The Intifada Intruder and the University’s Silence: A Professor’s Account of Antisemitism on Campus
On October 10, 2023, a date etched in my memory, I found myself grappling with a chilling experience that exposed the undercurrents of antisemitism festering within the seemingly liberal walls of Northeastern University. This occurred a mere three days after the horrific Hamas attack, an act of barbarism that resulted in the largest loss of Jewish lives since the Holocaust. As I prepared for my evening graduate seminar on terrorism and counterterrorism, a course I had diligently taught at Dartmouth, Johns Hopkins, and Northeastern for a decade, an unsettling encounter unfolded.
A stranger, draped in a keffiyeh, accosted me in the hallway near my office. He thrust a flier into my hand, an invitation to a vigil in Cambridge championing Palestinian resistance. Without engaging, I retreated to my office, discarded the flier, and proceeded to class. To my dismay, the same individual, radiating an unsettling enthusiasm for the intifada, was seated amongst my students.
Politely, but firmly, I requested that he leave. I explained that the class met only once a week, and I was eager to commence my lesson on international security. However, he refused to comply, effectively hijacking my class time. He declared himself a student at the university and insisted on ensuring that my course, in which he was not enrolled, aligned with his anti-Israel sentiments.
For fifteen minutes, I attempted to reason with him, to persuade him to leave and allow me to teach. My efforts were futile. He then began pacing around the classroom, launching into a tirade against Israel. He urged the shocked students enrolled in the course to abandon my class and attend the anti-Israel rally taking place across town in Cambridge.
This incident was not an isolated one. I soon learned that a Jewish colleague of mine had also been targeted by the same anti-Israel activist. Both of us were intentionally targeted for our Jewish identity. Neither of us were teaching anything related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. My scheduled module that day was on right-wing extremism.
We both filed separate formal complaints with the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR). To my dismay, OSCCR refused to provide me with any updates on the outcome of my complaint. Later in the term, I discovered the university’s inadequate response. My phone was flooded with alerts from friends informing me that the activist had been escorted out of the graduation ceremony by police for staging a disruptive protest involving fake blood, causing distress to graduating students and their families.
These experiences have deeply affected me. Now, when I drive to school and call my mother, she invariably asks if there has been any more "madness" on campus. Her concern, of course, is whether there have been further disruptions from extremist students. However, this reflects a common misconception about the hierarchy of problems faced by Jewish faculty in American higher education, problems that predated the October 7th terrorist massacre and the subsequent global intifada on college campuses.
Theatrics of intifada-supporting students have undeniably gained visibility in the news. However, for me, the more significant issue lies in the university administration’s failure to provide support. The administration never reached out to me or my students after the class was effectively taken hostage by an extremist. The university refused to provide any security for my classes, despite my being specifically targeted. Moreover, the university failed to adequately address the known student extremist, which resulted in the embarrassing spectacle at the graduation ceremony that made national news.
Unfortunately, this inaction reflects the response of universities across the country to the campus intifadas targeting Jewish students and faculty. Until recently, the prevailing approach has been to do next to nothing.
However, since Donald Trump’s re-election as president, a noticeable shift has occurred. There is a palpable sense that antisemitism and associated extremism will be met with consequences, if not by the universities themselves, then by the government. Since his re-election, there have been no further incidents with intifada-intruders disrupting my classroom. I am confident that if such incidents were to occur, they would be handled more seriously by the administration. Furthermore, for the first time in my decade at Northeastern as a professor, my substantial service to Jewish students as the faculty advisor to Chabad and Hillel has been properly recognized in the annual merit reviews for salary and promotion.
These positive changes, I believe, are a direct result of the "Trump effect." The renewed focus on combating antisemitism and the threat of government intervention have prompted universities to take a more proactive stance in protecting Jewish students and faculty.
