How about we start with positive news?

Mazel tov to BB Camp, which formally changed its name to BB360. This rebranding pays homage to their 100+ year history, while acknowledging the full range of programs provided by the organization. Check out this wonderful video highlighting their incredible expanding Jewish identity-building efforts. Cheers to Camp. Community. Connection.

Last week, I had the opportunity to be a judge at a “Shark Tank”-like pitch event for Eitanim, a program of the Israeli American Council (IAC). The program teaches high school and middle school students entrepreneurship and Israel advocacy. The teens were divided into two teams to develop ways to address transportation in Israel (both created specialized apps for carpooling and bus service). They worked with mentors to draft a problem statement, research information metrics to guide their decisions, develop a product idea, and create a marketing plan. The teens were fantastic, and it was a thrill for me to be a part of their learning.

Now, for the harder news – the protests on our college campuses. I am unsure how to even write about it. They have reached a disturbing level. Anti-Israel protests and encampments, at times, erupted into acts of harassment, intimidation, and displays of antisemitism. Too many Jewish students continue to be exposed to vitriol and hostility that would rightly be condemned if directed at other religious or ethnic groups.

Since the beginning of the protests, the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland, our Hillel and Chabad programs on campus, and many volunteer leaders have been working to ensure the safety and welfare of our Jewish students. We are communicating directly with university presidents and leadership to express our concerns and to advocate strongly for them.

These protests continue to raise questions about the distinction between free speech and hate speech. What is considered anti-Zionist and when is it antisemitism? What means one thing to one person means something else to another.

But there are limits. “Globalize the intifada,” “All Zionists are bastards,” and “We wish you 10,000 more October 7s” clearly cross the line. Harassment and intimidation of Jewish students crosses a line. And how do you think these pictures feel to those who support the State of Israel?

There are also questions of what behaviors are acceptable on a university campus. At PSU, people took over the library (similar to those at Columbia University taking over the building) and trashed the inside. PSU's construction manager for 21 years said he had never seen anything like the damage caused. The schools were clear – vandalism and graffiti would not be tolerated.

However, PSU’s President, Ann Cudd, wrote on Wednesday, that there would be no consequences (expulsion, suspension) for the criminal conduct for those who would voluntarily leave the library. Fifty protesters left. Others remained and several were eventually arrested. We strongly disagree with the decision to grant amnesty to anyone who committed any criminal activity.

President John Scholz at the University of Oregon shared this statement with the campus on Wednesday. He was quite clear, “Conduct and behavior that disrupt the essential operations of the university—or impede our ability to provide an environment conducive to learning—have no place here. Criminal or illegal activity likewise will not be tolerated.”

President Biden said, “Violent protest is not protected, peaceful protest is. It is against the law when violence occurs. Destroying property is not a peaceful protest, it’s against the law. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancelation of classes and graduations, none of this is a peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not peaceful protest, it is against the law.”

I want to be clear -- this is about responding to the actions of the protesters, not their cause.

We support peaceful, civic discourse, and the enforcement of school policy regarding encampments. We also call on university presidents to meet with leaders of the Jewish community and Jewish students/faculty to articulate how these campuses will ensure Jewish safety and safety for all and establish long-term security plans to prevent any potential future violence.

What is frustrating is how universities are rewarding these protesters. We hear their demands to cut all ties with Israel and companies that do business in Israel. Earlier in the week, both Northwestern University and Brown University gave in to student demands to have a say in whether those institutions will implement divestment from Israel. This plays right into the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement that aims to delegitimize the State of Israel.

While the University of Oregon took a stand against BDS, the same cannot be said for PSU. The student protesters were demanding the school divest from Boeing -- President Cudd put the funding on hold for further debate. PSU received from Boeing a $150,000 donation to name a classroom and $28,000 in scholarship funds. PSU also says their students get hired by Boeing. I wonder what happens to those on scholarship and those job prospects if PSU decides to cut ties with Boeing? Moreover, do the student demands mean PSU professors are not allowed to fly on planes made by Boeing for travel to conferences?

Appeasement often leads to escalating demands and further concessions. What will be next? It starts with Boeing and then they will follow the typical BDS playbook of Hewlett-Packard, Caterpillar, Microsoft, and so much more. Students are also demanding PSU divest from all "Zionist entities on campus" (Do they mean the Judaic Studies department? Hillel? Others?) and cut all academic ties with Israel. It will not end. At least Columbia University was clear from the beginning – no divestment from Israel.

Why are universities embracing those who flagrantly disrupt the academics on these campuses, including forced school closures, and who make others feel unsafe? Jewish students, faculty, staff, and alumni feel betrayed. We trust our institutions of higher learning to be a home-away-from-home for our students. For many, they have violated that trust. Sadly, they heard and acted generously towards those with loud, and at times hateful voices. The absence of any reassuring message to the Jewish students has also been heard loud and clear.

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof wrote yesterday, “Student protesters: I admire your empathy for Gazans, your concern for the world, your moral ambition to make a difference. But I worry about how peaceful protests have tipped into occupations of buildings, risks to commencements and what I see as undue tolerance of antisemitism, chaos, vandalism and extremism. I’m afraid the more aggressive actions may be hurting the Gazans you are trying to help.”

As one commentator said on CNN, “What we are hearing today from both the left and right in our country is an ‘adoption of absolutism.’ If you do not agree with me then you are complicit in the evil with which I do not agree.”

What can you do now – check on students in college and families with college students to make sure they are okay. This has certainly taken a toll on all of us. And sign this petition from Hillel International demanding schools do more.

Shabbat shalom.

Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, begins Sunday night with the annual memorial service at 5:00 p.m. at Congregation Beth Israel and continuing with the Reading of the Names on Monday, May 6 in Pioneer Courthouse Square. More information here.