Regarding Rising Anti-Semitism at Queens College
Dear Editor:
I don’t want to write this letter, but I have to. Anti-Semitism on college campuses continues to rise. Anti-Semitism on my college campus continues to rise. I wish I could just focus on studying for my finals, but that is not to be.
On the morning of Tuesday, December 5, I and many other Jewish students at Queens College received a message that the “Queens Hillel was made aware of a series of protests that are scheduled to take place inside the Student Union later this afternoon.” The Student Union is the building where the Hillel space is located, a space many Jewish students utilize daily, especially over the last few weeks and months.
The protest was to be located on the second floor of the building, the floor on which the Jewish, Muslim, Greek, and Christian clubs are located. Hillel was advised to take precautions. Their Student Union location was closed for the day and prayer services and staff members relocated to a different building. The protesters later found out about a faculty holiday party in the Student Union and attempted to enter before being stopped by security.
The Jewish students were told to avoid the area and did so for their own safety as an unsanctioned protest was allowed to take place. Unfortunately, since Jewish students are constantly told they need to provide evidence with any official complaints, one Jewish student was in the Student Union building, a building on campus providing student services where he had every right to be. On December 7, the Queens College Muslim student groups began circulating an image of this student, saying that he was disrespectful for videoing “students whose religion it’s against to be recorded.” This student has since been harassed, received death threats, and been stalked on campus. After meeting with the Office of Compliance and Diversity, he, like every other Jewish student with a safety complaint, was told that nothing actionable could be done.
On December 7, a pro-Palestinian student was found taking pictures of Jewish students in the Rosenthal Library in order to share them with members of the MSA. She claimed it was because Jewish students had taken pictures of her friends. While this doesn’t violate any school rules, the taking of photos of students minding their own business is of great concern to us. There is no comparison between one student collecting evidence of a political event being conducted without administrative permission, an event that caused Jewish organizations to evacuate, an event that had to be stopped by security from crashing a faculty holiday party, and a student photographing people studying for finals, minding their own business in the library, in retaliation.
On December 11, another unsanctioned event was held, this time in Kiely Hall, to “Hold Queens College Admin Accountable.” I had a class in that building that day and, along with many other students, emailed the administration to express our fear and concern. Security was present during the rally, along with chants of “from the river to the sea.” Meanwhile the QCMSA Instagram account continued to spew anti-Semitic vitriol until the account was taken down on December 16. It was also brought to my attention that a Special Topics in National Cinema class is being offered during the Spring 2024 semester on Middle Eastern Cinema. The class will cover a wide range of topics, including “the Zionist Occupation of Palestine.”
On December 13, I met with the Queens College Title IX Coordinator. While I felt that our discussion itself was respectful and congenial, the end result was that there is very little Queens College can do to ensure their Jewish students’ safety. As long as no explicit violence occurs between two readily identifiable students, nothing can be done. Despite Title VI requiring investigations into all allegations of discrimination on religious grounds, if a student can’t be identified because of a face covering, if a student doesn’t feel safe or just doesn’t want to file a complaint to Queens College, the incident is not actionable. Title IX is willing to meet with any students who want to, but at the end of the day, it seems nothing can be done.
On December 15, a video was posted on Instagram of a pro-Palestinian student, a student who has called for the genocide of Jews, a student who has supported terrorism, saying that he doesn’t speak for any Muslim groups, he only speaks for himself. This video, in which he went on to reiterate his hateful views, was posted on the QCSJP Instagram page. This video, in which he claims to only speak for himself, was reposted by the QCMSA. Organizations for whom this student “doesn’t speak” are posting his videos and giving him a platform, giving him their platforms, to spread anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
At Queens College, does calling for the genocide of Jews violate the Queens College code of conduct? Queens College has to step up. The rules need to be clear, and the rules need to be enforced. Students should not be able to threaten, stalk, or harass others. No one should be chanting for my death as I leave a classroom. If everyone else deserves to feel safe on campus, so do I!
