Plenty of ink has been spilled about the abysmal response from some of the nation’s top colleges and universities to the Hamas attack on Israel, which left some 1,400 Jews dead. Some colleges delayed responding, or when they did, issued tepid statements. Others stood back and said nothing as student groups signed an open letter blaming Israel and allowed pro-Palestinian protests to take place that included the celebration of the Hamas massacres.
Less reported, however, has been the experiences of Jewish students on those campuses.
During a Higher Education and Workforce Development Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday titled, “Confronting the Scourge of Antisemitism on Campus,” Sahar Tartak, a Jewish student at Yale University, detailed how hostile the conditions have become on campus for Jewish students.
In her efforts to write about the attack in the school newspaper, the Yale Daily News redacted her mention that Hamas beheaded men and raped women, arguing the claims were “unsubstantiated.” And Yale administrators did nothing.
The school also stood silent as hundreds of her peers gathered for a pro-Hamas protest, where demonstrators chanted “resistance is justified.”
She said Jewish students have been uncomfortable approaching their own professors for help with schoolwork because they’re pro-Hamas, while others have had to couch surf because their roommates are sympathetic to the terror group.
“On campus, I sit in a crowded dining hall and I ask myself, ‘how many people in this room want me dead?’” she told lawmakers.
“Universities have a allowed jew hatred to run rampant,” Tartak added, calling on the government to strip them of federal funding if they fail to protect Jewish students.
“Academia has turned its back on us, will you do the same?”