Cornell Jewish Unity Rally: “the best thing that students can do to combat the hatred that we’re seeing is to stand strong”
Student Amanda Silberstein (headline quote) and I appear on Fox News: “This is a show of solidarity with the students. This event is really about the students who for six months now have undergone almost nonstop harassment, nonstop intimidation, from anti-Israel groups and anti-Israel professors.”
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I previously wrote about the ‘Jewish Unity Rally‘ being held at Cornell on Sunday, April 12, 2024, at which I will be speaking.
The NY Post already has covered the story:
“I will be attending and speaking at the rally to show my support for Jewish students on campus, many of whom feel abandoned by the administration and faculty,” said Cornell law professor William Jacobson, founder of EqualProtect.org, a right-leaning civil rights group.
“Now more than ever, it is important to show students they are not alone, and that there are faculty who are willing to stand with them in this difficult time.
Student Amanda Silberstein and I appeared this afternoon on Fox News America Reports with Sandra Smith:
Transcript (auto-generated, may contain transcription errors)
Video – Amanda Silberstein (00:00):
I never thought twice about putting on my Jewish star every day about opening my computer with my Hebrew keyboard in class. But today I do think twice about that. And a the thought of being persecuted for who I am, being looked at differently and being discriminated against crosses my mind multiple times a day. So
Sandra Smith (00:19):
That was Amanda Silverstein, a Jewish sophomore at Cornell University. She testified to lawmakers earlier this year after a wave of anti-Semitic protests hit college campuses nationwide. This week alone, one of Cornell’s former students pleaded guilty to sending anti-Semitic online threats to classmates. All of this led students there to plan a Jewish unity rally to combat antisemitism.
Joining us now is Amanda Silberstein and William Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor, set to speak during Sunday’s rally. So thanks to both of you for joining us. Professor, if you could just sort of preview what’s going to happen on Sunday first.
WAJ (00:57):
Well, we’re expecting up to a thousand students, maybe more. This is a campus with 3000 Jewish students. I know people are coming from off campus who want to participate. There’s going to be a number of speakers. I think I’m the only faculty speaker, but this is a show of solidarity with the students. This event is really about the students who for six months now have undergone almost nonstop harassment, nonstop intimidation, from anti-Israel groups and anti-Israel professors. So this is a student event and I think it’s going to be a great show of solidarity.
Smith (01:31):
Amanda, you are a Jewish student there at Cornell Sophomore. What has that been like for you?
Silberstein (01:38):
Especially since October 7th, there’s been a true surge in antisemitism on our campus. American college campuses have recently emerged as one of the main major sites for the expressions of hatred against the Jews. And not only is hate speech being sanctioned on our campus, as long as Jews are the targets, but even affirmative calls for violence and genocide against the Jews are being permitted and not stopped by any administration or faculty across campuses and especially at Cornell.
Smith (02:10):
Professor, I think about how long this has been going on. I mean, rewind the tape. This is October, 2023. Professor Russell Rickford. Listen here.
Video of Russell Rickford (02:21):
Hamas has shifted the balance of power. Hamas has punctured the illusion of invincibility. It was exhilarating, it was energizing.
Smith (02:32):
We all remember that, right? It was exhilarating. It was energizing. Looking back at that attack, professor, Cornell’s president responded with a statement. It took a while. It was December 9th, 2023. “Over the past few days, a number of universities, including Cornell, have been asked by members of Congress to make clear their policies around genocide. Genocide is abhorrent and Cornell condemns calls for the genocide of any people. An explicit call for genocide to kill all members of a group of people would be a violation of our policies.”
Professor, what would you say about the way the universities are responding to this problem?
WAJ (03:12):
Well, I think that statement is a good example. It’s carefully worded to use a definition of genocide that is not the standard definition. The people on this campus are calling for mass murder of Jews. They may not be calling for murder of all Jews, and therefore they would not run afoul of the administration policy. So that’s part of the problem.
That professor’s attitude of feeling exhilarated is an attitude shared by many professors, shared by many students on campus, and they verbalize it. They march with bullhorns calling for an Intifada. Intifada was the suicide bombing campaign against Israel. They march with bullhorns inside academic buildings, calling for ‘from the river to the sea. Palestine will be free’. By the way, that is a phrase that was one of the phrases shouted by that junior, in the criminal complaint against him. Those are all acceptable on this campus only because they were directed towards Jews.
