I consider myself to be one of the more visibly Jewish students on campus. I have a uniquely Israeli name, many stereotypical “Jewish features” (my mane of curly hair being one of them) and am often seen wearing Chabad regalia with Judaica (jewelry with Jewish motifs).
Outside of just “looking” Jewish, both in my physical features and my clothing choices, I am also one of the more observant Jewish students on campus. I keep Shabbat, I eat kosher and I celebrate all of the holidays and attend prayer services once a week.
Why does all of this matter? It’s simple: if I was on a campus that has a presence of antisemitism, I would not be able to do these things. Thankfully, though, I go to Ohio University, a campus without antisemitism.
This is not to discredit any other student’s possible experiences with an offhand comment or offensive joke. But the truth is that those instances do not mean that there is antisemitism on campus. They just mean that some students or even faculty members may be less aware that the things they say are ignorant.
While there is a rise in antisemitism in many parts of the world, this campus is not one of those places. And to say that it is does more harm than good.
OU works very hard to be an inclusive school with a progressive environment, and to label the whole campus as antisemitic because of a handful of ignorant comments from students discredits the work of the university. And, yes, I do believe that these comments come from a place of ignorance rather than hatred because many students have not met a Jewish person before stepping onto our bricks.
In addition to this, claiming that there is antisemitism on campus makes the Jewish students feel scared and unsafe and makes prospective Jewish students unwilling to consider OU to be their future school. Essentially, we are making students feel unsafe unnecessarily.
Aside from these dramatized accusations, there is also another disturbing trend I’ve noticed when we talk about the Jewish community on campus: we never talk about the happy parts. The Jewish community is always asked to speak about antisemitism and tragedies in our past, but I have rarely, if ever, seen an article in The Post about Jewish students celebrating a holiday or expressing their love for Judaism.
It is a problem for the non-Jewish world that they want to only talk about the “bad” parts about being Jewish, so it makes sense that a Jewish organization on campus would try to capitalize off of this tendency and host events that combat or discuss antisemitism at OU, even when there is none. So, my advice to the non-Jewish community on campus is to continue to be progressive and inclusive; you are doing an amazing job. Also, ask Jewish students about our holidays or events. Don’t just reduce Judaism to its historical misfortunes.
To the writers of The Post, I urge you to cover more Jewish stories but focus more so on stories where Judaism is celebrated rather than stories in which being Jewish seems scary. Chabad at Ohio University is having eight special events for the upcoming holiday of Hanukkah, and I would be ecstatic if someone from the newsroom would cover it. And, finally, to my fellow Jewish students: be proud of who you are! Don’t let rumors of antisemitism stand in the way of expressing your identity.
Hadass Galili is a junior studying political science pre-law at Ohio University.
