A student on my campus, John Jay, posted a story on Instagram saying “we need a Hitler again”. When I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. How could it be that a member of my campus community, in 2021, was calling for another Holocaust? For the murder of Jews? This hit close to home for me. This wasn’t the first antisemitic incident I experienced, so not long after, I decided to transfer out of John Jay for next year.

Since the start of the pandemic, in-person events have not been allowed for clubs at John Jay. When Hillel wanted to post opportunities on social media that students could take advantage of in-person, such as an internship or a Birthright trip, we were told this was not permitted. But not only did MSA (Muslim Student Association) post an in-person rally in support of BDS, but it was permitted to take place in-person AND on-campus. This is the application of a double standard. At the rally, my peers shouted “there is only one solution: Intifada Revolution!” Students on my campus called for the murder of innocent Jews. When we return back to campus in the fall, I am afraid for my physical safety.

I am a proud recent graduate of Baruch College. I appreciate everything that Baruch has given me over the last four years in my pursuit of a career in business. However, during graduation, I started to feel differently about the place in which I had spent the last four years. The valedictorian is a Jewish woman. She shared her religious identity in an amazing speech, and mentioned that her grandparents were Holocaust survivors. She didn’t say anything about Israel or the Middle East. Yet, the virtual chat was bombarded with messages with “Free Palestine.”

I’m in the leadership of Hillel at Baruch and help out with running the social media. Since the war started between Israel and Hamas, our account blew up with negative, antisemitic, and anti-Zionist messages from Baruch students. These included direct messages, comments on posts, and sharing our posts with hateful messages. I was so overwhelmed by the hate, negativity and antisemitism, not only on the Hillel account, but also from peers on my personal account, that I had to take a complete break from social media altogether

The purpose of student government is to represent all students - in all of our differences and diversity. The student government at City College has failed to do this by posting one-sided hateful statements against Israel accusing it of genocide. As a Jewish and Zionist student, I feel alone and isolated by student leaders and peers who fail to recognize my community.

I was sitting in the classroom and the teacher said that he was being observed by a dean or something, and he said ‘don’t you all jump and do a Heil Hitler to make me look good!’ And then he did the Heil Hitler salute to illustrate how we would be very active in his class. Everybody laughed. As far as I know there are only two Jewish students in this class. We looked at each other horrified. The scarier part was the laughing response from the students! How come no one thought that the professor was inappropriate? I felt so uncomfortable for the rest of the semester.

We were having our weekly gathering on the Jay Walk, an outdoor space at John Jay College. We were eating pizza and hanging out. There were about 20 Jewish students gathered in the corner of the area. Students were throwing a frisbee nearby and looking over at us. We had our Israel flag hanging on the bench. One of the students playing on the grass kept getting closer to us, and at one point he ran through our space and our event, aggressively knocking over the pizza and some of the other students. We reported this incident.

There was a large ‘return to campus’ tabling event with all of the clubs and students organizations. We had our Hillel table and we were promoting Birthright amongst many other things. We had an Israeli flag displayed on our table. On the other side of the room, Students for Justice in Palestine had their table. They walked over to our table and started waving a very large Paletinian flag in front of our table for almost 10 minutes, screaming ‘Free Palestine.’ We had to alert the Public Safety to ask them to move away from our table.

In my communications class at Baruch College, the professor used Hitler as an example when explaining something. She said that he was a successful artist, and if ‘Hitler didn’t do what he was doing, she would have loved to meet him.’

We pray Mincha every day at Baruch College. Since we don’t have any space to pray, we have had to pray in the hallway. One day about 15 of us were praying quietly and someone walked by and said ‘dirty Jews!’ The other boys had to hold me back.

Student Council at John Jay consistently shares content from Students for Justice in Palestine, from a “Nakba Day” rally (where participants chanted “Globalize the Intifada” - a call for murdering innocent Jews), and general anti-Israel sentiments. When Hillel asked Student Council if they could share their event for Holocaust Remembrance Day, Student Council ignored the message, and then finally responded after the event was over saying it was too late.

My freshman year, there was a swastika found in a bathroom at John Jay. As a Jewish student, I felt afraid to walk on campus. I thought this was supposed to be a school for justice.

In an English class at John Jay College, the teacher was presenting what an argumentative paper would look like, and he said that we choose a subject to discuss and argue for. He said for example, you could write about ‘Free Palestine!’ And then he described the righteousness of their goals and how they fought for their rights and the rights of all indigenous and brown people. I was appalled! I couldn’t believe that he would choose this topic as the example for argumentative papers!

