#support Jewish students

[argaman01]

"Free Palestine" demands at my college

The current version of the student Palestine movement has finally arrived at my college. Last month they held a protest demonstration when our Hillel and the interfaith chapel brought two speakers, an Israeli and a Palestinian, each to speak about their own take on the shared/divided history of Jews and Palestinians in the land. It wasn't really a dialogue, rather a side-by-side sharing of experiences and interpretations. I went to hear them and was left quite unhappy by what the Palestinian speaker had to say.

The protestors were also made unhappy, in their case by the mere presence of the Israeli speaker, whom they accused of being a "genocide supporter." They didn't disturb anyone going to hear the speakers, but held what a "boycott" demonstration in a nearby location. Nonetheless, a couple of the protestors came to hear the speakers for a while and then went to the protest. One of the signs at the protest was "genocide supporters not welcome." I wondered when I saw it whether they would consider me a genocide supporter. Other signs were typical of Palestine protests: "liberate Palestine" and "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free."

"Die-in" at the administration building

Today, the group broadcast clips of their protest from the foyer of the administration building (including a die-in), with the college president watching. A group of about 12-15 students sat in a circle clapping and chanting "free free Palestine." The student newspaper reported on the event and provided more detail - in addition to the free Palestine chant, they also chanted “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" and “When a land is occupied, resistance is justified."

Are all kinds of resistance justified?

I find the third slogan particularly troubling. This is a slogan used at many pro-Palestine demonstrations. What kind of resistance is justified? Non-violent demonstrations or other actions? Strikes?

What violent actions are permissible? Taking up arms against the Israeli army? On October 7, when Hamas invaded Israel, they attacked Israeli soldiers in bases right on the border, and killed several hundred of them. In a war, soldiers kill and are killed - this is normal in war, and the law of armed conflict does not prohibit it.

What about terrorist attacks on Israeli civilians? Are they permissible? As we all know the Hamas fighters attacked, raped, mutilated, tortured, killed, and kidnapped Israeli and foreign civilians living in the kibbutzim along the border, in Sderot, and at the Nova party.

And who is doing the resisting? Is this slogan meant to apply to Palestinians living in Gaza or also to people in the US protesting the Israel-Hamas war? If the resistance is happening in the US, is violence an acceptable method? Would it be permissible to attack police who try to control pro-Palestinian demonstrations? Or damage government buildings? Or attack "Zionists," however they are defined? Would terrorist attacks be permissible in the United States?

This is the problem with a slogan that is completely open-ended, like "when a land is occupied, resistance is justified." There is potentially no limit to the tactics of resistance.

The first part of the slogan is also open to interpretation. What land is occupied? Does the slogan only apply to the land that Israel conquered in 1967 - the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Golan Heights? Many of those protesting these days refer to Israel's 75-year occupation, going back to the founding of Israel in 1948, meaning that all of Israel is "occupied."

Good article to read on what resistance means:

"Even the Oppressed Have Obligations," by Michael Walzer, in The Atlantic, November 6, 2023. The tagline is: "Not every act of resistance is justified."

Student demands

These are their demands:

They want the president of the college to "issue a formal apology and statement wherein she acknowledges the ongoing genocide in Palestine."

They also want the college to allow for a "BDS audit of their finances."

And finally, "All Birthright trips being run through Hillel cease indefinitely."

On their Instagram page they wrote "we presented [the president] our three major demands and made it clear that the ... student body will not rest until our demands are met." (Is the whole student body represented by the group that protested today? I suspect not, considering how small the group was).

In the fall, after the October 7 attack by Hamas, the president issued a couple of statements expressing her concern for Jewish students and community (the statement referred to the attack as "terroristt"). She hasn't made any further statements since then. Personally, I don't think she has anything to apologize for. Expressing concern for the impact of the Hamas attack on the Jewish community is not a political statement, in my opinion.

What would a "BDS audit" of the college finances be? Part of BDS is divestment (that's the "D" of the acronym) - are they thinking of what the college endowment is invested in? I don't think the college president has the power either to audit the endowment's investments, or publicly disclose them - that's within the purview of the Board of Trustees.

As for their third demand - this would belong to the "boycott" part of the BDS demands, in this case, preventing Hillel from running trips to Israel through Birthright. I don't know if our Hillel actually runs Birthright trips now, but there are certainly students from my college who go on Birthright trips at various times through the year. Even if the college told our Hillel not to facilitate those trips, it would not prevent our students from going to Israel. They could simply apply to go on trips sponsored by other organizations.

