Letter to an American Jewish College Student

You were very excited about being admitted to a famous Ivy League university, and you eagerly looked forward to the coming intellectual journey.

And then, almost overnight, there was an explosion of anti-Semitism on your campus and on many other prestigious campuses. Ostensibly, this was in connection with Israel’s strong response to the October 7 massacre, in which Hamas Arabs murdered and mutilated 1,200 innocent Israelis in cold blood. When you read about the slaughter, you were horrified, as were most civilized people. Although you do not have a strong Jewish background, you were nevertheless proud that Israel responded forcefully to the horror.

But your pride turned into shock when, instead of condemning the October atrocities, many students demonstrated and chanted anti-Israel slogans. Your shock turned to fear as marauding gangs of students taunted you for being a Jew, drew swastikas on Jewish frat houses, called for an intifada against Jews, chanted the genocidal “from the river to the sea.” You actually were worried about your personal safety — especially when the university president refused to clearly condemn the racist behavior of the students.

What, you ask, should be your response?

The awful truth is that there is no lasting response to prejudice and hatred, and especially not to that disease called anti-Semitism. Whether you cite Biblical proof of Jewish rights to Israel or you appeal to morality or logic, it will have no long-term effect. When we abandoned our Judaism and assimilated, we were still rejected. When we maintained our distinctiveness and remained separate from the outside world, we were called clannish and holier-than-thou. We have been derided as communists and as capitalists, ridiculed for our intellectual bent and condemned for our fighting abilities, accused of manipulating the world’s finances on Wall Street even while we were making the desert bloom in the Negev.