The Student Council president at John Jay had never sent an email to the entire student body. In May, we received the only mass email from the student president. The statement completely denies Israel’s right to exist and accuses “Zionists” (read: Jews) of “whitewashing” a narrative of “Israel’s brutality”.

I was walking by the wall of the fliers on campus that usually has events and different opportunities marketed to the students. The whole wall was packed with fliers about Nakba, Resistance March in Bay Ridge, and many fliers about an event that was called ‘By any means necessary.’ I ask myself, so violence is ok too?

A man brought human feces to the Pace building and drew the Magen David on the building wall. We were shocked to see this disgusting appearance of hate on our building. NYPD was investigating this as a Hate Crime. I was so scared to show that I was Jewish for weeks.

Student Government posted an eggregious declaration of Israel as an apartheid state that conducts genocide against women and children in Palestine. Then, Student Life, the actual administration of the college, reposted it on their own instagram! They supported these biased and hateful views. When we reached out, they said that it was a mistake and they had to remove their post and write a clarification. But the damage was done.

I was sitting in the Hillel club room at John Jay my sophomore year. Two students walked by, saw the “Hillel” sign and said, “what is this, the Hitler club?”

During the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, SJP and other students gathered in front of the President’s office and protested loudly for hours, screaming ‘Intifada, Intifada!’ They also said that City College and the President are complicit in the murder of innocent women and children in Gaza, as they help the regime through some kind of partnership in the STEP program at our college. I was walking by and I was so scared to get close to this group of students.

My freshman year, we did a fundraiser on campus for an organization called Save a Child’s Heart which gives free life-saving heart surgery for children from all over the world. A rumor started spreading around not to donate to our fundraiser because Save a Child’s Heart steals the organs of Palestinian babies. I couldn’t believe that a modern version of the blood libel was spreading around my campus.

I joined a WhatsApp group of student leaders at Baruch, some were club leaders and others were in the student government. One day, some of the students started talking about ‘a birthright trip to Pakistan like the ‘yahoods,’ someone replied - ‘they have no birthright.’ Israel doesn’t have the right to exist for these students and I was trying to make friends with them. I stayed quiet. Not sure how to react. They didn’t know I was in the chat, or didn’t care.

My name is Adel Alaiev, I am a student at Baruch College. I strongly oppose any other definition of antisemitism. The IHRA Definition is the only acceptable definition of antisemitism. While studying for an exam and reading through the course’s textbook, I came across something antisemitic. My textbook read, “Jews that were reminded how many Jews were killed by Hitler’s troops felt less guilty about Jews’ harmful treatment of Palestinians.” The author of my textbook was implying that Jews use the Holocaust to justify harming Palestinians! This is blatantly false and mis-educates the thousands of students who have taken and will take this class to wrongfully view Jews as violent. Even after I spoke to my professor and the department, they refused to do anything about it. This is just one example of why there is a need in the first place, for anti-semitism to be defined. It must not only be defined, but done so by the large majority of Jewish Students at CUNY, by the faculty senate, by the faculty union, and by the administration. It is imperative that the chancellor make it a priority this year.

When I was looking at colleges I was told by other Jewish college students to look at safer and more comfortable options because the CUNY’s were known to harbor antisemitism. But John Jay was the school of my dreams and I was dead set on going.

Not always do I tell people that I’m Jewish, because I hardly know whom to trust at John Jay. I hide behind my other identities, even though being Jewish is my most significant one. The times that I do tell people I’m Jewish or things related to that, my stomach becomes a giant knot and my heart beat slows down to the point where I get nervous that it won’t continue.

In classrooms, I hear things like “why are we even still talking about the Holocaust.” On class field trips I hear “Jews are all so rich.” On the third floor, in the lounge area I hear, “THEY have so much power.” Stuck in the elevator I hear snickers about their Jewish professor. In Club Row, I am ignored and dropped by friends because I mentioned Israel once to them. On Zoom I hear jokes about Jews in ovens.

A former friend that I met at John Jay reshared one of my posts about antisemitism and was upset that no local Jewish agencies thanked him.

I’m tired of learning how to be an advocate for justice when no one is there to protect me.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism needs to be adopted because it goes over all the areas that antisemitism manifests in.

Constantly public education failed to protect me, in high school, and in college, and many more places. Please don’t add yourself to that list because with your choice you can choose to add to the growing pot of antisemitism or take a stand. What will you do?

To all who will be listening and deciding the fate of many,

You are all here to talk about defining antisemitism and protecting students from antisemitic anti-Zionist incidents. So let me share just a snippet of what I have experienced as a Jewish student at John Jay.

