I Fought for My Non-Jewish Peers—Their Silence Now Is Deafening

I’m a junior at Vanderbilt majoring in Public Policy Studies and English. I’ve found that although teens in America are not directly in battle, they are feeling the effects of the Israel-Hamas War on college campuses and school districts across the country.

As a college student, I’ve felt the divisions on campus following October 7. I am Jewish and have participated in Israeli-Palestinian dialogue through an organization called Seeds of Peace.

At school, I was appointed to the Student Advisory Board of the Vanderbilt Project of Unity and American Democracy and I am part of Vanderbilt’s Interfaith Scholars Program.

While I’ve been in the room where heavy and difficult conversations have taken place, I’ve also noticed the reactionary environment of college campuses. I have seen many one-sided infographics about the conflict, and I often feel that there is a lack of history and context.

Findings from a poll conducted that Millenials and Gen Z were less likely to say that the American Government should support Israel in the Israel-Hamas War than older generations, including Gen X, Baby Boomers, and Silent and Greatest. Of note, Millennials and Gen Z were most likely to say that the American Government should criticize Israel.

I criticize Israel’s policies, but I also put my foot down on antisemitism. I recently attended an ADL event where Jonathan Greenblatt spoke about the spike of antisemitism following October 7.

While I recognize that anti-Zionism is often antisemitism, many of my peers do not understand how their infographics on social media isolate their Jewish peers.

As an NYC public school student who has tirelessly campaigned for social justice and equality, I have felt isolated and unsupported. I have fought battles for many of my peers, but I have found the silence to be deafening.

Differences between generations are also evident in the preferred method of acquiring news. In a 2022 Statistica poll, 47 percent of people aged 18-34 receive their daily news from social media as compared to 20 percent of people aged 65 and older receive their daily news from social media.

The Oakland Unified School District is being investigated by the federal Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights due to an unauthorized teach-in on Palestine. The teach-in utilized curriculum resources referring to the “Israel apartheid.”

I chatted with Eitan Fogelman, a senior at the University of British Columbia who is Jewish, from the Bay Area. I chose to speak with Eitan because the Bay Area has recently been perceived as the epicenter of antisemitism, especially given Oakland’s curriculum and the recent violence against Jewish students at Berkeley.

Eitan worries about the Oakland teach-in curriculum’s bias. “The fact that schools equate Zionism with colonialism shows how shallow educational institutions have become in understanding the Middle East, let alone Jewish history,” he said.

I also spoke to sixteen-year-old Moriyah Smith in the Bay Area, whose family is from Israel. She hopes that schools can change their curriculum to better address the war. The high school sophomore attends a charter school in Oakland, a city where many students come from diverse cultures.

Moriyah admitted that living in the ethnically diverse city of Oakland does sometimes present challenges. “People don’t outright say they hate you,” she said. She used to share that her family was from Israel, but now she does not feel comfortable making this disclosure. After the conflict began, a friend at school asked her if she was lying about the Holocaust because she is Jewish.

“They think Jews are a majority. One of my friends thought Jews caused the Holocaust and put everyone else in camp,” she said. “It feels like everyone is against me.”

Like other Jewish students across the U.S, Moriyah has seen an increase in antisemitism. “I’m not allowed to speak Hebrew anymore on the street in Oakland,” she said. The reason—her family fears she will be attacked. She said she believed that if she put up posters highlighting the plight of the hostages, these posters would be taken down in Oakland.

After speaking with Eitan and Moriyah, I feel angry that my generation seems to not understand how the Holocaust only occurred two generations ago. Holocaust survivors are dying, and members of my generation may have never had the opportunity to get first-hand accounts from survivors. In addition, many schools do not have a robust history and civics curriculum.

My grandmother was part of The Holocaust Council of Greater MetroWest New Jersey, and I first met Fred Heyman, a 94-year-old survivor of the Holocaust, when I was an elementary school student engaged in an activity of building the Warsaw Ghetto using LEGO blocks.

Fred knows all too well what Moriyah is experiencing. Fred has been an invited speaker in schools and colleges across the country. He lived through a genocide and is alarmed by the recent rise of antisemitism amidst the War. Fred was born in 1929 in Berlin, Germany, and dates the Holocaust from 1933 when Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany.

“I saw 12 years under the Nazis,” he said.

According to Fred, Israel is defending itself against Hamas following the Oct. 7 attacks where Hamas killed 1,200 people.

In reference to the International Court of Justice ruling where Israel was ordered to “prevent genocide” but no ceasefire was called, Fred said he believed that Israel has to prove it is doing the right thing. He believes that this was Israel’s Holocaust, and Fred worries about the hostages who are in captivity in Gaza.

“I’ve seen a good part of the world, the world is no longer what we had,” he said.

As the Israel-Hamas War continues, Fred Heyman said he believes the conflict is evolving into World War III, and he wants American youth to understand that they cannot put themselves in other people’s shoes. While many young adults have been active on social media and posting about the Israel-Hamas War, Fred said, “Social media is what somebody else is saying.”

Fred has seen the recent tensions on college campuses. Currently, both Jewish and Muslim students are feeling afraid on college campuses.

He said he hopes youth learn to not hate each other. Fred made an analogy and sees hate as being an application. Just like phones have apps, he sees hate as a state of being.

Given that Fred is 94, I felt a sense of urgency to share his story and wisdom. I hope that my generation will listen.

He ended by saying, “There’s enough H-A-T-E out there.” The app we need in this moment of tension and polarization, rather than social media, is love.

I have spoken with my non-Jewish peers since October 7, and I am reading books about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the history of the Middle East.

I have invited my non-Jewish peers to different events on my School’s campus, such as the ADL talk and Shabbat dinners. I also have been actively involved in attending multicultural events, such as a Bengali party and interfaith volunteering to support those in Nashville who experience housing insecurity or homelessness.

Ilana Drake is a junior at Vanderbilt majoring in Public Policy Studies and English, and she has written for numerous publications including Insider, Ms. Magazine, and The Tennessean.

All views expressed are the author’s own.

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