Campus rabbis respond to rise of antisemitism at nation’s colleges

College rabbis are sounding the alarm about the spike in antisemitism on the nation’s campuses. Several who were in New York City for Brooklyn’s annual Chabad event spoke to the “New York Post” about the fact that college campuses across the country are becoming more and more dangerous for Jewish students.

“It’s been disturbing, unnerving — it’s been a shock to students to see that kind of immediate chutzpah, where the demonstrators came out even before the blood dried up, to shout with such audacity on the campus with no qualifications at all,” said Rabbi Levi Haskelevich, who has served for more than two decades as the Chabad rabbi at the University of Pennsylvania.

Haskelevich was seen in a recent video helping a Jewish student put on tefillin — “a pair of black leather boxes containing Hebrew parchment scrolls; a set includes two, one for the head and one for the arm” — while protesters march past, some just inches away, shouting “Free, free Palestine!”

Antisemitic demonstrations have risen dramatically since October 7, when Hamas terrorists breached the border and slaughtered more than 1,400 Israeli men, women, children and even infants,  many of them civilians. They injured thousands more and kidnapped another 200 or more, taking them into Gaza. Recent reporting suggests that the hostages, a few of whom are believed to be American citizens, are being held in Hamas’ vast spiderweb-like network of tunnels beneath Gaza. College campuses have been the focal point for many such demonstrations.

“We have students who are into their Ph.D.’s who said from the moment of the attacks they could not find a safe place on campus,” Yale University Chabad Rabbi Meir Chaim Posner said . “Many, many students have close friends that suddenly don’t understand or don’t appreciate or don’t affirm what they’re going through in terms of their sense of mourning, in terms of their sense of pain. And then in the weeks after, they’ll find a close friend who is actively supporting Hamas.”

–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice