Meet the Jewish students speaking to US lawmakers about Columbia’s protests | Education News

Washington, DC – Jewish students involved in protests at Columbia University say that their pro-Palestinian activism is promoted by their faith, not despite it.

On Tuesday, a group of Jewish student activists with members of the United States Congress in Washington, DC, to tell their stories, which have been left out of conventional narratives about anti -Semitism in university campuses.

As student protests against the Israel War in Gaza swept the country last year, Columbia University in New York became a point of inflammation.

The University saw one of the first students of students in the country, erected to demand the end of investments in companies congratulations in human rights abuses. Shortly after the tents began to appear, the campus also witnessed some of the first mass judges of the manifested students in the Palestinian solidarity movement.

This visibility has turned Columbia into a focal point for the efforts of President Donald Trump to take energetic measures against what he called “illegal protests” and the anti -Semitism of the campus.

Earlier this year, Columbia student, Mahmoud Khalil, became the first student activist to be arrested by the Trump administration and attacked for deportation.

The delegation of Jewish students arrived at Congress to promote the case that Khalil and others like him should never have been arrested in his name. They with at least 17 democratic legislators of the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Al Jazeera spoke with several students who participated in Lobby’s Day, which was organized by the action of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), a defense organization. These are some of their stories:

Tali Beckwith-Coen

Raised in the north of the state of New York, History Commander Tali Beckwith-Con said he grew in a community where Zionism was the norm. She remembers that they have told her “myths” about Palestine as “a land without a people for a landless people”: a motto used to justify the establishment of Israel.

But when he begged to learn the Palestinian history and meet the Palestinians, Beckwith-Coen said their beliefs were challenged.

Pootoly, after the war in Gaza, in October 2023, was involved in the activism of Palestinian rights.

Human rights groups and experts in the United Nations have found evidence that Israel’s tactics in Gaza are “consistent with genocide.” More than 52,615 Palestinians have died in the conflict so far.

“For a long time, I had this son of feeling of discomfort, this feeling of wrestling, this feeling of perhaps cognitive dissonance and how I carry the thesis values. Beckwith-Coen told Al Jazeera.

“We are seeing bombing, contempt for human life, for children, hospitals, for schools. It forced me to make a decision.”

She emphasized that the protests were spaces of solidarity, where the students of all the origins were committed to the idea that their security is intertwined.

“There is a lot in the media narrative about what is happening on the Columbia campus that is simply false and so false for what we have experienced,” said Beckwith-Coen.

“So today we are here to tell the people of Congress that what we are seeing on the campus is clearly an authoritarian and fascist offensive against Aldonent, not only students reading peacefully for the end of genocide.”

Carly Shaffer

When Carly Shaffer expressed concern about the Israeli climbing in Gaza in a WhatsApp chat of the University, some of her classmates questioned her Judaism.

Of the hundreds of people in the chat, remember that Khalil, the activist arrested for deportation, was the only person who contacted his directly, to reject the comments to which he was subjected.

When he met Khalil, he came to see him as the “incarnation” or someone who cared for the safety of all students on the campus.

Shaffer told Al Jazeera that he felt “sick” and “horrified” when Khalil was arrested. His discomfort was aggravated when he saw that Trump’s White House celebrated his arrest on social networks with the phrase “Shalom, Mahmoud”, a Jewish greeting reused as a mockery.

Shaffer, who is studying a master’s degree in human rights and social policies, grew up in California and was raised by a single mother in a low -income home.

She said that talking against injustice, even in Palestine, is a practice rooted in her Jewish faith.

“Columbia’s protest movement is a love movement. It is a movement of solidarity,” Shaffer said. “And Jewish students are also integral and crucial for this movement.”

She said that when the religious events of the Jewish heroes protesters on the campus, her campaigns joined them and asked about their traditions.

“These are the same students who are portrayed as anti -Semites, who are doing everything possible to go and learn about Easter and celebrate a Jewish vacation with their Jewish friends,” Shaffer told Al Jazeera.

She denounced the “anti -Semitism weapon”, saying that the problem is being used to close the conversations about Israeli atrocities in Gaza.

“Jewish students are being used as pawns on Trump’s political agenda,” he said. “And the weapon of anti -Semitism to dismantle this movement is not just a threat to Jewish students; it is a threat to all of us. That is why Jewish students direct this false narrative.”

Sarah Borus

The student of Barnard College Sarah Borus, who was arrested during the repression of the Columbia camp, said she grew up in an antisionist family in a “very Zionist community.”

She felt that it was important for Jewish students as she transmit their experiences directly to people in power in Washington, DC.

“We are talking to members of Congress to tell you our stories that are left out of the main news,” Borus told Al Jazeera.

“Trump’s mission is not about protecting Jewish Students. It is about using frears of anti-semitism-because of the way that the gaz target to target, and order to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to target to objective for the objective for the objective for the objective for the goal for the goal for the objective for the objective for the goal for the goal.

When asked how he feels about the possible reaction of his activism, Borus acknowledged that the current political climate left her fearful.

“I am afraid, but in the great scheme of things, I am proud of the elections I have taken,” he said. “It would not be different, and I am willing to assume the risks, if that is what should be done.”

Shay Orenticher

Shay Orentlher does not regret participating in the camps of Columbia University, despite administrative and political repressions.

Orenticher said that Christian nationalists are trying to erase the perspective of pro-Palestinian Jewish students and define Judaism in a way that fits their political purposes.

But protesting against the murder of Palestinians, said Orentlich, is an expression of Jewish and humanistic values. And Ontentlicher believes that Columbia’s manifestations have helped raise awareness throughout the country.

“Despite the oppression we have faced, despite suffering, and the despair of the despair of worrying that we have not done enough to stop the genocide, to defend the Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, I think we have changed public discourse in a reality way”, “,”

“And we also build a really beautiful community. And I do not regret what I did at all. I wouldn’t change anything.”

Rafie

Raphie, who decided to identify only by his first name, said he grew “very Zionist.” But as he learned more about the conflict between the Israelis and the Palestinians, he felt that he had cheated his leg.

“The Jewish elementary school to which I went, for example, had a map of Israel, and it was like a diamond, not the West Bank or Gaza,” he said.

“When I saw the real map with the occupied territories, I thought:” Wait, it was a song. “And that boy from Made Me Wit in all this exploration trip is what Zionism is, what occupation is, what colonial is colonialism.”

Raphie, who studies mathematics, said that the war against Gaza, the protests of the campus and the violent reaction faced by the protesters who faced all felt a “personal responsibility to fight for what is correct.”

In their experience, the manifestations were cozy, not anti -Semitic. What was anti -Semitic, he said, was the fact that the University attacked Jewish student protesters for their political views.

Several students, including Raphie, said Columbia refused to grant students associated with the Jewish voice for peace the necessary permission to celebrate religious celebrations in public spaces. They described that rejection as a form of discrimination.

The University did not respond to the request for comments from Al Jazeera for the time of publication.

Raphie also drew a distinction between feeling uncomfortable with the ideas that challenge the worldview and the real of being insecure.

“It is normal at the university to find new points of view, new perspectives. This is how I became more Palestinian and anti -section,” he said. “Initial I felt uncomfortable when I found anti-session points of view, but then I came to understand them. That’s normal.”

Raphie emphasized that the real suffering is happening in Gaza.

“The students who are not safe at this time, of course, are the students in Gaza. Each university in Gaza has been destroyed. They had food for 60 days.”