ST. LOUIS — A protest at Washington University’s campus led to the arrest of 100 people on Saturday made many in the university's Jewish community feel unsafe.
WashU freshman Aron Goodman said the unrest and protests on campus were very hard to avoid and frustrating for Jewish students like himself.
“The past week, I've been trying to focus on exams, and I haven't been able to because of everything that's going on. I'm afraid for other people, for the other students, for my friends who are also themselves afraid,” Goodman said.
Goodman said he witnessed problematic language and chants during the protest.
“Things like ‘from the river to the sea,’ which is a call for genocide of the Jews. Things like ‘Intifada,’ which, if you don't know, the Intifada, were a period of mass bombings and suicide bombings and stabbings in Israel. And people were calling for Intifada. I know people who lost family members in the intifadas and calling for it or to globalize it is a direct threat against the Jewish community,” Goodman said.
WashU sophomore Charlie Weingarten said she feels emotionally unsafe.
“Looking out on the sea of individuals with these signs calling for the mass murder of Jews, whether or not they're aware of it was like, there's not a word, if there was a word stronger than terrifying, I would use it,” Weingarten said.
Washington University Chancellor Andrew Martin called the protest anything but peaceful and penned a lengthy response, saying in part, "Some of the protesters were behaving aggressively, swinging flagpoles and sticks. Some were attempting to break into locked buildings or to deface property. There were chants that many in our community find threatening and antisemitic."
Silk Foundation Campus Rabbi Jordan Gerson had some even stronger words for it.
“It was an anti-Israel, anti-Jewish hate rally, which called for violence against the Jewish community with calls for intifada, which called for the destruction of the state of Israel, which used hate speech, as declared by the U.S. Congress, and was in violation of campus policy,” Gerson said.
But there are other Jewish students who are part of a group that supported the protest on Saturday.
“I'm a member of the Jewish Students for Palestine group, there was a number of us and I think there was a lot of framing of Palestinian liberation versus Jewish safety. And I truly, truly, I do to my entire core, believe we can, and we must have both,” Penelope T said.
Penelope said she believes in the demands put forward, including a call to WashU to divest from Boeing.
“I think to exclusively focus on Jewish safety through militarily arming Israel is something that fundamentally does not ring true to me,” she said.
Both Gerson and Goodman say they appreciate the response from WashU officials.
“If WashU didn't give the response that it gave, then I would not be happy going here. But now that I see the university has taken the initiative to do the right thing, I am so much more in support of students coming here. The reason I came to the school is because I wanted a safe Jewish environment, a place where I can live and grow and and be my myself in public. I don't want to be hide my Judaism. I don't want to be afraid to show it. And I think the protests and the events that happened have made that very difficult,” Goodman said.
Gerson said he is proud to be part of this campus and the doors of WashU Hillel are open to anyone who needs support.
“I think they handled the situation extremely well and put the safety of all WashU students first. That's absolutely what they did. And that was their responsibility, and they carried it out. I’m proud of them,” Gerson said.
Gerson said what these students are going through is awful.
“No student should have to be going through what these students are going through right now. This is terrible. I mean, for them to have to deal with people calling for their extermination while they're trying to engage in classes and take finals is incomprehensible,” Gerson said.
Goodman said while many are afraid because they don’t know what’s going to happen next, they will stand together as a Jewish community.
“One of their biggest tactics is fear and intimidation. And we can't let that slide. We can't let them intimidate us. Because once we're afraid they win. So it's up to us really to stand together to show that we're not afraid of these protests, and that we're going to continue being Jewish. We're going to continue supporting Israel and democracy and freedom. And we're going to continue supporting what's right,” Goodman said.
The chancellor closed his statement with these words, "To those who plan to continue to come to campus with the intention of disrupting our education and research mission and violating our policies, please know we will respond proportionately each and every time. You will not do this here."
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