PHOTO: Luda Isakharov speaks at the University of Oregon's commencement exercises Monday, June 17 at Autzen Stadium in Eugene. (Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard/USA TODAY Network)

By ROCKNE ROLL
The Jewish Review
Luda Isakharov’s last moment in the University of Oregon’s spotlight put quite a cap on a tumultuous year at the state’s flagship public university. 
Isakharov graduated this year with three undergraduate degrees – political science, global studies, and Russian. In addition, she served as the President of the Associated Students of the University of Oregon, the school’s student government, her junior year. The ASUO President traditionally speaks at commencement exercises, but Isakharov passed the honor off to a senior. This year, the outgoing ASUO President returned the favor. 
The delay placed Isakharov back into the cauldron of campus politics – like many colleges, UO was the scene of an anti-Israel occupation, with a tent encampment set up in a central portion of campus. (For more on the encampment, listen to “Campus Encampments with Rabbi Meir Goldstein” on The Jewish Review Podcast) While she had already officially graduated following winter term, she was regularly on campus working as a special assistant to the Board of Trustees, exposing her to all the vitriol that the encampment had to offer while also giving her a chance to continue advocating for students following her presidency. 
“I kind of gained a thicker skin for all of that,” Isakharov recalled, “especially being president. People know I’m Jewish. People know I’m a Zionist. People know I have family in Israel. So I really had nothing to hide.”
Angry emails to her successors in student government and the university’s administration came quickly, as did talk of a petition. None of this surprised Isakharov.
“I’d essentially already been canceled a long time ago,” she joked.
Nor did it sway her. 
“I made it very clear to everyone from the beginning that it’s something I would not be stepping down from. It’s something I was really committed to,” she said. “It was really important for me to represent the community in a positive light after the really challenging year we had.”
A walkout was planned, with posters all along the footpath between the main campus and Autzen Stadium, where commencement was held, encouraging students to join in. Around a hundred of the 4,000 students in attendance made their move, standing up and chanting “Free Palestine” as they headed for the exits during remarks by UO President Karl Scholz – who spoke before Isakharov. 
“Most people were booing or very annoyed that they were disrupting the commencement, but from my view,” Isakharov said.“It made me feel much better to speak because I the people who disagree with me or might take issue with me speaking are leaving.”
Her speech began, she recalled, on the idea of strength through the unity that only comes from welcoming a diversity of ideas. 
“We were the strongest when we came into each other’s spaces and came into other people’s homes and learned about each other and were welcomed,” she said.
”I also thought it was really important to shed light on  my values and who I am as a Jewish person. So I spoke about finding fulfillment in things that are not based in society’s standards for us,” Isakharov added. “I ultimately found the most real fulfillment and happiness in my Jewish community, in my spirituality, and I wished my class to all find the same kind of fulfillment moving out of university rather than what society will tell us to find fulfillment in, like our jobs and when we buy a house or how much we make.”
She concluded by telling on her own family story as the daughter of Soviet Jews who escaped the Communist Bloc to make a new, Jewish life in the United States.
“They came from a place where they were persecuted for generations simply for being Jewish, and now I get to stand and be a commencement speaker as a proud Jew, one generation later,” Isakharov said. 
Her remarks had their own moment after commencement – they were shared extensively online, including by Chabad International’s social media accounts, where they received over 100,000 combined views and hundreds of comments, overwhelmingly positive. 
“Most of the messages I got pointed out the duality of like people walking out and the negativity and then the positive side of my speech,” Isakharov said. “I wasn’t bashing anyone. I wasn’t putting anyone down. I was just sharing my story and sharing light.”
She’ll now carry that light into the world, but she remains concerned for the university she’s leaving behind.
“I saw them given to the demands of people who broke university policies over and over; people who were antisemitic and disrespectful to Jewish students and saw no consequences for that kind of behavior,” she said. “Jewish students followed the rules, took the high road and did not really see any reward for that. In fact, I think they suffered from the fact that they took the high road.”
Isakharov has all the confidence in the world, however, for the UO Jewish community she was a part of. 
“I left the university so overwhelmed with hope because I’ve never seen a more unified Jewish community. We had the highest levels of Jewish students attending holidays, attending Shabbat dinners, both at Chabad and Hillel. Jewish students proudly wearing their magen david. Jewish students talking about Israel, supporting each other, showing up for each other,” she said. “In that way.  All the events awoke something really beautiful.”