Thousands of rabbis gathered Sunday in Brooklyn for their famous annual Chabad event, including hundreds on the front lines on some of the nation’s most vigilant and rabidly anti-Semitic campuses.
Several rabbis who attended the photogenic event in Crown Heights and run Jewish centers at liberal American universities described to The Post how their campuses have become dangerous hotbeds of hate since the Hamas massacre in Israel on October 7.
“It’s been disturbing, it’s been disconcerting; it’s been a shock to students to see that kind of immediate brazenness, where protesters came out before the blood had even dried, to shout so boldly on campus without any qualification,” the rabbi said. Levi Haskelevich, Chabad rabbi at the University of Pennsylvania for the past 23 years, referring to protesters who support the Palestinian cause.
Haskelvich was recently recorded on a viral video helping a student put on tefillin, or leather straps containing sections of the Torah for prayer, while a group of pro-Palestinian students paraded chanting “Palestine will be free from the river to the sea.”
U.S. college campus rabbis (from left) Shmuly Weiss, Levi Haskelevich, Schneur Oirechman, Meir Chaim Posner and Shalom Elkan are on the front lines of the battle against campus anti-Semitism. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post
“We have students who are doing their doctorates and they said that since the time of the attacks they could not find a safe place on campus,” he said.
In the five weeks since Israel was rocked by the surprise terrorist attack, some American universities have been inundated with violent pro-Hamas demonstrations and horrific attacks on Jewish students.
Prestigious institutions, including New York University and Columbia University in the Big Apple, have received resounding failing grades for their responses to the recent surge in anti-Semitism.
But as hate swirls around them, many American Jewish students appear to regain a sense of pride in their religion and their origins, the rabbis said.
Weiss, the Chabad rabbi at McGill University, said the hate has sparked an enormous amount of defiant Jewish pride. The NY Post’s Kevin C. Downs Posner, who has been Chabad rabbi at Yale University for the past eight years, said he had noticed an increase in “silent, insidious things.” Kevin C. Downs for NY Post The rabbis said there has been a lot of “chaos” on campuses as clashes between students over the war between Israel and Hamas worsen. James Keivom
Rabbi Shmuly Weiss, who has been Chabad rabbi at McGill University in Montreal since 2007, said that after receiving a donation of 100 Star of David necklaces, students who had never worn one quickly opted to wear them.
“It’s not just about Israel: They’re stepping up and saying, ‘You know what? I’m going to be a proud Jew.’ The students are scared, but they are accepting this tense situation we find ourselves in. “They are very, very proud of their Judaism,” Weiss said.
Still, Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Elkan of Oberlin College in Ohio said some students were so scared after Oct. 7 that they urged him to cancel the Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony on campus.
Haskelevich, the Chabad rabbi at UPenn, described the events on his campus since Oct. 7 as disturbing and disconcerting. Kevin C. Downs for the New York Post
Students feared the ceremony would be interpreted as “too pro-Israel” by the school, he said.
To try to ease tensions, there have been talks on campus involving both Jewish leaders and the student director of the Muslim Student Association, Elkan said.
“We had a meeting last week with [the] Students for Palestine [group] “We discuss these issues in an effort to lower the temperature,” the rabbi said. “It was a small crowd, twenty-something people, but that’s where the change really begins.”
Oirechman, the Chabad rabbi in the state of Florida, said state police now come to Shabbat to ensure students are safe. Kevin C. Downs for NY Post Thousands of rabbis pose for a group photo in front of the Chabad-Lubavitch world headquarters in Brooklyn on Sunday. Kevin C. Downs for the New York Post
Rabbi Meir Chaim Posner, who has been Chabad rabbi at Yale University for the past eight years, said he has noticed an increase in “silent, insidious things,” such as discrimination and targeting of Jewish students on campus.
“Many, many students have close friends who suddenly don’t understand, don’t appreciate or don’t affirm what they’re going through in terms of their sense of grief, in terms of their sense of pain,” Posner said. referring to the aftermath of October 7.
“And then in the weeks that follow, they will find a close friend who actively supports Hamas,” the rabbi said.
The NY Post’s October 26 front page shows the moment students barricaded themselves inside the Cooper Union Library to escape pro-Palestinian protesters.rfaraino
Rabbi Schneur Zalman Oirechman, who has been a Chabad rabbi for nearly 25 years at Florida State University, said the most important thing for students right now is safety.
“Jewish students were afraid, parents were calling, and we had to call the governor’s office,” Oircehman said of the fears after Oct. 7.[The governor] “I sent a group of Florida state troopers to make sure there was protection in case something violent happened.”
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