Rochelle Ford, the president of Dillard University in New Orleans, spoke at the Nov. 14 “March for Israel” on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
She described efforts to meet with Yeshiva University’s president Rabbi Ari Berman to develop partnerships with the university’s National Center for Black-Jewish Relations, connecting on Oct. 11 and offering words of support.
“When Rabbi Berman had just returned from Israel, his heart was heavy and I said to him: The Bible says that the Jewish people won when Moses held his arms up. But who was holding Moses’s arms?” Ford asked. “It was Aaron in her. Let us be your Aaron in her. Lean on us.”
Ford said that she and Berman had written a statement together that was signed by more than 100 college and university presidents, condemning terrorism and calling for greater clarity in seeking truth. The statement also called “to stand with Israel and to stand with the Palestinians who suffer under Hamas’s cruel rule in Gaza.”
Ford said: “You, my brothers and sisters, are not alone.”
