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Sarah Lawrence Has Allowed and Encouraged Antisemitism; I Would Not Send My Own Children There

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members inside the Westlands administrative building at Sarah Lawrence College. Photo: Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)/Screenshot

On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led Palestinian terrorists invaded southern Israel and perpetrated the biggest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust.

On that same day — while these atrocities were occurring — Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) professor Suzanne Gardinier made 17 social media posts with the hashtag “#freepalestine.” In one of the posts, Gardinier appeared to celebrate the attack.

On Oct. 8, 2023, Emmaia Gelman — Sarah Lawrence professor and Director of the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism — made an Instagram post featuring a photo of Hamas invading Israel by breaking through a barrier fence with the accompanying comment, “Solidarity with those who break prison walls.”

A reader responded, “The romanticization of an event whose sole purpose was to murder innocent civilians is a bewildering level of delusion.” Another reader replied, “This is by far the most fu**ed up thing I have seen on social media.”

A Sarah Lawrence student at the time, Sammy Tweedy, responded, “#youshouldbefired.”

Later that school year, Tweedy — son of the singer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco fame — made news for publicly addressing antisemitism at Sarah Lawrence.

Sammy Tweedy told the politically progressive Forward that he was “excommunicated” on campus “for just going to Israel.” Tweedy shared, “If you’re Jewish and you have an identity where Israel is a part of it, you are dehumanized. People called me a Nazi. People called me genocidal.”

According to this 2023 Forward report, Tweedy “said he has filed bias incident reports with the school along with more than 100 screenshots of online harassment, including students identified by name saying ‘they want me to die,’ but the school has taken no action.” 

In a column published just this week, Sarah Lawrence professor Samuel J. Abrams discussed a current student who is fearful to be on campus:

As a Jewish Zionist, the student — like others — has faced threats and harassment. The college experience has been anything but normal. No real campus life. No security. No peace. Sarah Lawrence has let this happen. It has become a place where students like this one, and professors like me, are targeted for our faith, heritage, and belief in Israel’s right to exist.

As a professor and a Zionist, I find it heartbreaking. No student should fear their own campus. No student should have to choose between safety and an education.

On Oct. 9, 2023, the SLC chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) celebrated Hamas’s pogrom on social media, referring to the rapes, massacre, and hostage-taking of Israelis as “the uprising in Palestine.” Interestingly, the SLC-SJP post used the same photograph of a Hamas bulldozer breaking into Israel that Gelman used a day earlier. In March, SLC-SJP featured Gelman at an event, referring to her as a “fantastic” speaker. 

According to a report by The Algemeiner, “No sooner had the [Oct. 7] tragedy occurred than Briana Martin — SLC director of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) — called on students to ignore Jewish suffering by attending on Oct. 9 an ‘Hour of Solidarity with Palestine,’ an event co-sponsored by SJP.”

On Feb. 6 of this year, Gardinier shared someone else’s post on X which stated, “Palestinians did not commit a crime on Oct. 7.”

The next day, Gardinier shared two posts on X blaming Israel — not Hamas — for most of the Oct. 7 murders and denying Hamas’s use of mass rape against Israeli women and girls. One post read, “Most of the people killed on Oct. 7 were actually killed by Israel.” The other stated, “israel [sic] killed most of its own people on oct 7 and there was no mass rape, it was all atrocity propaganda.”  

Even the United Nations — an organization viewed by many as notoriously anti-Israel — is clear: “On Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups killed approximately 1,200 persons in Israel.” And The New York Times — a publication often accused of being biased against Israel — published a widely read, in-depth investigation titled, “How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7.”

On Nov. 24, Gardinier wrote on social media that it was “an honor” to stand with others at the SLC encampment. She did not mention the prominent support of terrorism on display at the encampment as clearly encapsulated by a large banner promoting Samidoun. Samidoun was designated by the US Department of the Treasury under President Biden as a “sham charity that serves as an international fundraiser for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization.”

As reported by the ADL, the banner also included “the image of convicted terrorist Georges Abdallah, formerly with the PFLP, who was sentenced to life in prison in France for the 1982 murders in Paris of an Israeli diplomat and an American military attaché.”

In a 2024 zine written by “Anonymous Sarah Lawrence Students,” the authors state that they answered Hamas’s call for “escalation” by occupying a building on campus.

Considering that student groups have promoted fundraisers for Gaza and considering the student support for Hamas and Samidoun, the college — as well as local and federal authorities — should investigate the possibility that funds may have been provided to organizations that support terrorism. 

In November of 2024, Abrams published a column about the now dismantled SLC encampment, titled “Sarah Lawrence Has Fallen,” explaining the anti-Israel fervor on campus:

In the dead of night on Nov. 21, a group of students linked to Sarah Lawrence College’s (SLC) Divestment Coalition stormed Westlands, the school’s main administrative building, and announced their occupation through social media. This was no quiet protest. Hiding their identities behind masks, the group decorated the building with signs, barricaded doors, and blocked windows with plywood, effectively shutting down the school’s operations. Dozens of students living in the dormitory above were trapped and access to key school offices were blocked. Outside, an encampment took shape, turning the scene into a spectacle broadcast across social media for the world to witness.

Abrams, a Jewish professor, added that SLC students “issued demands not for dialogue but for destruction. They called for harm against Zionists, the eradication of Israel, and displayed deeply inflammatory slogans such as ‘Long live the intifada!’”

In the end, students failed in their efforts to have Sarah Lawrence divest from Israel, and the encampment was dismantled. 

Recently, anti-Israel students at SLC have encouraged fellow students to boycott Abrams’ classes. Abrams explained that the boycott is because he supports “Israel’s right to exist and to defend itself” and because he is a “Zionist Jew.”

