UC Irvine. A few hundred students and faculty marched through the campus of the University of California, Irvine on Monday, calling for an end to the Jewish state and demanding the university divest from companies connected to Israel, according to local reporting. During the march, anti-Israel protesters yelled profanities at students waiting in line at the campus Starbucks while four students unfurled a banner on the balcony of the Physical Sciences Lecture Hall that read “Your tuition funds genocide.” In stark contrast to this harassment and intimidation, several Jewish students gathered near the school’s administrative hall to pray and memorialize the victims of the October 7 massacre.

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Pomona. An anti-Israel protest at Pomona College in Claremont, California on Monday saw hundreds of protesters walk out of classes, block key streets on the College’s campus and storm the College’s Carnegie Hall, blocking exits and forcing some students to climb out of windows in order to leave. Pomona administrators released a statement saying “Carnegie Hall is now closed, and all individuals should leave that building,” while also lamenting that “what started as a peaceful protest” quickly turned into “the takeover of buildings and the disruption of academic continuity [...] Anyone involved in this disruption is subject to disciplinary action.”

(Source: ABC7)

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Philadelphia. Around 400 anti-Israel protesters marched through Philadelphia on Monday – including students from the University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University, Temple University and other Philadelphia-area universities – as part of the “One Year of Genocide” march organized by the Philadelphia SJP chapter. Four protesters were arrested following a confrontation with police officers during which a protester used a smoke bomb to light a canvas sign on fire. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, “At times, rhetoric at the rally expressed support for the actions of militant groups, with speakers expressing support for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, as well as the ‘al-Aqsa Flood’ — Hamas’ name for the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks.” Videos from social media also show protesters chanting “shut it down” as they march past the emergency room of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Protesters on Monday also chanted in Arabic "Strike, strike, Tel Aviv. Abu Obeida, our beloved." Obeida is a leader of Hamas’ military wing, which led the massacre and rape of hundreds of innocents on 10/7.

(Source: Eyal Yakoby | X/Twitter)

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Minnesota. Around 100 anti-Israel protesters gathered at the University of Minnesota on Monday as part of a walkout organized by the UMN Divest Coalition. The protest featured flags and posters as well as a speaker system with a microphone, all violations of the school’s protest guidelines according to local reporting. Later that evening, approximately 20 protesters, who identified themselves as former students, demonstrated outside the Minnesota Hillel as it hosted an event commemorating the October 7 massacre. According to Minnesota Hillel, “the police dispersed them quickly and without incident.”

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USC. Hundreds of anti-Israel protesters walked out of classes at the University of Southern California on Monday as the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine urged students to “shut down the roads and entrances around campus.” One unnamed USC student said “We’re here to honor our martyrs over the past year [...] “It’s been one year of ongoing genocide, 100 years of occupation.” While those people’s moral compasses were clearly broken, later that night it was a different scene as Jewish groups gathered near the school’s Tommy Trojan statue to remember and mourn “the single largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.”

(Source: usc_sjp | Instagram)

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Emory. The SJP chapter at Emory University in Atlanta hosted a “Memorial Service for Palestine” on Tuesday inviting students to assemble on the university quad in “mourning attire, black clothing, keffiyehs.”

(Source: ADL)

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Harvard. Vandals smashed the windows of a university building and dripped fake blood on the statue of John Harvard at Harvard University early Tuesday morning. According to the New York Times, the group Unity of Fields posted a video that appeared to show this vandalism along with a message saying it was committed by “autonomous actors” who did so “in solidarity with the Palestinian resistance.”

Not On Our Campus. On Sunday, students at Auburn University discovered that Toomer’s Corner, one of the City of Auburn’s most prominent landmarks, had been defaced with antisemitic graffiti saying “From the River to the Sea." But the graffiti didn’t stay long, as unidentified members of the Auburn community quickly rallied to clean up the defaced areas. The AUFAMILY social media account, which describes itself as “the largest Auburn community online,” posted a time-lapse of the rapid cleanup with the caption “Not on our campus.” Jacqui Pearl, the daughter of Auburn’s men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl (the former head coach for the Maccabi USA men's basketball team) had words for the perpetrators: “To do this on the eve of October 7 is inflammatory and done with ill intent. Those defending the message, claiming it’s ’just chalk and can be washed away’ are willfully ignorant. You must be exhausted from all the mental gymnastics you have to do to justify this. Am Yisrael Chai.”

(Source: AUFAMILY | X/Twitter)

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Hurrah Hurrah, Pennsylvania (Senator). Yesterday, Penn Hillel hosted a day’s worth of programming to mark the massacre of October 7 that culminated not only in free dinner in their student-favorite dining hall, but also in a memorial service featuring the Keystone State’s junior Senator John Fetterman. According to the Daily Pennsylvanian, he told the crowd that “he is ‘so sorry’ that they, even on their own campus, have had to reckon with the attack and its aftermath. He added that his ‘voice and [his] vote’ will remain on the side of Israel ‘so things arrive in a better and more peaceful place.’” After the service, Rabbi Gabe Greenberg presented Fetterman with a Penn Hillel hoodie to add to his collection.

(Photo Courtesy of Penn Hillel)

Manchester United. In a show of solidarity, a “large contingent” of UK-based Iranians, joined the Jewish community and others in a march of 4,000 people through the northern England city of Manchester on Sunday for a “Manchester Stands With Israel March and Rally.” The event commemorated those lost during the October 7 massacre, demanded the release of the 101 people still held captive, paid tribute to IDF soldiers and took a stand against surging antisemitism. The co-chair of the North West Friends of Israel, which helped organize the rally, told the crowd “We are not Jews with trembling knees any more. We will always stand up for Israel and our Jewish community here, in the face of rising Jew hate.”

(Source: northwestfriendsofisrael | X/Twitter)

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BYJew. “It’s cool to be the first, but I just want there to be a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and so on.” After starting the football season 5-0, Brigham Young University’s first Jewish starting quarterback, Jake Retzlaff, says he wants “to be somebody out there that can inspire other people, some other practicing Jews in my position.” And in just five games, the redshirt junior has thrown for 1,206 yards and 11 touchdowns. Attending Shabbat services can be difficult for Retzlaff, both because of his football schedule and because there’s no synagogue either on the BYU campus or in the surrounding Utah County, so he uses football to quietly express his faith. “The football field is my sanctuary,” he says.

• Students — how to take action, deal with antisemitism, and organize your community.
• Alumni — how to organize a sign-on letter, answer a fundraising request, or write a letter to a university president.
• Parents — write a letter about commencement, organize a dial day, or get help selecting a college for your student.
• Glossary of Commonly Used Antisemitic Phrases Heard at Protests.
• Campus Antisemitism Report Card — see the grade a college earned in this first-ever report card.
• Report an Antisemitic Incident.
• Are you a student or know one who needs legal help? Contact our Campus Antisemitism Legal Line (CALL), run by ADL, Hillel, the Brandeis Center, and Gibson Dunn. Hundreds of incidents have been reported. You are not alone!

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