Jordan B. Peterson has said that most people are wrong in imagining they would be Oskar Schindler, the industrialist who risked his life to shelter approximately 1,100 Jews during the Holocaust. It is far more likely that they would be silent or even participate in the mass murder.
Recently, I joined thousands of Christians at Columbia University to stand in solidarity with the Jewish community. We did so due to the antisemitic demonstrations now spreading across U.S. campuses.
We worshiped, prayed and marched around the perimeter of the university. Whenever I looked behind me, I saw the entire block flooded with American and Israeli flags. It might have been one of the most incredible sights I have ever witnessed.
At Columbia, Yale, MIT and other top universities, anti-Israel protestors have not only called for violence against Jews but physically assaulted and intimidated identifiably Jewish students. This is not a new trend. American students have been primed to celebrate terrorism against Israel and Jews for decades. The silence from mainstream media and our politicians is deafening.
Just a few examples: At Yale, a Jewish student was stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag. Another was encircled by protestors who prevented him from entering campus. At Columbia, a pro-Hamas student pointed a sign towards Jewish students that read, “Al-Qassam’s next target” (Al-Qassam is Hamas’s terrorist wing). A Jewish student’s Israeli flag was set on fire and he was chased off the grounds.
Columbia has announced it will conduct classes remotely due to the violence. At Yale, almost 50 people were arrested after more than 100 arrests earlier that week at Columbia. At Columbia, protestors set up a “Gaza Solidarity Encampment,” complete with dozens of tents and Palestinian flags. Michigan University jumped on the bandwagon with its own “Liberated Encampment Zone,” where pamphlets proclaiming “Death to America” and calling for a third intifada were handed out.
These antisemitic demonstrations, which not coincidentally began on the eve of Passover, are a new low in a long line of pro-Palestinian protests that have taken place on American campuses since Oct. 7. The antisemitic students involved refuse to condemn Hamas, overtly celebrate the Oct. 7 atrocities and parrot terrorist propaganda. All of this has gone largely unchallenged.
We must ask, when did our moral compass shatter? Why are we yielding to genocidal terror supporters?
In Dec. 2023, we witnessed the then-presidents of Harvard and UPenn, as well as the still-sitting president of MIT, state before a congressional hearing that calls for the genocide of Jews only violated their universities’ policies “depending on the context.” This total moral bankruptcy was irrefutable and disturbing proof of the rotted values of our academic institutions, which have also bred far-left ideologies like DEI that pander to Marxist ideologies of perpetual victimhood.
Higher education’s anti-morality has now allied itself with Islamist antisemitism, paving the way for yet another iteration of the racist motif of Jews as the world’s ultimate oppressors. This alliance between far-left ideologues and Muslim antisemites is destroying the credibility of our premiere educational institutions and our society is silent.
Who will speak out for the Jewish community?
Christians must stand with the people whose values are the foundation of our civilization. The West was built on Judeo-Christian principles. Today, those who reject those principles are yet again revolted by the people to whom God revealed his law.
This is the moment for Christians to join in prayer and worship, and march in solidarity with Israel. We must march and pray wherever antisemitism raises its head, including on the campuses of Yale and Columbia. Unopposed antisemitism is an unmistakable sign of cultural decay. Now is the time for a new generation of leaders to rise to restore and heal our troubled land.
