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Sinai Temple in Los Angeles Launches Program to Help Jewish Students Combat Antisemitism
Beren Scholar fellows attending a seminar provided by the program. Photo: Sinai Temple
A new “intensive” seminar based in the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and described as the “first of its kind” will prepare Jewish high school students to withstand and resist campus antisemitism, The Algemeiner has learned.
Announced in the shadow of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the Beren Scholars Program will educate cohorts of students in 11th and 12th grade about the history of antisemitism across the ages and its latest manifestation in higher education, steeling them against a wave of hatred that university administrators have failed to stop.
A key component of Beren Scholars is a lecture series featuring the world’s leading Jewish and non-Jewish antisemitism experts, including Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Dr. Pastor John Paul Foster, and Sarah Idan, a former Miss Iraq winner and leading Muslim supporter of Israel. Connecting Jewish students with leaders drawn from every culture and faith will, Sinai Temple says, expand their network of support and hone their ability to serve as ambassadors of the Jewish community on and off campus.
“The program will culminate with a trip to Sacramento where students will practice their news skills, meeting with state lawmakers to advocate for Jewish causes,” Sinai Temple said earlier this month.
The establishment of the Beren Scholars Program comes amid an eruption of antisemitism on college campuses unlike any in US history.
According to a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published last month, there was a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena during the 2023-2024 academic year. The report revealed a bleak picture of a higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate, noting that 10 campuses alone accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Violence was most common at universities in the state of California, where, for example, anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
It is this harrowing reality which prompted Sinai Temple and the Robert M. Beren Family Foundation to equip Jewish students with the tools they will need to overcome a hostile world, Rabbi Erez Sherman, co-senior rabbi of the synagogue, told The Algemeiner during an interview.
“What might have began as a defensive idea will be turning into a proactive vision,” Sherman said. “Looking back now post-Oct. 7, it’s clear that programs like this should have been with us many years before, but we became a bit too complacent. They used to say ‘we have to teach our college students’ and then they said ‘we have to teach our high school students.’”
Sherman added that numerous incidents going back years portended the crisis Jewish students face today. But he explained that Oct. 7, its suddenness and cruelty combined with the higher education establishment’s indifferent response to it in some cases, convulsed the Jewish community, forcing it to accept that even institutions reputed to be the most tolerant and diverse can, either through intentional neglect or incompetence, become bastions of antisemitism. Moreover, he explained, the community recognized the urgency of mobilizing allies in non-Jewish communities.
“Little things were creeping up,” he continued. “But I don’t think we understood the magnitude of what lied beneath the surface. When it exploded on Oct. 7, we realized that we had to address it, and Sinai Temple and this community was very fortunate to, number one, already be in a space of Israel activism — so we didn’t have to recreate anything — and two, to also be in a space of allyship creation, wonderful relationships with our Catholic Church, Faithful Central Bible Church, the Mormon Church.”
Sherman hopes the work in which the Beren Foundation and Sinai Temple is engaged will spread to synagogues across the country.
“What’s unique is that this is coming out of a synagogue and not any other organization that’s just fighting antisemitism or just working on college campuses,” he said. “We want people to realize that their own houses of worship have value beyond just worship and praying to G-d. They can also take action.”
Julie Platt — the daughter of the late Robert M. Beren, a generous supporter of the Orthodox community who died last August — called it a “great blessing to carry on our father’s legacy knowing that our work will support the next generation of Jewish students.”
She added, “In a world where Jews are thinking to retreat, our Beren Scholars will not hide. Instead, they will stand tall, speak out, and create a world of empathetic, intellectual, strong, joyful Jewish leaders.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
The post Sinai Temple in Los Angeles Launches Program to Help Jewish Students Combat Antisemitism first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.