Sara Davidson
|June, 26, 2024
This is part 2 about Student Protests in the ‘60’s and Now. To read Part 1, click here.
The two key differences between student protests this year and in the 1960’s are:
1—We were at war then in Vietnam, and men could be drafted and killed, if not enrolled in classes.
2—Most students then did not encounter antisemitism. Many student leaders were Jewish and supported Israel, but today, many young Jews have little identification with Israel. Those who do support Israel have been threatened at Columbia, and many chose to move away from campus for safety.
Rachel Freilich, a freshman, said she had to tuck her necklace with a Jewish star inside her blouse because “I didn’t want to get hurt, and I didn’t want my professors to profile me as a Zionist.”
Jewish students walking to campus were yelled at: “Go back to Poland!” and “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground!”
Parker De Dekér, a freshman, said that as he walked to his dorm, “Someone yelled, ‘You fucking Jew, you keep on testifying, you fucking Jew.’ I had clearly not been in Washington, D.C., that day testifying. I was not involved in anything political. I was simply a Jewish student wearing a yarmulke.”
A campus rabbi wrote to Jewish students that they should leave campus for their own safety. One young man, who was trying to move all his bags from Lerner Hall out to Broadway where his father was picking him up, found that people were staring at him and getting visibly upset. One yelled, “We are so happy that you Zionists are finally leaving campus.” Another said, “You wouldn’t have to leave if you weren’t a supporter of genocide.”
Many Jewish students, however, took part in the demonstrations against Israeli’s military campaign in Gaza, and slept in tents on the grass at the center of campus. (Interestingly, all the tents that were erected on campuses from New York to California, have the same size, colors, and shape. Was there one donor behind the campaigns?)
Students at Columbia conducted a Passover seder, with food and Manischewitz wine supplied by outside supporters. They learned to do a Palestinian circle dance along with Israeli folk dances.
They were swamped with donations of food and blankets, and set up a “People’s Library” of books, which reminded me of the encampment at People’s Park in Berkeley, in 1969, where they set up a vibrant community that included a library.
Carol Christ, who at 80 is about to step down as chancellor at U.C. Berkeley, had herself protested against the Vietnam war when a student at Yale. At Berkeley, she negotiated a settlement with protesters instead of calling in police. “The students today feel the same moral passion as I did,” she said in an interview. “It’s the nature of students at that age. For these students, this feels like the greatest existential crisis of their being.”
Carol Christ
One of my friends from Berkeley, Don Bernstein, lives in Boston now and has been having difficult conversations with his son, Adam, 19, who just completed his freshman year at Boston University. Don says his son gets all his news from podcasts and YouTube channels. “He follows a guy named Ahmed—it’s all online and digital; he doesn’t look at network news or print media of any sort. He believes that Hamas’s violence is a natural outgrowth of oppression.” He said his son sees Gaza as an “open-air prison,” and says that when you have no other way of expressing an opinion that will be heard, “You have to engaged in violent action.”
Don finds himself in a tricky position, defending Israel while that country is acting in ways that he finds hard to justify. “I’m not going to abandon Israel, but I don’t support what they’re doing in Gaza and I have no ability to influence them.” His fear is that Israel is creating “a whole new generation of terrorists who hate Israel.”
The Holocaust is not meaningful to Adam and others of his age, whereas I, as a child, had nightmares about the Nazis. I studied violin with a teacher who was a refugee from Germany. She would point to the wrinkles in her forehead and say, “Hitler did this to me.” As a 7-year-old, I imagined Hitler using a knife to carve lines in my violin teacher’s face.
Don says he’s troubled by his son’s “inoculation against Israel, but I like the fact that he’s passionate about what’s going on in the world.”
Another friend, whom I’ll call Mike, a heart surgeon in Brooklyn, says he has close friends who are on “completely opposite sides” about Israel and Palestine. Mike dislikes Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom he calls “the Israeli Trump,” and knows from his two children in their twenties, that “most Jewish kids do not support Israel in this war. They think Israel has the right to exist, but not the right to kill thousands of civilians, a good portion of whom are children, and reduce entire cities to rubble.”
While Mike thinks that nobody should feel unsafe for wearing a Jewish star, “Young people who’re Jews are trying to tell us something: that to blindly support the government of Israel in this war is not acceptable.”
He adds, with a smile, “And young people are usually right. We were right about Viet Nam. Right about women’s rights. Right about Black Power.” And at this moment, he feels, young people are right to question Israel’s conduct of the war.
