In today’s day and age, Jews should never have to fear expressing their culture and heritage publicly. But yet, at Carleton, I believe many still do. Just last week, Carleton released a report stating the findings of its Commission on Inter-Cultural, Inter-Religious and Inter-Racial Relations. The commission, formed two years ago, indicated in its report that Jewish students and faculty members in particular were unsatisfied with the treatment received on campus.
A fall 2010 survey cited by the report revealed that “Jewish students feel that public venues on campus are not always welcoming and safe places for them, particularly if the student is easily identified as Jewish.” Most importantly, “Jewish students said that they experienced disrespect, as well as physical and verbal harassment, including anti-Semitic comments that often stem from anti-Israel sentiments,” the report stated.
What struck me most about the report was how easily these excerpts applied to an experience on campus I had just two weeks ago, during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. Following the High Holidays of Rosh Hashannah and Yom Kippur, Sukkot is meant to be a cheerful festival, in which the Jewish people are commanded to dwell in a temporarily constructed hut for the duration of the eight-day celebration. The hut, known as a sukkah, is a symbol of the protection Jews received from G-d while travelling in the desert for 40 years to the land of Israel, following the exodus from slavery in Egypt.
For Jewish students at Carleton, finding the time to acknowledge the holidays, of which there are plenty, all the while engulfed in their studies, isn’t so easy. That’s why Rabbi Chaim Boyarsky, co-director of the Chabad Student Network of Ottawa (CSN), brings a sukkah to campus each year. On Oct. 3, Boyarsky and I stood all day in front of the University Centre where our sukkah was set up through permission of the university. It was heartwarming to see dozens of Jewish students drop by throughout the day to simply commemorate the holiday. The amount of non-Jews who wished us a happy holiday or stopped to learn more about Sukkot was also encouraging.
But of course, our day wasn’t problem-free.
Our public celebration of Judaism apparently was cause for concern for a certain Palestinian student who approached us to ask what we were doing. Boyarsky and I explained to the student that we were merely celebrating a Jewish holiday on campus. A sign attached to our sukkah, filled with other symbols of the holiday as well as kosher pastries, wished students a happy sukkot. Our display made no mention or allusion to the State of Israel, nor any country in the world. We told the student that our organization had no political affiliation. But yet, our sukkah somehow reminded him that it was a good day to argue the concept of Zionism.
For the next half hour or so, the student, soon joined by some more of his Palestinian friends, kept us busy expressing his anti-Israel views. In essence, the student saw a couple of Jews, and decided to take out his political frustrations on them. At one point, he even claimed that Israel was attempting world domination. His source? An early 20th century proven anti-Semitic hoax, known as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which maintained that Jews were out to control the world’s press and economies. Throughout the conversation, we attempted to calm the situation. Boyarsky told the student that he, a Muslim, and we, Jews, were merely distant cousins (as both religions are descendants of Abraham) and we should therefore try to get along. The student would have none of it.
As a second-year student, this anti-Semitic experience unfortunately came as no surprise to me. When applying to Carleton as a Grade 12 student two years ago, I feared the anti-Semitic climate that I heard existed at Carleton. Now an active member of Carleton’s Jewish community, I worry that current university applicants will be deterred by those same fears.
While CSN welcomes Carleton’s report, it is important that the university community takes its message seriously in order to make campus a more welcoming environment for Jewish students, both present and future, no matter if they express pro-Israel views on campus or not.
Jewish students should never have to feel intimidated for being Jewish.
— Sammy Hudes,
second-year journalism and political science
Apology: Due to a technical error, an inappropriate comment appeared on charlatan.ca. Prof. Bill Skidmore was accused of spreading anti-Semitic teachings in his classroom by Brandon Myles Wallingford in a comment on the article “OPINION: All students should feel welcome on campus.” The comment has since been removed from the website. We sincerely apologize to Professor Skidmore and the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies for any professional or personal damages this may have caused.