I am definitely opposed to any boycott of Israel, especially to the academic boycott of Israel. I don't think the college should implement any of these steps, but I feel the most strongly about the last demand, because it would directly impact our Jewish students.

[tiredgirlvent]

An immigration judge has approved that The Trump Administration can move forward and deport Mahmoud khalil .

It is happening 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

He came here to the united states and hated on it ever since .

He gave speeches about how he wanted America to fall and Israel wiped off the map

His anti semitic rants on college campuses was disgusting

They barred doors so students couldn't enter

Screamed to the top of their lungs for the genocide of Jews

Jewish students were attacked ,harassed and targeted by Mahmoud khalil and his fellow keffiyeh wearing psychopaths!

All I can say is

GOOD RIDDANCE

Buh bye 👋

The arrogance of Mahmoud khalil

To come into someone's country

Burn their flag and stomp on it and put up a jihadis one

Crap all over the country that you came too , who gave you every opportunity at a better life and you choose hatred !

Get out !

Go back to the Hell Hole you came from .

Thank you to the immigration judge 🫶

Nobody has the right to come to someone else's country and take down their flag and put up their own and harass students.

I support the Jewish students not these" fake " protesters who use Palestinians as a catalyst to show their Jew hatred !

None of their protests helped one single Palestinian !

They didn't speak up when Palestinians protested against Hamas or when Palestinians are killed by Hamas

No.....

They sided with Hamas !

Good bye 👋

Good riddance 👋

Buh bye 👋

[proudzionist]

Students against antisemitism 🫂

[queenofnots]

just reblocked/unfollowed someone I had once blocked then unblocked and followed again for a while. well just remembered why I had originally blocked them.

[agentfascinateur]

Brilliant minds think alike on Gaza

... both Jewish and non-Jewish students, inspired by anti-Apartheid protests in Beinecke Plaza decades earlier, had gathered for a week-long sit-in to demand that Yale divest the portion of its endowment invested in the stocks of military contractors, which make the weapons Israel is currently using in its war with Hamas in Gaza. The students were protesting under the Occupy Beinecke coalition, which includes Yale Jews for Ceasefire, a group of Jewish students dedicated to fighting for a ceasefire in Gaza as well as sustainable peace and equality within the region.

The lesson will be to reject the abuses of force; the abuses of authority; to embrace respect for people's differences and hopefully, a retreat from politicizing or pitting against each other what are ultimately universal values of peace and the betterment of all for all, and get to enjoy them instead. One hopes. There is an awful lot of pain and hatred trying to be implanted at the moment, and it's going to take a superhuman effort to forgive after the madness passes. We will have to rally around the positives and focus towards the future.

🕊️

[bubblegumpopdefiance]

As a cis woman, I married my trans wife in the Roman Catholic Church.

Now, this sounds provocative—and it is! But when we were getting married my spouse still identified as male (at least publicly).

So, at the time, we were two confirmed Catholics: one man and one woman. We went through all the steps including Pre Cana (pre marriage counseling). We were married in a Catholic church. At the time it was fine, though I was certainly thumbing my nose by having a non-binary friend read 1st Corinthians.

I was talking to someone after Shabbat services this morning about this and I think it comes down to this: the Catholic Church might still accept me, but it would not accept my wife anymore. Not as she is. And if it cannot accept my wife, it cannot really accept me.

So I left.

[yvesdot]

Psst—I'll be live on KZSC's "Kosher Noise" radio segment from 4-5 PM PDT today, October 6th, 2023! Click here to listen live when it airs and hear about ethical vampwriting, why extra credit. says "for rabbi greenberg" on it, and how Something's Not Right sneaks Jewish tradition into queer monster lit.

[eretzyisrael]

Source

[greco-roman-jewess]

Argg this GUY showed up at my Purim club event.

He ruined everything.

He kept interrupting me. “Correcting” my pronunciation and explanation.

“Oh, your going for the suuuper abridged version of the story”

Asked if I was mizrahi and when I said “no, but my dad is Greek” “well that explains it”

Explains what? How I look?!

He then went on to say that he stopped being religious after he ��became a journalist in Israel” and then said he came back “when he realized he could care about the plight of the Palestinians and still be Jewish”

And what makes it worse is that this was the first time I had an actual student.

