I am a Columbia University alum. From 2000-2004, I studied music. Those four years were instrumental in the work I do as a Rabbi today, using music as a tool for engaging communities in Jewish life.
However, I was also on the Columbia University campus during tense times. I will never forget 9/11, with vigils around campus, a sense of unity, students united for good over evil.
At the same time, I was present for the height of the Second Intifada, where I witnessed a divisiveness that I had never seen in my life. And I was present as a Rabbinical student in 2007 when Columbia University welcomed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak in front of hundreds of students.
In 2019, the Columbia College Student Council held a referendum to gauge student support as to whether the university should divest from Israel.
I wrote in The Jewish Journal then, “The university that allowed me to think critically now allows it students to promote a position of BDS, which hides behind the mask of antisemitism.”
As a college student, I was silent, and I did not comprehend what it meant to use my voice.
Five years later in April 2024, on the holiday of Passover, I reread my words and I vowed not to be silent.
As Jew hatred spreads rampantly like wildfire at Columbia University and across the country to our local colleges and universities, the Sinai Temple Israel Center along with The Zionist Rabbinic Coalition and Eagles Wings Ministry authored a letter signed by close to 500 rabbis, pastors, and faith leaders from around North America and Israel, demanding safety for Jewish students.
Our voices must not stand alone. We must speak with our friends who are willing to stand by our side. We cannot wait.
As you will see in the letter, which you can find HERE, we have friends. We must acknowledge their support, uphold these relationships, and as we will read on the last days of Passover, walk arm in arm as we cross the sea into the Promised Land.