I read a letter written by the Vice President for Student Affairs, Jennifer Jarvis, in which she reiterated Queens College’s stance against persecution on campus. What is being done to protect us? We have been subjected to harassment on campus and social media alike. Ms. Jarvis offered support and good intentions, but did not lay out any concrete steps being taken to ensure the well-being of the thousands of Jewish students on campus. I truly appreciate the stance of the administration in support of Jewish students and against anti-Semitism, but they are doing nothing to prevent the festering of hateful rhetoric. Again and again, we’re told nothing can be done. The administration can do nothing, Public Safety can do nothing, the NYPD can do nothing.
The Jews are left to fend for themselves in a volatile environment being turned against them. If the Holocaust were to happen today, would Queens College hide me?
Aaron Boehm
Dear Editor:
While I do appreciate Jennifer Jarvis taking the time to write on behalf of Queens College, I believe she failed to address a concern that I and fellow alumni have.
Where is the College’s response to the false, hate-filled, statements posted on Instagram by the Official Queens College Muslim Student Association (QCMSA) every few days? You proudly mentioned your long-standing support of two other Official College Associations, the Hillel and Chabad. I’m sure all three of them either receive a portion of the Student Union Dues, or other in-kind benefits from the college. Can you imagine the fallback if the latter two made some anti-Muslim statements?
When I attended QC, we had a mix of Jewish, Muslim, and Christian classmates and we all got along. Several of us became good associates, studying together, and sharing career leads amongst each other. Even 15 years later, we’re in touch on LinkedIn.
However, as current student Aaron Boehm recently wrote, those days are long gone. Sad to say, several of my fellow graduates who were second- or third-generation graduates of QC will be looking into private colleges for their children.
Ms. Jarvis, no need to send us the QC Foundation Fundraising Brochures any longer.
Benjamin Cohen
Dear Editor:
I was saddened and disheartened to read the words of a Heartbroken Mother in a recent “Dating Today” letter titled “The Talk of the Town.”
While I was quite sympathetic to the painful situation of the letter writer and her family, I couldn’t help but notice that she used the same kind of harmful language to describe other families that is being used to describe hers. Describing some families as “nebach” is very hurtful and can only deepen the pain of those suffering in our community. Even as she was describing how words can hurt, her words hurt me.
There are no “good families” or “okay families.” There are only people who are trying to do their best in the situation they are in. Calling someone’s family “nebach” is no better than calling them just “okay.” If you ask me, it is actually worse. My prayer for our community is that we can all grow to move past using this kind of hurtful language, both in our thoughts and in our words.
I am from a “nebach” family. I’m not ashamed to say it. While I wish it weren’t true, I have also heard my share of hurtful comments from members of my community, shadchanim, dates, and even friends. Since I understand firsthand the harm that those sorts of words can cause, I would never use them to describe another person or family. I hope that is a lesson we all can learn.
Ben Chaney
Dear Editor:
Seeing the number of IDF soldiers killed in battle day after day is depressing. The only reason they are being put in harm’s way and killed is because the IDF is prioritizing Gazan civilian lives over the lives of their own soldiers. Hamas intentionally mixes into the civilian population, running military operations out of hospitals and schools. Even when not operating in these sensitive locations, many Hamas members are intentionally dressing themselves as civilians to lure IDF soldiers in, before firing surprise strikes at them.
The rules of engagement for the IDF are grossly unfair, to say the least. Part of the reason Israelis feel pressure to fight this war, ostensibly with both hands tied behind their backs, is the rhetoric coming from President Biden and his imbecilic sidekicks. Yes, Captain Unity, the guy who declared himself a “Zionist” at the White House Chanukah event last week, had the unmitigated gall to tell Israel, the most humane army in the world, that they needed “to be more precise” in their dismantling of Hamas. No such warning for Hamas, Hezbollah, or any of the other terrorist outfits Israel is currently fighting.
