DV Journal

What is life like for Jewish students on college campuses in the Philadelphia suburbs?

Barak Mendelsohn, a professor of political science at Haverford College, posted a message to X from a Jewish student who was considering coming to Haverford this fall but decided not to.

“First, [I] had some great conversations with other students, but when they hear that I went to Jewish Day School and am a Jew, I get asked almost immediately if I support Israel, and if I’m Zionist, I either get blocked or ridiculed by other Haverford students who I barely even know,” the student wrote to Mendelsohn, to partly explain the decision.

Mendelsohn believes that person is one of many Jewish students who have chosen not to attend the small but prestigious college founded by Quakers in 1833.

Because it’s a small college rather than a larger university, students can’t easily avoid others who harass them, Mendelsohn said.

“It’s a pressure cooker [for the Jewish students],” Mendelsohn told DVJournal. “The social pressures on students here are just tremendous. And to hear stories from students, where people they thought were their friends, telling them that because they are Zionist, which means believing, just believing, in Israel’s right to exist, is a huge part of our identity…[they say] ‘I will not be your friend. We cannot be in connection. You got to reject that part of your identity.’ Now imagine if that kind of pressure on gays [or] students of color. However, that [antisemitism] seems to be completely socially acceptable among the students.”

“And my heart just bleeds for them because I can’t protect them,” said Mendelsohn.

The college administration “seems content on having fewer and fewer” Jewish students.  It’s because of their notion of the world, their DEI [Diversity, Equity, Inclusion] ideology that divides everyone into oppressors and oppressed, that puts Jews inherently as the White oppressors.”

In May, the Deborah Project, a public interest law firm, sued Haverford College in federal court on behalf of “Jews at Haverford,” alleging civil rights violations against Jewish students.

“Haverford College has repeatedly, officially, refused to condemn Hamas for the atrocities it committed against Jews on Oct. 7, 2023, even though the impact of those atrocities on Jewish students at Haverford was surely as brutal as the impact on students of color when a Black man was killed by the Philadelphia police. Haverford College made no public statement condemning the brutal violence committed by Hamas on Oct. 7, when over a thousand Jews were murdered, mutilated, burned alive and raped to death, when hundreds were taken hostage, all in explicit and proudly announced violation of international law, videotaped by the perpetrators themselves, so there could be no doubt as to whether these atrocities occurred, or who committed them,” the suit said.

“Instead, Haverford Dean McKnight issued a public statement on Oct. 9. That statement took no moral stance on Hamas’s actions. Haverford College instead compared the butchery of Jews in Israel by a known terrorist group committed to eradicating the Jewish State and slaughtering all the Jews within it to a ‘hurricane’ or other natural disaster—thereby completely ignoring and refusing to take a position on, the gross immorality of what was done, by Hamas terrorists in less than two days to these hundreds of Jews. When a Jewish student leader complained, Dean [John] McKnight responded that, ‘I got emails from all different individuals; I can’t make everyone happy.’”

Pro-Palestinian students have been very active on campus, including holding an ‘Israel Apartheid Month’ of events in March.

Chris Mills, a spokesman for Haverford said the college does  not comment on ongoing litigation. But lawyers for the college filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit on July 15. The motion claims the plaintiff’s allegations are “untethered to fact” and that the college is “deeply committed to opposing antisemitism and all forms of hate, both on and off campus.”

Mendelsohn, who emigrated from Israel 20 years ago, said he’s experienced hostility as a Jewish professor at Haverford.

“Until Oct. 7, I was a scholar and an educator,” said Mendelsohn, an expert on terrorism and Middle East security issues who has taught at Haverford for 17 years. “I’m suddenly back to being a Jew from Israel, not even an American Jew. And that’s horrible. It was a huge shock.”

“And to see our Jewish students suffering, being isolated and ostracized and ignored is just heartbreaking,” said Mendelsohn.

A math professor who has been “regularly spewing antisemitic rhetoric that celebrated Oct. 7” was given an award from the student body. That was “sticking a finger in the eyes of the Jewish community,” Mendelsohn said.  The administration could disavow responsibility because the award came from the students, he said.

“It’s just despicable what we’re experiencing,” said Mendelsohn.

Mills said, “We are saddened to learn that an incoming first-year Haverford student plans to withdraw from our Class of 2028. Everyone at Haverford College is a welcome member of our community and deserves to feel so. That principle is core to our values of trust, concern, and respect. So is the principle of respecting the right to free expression; however, that comes with limits.

“Specifically, hateful or discriminatory expression is not tolerated. We are investigating this matter and have invited the student to share the posts with us so we can learn more. The outcome of our investigation will determine next steps, including disciplinary action if appropriate. Our Office of Student Life is in contact with this student to fully understand the matter and to provide support,” he said.

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The show will go on.

Bowing to pressure from Students for Justice Palestine and Faculty for Justice in Palestine at Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges,  The Bryn Mawr Film Institute canceled an Israeli film Monday to be shown Tuesday as part of the annual Israeli Film Festival.

Lawyers Jerome Marcus and Lori Lowenthal Marcus with the Deborah Project then sought an emergency injunction to prevent the cancelation of “The Child Within Me.”

Montgomery County Judge Richard Haaz granted the emergency injunction late Tuesday afternoon. The film will be presented as scheduled.

“It was a terrible, horrible experience for the Israeli Film Festival, which spent the last year lining up the appropriate movies to screen and venues to show them in. And then the day before a screening, they were notified it was canceled,” said Lowenthal Marcus.

Lowenthal Marcus said there had been a contract that the Bryn Mawr Film Institute breached.

“That’s the legal part of it,” said Lowenthal Marcus. “The other side of it is there was tremendous pressure of violent protests.”