I grew up with the very real fear that any day a shooter would come barging into my school, my synagogue, my local shops and kill us all because we were Jewish. This fear never went away. While some children in class doze off and doodle, I would mentally prepare myself. Sharpened pencil, check. Scissor, check. Ordinary tools used for creativity and education became my weapons, my false sense of security. In my room I had a packed bag, with food, water, and some other things. I was so paranoid that at any moment someone would attack me, or that I and my family would need to run, because the world has turned against us so many times before, that now I’ve lost count.

College was a whole new world of pain. I came to John Jay knowing that out of all the CUNY’s John Jay was the most antisemitic. I was told to look at safer options by other college students. So far, my experience here has really broken my heart time and time again. Jokes about Jews in ovens, being ignored and canceled by friends, because I mentioned Israel on Social Media or posted something about Israel, not being listened to. I hardly know who to trust in John Jay because not always do I tell people I’m Jewish.

We must adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism across our campuses. This is the only way to protect our students and staff.

My name is Avigayil Grajower, I am a student in the Macaulay Honors College at CCNY and I oppose random definitions of antisemitism because it would make me feel less safe as a Jewish student. The only definition that matters and must be adopted by our university in the IHRA definition of Antisemitism.

During my freshman and sophomore years at CCNY, I felt unsafe on campus because a group of students cheered for "another Intifada" on multiple occasions.. The Intifadas were Palestinian uprisings against innocent Jewish Israelis that included suicide bombings on buses, in restaurants, and in clubs. As you can imagine, it was frightening to hear my fellow students calling for physical violence against Jewish people.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism would protect me from this hate speech on campus. I support the IHRA Definition exclusively.

In one of my science classes at CCNY, students in my class began complaining that the pandemic in New York was all the Jews’ fault. I explained that I myself was an observant Jew and that my community was observing all social distancing guidelines. Just because some people may not, does not mean they represent the Jewish people as a whole. One student kept repeating that only Jews are at fault for the pandemic in New York. I was deeply hurt by the conversation and several other Jewish students privately messaged me thanking me for defending us.

This is why I support the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism, to protect me and my fellow Jewish students from situations like these. No other definition would have properly protected me.

The 2021 Baruch College Valedictorian, Alyssa F, was brought to tears when she watched the prerecorded pandemic-era graduation on Zoom.

In her address, Alyssa talked about how much she enjoys “learning about the journeys of my fellow classmates. Their commitment to being the change they would like to see in the world had a powerful impact on me.” Alyssa noted that the word Baruch means blessing in Hebrew and expressed her appreciation for the opportunities afforded her at Baruch in the context of the degradation experienced by her grandparents who survived the Holocaust. This is a profoundly personal statement that should have been respected.

But, when Alyssa watched the prerecorded graduation on Zoom, she could not help but notice that when she mentioned that her grandparents had survived the Holocaust, the chat lit up with messages of “Free Palestine”. This response to her Valedictorian remarks by students is doubly disturbing because the Palestinian leader before and during the Holocaust, Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, advocated for the genocide of Jews.

Link to original article:

https://www.foxnews.com/us/nycarticle-public-college-protesters-zoom-lecture-anti-semitic-comments-jewish-students

“I’m in the leadership of Hillel at Baruch and help out with running the social media. Since the war started between Israel and Hamas, our account blew up with negative, antisemitic messages from Baruch students. These included direct messages, comments on posts, and sharing our posts with hateful messages. I was so overwhelmed by the hate, negativity and antisemitism, not only on the Hillel account, but also from peers on my personal account, that I had to take a complete break from social media.”

Junior at Baruch College

“The purpose of student government is to represent all students - in all of our differences and diversity. The student government at City College has failed to do this by posting one-sided hateful statements against Israel accusing it of genocide. As a Jewish and Zionist student, I feel alone and isolated by student leaders and peers who fail to recognize my community.”

Junior at City College

"I'm very nervous about the anti-Semitism that I would face going back in person, so being on Zoom is one step farther from the anti-Semitism," the student said, explaining that she constructed her schedule next semester to remain mostly online. But many courses will return to in-person instruction.”

Current Hunter College Social Work Student

“When I saw the signs at the rally and the chants calling for Zionists to leave CUNY, I was so frightened! These students and faculty are telling me that I don’t belong in my University. How can I come back here in the fall and feel welcome and safe?”

Senior at City College

“A student on my campus posted a story on Instagram asking “do we need a Hitler again?” When I saw the post I couldn’t believe my eyes. My grandparents are Holocaust survivors. How could it be that a member of my campus community, in 2021, was calling for another Holocaust? This hit close to home for me. This wasn’t the first antisemitic incident I experienced, so not long after, I decided to transfer out of CUNY.”

Freshman at John Jay College of Criminal Justice

March 2020