[patientteaching]

If I can summon the wherewithal after work today, I wanna write about teaching and supporting students who are into H@rry P0tter while also being honest and clear with them about my own feelings towards the author. Because it has been and continues to be challenging and rewarding work - exposing kids to the idea of critiquing people's actions even when we like their creations is a really cool exercise and has DEMONSTRABLY improved my teaching

Like, if I do that? Please add on to it if you have related experiences because it's not something we talk about enough as educators.

[tiredgirlvent]

San Diego state University is ranked as one of the worst campuses for Jewish students to be on .

They have been attacked on and off campus

Blocked from entering bldgs !

Justice has finally come !

I am here for it 🫶

It's about time !

Trump has " actually" finally " revoked the visas and arrested these psychopaths at San Diego state University!

It is about time too !

They are going Home

YES !

Jewish students can feel safe again .

What a waste of education on these people

They could've bettered their lives but they chose to come here and hate the very country they came to .

What the Jewish students at San Diego state University have been through is absolutely disgusting!

These anti semitic rallies do absolutely NOTHING to help Palestinians!

That is the sad honest truth !

Pro Hamas rallies should never be allowed on college campuses!

[badolmen]

Do not underestimate my ability to seduce* shitty white guys with my good innocent Irish Catholic girl swag.

*force them to confront their biases and reconsider their political ideologies

[marxism-lelouchism]

the amount of info people are spreading either uncritically or without doing any further research is really concerning lol i know it comes from a place of good intentions but there’s no reason to be spreading misinformation when there’s a wealth of cold hard facts to use

[ellipsus-writes]

(Read on our blog)

Beginning in 1933, the Nazis burned books to erase the ideas they feared—works of literature, politics, philosophy, criticism; works by Jewish and leftist authors, and research from the Institute for Sexual Science, which documented and affirmed queer and trans identities.

(Nazis collect "anti-German" books to be destroyed at a Berlin book-burning on May 10, 1933 (Source)

Stories tell truths.

These weren’t just books; they were lifelines.

Writing by, for, and about marginalized people isn’t just about representation, but survival. Writing has always been an incredibly powerful tool—perhaps the most resilient form of resistance, as fascism seeks to disconnect people from knowledge, empathy, history, and finally each other. Empathy is one of the most valuable resources we have, and in the darkest times writers armed with nothing but words have exposed injustice, changed culture, and kept their communities connected.

(A Nazi student and a member of the SA raid the Institute for Sexual Science's library in Berlin, May 6, 1933. Source)

Less than two weeks after the US presidential inauguration, the nightmare of Project 2025 is starting to unfold. What these proposals will mean for creative freedom and freedom of expression is uncertain, but the intent is clear. A chilling effect on subjects that writers engage with every day—queer narratives, racial justice, and critiques of power—is already manifest. The places where these works are published and shared may soon face increased pressure, censorship, and legal jeopardy.

And with speed-run fascism comes a rising tide of misinformation and hostility. The tech giants that facilitate writing, sharing, publishing, and communication—Google, Microsoft, Amazon, the-hellscape-formerly-known-as-Twitter, Facebook, TikTok—have folded like paper in a light breeze. OpenAI, embroiled in lawsuits for training its models on stolen works, is now positioned as the AI of choice for the administration, bolstered by a $500 billion investment. And privacy-focused companies are showing a newfound willingness to align with a polarizing administration, chilling news for writers who rely on digital privacy to protect their work and sources; even their personal safety.

Where does that leave writers?

Writing communities have always been a creative refuge, but they’re more than that now—they are a means of continuity. The information landscape is shifting rapidly, so staying informed on legal and political developments will be essential for protecting creative freedom and pushing back against censorship wherever possible. Direct your energy to the communities that need it, stay connected, check in on each other—and keep backup spaces in case platforms become unsafe.

We can’t stress this enough—support tools and platforms that prioritize creative freedom. The systems we rely on are being rewritten in real time, and the future of writing spaces depends on what we build now. We at Ellipsus will continue working to provide space for our community—one that protects and facilitates creative expression, not undermines it.

Above all—keep writing.

Keep imagining, keep documenting, keep sharing—keep connecting. Suppression thrives on silence, but words have survived every attempt at erasure.