I appreciate the second part of your post on the campus protests. I’m a 73 year old Jewish woman. Like you, I protested the war in Vietnam, and demonstrated in favor of abortion, women’s rights, civil rights….and still do. Until recently, I supported Israel as a concept and as a state. And most important, as a safe haven for Jews. I was horrified about October 7. But as Israel continued to kill and maim Palestinians in Gaza, in huge numbers, I became more and more upset. My 36 year old son began sending me videos by Gabor Mate and other Jewish spokesmen who opposed the war in Gaza. I told my son that as a member of the generation immediately following the Holocaust, I had been brought up with a terror of the Nazis and a belief that Israel was the answer. He understood and respected my position, but asked if I would be willing to read and view opposing viewpoints. I agreed. It didn’t take long before I changed my position. And then I watched the documentary, “Where Olive Trees Weep,” and was further moved to oppose the war. Today, I will watch two talks with Dr. Gabor Mate and Ilan Pappe and Tara Brach, as follow-ups to the documentary. Suffice it to say that I am still proud of being Jewish but I can no longer support Israel.
As always, Sara, your words are so right and penetrating and utterly fair. This is the most lucid and logical piece I’ve yet read on all of this. I spent weeks in Gaza filming in 1989, so I’m not only abstractly aware. This article holds such needed sanity at this time. Brava, Sara!
Thank you, David. It’s been too long since we’ve been in touch. Warmest, Sara
Thank you for exploring this subject, Sara. Unfortunately, these young people, Jewish or not, seem to be willingly consuming a false narrative about genocide and who is at fault for the suffering of the people of Gaza. They ignore all information that shows willing participation in the torture of hostages, even now, the mocking of caged children, the burning of people inside their homes, the rapes so violent that descriptions are censored in most mainstream news. They also turn a blind eye to the obvious anti-Jewish sentiment that has been spewed all over our country, including by educational leaders these students should be able to trust. It’s scary for students to see the truth, but not seeing and facing it is not only cowardly but also foolish.
It was much easier to oppose Vietnam war since it felt like a theory (dominoes) as the reason for our involvement. And certainly as a guy vulnerable to the draft (lottery number 210 thank goodness!) I had extra motivation for opposing the war. Israel was brutally attacked. But very painful to watch Israel’s reaction because it feels like it will lead to way more anti Israel sentiment and won’t keep the citizens any safer.
This is a powerful and beautiful film — a must see. Worth every penny. . . https://sand.thrivecart.com/where-olive-trees-weep/
You are the first person to present both sides fairly. Here in NYC I read about physical and verbal violence towards Jews. I feel sorry for the college students. From what I have read many of the protesters are terrorists. I would be concerned about my child’s safety as you clearly outlined in the beginning of your post
There’s a big difference between supporting the Israel government and supporting Israel’s right to exist. Most people of my acquaintance are very negative about Netanyahu and the current policies and practices of the Israel government. But we realize that chanting “from the river to the sea” is a call for Israel’s dissolution. Those who accuse Israel of being a colonialist enterprise need to talk to some of the Jews forced to leave the countries of North Africa and the Middle East after 1948. They also need to realize that on October 6, the day before Hamas invaded Israel, there was a cease-fire in effect. It was not Israel that breached it. Like the young people your friend referred to, I have no problem with questioning Israel’s conduct of the war. I do have a problem with people questioning Israel’s right to exist.
Hi, Sara!
I am not Jewish, but I swear I was, in a past life! (I’ve had dreams)
Still, I have thought the same things as your friends children:
1.Israel definitely should have the right to exist.
2. No Israeli and no Palestinian should be harmed by anyone and no violence should be done to people or property.
3. This is a complicated problem. It is not simple, and I’m sure, as with most things, both sides has wronged the other….as to the frequency or degree, I cannot know.
4. The violent extremist groups’ actions are wrong and should not be condoned, by either party.
5. Both sides must just stop the violence and hate, which isn’t good or productive for anyone, and a peaceful compromise should be reached.
I sincerely beg your (and other Jewish people’s) pardon…I do not mean to overstep or insult/simplify things, but both sides have been fighting for a very long time, and it has gotten them nothing but heartache, and more violence/death/destruction.
I sincerely thank you for your thoughts, your friend’s and children’s thoughts, and your two part article. I realize I am an outsider, looking in, but that is how I feel about it. No student should be afraid at school, nor should they be threatened or ridiculed. No adult should be afraid to walk the streets, and to live their lives, or feel like they must protect their person or their places of worship from others wishing harm to them. I find it sad that for so many people, violence is their first answer, esp since it only harms, both themselves and others, and never solves anything; it only makes things worse and causes each other so much needless pain and suffering. It is wrong. It’s always been wrong, and always will be wrong. Communication and cooperation, as well as forgiveness and love, are the only things.
Compelling, read! ✨
I’d love to talk to you about this article. My husband and I have a lot of experience on this topic and as I’m not Jewish I respectfully disagree with “Mike” and worry he doesn’t understand A. How this happened on college campuses and B. His comparison to the civil rights movement regarding black Americans is not a proper comparison.