Being on the wrong side of a foreign policy issue is nothing new for Biden, as President Obama’s former Secretary of Defense Bob Gates reminded us a few years back that “Biden has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy issue for four decades.” Two decades ago, Biden, as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, green-lit President Bush’s war in Iraq over what turned out to be non-existent weapons of mass destruction. That conflict resulted in the loss of more than 300,000 Iraqi civilian lives. So, if I’m understanding this correctly, Joe Biden is fine with 300,000 Iraqi civilians being killed in a scavenger hunt, but any loss of Gazan civilians who are embedded with Hamas in a war of Israeli self-defense is unacceptable.
I wonder if the Vice President of the former Rosedale Jewish Center, David Pecoraro, still considers Biden a “steadfast ally” and a “true friend of Israel,” as he described him a few weeks back. Political positions are whimsical and always subject to change, but the Jewish deaths that are occurring daily due in part to Joe Biden being too cowardly to stand up to Hamas and their supporters is a moral outrage. Pecoraro may crow from the comfort of his living room in Rosedale that Joe Biden is pro-Israel, but I suspect that if he were fighting in the IDF and it was his life on the line, he would have a drastically different opinion.
Jason Stark
Dear Editor:
Thank you, Queens Jewish Link, for continuing to publish the letters of the former Vice President of the Rosedale Jewish Center, David Pecoraro. I read the QJL every Friday night and always appreciate the humor Mr. Pecoraro provides. In his latest installment, Mr. Pecoraro hilariously declares that the economy is “red hot” thanks to Bidenomics. Now, before the usual critics chime in to mock Mr. Pecoraro for this seemingly absurd contention, I am here to tell you that many people concur with Mr. Pecoraro.
A recent Wall Street Journal poll found that 23% of respondents stating that President Biden’s economic policies have helped them personally. One might think this is a disturbingly low number, as it likely means 77% feel like they’ve been hurt by Bidenomics, but 23% is still a shockingly high number in my opinion, considering how much damage Bidenomics has inflicted on the average American. It makes me wonder who are these 23% who agree with Mr. Pecoraro? Are they recent border crossers whose first language is not English? Are they students at Hillcrest High who, by all available metrics, also have trouble understanding English (and math) despite their apparent mastery of Middle East policy? I suspect that there is a strong crossover of the 23% who approve of Bidenomics, with the 23% who, according to a recent NewsNation poll, believe President Biden is in possession of full mental faculties.
If you aren’t sharp enough to notice that our President has declined to the point where he cannot complete a sentence or even a thought and should be housed in a dementia ward instead of the White House, you are also unlikely to connect the dots between the unprecedented spending by the Biden administration and the erosion of everyone’s savings, 401ks, purchasing power, and overall financial stability.
Avi Goldberg
Dear Editor:
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu recently sent out an invitation to members of Boston’s City Council for an “Electeds of Color Holiday Party.” The invitation was inadvertently sent to all members, including White lawmakers who were not invited to this event. The White council members were subsequently disinvited.
In response to this mistake, Mayor Wu apologized. What did she apologize for? Did she apologize for creating racial divisiveness around a holiday party? Of course not. She apologized for accidentally sending the invitation to everyone when the intended recipients were only the non-White council members. The issue of anti-Semitism within the ranks of the Democratic Party has been well documented, but Democrats’ obsession with race, the likes of which have not been seen since the Nazis in the 1930s, is perhaps even more damaging to this country.
This country was great because there were some fundamental Western principles that we all agreed upon. That cohesive bond has completely eroded as Democrats divide up the country based on immutable characteristics such as skin color. It’s destructive and abhorrent (Imagine the reaction to an “Elected Whites Only Holiday Party”) and why I still cannot fathom how any Jew or for that matter any thinking person in 2023 can still vote Democrat.
Doniel Behar
Israel’s Grief And Herzog’s Rightful Rejection Of A Two-State Solution
Dear Editor:
October 7, Satan’s Sabbath Pogrom, was not just a tragedy beyond belief. It was a paradigm shift: a thorough departure from the moral world into the amoral abyss. And old rules and notions, like a two-state solution and human rights, are obsolete and require a new paradigm of morality to fit a reign that includes satanic players.