- The Ellipsus team

[dandelionsresilience]

Just in case Trump wins:

right after Trump was elected in 2016, suicidality skyrocketed. If you’re considering suicide in the wake of the election this year, at least wait until after it’s absolutely certain that he’s won - after every vote has been counted, every state certified, and maybe even after he’s been sworn in (IF he wins), just to make sure he doesn’t go to prison instead. Watch the results come in live here, but don’t obsess or let them sway your vote. (To be clear, I don’t want a single person to commit suicide over the election results, no matter what. But I know from experience that “don’t do it” is thoroughly unhelpful, so instead I’m saying at least wait.)

if you’re considering suicide because you fear worsening material conditions, you might think a hotline can’t help with that. and it’s true that they can’t change legislation or promise you’ll be safe. but it’s worth double checking whether what you’re actually hurting from is in fact unfixable. right now, just getting through the emotions can help you regain a more objective view of the situation, and then you can work on surviving it. plus, when something bad happens, we tend to vastly overestimate how bad it will seem in the future, no matter how bad it actually is.

In my experience, it might take a few tries before you find a hotline that picks up, either because they’re so busy, or they’re closed at that time, or they simply don’t serve your location or demographic, so under the thingy I’ve listed more than just the same handful that tend to show up on other websites. Even if you’re not actively suicidal, you can talk to them about your hard feelings, ask for material resources, or just vent to a compassionate listener.

FIND HELP

HopeLine - call/text: 877-235-4525

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - call/text: 988 | chat

Crisis Text Line - text HOME to 741741 | chat

help getting out of the military

for underrepresented adults:

Thrive Lifeline - text THRIVE to 313-662-8209

for pre-teens, teens, and young adults:

Your Life Your Voice - call: 800-488-3000 | text VOICE to 20121 | email

for teens (limited hours):

Teen Line - call: 800-852-8336 | text TEEN to 839863 | email

for trans and questioning people:

Trans Lifeline - call: 1-877-565-8860

for people with substance dependency:

Never Use Alone Overdose Prevention Hotline - call: 877-696-1996

for BIPOC (“with an LGBTQ+ Black Femme Lens”):

BlackLine - call: 1-800-604-5841

for college students of colour:

The Steve Fund Crisis Text Line - text STEVE to 741741

for LGBTQ+ young people:

The Trevor Project - call: 1-866-488-7386 | text START to 678678 | chat

for homeless or runaway youth:

National Runaway Safeline - call/text: 1-800-786-2929 | (has chat and email, but I think the link includes tracking)

for Muslim youth (limited hours):

Naseeha Youth Hotline - call: 1-866-627-3342

Amala Hopeline - call: 1-855-952-6252

for Jewish queer youth (warmline, may take up to 24 hours to reply):

JQY Warmline - call/text: 551-579-4673

for veterans:

Veterans Crisis Line - call: 988, option 1 | text: 838255 | chat

for veterans and their families:

Lifeline for Vets - call: 888-777-4443

for pregnant people:

Crisis Pregnancy Hotline - call: 888-628-3353 | text: 714-448-8323

for parents unsure of their ability to care for a newborn:

National Safe Haven Alliance - call: 888-510-2229 | text SAFEHAVEN to 313131

International Council for Helplines Member Organisations

Warmlines - for emotional support, if you just need to talk; a lower level of support than crisis hotlines

NAMI Helpline directory

Key warmline directory (unclear if 317-550-0060 might also be a warmline, I haven’t tried it)

Wildflower Alliance Peer Support Line (limited hours) - call: 888-407-4515

[tiredgirlvent]

Josh Shapiro was targeted because he condemned Hamas !

Shapiro publicly condemned the Hamas attacks and called for the dismantling of these psychopaths ( pro Hamas) protest encampment at the university of Pennsylvania!

This psychopath 👆👆👆👆👆

Got bad mad and decided to firebomb Shapiro's house while he ,his wife and children were all asleep .

A PSYCHOPATH!

Cody A. Balmer has been accused of a slew of crimes related to terrorism!

He was unemployed..........

SHOCKER 🙄 !

On social media he displayed his anti government through his post and anti Israel rhetoric !

Blames the Jews for everything wrong with his life

SHOCKER 🙄

He is lucky he didn't kill them or he would be charged with murder too.

This is what happens when anti semitism goes unchecked here in America.

We need to call this stuff out when we see it .

If I see any post calling for the death of Jews , you best believe I will report it !

If I overhear somebody talking about attacking Jews , I will report it !

Stay vigilant and keep your eyes and ears open to what is going on around you !