{"id":119273,"date":"2025-02-17T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-17T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119273"},"modified":"2025-02-16T09:30:34","modified_gmt":"2025-02-16T07:30:34","slug":"17-00-98","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/?p=119273","title":{"rendered":"Sarah Lawrence Has Allowed and Encouraged Antisemitism; I Would Not Send My Own Children There"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>Sarah Lawrence Has Allowed and Encouraged Antisemitism; I Would Not Send My Own Children There<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/h5>\n

Peter Reitzes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members inside the Westlands administrative building at Sarah Lawrence College. Photo: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)\/Screenshot<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel and perpetrated the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On that same day \u2014 while these atrocities were occurring \u2014 Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) professor Suzanne Gardinier\u00a0made 17 social media posts<\/a>\u00a0with the hashtag \u201c#freepalestine.\u201d In one of the\u00a0posts<\/a>, Gardinier appeared to celebrate the attack.<\/span><\/p>\n

On Oct. 8, 2023, Emmaia Gelman \u2014 Sarah Lawrence professor and Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism \u2014 made an Instagram\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0featuring a photo of Hamas invading Israel by breaking through a barrier fence with the accompanying comment, \u201cSolidarity with those who break prison walls.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A reader\u00a0responded<\/a>, \u201cThe romanticization of an event whose sole purpose was to murder innocent civilians is a bewildering level of delusion.\u201d Another reader replied, \u201cThis is by far the most fu**ed up thing I have seen on social media.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Sarah Lawrence student at the time, Sammy Tweedy,\u00a0responded<\/a>, \u201c#youshouldbefired.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Later that school year, Tweedy \u2014 son of the singer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame \u2014 made news for publicly addressing antisemitism at Sarah Lawrence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sammy Tweedy\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a0the politically progressive\u00a0Forward<\/em>\u00a0that he was \u201cexcommunicated\u201d on campus \u201cfor just going to Israel.\u201d Tweedy shared, \u201cIf you\u2019re Jewish and you have an identity where Israel is a part of it, you are dehumanized. People called me a Nazi. People called me genocidal.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

According to this 2023\u00a0Forward<\/em>\u00a0report, Tweedy \u201csaid he has filed bias incident reports with the school along with more than 100 screenshots of online harassment, including students identified by name saying \u2018they want me to die,\u2019 but the school has taken no action.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In a column published just this week,\u00a0Sarah Lawrence professor Samuel J. Abrams\u00a0discussed<\/a>\u00a0a current student who is fearful to be on campus:<\/span><\/p>\n

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As a Jewish Zionist, the student \u2014 like others \u2014 has faced threats and harassment. The college experience has been anything but normal. No real campus life. No security. No peace. Sarah Lawrence has let this happen. It has become a place where students like this one, and professors like me, are targeted for our faith, heritage, and belief in Israel\u2019s right to exist.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a professor and a Zionist, I find it heartbreaking. No student should fear their own campus. No student should have to choose between safety and an education.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

On Oct. 9, 2023, the SLC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) celebrated Hamas\u2019s pogrom on social media,\u00a0referring<\/a>\u00a0to the rapes, massacre, and hostage-taking of Israelis as \u201cthe uprising in Palestine.\u201d Interestingly, the SLC-SJP post used the same photograph of a Hamas bulldozer breaking into Israel that\u00a0Gelman used<\/a>\u00a0a day earlier. In March, SLC-SJP featured Gelman at an event,\u00a0referring<\/a>\u00a0to her as a \u201cfantastic\u201d speaker.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to a\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0The\u00a0Algemeiner,<\/em>\u00a0\u201cNo sooner had the [Oct. 7] tragedy occurred than Briana Martin \u2014 SLC director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) \u2014 called on students to ignore Jewish suffering by attending on Oct. 9 an \u2018Hour of Solidarity with Palestine,\u2019 an event co-sponsored by SJP.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Feb. 6 of this year, Gardinier shared someone else\u2019s post on X which\u00a0stated<\/a>, \u201cPalestinians did not commit a crime on Oct. 7.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The next day, Gardinier shared\u00a0two posts<\/a>\u00a0on X blaming Israel \u2014 not Hamas \u2014 for most of the Oct. 7 murders and denying Hamas\u2019s use of mass rape against Israeli women and girls. One post read, \u201cMost of the people killed on Oct. 7 were actually killed by Israel.\u201d The other stated, \u201cisrael [sic] killed most of its own people on oct 7 and there was no mass rape, it was all atrocity propaganda.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the United Nations \u2014 an organization viewed by many as notoriously anti-Israel \u2014 is\u00a0clear<\/a>: \u201cOn Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed approximately 1,200 persons in Israel.\u201d And\u00a0The\u00a0New York Time<\/em>s \u2014 a publication often accused of being biased against Israel \u2014 published a widely read, in-depth investigation\u00a0titled<\/a>, \u201cHow Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

