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I Had to Transfer Colleges, You Shouldn’t Have To: My Advice to Jewish Students and Applicants
Emerson College in Boston, Massachusetts. Photo Credit: John Phelan/Wikimedia Commons.
I pressed my forehead against the cold window of my hotel room, staring at the Emerson College campus just a few blocks away. The chants of “Long live the Intifada!” and “We don’t want no two-states, we want 1948!” echoed throughout the campus, reaching me even in the hotel room the administration had placed me in after practically admitting they couldn’t guarantee my safety on campus.
That night, as I scrolled through my phone, I saw videos of the very same protestors, blocking entrances to our residential buildings and defacing our campus with chalk using phrases such as, “F*ck Zionists” and “From the river to the sea.” I had never felt so displaced in my own city.
Being on my campus felt like residing in enemy territory. I wasn’t abroad. I wasn’t in a war zone. I was in Boston, at an American college, where my tuition dollars had paid for a school that ultimately betrayed me and my Jewish peers.
I was the only person in our student-run newspaper covering pro-Israel rallies and events, and one of the few open Zionists on our campus.
It felt isolating, knowing that I was standing up for Israel when so few were willing to do the same. I found myself constantly defending my beliefs against insidious misinformation in the classroom, and engaging in fierce debates with both professors and students daily.
Unfortunately, the hostility didn’t stop when classes ended for the day. Every time I opened my phone, I was met with hate messages on Instagram from fellow students — for posting something in memory of Oct. 7 or even for sharing a picture from a past visit to Israel. The pressure was relentless, suffocating even, and it felt as though the weight of defending the thing I cared about most — Israel — fell solely on my shoulders.
When I decided to transfer schools shortly before the encampments took our campus by storm, I had a new set of criteria for my next school. I ultimately chose The George Washington University (GWU) — a place many consider just as, if not more, hostile toward Jews. But this time, I wasn’t looking for an oasis. Instead, I was looking for something more: a community where I wouldn’t have to fight for Israel alone.
Looking back, the most impactful lesson I learned is one that Jewish college applicants today need to understand: you can no longer afford to settle for a campus where your presence is tolerated, but your voice is silenced.
It’s no longer enough to just pick a “less antisemitic” school. You need to find a place where you can stand up, speak out, and fight back — where you can be part of a Jewish community that refuses to be passive, one that will stand shoulder to shoulder with you when things get difficult.
Jewish College Applicants: Don’t Overlook What I Did
Since Oct. 7, the climate on campuses has only grown more hostile, and Jewish applicants must now ask themselves a new set of questions:
Administrative Response to Antisemitism: How has the school handled past incidents of antisemitism? If an encampment were to arise tomorrow, where would the school’s leadership stand?
Jewish Student Life: Does the campus have an active Hillel, Chabad, and other Jewish organizations? Are there Jewish faculty members advocating for students?
Classroom Climate: Are professors known for pushing anti-Israel rhetoric? Are Jewish students comfortable voicing their opinions in class?
Campus Security: Are anti-Israel protests commonplace? Does the campus apply adequate security measures to protect Jewish events?
Media Bias on Campus: How did the student newspaper cover the encampments and anti-Israel protests on campus?
Jewish students have a choice: spend four years hoping to be quietly tolerated, or spend four years surrounded by a community that will stand up, push back, and make their presence known. Don’t just look for a place where you can be Jewish in silence. Look for a place where you can be Jewish — loudly.
Margaux Jubin is a student at The George Washington University with a passion for national security, foreign policy, and education. She aspires to work for a pro-Israel nonprofit or lobbying group, using her writing and political communication skills to strengthen the US-Israel relationship, combat antisemitism, and expose misinformation.
