Jews get passed over on Passover

In the worst anti-Jewish college campus protests since…well, maybe ever, the oldest virus is spreading from university to university in a copycat pattern that should make every American ashamed.  Worse, the Biden administration is paying lip service when action is required.  And the virus continues to spread in the process.  Why not?  There has been no treatment provided.

Our president is green-lighting the anti-Jewish harassment by responding with nothing but talk.  Surprisingly, Americans — both non-Jewish and even Jewish — are not condemning this anti-Jewish unrest.  The subject should be on the front page of every newspaper.  But no…speaking out against our president is not en vogue.

Enough is enough.  We are witnessing a lack of leadership!  Our president is allowing pogroms on college campuses.  The N.Y. Post reported, “Columbia rabbi warns Jewish students to go home, don’t come back to campus because of ‘extreme antisemitism.”  A Jewish Columbia University professor requested a police escort onto campus and got denied.  He then was even denied access to the campus.  His comment: “This is 1938.”  According to the Free Press, chants of “go back to Poland” were cast at Jewish counter-protesters at Columbia, along with “Burn Tel Aviv to the ground.”  This from the so-called ceasefire crowd.

According to the Boston Globe, “Emerson, MIT, Tufts students camp out in solidarity with Columbia pro-Palestinian protest.”

Meanwhile, the White House issued a press release from the deputy press secretary!  You read that right — a message from just the deputy press secretary.  Not even the press secretary.  Did she refuse?  This campus unrest, this intimidation of Jewish students, is happening on the Biden administration’s watch. 

The president’s Passover message came this week.  Ironically, he implicated himself in the countrywide campus conflagration: “we must speak out against the alarming surge of antisemitism — in our schools, communities, and online.  Silence is complicity.”  Yes, silence is complicity, Mr. President.

And why does he say “we”?  What are you doing, Mr. President?  Talk is useless.  We need action.

Americans think that criticizing the president means you support the “orange-haired monster.”  So with that, people are silent.  But what really does one thing have to do with another?  If the abuse experienced by Jews were directed at any other minority group, there would be unanimous condemnation.  It is not acceptable to any Jew — on campus or off.  And as they say, what happens to the Jews is a key indicator of what will happen to others.  What starts with the Jews never ends with the Jews.

By not directly protesting and stopping what is going on at college campuses, we are saying the offensive behavior — and what it represents — is okay.  The green light stays on.  What is going on is 1930s Germany: pogroms on campuses, Jewish students blocked from going to classes, Jewish students intimidated, Jewish students attacked, Jewish students injured.  All we get from the president on Passover is that “we” should speak out.

This Jew-hating behavior, once deemed unimaginable, now seems permissible due to the president’s inaction.  We all need to wrap our heads around the nature of the problem.  It is not about politics.  It is about the safety of Jews, and ultimately, of us all.

Dr. Michael Berenhaus is a freelance activist who works to combat anti-Israel bias in the media.  He has been widely published in news sources such as The Economist, The New York Times, and The Washington Post.

Image: hendricjabs via Pixabay, Pixabay License.