to build we did our community did as as graduates as alumni as students as alumni as donors as faculty members like we help to build them so I’m not willing to surrender them to The Fringe but in order to reclaim them we need to
Reform them and I think we got to be inside to do that and uh that’s why we’re going at these institutions we’re g to keep the pressure on thank you for that just may I add just one thing because I IE briefly but we do have
Other questions to get to I just want to say one thing for actually for students that are already there students who will be joining campuses right we have to start thinking about our Jewish identity the personal is political that means you know when you go to campus you should
Organize as Jewish students run for for presidents of class vote on any referendum that the university puts out and and you know you mentioned kabad and H which I greatly respect as someone who’s never found him his own place in those organizations due to theistic reasons not for anything you know
Identity wise start your own clubs you can also start a Jewish club that is not affiliated with any theistic U notion you should start organizations that include everyone from the and modern Orthodox to the conservative to the reform we are being treated as a marginalized minority we’re being
Reminded and we should just start acting as one and I think the students you know can make a huge difference if they congregate together and and just make sure that the universities live up to their standards I just I just love that like don’t complain about it do something
About it you don’t like the club start your own right like Bravo I totally agree thank you I’m gonna pivot a little bit uh we’ve seen a lot of questions and Jonathan this has been one of your favorite talking points uh about media coverage and how we are seeing that and
How it has been biased and how it has not been equal and I know we’ve done a variety of different things to address this so Shar maybe you can talk a little bit about uh about what we’ve done and what other folks can do sure thank you
So early on I’m sure many of you saw Jonathan on TV talking about the refusal of certain media Outlets to call Hamas terrorists uh to using words like Freedom Fighters or militants um and we saw many examples like that in the press in the print on the radio on TV so we
Have a petition that’s live on our a St with ADL website where you can assign and ask for responsible reporting for using the right language for calling this what it is and we’d love for you to join us it will be forwarded to all kinds of uh media Outlets we also have a
Similar petition about social media we’re seeing failures in content moderation both over and under which is leading to some really vile content but it’s also getting making it hard when people are going to social media for information to get good trustworthy information so we’ll be sending that ition to various social media platforms
To ask them to do better and we also have a Media Watch program that we’ve put out together for our leaders our volunteers to understand what they’re seeing what they’re looking at um with some sample language about writing letters to the editor or to ‘s people of
Various Outlets so that you can kind of be a watch person and you can call it out in real time so I think that’s I’m the stand with Israel web page as well and I just want to if I can Deb say that the last time I got an update over a
Thousand people had already taken the action to call Congress so please do that they’re going to vote tonight and there’s lots of other actions as well and uh you’ll also find on our stand with Israel page a link to a page to um uh do what Jonathan said uh to follow up
On the letter he and the brandise center sent about SJP on various campuses where we’re seeing kind of the worst activity the worst rhetoric um for universities to look at whether those organizations are violating student codes of conduct or other laws so can reach out to your
University directly and if you don’t see them on there and think they should be there let us know but there’s still also ways to contact the Department of Education to do some of that work too thank you for that Shera um there’s been such a lot going
On it’s hard even to keep up and and I know that we have some new initiatives that we’re trying to launch as well that are specifically aimed at serving the populations on campus Shar maybe that’s something you can also speak to and Jonathan I’m sure you’ll want to
Add on I’ll let her start so uh we do have some I mean first of all I just want to remind people that if they are experiencing or witnessing anti-Semitism anywhere on campus at work that they can report to ADL adl.org report hyphen incident um that will go right to the
Region that covers your area and I know that my amazing colleagues will be in touch and will will help you as we said earlier there’s ways to file complaints with um the office of civil rights at the Department of Education we do want people um using their voice the power of
Their voice and writing to their elected officials writing to their universities watching these we know that there’s lots of groups that are growing organically which happens in times like these moms against anti-Semitism things like that if you are seeing that please share the content that is how people are learning
About uh these initiatives about things that are moving very quickly in Congress things uh that are happening on campus again I I know it sounds like something we say all the time if you see something say something but we do need to know and like Shai said you could take a picture
Let us know file an incident report and we will get back to you and let you know and we are working with communities on campus we have done some trainings for not just our leaders about writing to the media but for Jewish fraternity and sororities to do some of that work
Sometimes it seems like those things are daunting why would they publish from me they would because you matter and and all of this is very local and so if folks want help writing uh letters to the editor or up EDS in their campus newspapers or in their local newspapers
We have those skills training and we can help the best thing now I think is um and it’s so hard is not to lose hope but to look at there’s thousands of people on this call now there are tens of thousands of people who have been taking
Action the number of calls and emails that I get at somebody who works at ADL from folks on campus um who are worried about their kids they’re worried about their own Elma matter even if they don’t have kids people are are uh there to support um as Talia said and I think
Shai people do believe that we matter and are valued so let let’s let’s find those people let’s lean into those Partnerships lean into those allies and and tell them what we need thank you for that Shara I want to be cognizant of time and Jonathan when we started doing fighting hate from home
It was during the pandemic and and I don’t know if you remember but it was a tough time in the world and we would always end these calls looking for a little bit of hope so I’m going to ask you what can we tell the folks on this
Call to be hopeful for where’s the bright light look the fact of the matter is I am you know bearish if you will in some ways but very bullish on America this is the greatest this country has been put Israel aside this country has been the greatest gift to
The Jewish people in diaspora in the past 2,000 years I believe we are the greatest um democracy in the history of humanity and the resilience and the adaptability it’s and the resilience of this country is just amazing so if there’s any country that can figure it
Out it’s this one I think the American Jewish Community has again been a part of America’s success for the past 200 whatever it’s been 70 some odd years it’s more and I am deeply optimistic about what will get done in the next 270 but none of this is gonna happen unless
We fight for what we have so what I hope everyone take away from this call and feel hopeful is that there’s any country that can figure out it’s this one and if you think this is hard like what our brothers and sisters in Israel are facing is much harder what we need
To do is to roll up our Leeps and get to work that’s the that’s the task for now that’s what we need to do and that’s certainly what we see you doing every day and thank you for that and thank you to all of you for being with us I do
Want to let you know that we have something exciting that’s coming out this Friday believe and it’s going to be a major announcement about helping Kids on Campus access legal help we have the best partner organizations including the brandise center and law firms so this is going to be a major initiative we’re
Very excited about it we think it’s going to be a really useful tool for you so keep an eye out because uh that’ll be coming to you soon otherwise I want to thank Jonathan you for being here and for all of your work Shira absolutely to
You Shai Talia thank you so much for being vulnerable with us and sharing with us today and thanks to everyone here for showing up and caring and asking what you can do I hope we see you at another fighting hate from home and until then be well thank you so much and
Thank you everyone for being here I mean honestly like this has been the most difficult time of my life and I could not have made it without people’s help like just strangers supporting so thank you so much thank you
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