My husband is cofounder of Creative Community for Peace. (CCFP)
He and I travel to the region many times a year. Our daughter and her friends were being indoctrinated by SJP AND BDS (arms of Hamas) at Bard College 10 years ago against Israel and Jewish people. And her friends were Jewish!
So we flew out there to speak to the administration to try to educate them. Needless to say with all the pro Hamas and hunting of Jews going on it didn’t work. ITS all about corrupt terrorist money in the college endowments. I’m sorry, but Mike is wrong.
What young people did in the 60’s was in support of a race population on the right side of history. (and by the way the civil rights act of 1964 included Jews) not against an entire American race and racism where they are now hunting Jews (a modern day pogrom) in Los Angeles.
This is about brainwashing, indoctrination of two generations over 20 years on college campuses and social media for terrorist regime ultimately. The American Public needs to be educated and politicians are afraid of the extreme radical left just as much as they are afraid of the extreme radical MAGA right. They both meet in the middle. They are one and the same as far as their vile hate and violence.
This movement is old, young, rich, poor, Jewish, Muslim, Christian, black and brown. Yes, the kids are right, a genocide is wrong at any age. And many of the people I am in the streets with are families of holocaust survivors who say never again for anyone. You write like you don’t have an opinion about the matter. Are you watching the slaughter of children??? It is weird. The media is distorting reality to a level that should be the concern in the US, that people have been so dumbed down they don’t know hell is happening around them. Or hate is ruling their brains.
Thank you for this. I think one of the problems is that these protesters have no idea of the history.
The horrors that the people in Gaza are experiencing are on the shoulders of Hamas. And what is strange to me is these students and so many others do not hold Hamas responsible for those Horrors. They do not call for Hamas to surrender.
I wonder if these people were around during World War II if they would have told the United States and our allies to stop our attacks in Europe–attacks which were killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Europeans and just walk away and leave the Nazis in power.
And clearly to me, being anti-Zionist has been grabbed and embraced when really it is just a smoke screen for anti-semitism.
When Jews are attacked on campus the attackers have no idea what those students believe. And those students have no impact on Israel’s policy. It is pure anti-semitism. And you can call it anti-zionist if you want but there is no difference.
Another thing that’s inexplicable to me is why they would be against Biden; there is no other choice. They are certainly going to move further away from their supposed humanitarian goals if Trump wins.
Lastly it’s almost laughable when I see LGBTQ groups supporting the Palestinians or actually supporting Hamas. It shows how ignorant they are.
And I fear that in general Americans are ignorant of History. They were ignorant not to prevent Trump from running again for president because they do not have any idea what it is like to live under an autocratic government.
Brazil facing a similar situation got rid of the wannabe dictator. Those people had experience living under a dictatorship. I hope Americans never have to learn that lesson the hard way.
I’ve gone a little off topic but with the debate coming up and these protesters not supporting Biden, it somehow all seems connected.
Thank you for your writing, Sara. I always enjoy reading your blog and your writing helps me clarify my positions.
It is appalling and disheartening that Jewish students don’t feel safe living on their college campuses in the midst of this war. But am I surprised? I am a registered Democrat living in Arizona and I do not feel safe putting up political signs in my yard.
Being Jewish has been positive all my life. Zionism has been positive also. I enjoyed living in Israel for 1 1/2 years in the early 1970’s. Nonetheless, the present and previous leader of Israel is and has been awful! Gaza has a horrible government. The killing has to be stopped and improvements must be established somehow!
A very balanced response. Laying out facts without inserting your own viewpoint.
Agreed. And Sara, I have to say this is the first blog of yours I’ve read where I didn’t feel your viewpoint and I missed that.
Hey Sarah, you can feel someone’s viewpoint by their choice of material and quotes to include. I am heartened to see students reponding with passion to the issues. I agree with the widespread feeling: I support Israel and I strongly oppose Netanyahu’s actions. I fear the stirrings of antisemitism in our culture and the world– the first time I’ve felt this in my life. And I so appreciate your reading this and commenting.
I don’t practice but my mother is of Jewish nationality. My friends are largely Jewish in nationality as well. I represent international Jewish clients from around the world. I’m for Israel being its own country. I read “The Lemon Tree” in one of my book clubs and found it to be helpful in understanding the backdrop of history from others point of view. I do not know the solution. The delights in varieties of opinion and discussion form the framework of understanding & respect for various view points as we grapple with ever-changing confluence of facts and emotions. I hope love and peace prevail soon. Thank you Sara for this blog.
Thank you Ginny for your thoughtful and deep words. A pleasure to read.
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