Student at Berkeley says she needs to hide Jewish identity to feel safe on campus
'Pure idiocy': College students blast anti-Israel protests and antisemitic threats unfolding on campuses
College students Sabrina Soffer, Allison Lax and Danielle Sobkin reflect on feelings of danger and animosity against Jewish students on their campuses as pro-Palestinian sentiments rise at colleges and universities across the U.S.
At campuses across the U.S., anti-Israel protesters have organized massive demonstrations since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7. The surge in incidents has been paired with antisemitic rhetoric and violence against Jews, leaving many students feeling unsafe and fearful of attending class.
"So we've had a plethora of incidents happen at UC Berkeley, everything from two physical assaults of students getting physically hurt on campus. We've had professors offering bonus and extra credit to students for attending pro-Hamas rallies. But the most concerning is Jewish student leaders getting an email from administration telling us to avoid certain parts of campus, to avoid showing our faces, to avoid filming these incidents and at these events, due to a fear of our safety," UC Berkeley student Danielle Sobkin said on "FOX & Friends First" Tuesday.
"So what does it mean when administrators are telling me to not be a target, which is leading me to believe that in order to be safe on campus at UC Berkeley, I need to hide my Jewish identity."
Campuses including UC Berkeley have become an increasingly hostile environment and home to some of the most aggressive anti-Israel demonstrations.
Most recently, student groups supporting Palestinians held a national walkout on Wednesday in support of Gaza and to protest U.S. funding of Israel, according to posts by pro-Palestinian student groups on social media.
The walkouts were held at over 100 college campuses, according to the social media post, including Brown University, Columbia University, George Mason University, George Washington University, Rutgers, New York University, Howard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, UC Berkeley, Stanford University, University of Pennsylvania, Tufts University and Yale University.
"Going into UC Berkeley, i was really hopeful of four years of education and learning and being alongside my peers. And now I'm looking at peers that are supporting terrorists, that are supporting violence, that are supporting innocent Israelis getting murdered," Sobkin said.
A Berkeley graduate student offered extra credit to students if they attended the student "walkout" in support of Gaza, according to a screenshot posted to social media, leading the university to respond after a firestorm of criticism erupted.
Palestinian protests and demonstration have popped up across college campuses (Left: (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images), Right: (Photo by Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images))
Students like Allison Lax have experienced similar encounters at NYU.
"There have been multiple anti-Israel rallies at NYU where I've heard students chanting ‘Death to Jews,’ chanting ‘death’ to anybody that supports the Zionist state. I mean, these are horrific things to say at a so-called peaceful protest. I've heard students chant, ‘globalize the intifada,’ just horrific things in classrooms. Professors are spewing absolute misinformation. And it's just it's a horrible situation," Lax told host Todd Piro.
Earlier this month, students at NYU were seen tearing down posters of Israeli hostages Oct. 16 outside the university's Tisch Hall.
Yazmeen Deyhimi, one of the three students identified in the viral video, offered an apology on social media.
Lax, who has been a vocal advocate for Jewish students and calling out the protests, shared she has even personally been subject to threats at NYU.
"People know who I am. I get death threats daily on Instagram. It's very scary. In class, I sit next to my peers who cheer on Hamas and support the murder of over 1,400 innocent Israelis," Lax said.
"It's really horrible. And I don't think I'm ever going to feel safe again on campus."
Other campuses have seen pointed demonstrations making bold statements. At George Washington University, Hamas sympathizers made themselves present by projecting their message on the side of the Gelman Library building.
"Glory to Our Martyrs," one message read.
"Students sat in front of the library and projected hateful messages, including Glory to our Martyrs and Free Palestine from the river to the sea. And GWU you have Palestinian blood on your hands onto the library, which, mind you the Gelman library. they're Jewish. So it was definitely heavily anti-Semitic," GWU student Sabrina Soffer said.
The university later responded in a statement that the "unauthorized" messages "violated university policy, and leadership intervened to ensure that these projections were removed."
The university continued, "The statements made by these individuals in no way reflect the views of the university. We are reviewing this incident and will take any appropriate steps with respect to the individuals involved in accordance with university policies."
HUNDREDS OF MIT ALUMNI PETITION SCHOOL TO TAKE CAMPUS THREATS AGAINST JEWS ‘SERIOUSLY’
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators attend a protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
Soffer also shared an incident where pro-Palestininan protestors attending a rally in Washington D.C. allegedly came up to a campus fraternity house to "harass" Jewish members.
"There were a few demonstrators who came to the … frat house and started waving flagpoles at brothers, trying to harass them. And this is really where we talk about hate speech turning into hate crimes. Somebody could have gotten hit. And that really made me scared," Soffer said.
While the situation on many college campuses has becoming increasingly more hostile towards Jewish students, Soffer said hostility towards her due to her identity has only grown.
"Since the moment I got to GW, even just saying that my family was from Israel really granted me a lot of hostility on campus from a variety of students. I didn't understand this at first, but over time I came to understand this whole radicalized ideology and a lot of the propaganda that's being perpetuated in the classroom, it made me feel antagonized, not necessarily unsafe," she said.
"But now what I'm seeing on this campus where students are shouting this from the rooftops and thinking that they're moral, it's pure idiocy and it's really concerning. And no, I do not feel safe on my campus. Students know who I am. I've been a public face of this for a long time… So long as this institutional damage isn't changed, I will not feel safe on campus."
Sobkin added she feels "unsafe every single day going on campus" at UC Berkeley.
"I feel unsafe sitting in classes next to peers that are supporting these terrible acts and listening to professors that are also supporting this. So unless this institutional damage is adjusted and changed, no, I will not feel safe at UC Berkeley," she said.
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FOX News' Joseph A. Wulfsohn and Hanna Panreck contributed to this report.
Madeline Coggins is a Digital Production Assistant on the Fox News flash team with Fox News Digital.