The post I Had to Transfer Colleges, You Shouldn’t Have To: My Advice to Jewish Students and Applicants first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israeli Culture Minister Cuts Funding for Film Awards After Palestinian Drama Wins Top Prize, Chosen for Oscars Submission
A scene from “The Sea.” Photo: The Israeli Academy of Film and Television
Israeli Minister of Culture and Sports Miki Zohar said his ministry will pull state funding for Israel’s Ophir Awards, which is the Israeli equivalent to the Oscars, after it awarded a top honor to a film that “defames” Israel’s “heroic soldiers,” he announced on Wednesday.
At this year’s Ophir Awards ceremony on Tuesday night, “The Sea” won best picture, which automatically makes the film Israel’s submission for the 2026 Oscars in the category of best international feature film. The drama, directed and written by Shai Carmeli-Pollak and produced by Baher Agbariya, also won best screenplay, best actor for the 13-year-old Palestinian Muhammad Gazawi, best supporting actor for Khalifa Natour, and best original score. The movie, filmed in Arabic and Hebrew, marks Gazawi’s first acting role.
The Ophir Awards are voted on by the Israeli Academy of Film and Television, a nonprofit organization that is the Israeli version of the US-based Academy of Television Arts & Sciences. It has more than 1,000 members, including filmmakers, producers, content creators, and actors.
“The Sea” follows a 12-year-old Palestinian boy named Khaled, from a village near Ramallah, who gets the opportunity to go the beach for the first time in his life on a class trip to Tel Aviv. When he is forced to return home at a military checkpoint, while his classmates continue on to the beach, Khaled decides to risk his life and dodge Israeli authorities on his solo journey to reach the ocean. “The Sea” premiered at the Jerusalem Film Festival this summer and received support from the Israeli Film Fund.
In a statement on X, Zohar said that after the “pro-Palestinian” film, “which defames our heroic soldiers while they fight to protect us,” won the award for best film at the “shameful” Ophir Awards on Tuesday night, he decided to discontinue funding for the ceremony.
“During my tenure – the citizens of Israel will not pay out of their pockets for a disgraceful ceremony that spits on the heroic IDF soldiers,” he added. “This great absurdity, that Israeli citizens are still paying out of their pockets for the disgraceful Ophir Awards ceremony, which represents less than one percent of the Israeli people – is over. Starting from the 2026 budget, this pathetic ceremony will no longer be funded by taxpayers’ money. The citizens of Israel deserve for their tax money to go to more important and valuable places.”
Several winners on stage at the Ophir Awards ceremony, including Carmeli-Pollak and Agbariya, sported a black T-shirt with a message that called for an end to the Israel-Hamas war and said in Hebrew and Arabic “a child is a child.” Others wore shirts that called for the return of the hostages abducted by Hamas-led terrorists from Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, and talked about the devastation taking place in Gaza during the ongoing war. Acclaimed Israeli director Uri Barbash received a lifetime achievement award at the ceremony, and in his acceptance speech, he condemned actions of the Israeli government and Zohar, pleaded for an end to the war, and called for solidarity between Jews and Arabs.
“It is our sacred duty to bring all the hostages back to their families immediately,” he said. “To end the accursed war and replace the ‘divide and rule’ regime that has declared war on Israeli society!”
Other movies that competed alongside “The Sea” for best film at this year’s Ophir Awards included Nadav Lapid’s “Yes,” “Dead Language – which made its world premiere at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival and is an expanded version of the Oscar-nominated short film “Aya” – and Natali Braun’s “Oxygen,” which is about a single mother fighting to pull her son out of military service and his deployment to Lebanon.
Israel has had 10 nominations in the category of best international feature film at the Oscars but has yet to win. The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences will announce on Dec. 16 a shortlist of 15 contenders for the 2026 Oscar for best international feature film. The final list of nominations will be announced on Jan. 22, 2026, and the 98th Academy Awards will take place on March 15, 2026.