This week, on a Sarah Lawrence alumni social media page, a graduate of the college wrote, “May no Zionist, be they Christian, Jewish, or atheist (because all of these exist) be safe from harassment just as white men who espouse white supremacy should not be safe from harassment either.”

In the same social media thread, another graduate of the college shared: “i’m not a zionist but nevertheless.. when i was at SLC someone graffitied a swastika onto my dorm and i had fake eviction notices slipped under my door, just because i celebrated jewish holidays. people threatened me because i went to hillel. it’s tough out there even for jews who 1000% support Palestine [sic].”

In early 2025, the US Department of Education opened a Title VI antisemitism investigation into Sarah Lawrence in response to a complaint filed by Hillel accusing the college of fostering a hostile environment towards Jewish students. 

I received a rigorous education at Sarah Lawrence and am proud of it. For decades, I recommended Sarah Lawrence to anyone who asked. Now, I would not send my own children to Sarah Lawrence.

 Peter Reitzes writes about issues related to antisemitism and Israel.

The post Sarah Lawrence Has Allowed and Encouraged Antisemitism; I Would Not Send My Own Children There first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Germany’s Halt to Arms Exports to Israel Is Response to Gaza Expansion Plans, Chancellor Says

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz attends a cabinet meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, Aug. 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Liesa Johannssen

Germany’s decision to curb arms exports to Israel comes in response to Israel’s plan to expand its operations in the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Sunday in an interview with public broadcaster ARD.

“We cannot deliver weapons into a conflict that is now being pursued exclusively by military means,” Merz said. “We want to help diplomatically, and we are doing so.”

The worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and Israel’s plans to expand military control over the enclave have pushed Germany to take this historically fraught step.

The chancellor said in the interview that the expansion of Israel’s operations in Gaza could claim hundreds of thousands of civilian lives and would require the evacuation of the entire city of Gaza.

“Where are these people supposed to go?” Merz said. “We can’t do that, we won’t do that, and I will not do that.”

Nevertheless, the principles of Germany’s Israel policy remain unchanged, the chancellor said.

“Germany has stood firmly by Israel’s side for 80 years. That will not change,” Merz said.

Germany is Israel’s second-biggest weapons supplier after the US and has long been one of its staunchest supporters, principally because of its historical guilt for the Nazi Holocaust – a policy known as the “Staatsraison.”

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Newsom Calls Trump’s $1 Billion UCLA Settlement Offer Extortion, Says California Won’t Bow

California Governor Gavin Newsom speaks at a press conference, accompanied by members of the Texas Democratic legislators, at the governor’s mansion in Sacramento, California, U.S., August 8, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Carlos Barria

California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Saturday that a $1 billion settlement offer by President Donald Trump’s administration for UCLA amounted to political extortion to which the state will not bow.

The University of California says it is reviewing a $1 billion settlement offer by the Trump administration for UCLA after the government froze hundreds of millions of dollars in funding over pro-Palestinian protests.

UCLA, which is part of the University of California system, said this week the government froze $584 million in funding. Trump has threatened to cut federal funds for universities over anti-Israel student protests.

“Donald Trump has weaponized the DOJ (Department of Justice) to kneecap America’s #1 public university system — freezing medical & science funding until @UCLA pays his $1 billion ransom,” the office of Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post.

“California won’t bow to Trump’s disgusting political extortion,” it added.

“This isn’t about protecting Jewish students – it’s a billion-dollar political shakedown from the pay-to-play president.”

The government alleges universities, including UCLA, allowed antisemitism during the protests and in doing so violated Jewish and Israeli students’ civil rights. The White House had no immediate comment beyond the offer.

Experts have raised free speech and academic freedom concerns over the Republican president’s threats. The University of California says paying such a large settlement would “completely devastate” the institution.

Large demonstrations took place at UCLA last year. Last week, UCLA agreed to pay over $6 million to settle a lawsuit by some students and a professor who alleged antisemitism. It was also sued this year over a 2024 violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters.

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Trump Nominates State Dept Spokeswoman Bruce as US Deputy Representative to UN

FILE PHOTO: U.S. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce speaks during her first press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., U.S., March 6, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo

President Donald Trump said on Saturday he was nominating State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce as the next US deputy representative to the United Nations.

Bruce has been the State Department spokesperson since Trump took office in January.

In a post on social media in which Trump announced her nomination, the president said she did a “fantastic job” as State Department spokesperson. Bruce will need to be confirmed for the role by the US Senate, where Trump’s Republican Party holds a majority.

During press briefings, she has defended the Trump administration’s foreign policy decisions ranging from an immigration crackdown and visa revocations to US responses to Russia’s war in Ukraine and Israel’s war in Gaza, including a widely condemned armed private aid operation in the Palestinian territory.

Bruce was previously a political contributor and commentator on Fox News for over 20 years.

She has also authored books like “Fear Itself: Exposing the Left’s Mind-Killing Agenda” that criticized liberals and left-leaning viewpoints.

In a post after Trump’s announcement, Bruce thanked him and suggested that the role was a “few weeks” away. Neither Trump nor Bruce mentioned an exact timeline in their online posts.

“Now I’m blessed that in the next few weeks my commitment to advancing America First leadership and values continues on the global stage in this new post,” Bruce wrote on X.

Trump has picked former White House national security adviser Mike Waltz to be his U.N. envoy. Waltz’s Senate confirmation for that role, wherein he will be Bruce’s boss, is still due.

Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser until he was ousted on May 1 after he was caught up in a March scandal involving a Signal chat among top Trump national security aides on military strikes in Yemen. Trump then nominated Waltz as his U.N. ambassador.

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