As anti-Israel protests heat up again on college campuses across the U.S., Jewish groups at the University of Arizona are focused on helping students take pride in their Jewish identities.
Classes began at the UA on Aug. 26, and the first week of the semester was peaceful.
“The administration here is well aware of the potential for problematic situations to arise,” Elie Dvorin, UA Hillel’s new executive director, said in an interview before the Memorial Day weekend. “We have a lot of support here, from admin, from the security team at the university, from campus partners, from community partners. I think everyone will do what they can to ensure a safe climate for all students.”
On Aug. 23, the Friday before classes began, university officials emailed students, faculty, and staff a reminder of the UA’s commitment to freedom of speech and the need for “our words and actions to remain civil … no matter the strength of our conviction or passion.” The email from Interim Provost Ronald W. Marx and Interim Dean of Students Chrissy Lieberman said that “all members of the university community must have access to the campus.” It highlighted the university’s campus use policy, which prohibits camping, unauthorized sound amplification, and unauthorized structures.
Pro-Palestinian protests at the UA and other campuses began last year after Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing some 1200 Israelis, taking 250 hostages, and igniting the ongoing war in Gaza. Along with protests calling for Palestinian freedom “from the river to the sea,” which most Jews consider a threat to Israel’s existence, the pro-Palestinian faction erected two encampments at the UA in May, resulting in violent clashes with law enforcement.
Dvorin said Hillel needs to achieve “a balancing act” between responding to concerns for students’ safety and emotional well-being, and recognizing that “we can’t change our lives completely. We’re still going to be proud Jews, we’re still going to be an outwardly Jewish organization. I think that’s the goal, not to let outside circumstances change your internal belief structure and the way you embrace your identity.”
On Friday, Aug. 30, Hillel’s Instagram page featured a lighthearted “Almost Shabbat” photo of students playing in a pool of bubbles.
But as Dvorin told the AJP, the situation can change quickly.
On Saturday, Aug. 31, the Jewish world was rocked by the news that Hamas had murdered six hostages in Gaza on the brink of their rescue. The six include American-Israeli Hersh Goldberg-Polin, whose parents’ activism on behalf of the hostages made him a global symbol of Israel’s hostage crisis.
Hillel and its Israeli culture club, Homeland, announced via Instagram on Sept. 1 that memorial candles, pictures, and stories of the victims would be available all week at Hillel. Hours later, they announced “a healing space with members of the Goldberg-Polin family” on Sept. 3.
Tuesday’s Instagram post from Hillel led off with a reminder of the healing vigil but also mentioned other events later in the week, such as a “lounge and learn” and an Israeli coffee bar, in keeping with the balance Dvorin mentioned.
“More than anything, I want Hillel this year to be a place that students come to because they want to, not a place they come to because they feel they have to escape something,” Dvorin said.
Hillel’s “FreshFest” orientation this August drew more than 40 incoming students, three times the number last year, Dvorin said. He noted that Hillel’s programming this year will get a boost from a new Israel Fellow, Michelle Pissarenko, arriving Sept. 12.
At Olami Arizona, UA program director Risa Brumer said she’s met several Jewish students who transferred to the UA this semester “from schools where they just felt there was so much antisemitism.”
“It’s cool to see that the UA has a name out there of being welcoming to Jewish students,” she said.
Since Oct. 7, she said, more students have come to Olami to be surrounded by their Jewish peers and to connect more deeply with their Judaism. She explained they feel, “If this is what everyone is saying on social media about the Jewish people, or about Israel, then I just want to know more about what that really means.”
Last year, Olami’s national organization started a program to make college campuses “zero tolerance” zones for antisemitism. Arizona students lobbied in Washington, D.C., for bills to prevent antisemitism on campus but were told schools need to address the issue themselves. Students also went to Israel to show their support, meeting with Knesset members and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Brumer said Olami also encouraged students to make social media videos responding to antisemitic acts such as graffiti in Tucson, with the message, “This is not OK.” Students asked non-Jewish students to speak out, to stand up for their Jewish peers, if they heard someone make an antisemitic comment.
To show there’s more to Judaism than the Israel-Gaza war, students also handed out bags of Purim candy to non-Jewish students.
In an Instagram video on Sept. 2, Brumer responded to the murder of the hostages, saying one reason Jews feel so much pain at the news is that they had held onto hope.
Citing the example of Goldberg-Polin’s mother, Rachel, she said, “We’re going to continue to be strong and continue to be resilient, because that’s a real Jewish value.”
Chabad at UA Director Rabbi Shmulie Sanowicz is also focused on teaching students to stay strong and be resilient. He noted that growing up in the U.S., most Jewish students hadn’t experienced any real antisemitism before last year.
The number one thing for Jewish students at the UA to know, he said, is that the Jewish organizations on campus are working together and with the administration.
“I think the students feel a very strong sense of security [because] they know everyone’s on the same page,” he said.
Incoming freshmen are choosing UA because they want to avoid universities that are rife with tension, Sanowicz said. “I’m very happy and proud to say that University of Arizona is attracting Jewish students that want to be able to live a normal college life.”
The best answer to antisemitism, he said, is being proud, “not backing down who you are but building up and growing your Jewish identity,”
He said students last year stepped up by taking leadership positions at Chabad, connecting with other organizations or checking in with fellow students. More students came to Chabad events, realizing “it’s important to find your people, to be together, to support each other, to talk.”
“Even though the encampments only happened for a very short time here” compared with other universities, “it shook people up,” he said.
He is looking forward to a year of Jewish pride and students who want to learn more about Judaism, whether through Chabad’s Shabbat and holiday dinners or a program called The Jewish U, where students can take classes and earn credits they can redeem for cash or trips.
Olami has a similar program, a Jewish Pride fellowship that gives students a forum to discuss Israel, antisemitism, and Jewish identity while earning a stipend, Brumer said.
Dean Albert, a junior who is president of Hillel’s Homeland club, noted that more Jewish students came to Hillel last year because they felt uncomfortable talking to non-Jewish friends about Oct. 7.
But Homeland tries to stay a-political, he said, programming fun events like a Master Chef-style contest and Mimouna, a Moroccan-style post-Passover festival that has become an Israeli tradition.
“We need to be proactively cognizant of the security situation at all times,” Dvorin reiterated, “but if that’s our only concern, we’ve already lost.”