Smith (04:08):
Amanda, if I could just finish off, ahead of the weekend. When we do expect to see this rally and hear the professor talk, I mean the report card your school got was a D, you know, the Jewish bigotry. It’s an Ivy League school. You’re a student there. I know you’re proud to go there. Have you ever considered leaving?
Silberstein (04:28):
I frankly have not considered leaving. I think that the best thing that students can do to combat the hatred that we’re seeing is to stand strong, is to show that we will not be silenced into submission. And that’s what this rally is about. It’s really a testament to our collective strength and resilience as a community, and showing that we are unapologetically Jewish on this campus. And that will never change.
Smith (04:52):
Amanda, thank you so much. Professor, thank you. We’ll be watching to see what happens this weekend.
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Comments
After six months of “almost nonstop harassment, nonstop intimidation, from anti-Israel groups and anti-Israel professors.”
…and you “have not considered leaving.”
Well, I’m pretty sure that after that interview ended and the cameras were turned off , the interviewer and the technical staff looked at each other, shook their heads, looked down at the floor, and quietly said something like, “These people truly are morons.”
And then, later on, they went home after work and told their families, “Well today at work I witnessed with my own eyes , in real time, how the Holocaust happened. It was unbelievable. I’m still having trouble processing it….. very troubling.”
Leaving for where exactly?
The careers people going to college are trying to embark on requires a college education.
The only way this shit stops is if Jews in America grow some fucking balls and start dishing out some justice to these racists:
Until these clowns understand their actions have painful consequences they will continue to target the easy, low hanging fruit simply because their is no physical risk going after Jews.
You’ve probably seen me express it a bit differently, mailman. My idea is that American Jews should become a lot more Israeli. Stop being so passive, and fight back, and fight back hard. And if necessary, fight dirty. No Marquee of Queensbury nonsense.
It is often necessary to get a little dirty when fighting dirt bags. It is the same as a child, and then later in the corporate world. There are a lot of unethical people. one has to be hard nosed when dealing with them.
It would help if they stopped actively supporting the people harming them. Jews overwhelmingly support the prog agenda.
Jews seem addicted to the Democrat Kibbutz. Probably because they hate Israel as much as they hate America.
Amanda and perfesser, watch your back.
Isis is here.
The video of that Cornell “professor” shrieking about how the hamas savagery was “exhilarating” always reminds me of the old … “G-d bless America?? No, no NO! G-D DAMN America!!” Barky’s friendly marxist pretend pastor, who’s sermons Barky had no idea about at all … not even a hint … even though the moron stole the title of one of Wright’s asinine sermons for one of his dreadful books (that, like the others, every leftist bought but no one read).
Personally, I hate to hear people screech about “hate speech”. Hate is allowed. Hating is part of liberty. People are allowed to hate anyone they want .. and they don’t even have to justify their hate. The problem with the universities is that they have firm restrictions on exactly who you are allowed to hate and who you are allowed to make fun of. Even a minor infraction against anyone the university deems “unhatable” and you will find yourself either thrown out of school or graded down to failing out. But for those the university deems deserving of hate, it’s open season and “free speech” for all hate. The universities are the worst thought-control lunatics in the world. But it’s not even thought control so much as they are just really bad, evil, sick people.
If you just loudly accuse them of being morons, being morons won’t work so well.
On the positive side, bring out what they’re morons about – constant efforts at mutually beneficial trade with Gaza, each one (list them) bombed out or shot up by Hamas.
Attempting trade with was a good idea. Today, most Pales are welfare recipients, on the dole from Israel. All that welfare should end.
@ An Old Retired Jew
keeping in mind that NYS is only one amongst several that does not permit a person to defend themselves with the sometimes necessary lethal force required
only one reason why they went went so (apparently) willingly onto the cattle cars
American Jews should perhaps make it known that if the powers that be do not act to eliminate the antisemitism, then they will have no choice other than to act, like their Israeli brethren, against those supporting Jewish genocide.
Respond to the hatred — Be a tad more vigilant around the hateful. Otherwise ignore them. They’ve shown what they are worth, so…
Violence– Treat it as violence, no matter if claimed to stem from carefully tended hatreds, and justifications. Assault. Detention & Restriction of Movement, Battery, Destruction of Property, Theft, etc. etc. Depends on the specific action and the jurisdiction. Like the speaker in another thread who promised to murder people who virtue-signaled wrong, That assault is over the line because it is assault.
Incivility — insist on the conventional reciprocal civility of a place, time, venue or event.