Howard Neiman
Dear Editor:
Decisions, decisions. We make them each day, and they seem to get harder and harder. Unfortunately, we don’t have the wisdom of Shlomo, but we’re not as helpless as Hamlet. Mundane decisions this time of year involve deciding which flavor sufganiyot to buy, whether to buy LEGO sets for the kids, or give them gelt (Go with gelt) or choose fried latkes or baked ones. (Splurge and buy fried ones, but your scale won’t thank you.)
On a more serious note, many high school seniors are facing the million-dollar question (almost literally): Should he/she go Ivy League or locally to Queens College? I offer a third option: YU or Touro. Yes, you might argue with me about the merits of going to a free college like the scholars’ program at Queens. People were shocked when I sent my kids to YU and Stern instead of the college where I worked, and which was blocks from my house.
Lest you think I have chutzpah telling you readers to empty your accounts, even before the weddings, and shell out tens of thousands of dollars for YU or Touro, truth be told, we didn’t have the money for YU and Stern. We were forced to become familiar with acronyms and take out student loans. Do I regret this decision? The answer is: absolutely not. Do I have an open concept house or granite counters? Do I have a tennis bracelet? Have I visited Israel umpteen times? Do I have a condo in Florida? You can guess the answers to these questions. But know this: I will never regret having sent my children to colleges that were steeped in Torah and were also safe havens.
Debbie Horowitz
Dear Editor:
Fellow reader David Pecoraro attempts to shame me in last week’s edition of the Queens Jewish Link for stating that Joe Biden should be impeached over what Mr. Pecoraro terms a “car loan” from Joe Biden to Hunter Biden. Putting aside Mr. Pecoraro’s regular theatrics and pathetic misdirection, it’s worth examining a few facts on this matter:
- A) Other than checks marked as “loan repayments,” there’s zero evidence that a loan ever occurred between Joe and Hunter.
- B) The Bidens have shifted the goal posts a bunch of times on Joe’s involvement with Hunter’s corrupt dealings. First, we were told Joe had “never spoken to” Hunter about his dealings. That shifted to insisting he wasn’t “involved” in his son’s business. Now they are telling us Joe wasn’t “financially involved” with Hunter’s dealings.
- C) The reason for the shifting narrative is all the damning evidence that has emerged. Hunter business partners Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer testified that Joe met with dozens of Hunter’s business associates. Archer stated his entire business model with Hunter centered around selling access to Joe Biden. Bobulinski confirmed that the “Big Guy” named in Hunter’s emails, who was to get ten percent of a huge China deal, was indeed Joe. And testimony from IRS whistleblowers confirmed that Democratic Party hacks embedded in the Department of Justice spent years frustrating the IRS’ investigation into Hunter, specifically thwarting any angle that would implicate Joe Biden’s role in the years-long corruption scheme.
Instead of shaming others for pointing out the corrupt and criminal activities of his favored political party, it is Mr. Pecoraro who should be shamed for his continued refusal to concede to indisputable facts. Everything I have laid out above is factual, not partisan spin. If Mr. Pecoraro feels I have erred, he should try beefing up his letters to the editor with some facts, instead of the usual name-calling and woke, partisan nonsense he habitually fills this space with.
Jonathan Goldgrab
Dear Editor:
The left wing of the Democratic Party has finally shed all pretense. They are openly calling for genocide of the Jews. The presidents of MIT, Harvard, and UPenn have stated that they will take no action against students who call for Jewish genocide, but they will take strong action against any student who uses the wrong pronouns. The president of UPenn got a pink slip, but the board of Harvard is standing behind their anti-Semitic president. The majority of the Democrats in Congress voted against condemning these anti-Semites. Biden has reacted by saying that he wants to clamp down on Islamophobia.
Trump demands that Federal Funding be immediately cut from these universities. Unfortunately, Trump is not president. The question is asked, “What can we do?” The answer is: plenty. Everyone should call Elise Stefanik (Republican Congresswoman) and thank her profusely for putting the presidents of MIT, Harvard, and UPenn to the fire. We must be makir tov to those who support us. It is a shame that many left-wing Jews like Pecoraro still support the Democratic Party. They simply don’t care about Jews or Israel. They should be ashamed of themselves.
Martin Berkowitz