On Nov. 24, Gardinier\u00a0wrote<\/a>\u00a0on social media that it was \u201can honor\u201d to stand with others at the SLC encampment. She did not mention the prominent support of terrorism on display at the encampment as clearly encapsulated by a\u00a0large banner<\/a>\u00a0promoting Samidoun. Samidoun was\u00a0designated<\/a>\u00a0by the US Department of the Treasury under President Biden as a \u201csham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As\u00a0reported<\/a>\u00a0by the ADL, the banner also included \u201cthe image of convicted terrorist Georges Abdallah, formerly with the PFLP, who was sentenced to life in prison in France for the 1982 murders in Paris of an Israeli diplomat and an American military attach\u00e9.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In a\u00a02024 zine<\/a>\u00a0written by \u201cAnonymous Sarah Lawrence Students,\u201d the authors state that they\u00a0answered<\/a>\u00a0Hamas\u2019s call for \u201cescalation\u201d by occupying a building on campus.<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering that student groups have promoted\u00a0fundraisers<\/a>\u00a0for Gaza and considering the student support for Hamas and Samidoun, the college \u2014 as well as local and federal authorities \u2014 should investigate the possibility that funds may have been provided to organizations that support terrorism.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In November of 2024, Abrams published a column about the now dismantled SLC encampment,\u00a0titled<\/a>\u00a0\u201cSarah Lawrence Has Fallen,\u201d explaining the anti-Israel fervor on campus:<\/span><\/p>\n

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In the dead of night on Nov. 21, a group of students linked to Sarah Lawrence College\u2019s (SLC) Divestment Coalition stormed Westlands, the school\u2019s main administrative building, and announced their occupation\u00a0through social media<\/a>. This was no quiet protest. Hiding their identities behind masks, the group\u00a0decorated<\/a>\u00a0the building with signs, barricaded doors, and blocked windows with plywood, effectively shutting down the school\u2019s operations. Dozens of students living in the dormitory above were trapped and access to key school offices were blocked. Outside, an\u00a0encampment<\/a>\u00a0took shape, turning the scene into a spectacle broadcast across social media for the world to witness.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Abrams, a Jewish professor, added that SLC students \u201cissued demands not for dialogue but for destruction. They called for harm against Zionists, the eradication of Israel, and displayed deeply inflammatory slogans such as \u2018Long live the intifada!’\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the end, students\u00a0failed<\/a>\u00a0in their efforts to have Sarah Lawrence divest from Israel, and the encampment was dismantled.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, anti-Israel students at SLC have\u00a0encouraged<\/a>\u00a0fellow students to boycott Abrams\u2019 classes. Abrams\u00a0explained<\/a>\u00a0that the boycott is because he supports \u201cIsrael\u2019s right to exist and to defend itself\u201d and because he is a \u201cZionist Jew.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

This week, on a Sarah Lawrence alumni social media page, a graduate of the college\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cMay no Zionist, be they Christian, Jewish, or atheist (because all of these exist) be safe from harassment just as white men who espouse white supremacy should not be safe from harassment either.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In the same social media thread, another graduate of the college\u00a0shared<\/a>: \u201ci\u2019m not a zionist but nevertheless.. when i was at SLC someone graffitied a swastika onto my dorm and i had fake eviction notices slipped under my door, just because i celebrated jewish holidays. people threatened me because i went to hillel. it\u2019s tough out there even for jews who 1000% support Palestine [sic].\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In early 2025, the US Department of Education\u00a0opened<\/a>\u00a0a Title VI antisemitism investigation into Sarah Lawrence in response to a complaint filed by Hillel accusing the college of fostering a hostile environment towards Jewish students.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I received a rigorous education at Sarah Lawrence and am proud of it. For decades, I recommended Sarah Lawrence to anyone who asked. Now, I would not send my own children to Sarah Lawrence.<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0Peter Reitzes<\/strong> writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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Sarah Lawrence Has Allowed and Encouraged Antisemitism; I Would Not Send My Own Children There Peter Reitzes Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members inside the Westlands administrative building at Sarah Lawrence College. Photo: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)\/Screenshot On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel and perpetrated the biggest single-day […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[26,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119273"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119273"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":119314,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119273\/revisions\/119314"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=119273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.reunion68.se\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=119273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}