“And they celebrated their victory (when BMFI canceled),” she said. “The relief we sought was extraordinary relief. It’s a very high standard. We were able to prove in court that the film festival would be irreparably harmed if the screening was canceled at the last minute when people had known about the festival for weeks, had purchased their tickets, had arranged their schedules, and frankly, it would have been a terrible blow to the Jewish community because the bad guys because they threatened violence, would have prevailed. However, the law still matters in America.”

The BMFI had issued a statement announcing the cancelation but did not respond to DVJournal’s request for further comment.

“Bryn Mawr Film Institute is not a political organization. We don’t endorse or oppose any causes. In past years, we have not regarded hosting a screening from the Israeli Film Festival as a political partnership or taking a stance on any issues. This was our feeling when we arranged the 2024 screening many months ago. However, as the situation in Israel and Gaza has developed, it has become clear that our showing this movie is being widely taken among individuals and institutions in our community as an endorsement of Israel’s recent and ongoing actions. This is not a statement we intended or wish to make. For this reason, BMFI is canceling the sole screening of the music documentary “The Child Within Me.”

“BMFI is a safe place for civil and nuanced conversations about diverse stories. For the well-being and safety of all patrons, BMFI will not be a location for anger and violence. For those who wish to partake in an IFF screening, there are upcoming screenings at other venues.”

The court order overrode this decision.

Jason Holtzman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council with the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, welcomed the court order.

“The court injunction was granted (so) the film is going to be screened tonight, which we’re really happy about,” he said.

But the cancelation of the Israeli film “is something that never should have happened,” said Holtzman. The film festival “should never have been forced to spend their time on this. But I am pleased they were successful, and the film will be shown tonight.”

Asked about the possibility of protestors, Holtzman said he has every confidence in the Lower Merion police to keep everyone safe.

But other events have been canceled due to fears of violence from pro-Palestinain protesters.

Mark Dubowitz, the CEO of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, posted on social media Tuesday, “I got invited to participate in a debate on the Hamas-Israel war to take place in Washington. It just got canceled for security reasons. In other words, it’s not safe to debate this issue in the nation’s capital. That’s where we are in 2024.”

Other recent cancelations included a concert by Jewish singer Matisyahu in Chicago, which was canceled in March, a meeting of a Republican group with an Israeli official in Houston, and an expo about Israeli real estate was canceled in Brooklyn.

Imagine you’re a Jewish student at a small, exclusive college on the Main Line, where other students are hosting a seminar blaming Israel for allegedly using COVID “as a tool for settler colonialism in Palestine.”

That’s what’s happening at Haverford College this week, part of the school’s “Israel Apartheid Month.”

The Jewish Federation is among those decrying the meeting, which is espousing antisemitic tropes that harken back to Medieval times when “blood libel” was a common antisemitic myth and used to justify pogroms (attacks) against Jews.

The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia called on Haverford College officials to condemn the student-organized campus event entitled “COVID in Times of Genocide: How Israel uses COVID as a Tool for Settler Colonialism in Palestine.”

“The event’s title dangerously and inaccurately implies that Israel spread coronavirus to advance its global control, repackaging a centuries-old antisemitic trope that Jews take advantage of global crises as a means for their own gain and advancement. In this case, the event’s narrative takes on a new form of the antisemitic blood libel trope, accusing Jews of committing ritual murder and perpetuating the harmful stereotype of Jews as evil and conniving,” the federation said.

“Higher education institutions have a responsibility to establish college campuses as a space for free speech and critical thinking. However, it must be rooted in academic integrity rather than disinformation.

“Haverford College and institutions of all sizes have a responsibility first and foremost to protect the safety of their students. This event and the tension on campus that has led to Jewish students and faculty being vulnerable and victimized constitutes a failure of leadership.

“There should be no tolerance for student events that permit dangerous antisemitic tropes and threaten the safety of Jewish students and faculty, particularly when antisemitism is at an all-time high on college campuses following the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack on Israel,” the nonprofit said.

“We urge Haverford College to take immediate action to show its Jewish students and community members that there is zero tolerance for the spread of misinformation and hate on its campus.”

College officials justified allowing students to hold their event.

“At a time of wide-ranging responses to current global matters, our campus is navigating the complexities of learning in community, articulating political and social points of view, and strengthening the relational bonds that allow learning and expression to happen in a safe environment,” said Chris Mills, a Haverford spokesman.

“Haverford supports its community members’ rights to expressive freedom, including around political matters. The ability to challenge ideas and understand conflicting views is foundational to our academic mission. We also expect that even the most well-intentioned individuals will make mistakes in these arenas, and even–and especially–in those moments, we aim to provide learning opportunities that will lead to greater empathy, mutual understanding, and constructive citizenship in a world that is struggling to reach peaceful solutions to conflict,” said Mills.

Jason Holtzman, director of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, told DVJournal, “At a semi-prestigious university you would think that students would be smarter than this. But going into conspiratorial, libelous rhetoric is very dangerous and disturbing.”

The students “should have more critical thinking skills than to buy into conspiratorial claims like this. It’s really dangerous.”

Rav Shai Cherry, senior rabbi at Congregation Adath Jeshurun in Elkins Park, said, “Can’t we expect more from our elite college students than to traffic in a regurgitated blood libel? Is there no commitment to honesty or accuracy in political protests in the age of TikTok?”

“It’s pure insanity,” Holtzman added. “I can’t believe the college would allow this event to go on when antisemitism is at an all-time high on college campuses.”

Haverford is not the only area campus where some students apparently are embracing antisemitism in the wake of the Oct. 7 terror attacks on Israel. The president of the University of Pennsylvania resigned after trying to defend that institution’s policies before Congress.

Haverford College, founded in 1833 by Quakers, has about 1,400 undergraduate students.

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