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HBO Max Acquires US Rights to Scripted Series ‘One Day in October’ About Hamas Attack
Bartender and survivor of the Nova Festival, May Hayat, takes cover as rocket sirens sound, during her first visit to the scene of the attack, on the one-month anniversary of the attack by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Oct. 7, near Re’im, Israel, Nov. 6, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
HBO Max has acquired exclusive rights in the United States to “One Day in October,” a scripted series based on real-life, first-hand accounts from the deadly Hamas-led terrorist attack in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
“One Day in October” is the first real-time scripted portrayal of personal stories from the massacre in southern Israel, where Palestinians terrorists murdered 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages. The attack was the deadliest single-day slaughter of Jews since the Holocaust.
“One Day in October” will debut on HBO Max in the US on Oct. 7, the two-year anniversary of the attack, FOX Entertainment announced on Monday. Filmed on location in Israel, the four-episode series is co-produced by FOX Entertainment Studios in partnership with Israel’s yes TV, the New York-based production company Sparks Go, and Israel’s ZOA Films, in association with Moriah Media.
The series “presents seven emotionally gripping and artistically interwoven narratives of love, courage, sacrifice and survival,” according to a description provided by HBO Max. “From families torn apart to moments of hope emerging in the face of unspeakable tragedy to incredible bravery against the odds, each episode reveals the human cost and resilience born out of chaos. The series portrays the victims’ and survivors’ experiences of that day and is brought to life by a distinguished cast and acclaimed creative team.”
“One Day in October” is created by Daniel Finkelman, founder of the New York-based production company Sparks Go, and Oded Davidoff, who is also the director and writer on the series. Sparks Go helped co-produce the series.
“The tragic events on Oct. 7 had a profound impact on all of us,” said Fernando Szew, president of FOX Entertainment Studios. “From the very beginning, we approached this series with the utmost care, sensitivity, and urgency to ensure that the stories were told with authenticity and respect and paying homage to the victims and the heroic survivors. Oded and the incredible cast, crew and teams at Sparks Go, ZOA, and yes TV have truly created compelling storytelling that we are proud to showcase.”
The cast includes Swell Ariel Or, Noa Kedar, Naomi Levov, Hisham Suliman, Wael Hamdoun, Yuval Semo, Avi Azulay, Naveh Tzur, Yael Abecassis, Moran Rosenblatt, Michael Aloni, Neta Roth, Sean Softi, Lior Ashkenazi, and Uri Perelman. The series features writing by Liron Ben-Shlush, Davidoff, Amir Hasfari, Keren Weissman, Orit Dabush, and Yona Rozenkier. Jim Berk and Sheldon Rabinowitz with Moriah Media are also executive producers on the series.
“For me, film and television have always been more than entertainment, they are a way to bear witness,” said Finkelman. “These are stories of ordinary people facing extraordinary moments. In a time when truth is fragile, the most powerful thing we can do is to appeal to humanity itself. My hope is that these stories will open hearts and spark meaningful conversation.”
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Merz Says Criticism of Israel in Germany Has Become Pretext for Hatred of Jews
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends celebrations of the newly completed renovation of Reichenbach Strasse synagogue in Munich, Germany, Sept. 15, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Angelika Warmuth
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Wednesday that criticism of Israel was increasingly being used in Germany as a pretext for stoking hatred against Jews.
Speaking at an event to mark the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Central Council of Jews, Merz said that antisemitism had “become louder, more open, more brazen, more violent almost every day” since the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, that ignited the Gaza war.
“‘Criticism of Israel‘ and the crudest perpetrator-victim reversal is increasingly a pretext under which the poison of antisemitism is spread,” he said.
Germany is Israel‘s second biggest weapons supplier after the US, and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, in part because of historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”
Last month, however, Germany suspended exports of weaponry that could be used in the Gaza Strip because of Israel‘s plan to expand its operations there – the first time united Germany had acknowledged denying military support to its long-time ally.
The decision followed mounting pressure from the public and his junior coalition partner over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
In his speech in Berlin on Wednesday, Merz mentioned his about-turn, saying that criticism of the Israeli government “must be possible,” but added: “Our country suffers damage to its own soul when this criticism becomes a pretext for hatred of Jews, or if it even leads to the demand that Germany should turn its back on Israel.”