The University of California, Los Angeles student government’s condemnation of a recent event featuring a former Israeli hostage shows how “anti-Jewish” members of the organization are, UCLA Hillel told JNS.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council stated in a letter to the university that it condemned an April 14 event featuring Omer Shem Tov, which UCLA Hillel organized and the university’s Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies co-sponsored. The event, held on Yom HaShoah, was titled “505 Days in Captivity: Omer Shem Tov’s Testimony of Resilience.”
Shem Tov, 23, was abducted by Hamas from the Nova music festival during the terrorist group’s attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for 505 days before his release in February 2025.
“While we affirm the humanity of all people impacted by violence, we reject the selective platforming of narratives that obscure the broader reality of ongoing state violence,” the USAC wrote. The council added that presenting Shem Tov’s story without a broader political context “serves to legitimize and normalize these ongoing atrocities.”
The campus Hillel told JNS that the council members have “once again shown they are anti-dialogue, anti-learning, anti-truth, anti-student and anti-Jewish in condemning our beautiful event last week with Omer Shem Tov, a young man kidnapped from a music festival and held, tortured and treated inhumanely as a hostage and human slave by Hamas in Gaza for over 500 days.”
“Omer’s story rang loudly and proudly on campus last week, as the world was observing Yom Hashoah—when we remind ourselves and our allies to never forget the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust,” the Hillel said. “How appropriate, then, that Omer was here to help remind UCLA of humanity in times of darkness.”
Hillel said it would continue hosting programming tied to Israel’s Memorial Day and Independence Day this week and expressed hope for “meaningful and open conversations” on campus.
A UCLA spokesman told JNS that the university “will review the process by which this letter was issued.”
“The condemnation of such a peaceful event to share a story of resilience in the face of extreme suffering is antithetical to the values of our Bruin community,” the spokesman said.
