a wake up call
A Wake up Call
By Rabbi Stanley Helinski, Esq.
One would wonder if what followed October 7, 2023, could have been foreseen or were even perhaps contemplated. For a short time, Israel was pitied. The World surrounded our people. As history has shown us, it seldom lasts.
If the United States were attacked in a manner similar to those children and in Ertez Yisrael, we no doubt would have seen the familiar phrase, “shock and awe” that we have seen in the past. The perpetrators would have been rubble in days. The American people would have demanded it. The writer of this essay is a longtime attorney—a civil rights lawyer who bathes in the brilliant principles of our democracy and the Bill of Rights. Were it not for the ideas of a true democracy, historical figures such as Galileo would never have even been known.
However, what actually happened on October 7 and all of the opinions giving rise to this worldwide crisis? America—the most powerful and influential country on the planet—is split down the middle over the circumstances that are presently taking place in the Middle East. This is not, necessarily, a bad thing. That is America—a place where opinions generally go unpunished no matter how radical. But for the first time since probably the Jim Crowe era, students in colleges around the country are mobilizing against the State of Israel.
On March 24, 2024, twelve students of Emerson college were arrested for protesting against Israel. While the school has requested for the Suffolk District Attorney’s office to dismiss the charges against those protestors, the arrests are indicative of a much larger problem growing at colleges and universities in the United States. This author was able to sit down with Emerson College professor Dr. Robert E. Brown, Ph.D.—an educator with twenty-four years of experience teaching at Harvard University as well as Salem State College—about his observations regarding antisemitism on college campuses.
Dr. Brown reports that he sees a shift in Jewish sentiment on college campus since October 7. Jewish students who choose to highlight injustices brought upon the Jewish people are newly met with odd silence and cautiousness. Dr. Brown reports that painting of swastikas—the symbol of unambiguous hatred and evil—were found on college campuses in prior institutions in which he has instructed. Dr. Brown believes that college administrations are historically slow to investigate these incidents for what he believes may be a view of pro-Jewish sentiment. He reports that he has a Jewish student who will no longer wear a Star of David because she is afraid. Dr. Brown (himself Jewish) has seen a significant trend away from Israeli sentiment as the war in the Middle East rages on.
The discussion of antisemitism in this country and abroad has typically been a topic freely open to honest discussion on college campuses as one that is deeply rooted in World History. It is a topic believed to be necessary if nothing more than to avoid repetition—much like studying the people of the Congo overtaken by Belgium—a time we can never forget. But, as we pass Purim and remember (and with some names of that era, of course, are Commanded to forget) this refrain of attacks on the Jewish people (for no other reason but for being Jewish) in this particular moment in history seems have created a unique and unexpected but familiar circumstance: some leaders in Congress and students on college campus once again appear to be aligning themselves against the Jewish people. The anti-Israeli sentiments on college campuses are growing, and administrations are reluctant to be involved. The recent resignations of ivy-league institutional leaders shed some light on something that Jewish people find hard to believe: that antisemitism is on the rise at a grassroots level. Did Hamas and the other terror groups contemplate or plan this as part of their attacks on Israel? We will never likely know. But the problem may no longer be ignored. Large groups of people in this country are aligning themselves against Israel and, thus, against the Jewish nation. While this author does not support the casualties of civilians, which include children, the Jewish people have had to defend themselves since the time of Abraham (if not longer). We find ourselves, once again, faced with opposition and growing anti-Israel sentiment.
Like the story of the people of the Congo (look this up if you have not heard), we must not let history be written by those with an agenda that differs from the truth. The cacophony of anti-Israel voices on college campuses is growing according to longtime professor, Dr. Brown. He pleads with us to take every opportunity to educate our younger generation against the great weight of disinformation polluting our college campuses. Please hear his voice and help combat this growing acceptance of antisemitism in this new generation of thinkers.
Rabbi Stanley Helinski, Esq. is a family law attorney in Massachusetts who practices in most courts of the Commonwealth and also practices law in Framingham