Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson visited Columbia College this previous week amid protests surrounding the Israel-Hamas battle. Johnson met with Jewish college students who expressed considerations for his or her security.
SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
On yesterday’s present, we talked to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who defended the protests sweeping school campuses in opposition to expenses of antisemitism.
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BERNIE SANDERS: When you’ve gotten a big majority of the American individuals who, amongst different issues, don’t help extra U.S. army assist to Netanyahu’s battle machine, we’re not going to counsel that each one of these individuals are antisemitic.
DETROW: This night, we’re listening to from among the Jewish college students at Columbia College who met with Home Speaker Mike Johnson final week. And as NPR’s Barbara Sprunt reviews, they’ve a special perspective.
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BARBARA SPRUNT, BYLINE: Mike Johnson stepped onto campus as stress stays excessive between the administration and college students who’ve erected encampments, as they name for the college to divest from corporations that function in Israel. The gang loudly booed the Home speaker.
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MIKE JOHNSON: A rising variety of college students have chanted in help of terrorists. They’ve chased down Jewish college students. They’ve mocked them, they usually reviled them. They’ve shouted racial epithets. They’ve screamed at those that bear the Star of David.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) We won’t hear you. We won’t hear you.
JOHNSON: Take pleasure in your free speech.
SPRUNT: Whereas protesters chanted over Johnson, Jewish college students at an earlier personal assembly with him and different GOP lawmakers stated they have been grateful a number one political determine listened to their tales in particular person.
XAVIER WESTERGAARD: For him to listen to them firsthand and never simply to see third-party movies was very highly effective.
SPRUNT: That is Xavier Westergaard, a Ph.D. scholar. He stated Johnson advised the group he’d name President Biden to ask what govt motion may very well be taken to assist Jewish college students who really feel unsafe due to varied antisemitic speech and harassment they are saying they confronted on and off of campus from protesters.
WESTERGAARD: Jewish college students, together with myself, have been the victims of bodily violence, intimidation. This goes from shoving, spitting, being advised to return to Europe. And this isn’t simply occurring outdoors the gates. This was really on campus.
SPRUNT: Protesters say their demonstration has been peaceable and that among the antisemitic occasions which have gotten on-line consideration are coming from actors outdoors of campus. However Westergaard says he is experiencing antisemitism on campus.
WESTERGAARD: I’ve heard, we would like all Zionists off campus. I’ve heard, demise to the Zionist state, demise to America, demise to Zionists. And as a Jew, I really feel that Zionism and Judaism could be teased aside with an amazing quantity of care and compassion and data, however it’s additionally only a canine whistle that folks use after they’re speaking concerning the Jews.
SPRUNT: Juliana Castillo, a historical past and philosophy main, was additionally within the assembly with lawmakers. She stated the considerations of some Jewish college students aren’t solely about bodily security.
JULIANA CASTILLO: There are issues like intimidation, like feeling uncomfortable being brazenly Jewish or feeling uncomfortable taking a direct route throughout campus. And it would not at all times manifest as an absence of bodily security. Typically it manifests as feeling unwelcome in a category or feeling like individuals’s viewpoints or views are usually not revered.
SPRUNT: Eliana Goldin, a junior, was a part of a bunch of Jewish college students who obtained a message from a rabbi related to Columbia, saying he really useful they go residence and keep there till the scenario on campus improves.
ELIANA GOLDIN: It was positively wild to obtain that textual content, however I feel he did the exhausting factor and made the suitable name as a result of I witnessed it myself.
SPRUNT: She stated some Jewish college students are debating whether or not to return to campus after the Passover vacation.
GOLDIN: I do know some people who find themselves very, very afraid and do not need to come again to campus and who need to switch.
SPRUNT: New York Republican Congressman Anthony D’Esposito, who joined Johnson on campus, stated the administration has did not make all college students really feel they’re protected and welcome.
ANTHONY D’ESPOSITO: They’re actually involved that their voices are usually not being heard after they make complaints about, once more, being assaulted, being spit on, being advised that each one Jews ought to die. And they don’t seem to be getting any response from the people who’re actually being paid to guard them.
SPRUNT: A bunch of Democrats additionally visited Columbia this week, together with North Carolina Congresswoman Kathy Manning. She needs Congress to take motion to handle antisemitism and says it is not restricted to universities.
KATHY MANNING: I discover that deeply disturbing, that in america of America individuals are actually afraid to be acknowledged in public as being Jewish.
SPRUNT: There’s quite a lot of measures the Home can take up addressing antisemitism, and the chamber already has one invoice with bipartisan help slated for the week forward. Barbara Sprunt, NPR Information, Washington.
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