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The Ethics of a ‘Good Jew’ on College Campuses Today
George Washington University blocked off most outdoor campus spaces on May 9, 2024 after clearing out an anti-Israel encampment from the Washington, DC campus the prior day. Photo: Jack Elbaum
How does one become a “Good Jew?” What is the ideal response in the face of hatred? Should one choose silence and appeasement to avoid conflict, or express unapologetic pride and deter one’s enemies? Should we remain in the confines of our Jewish communities, or spread our wings beyond them? These questions, reflecting contrasting philosophies in the Jewish ethical wills of Eleazar of Mayence (1357) and Judah ibn Tibbon (1160-1180), resemble the questions we ask ourselves today.
In the Middle Ages, Jews typically left statements of inheritance to their children; beyond such wills, Jewish ethical wills — known in Hebrew as Tzevaot — conveyed values and guidance for learning and living to their descendants. Penned widely across Ashkenazi and Sephardic worlds, from al-Andalusia and the Levant to Germany and France, ethical wills show us what Jewish priorities and principles of character were valued at the time, and what we can contemplate in the modern age.
Judah ibn Tibbon, a successful physician and scholar, lived under Islamic rule during the Middle Ages. Medieval Islamic society was relatively tolerant toward Jews under the Pact of Umar; yet, there were restrictions under protected status, or dhimmi status, which provided conditional protections and required additional tax payments known as the jizya. In al-Andalusia, Jews including Tibbon, Maimonides, Abraham ibn Ezra, and others, lived enriching lives as public Jewish figures.
In contrast, Christian Europe had no such pact with its Jews. Elazar of Mayence, writing from Germany, lived through the Black Death and experienced pervasive Blood Libels and other chimerical myths that inspired mobs to massacre Jews with no government retribution. From this analysis, it is understandable why Elazar would advise his sons and daughters to reside among Jews and keep a low profile by remaining silent and avoiding any confrontation. At the same time, it makes sense that Tibbon prescribed his son to excel in medicine, philosophy, and science, and to build a good name for himself as a deterrence method.
The insights from these two authors — and noting the very different environments in which they lived — can inspire how Jewish college students would contemplate an ethical will for their descendants (i.e., future generations of Jewish students). I hope that, just as Jewish scripture and helping others were critical for both authors, knowledgeability about Judaism and Israel, and playing a role in the campus community, manifest as priorities for every Jewish student.
In the aftermath of October 7th, Elazar’s prescription of silence and appeasement is one that I believe would imperil the Jewish future. I was incredulous when some of my fellow Jewish peers expressed that we should hide in the Hillel building during the pro-Hamas encampment on my campus, instead of urging the administration to dismantle it immediately.
A similar feeling overcame me when my classmates began to isolate their friend groups exclusively to the Jewish community, and most of all, when they callously cut off friends who disagreed with them, most notably after this past election.
For generations, there has been discourse around the “Good” versus “Bad” Jew: one who exuded power or powerlessness, assimilated or remained visibly Jewish, tried to resolve conflicts through compromise or direct confrontation, or one who supports Israel and one who does not.
Throughout my university experience, I’ve approached the question of being a “Good Jew” in multiple ways, reflecting myriad ideas posited by Elazar and Tibbon.
In my sophomore year, I considered giving up the fight against antisemitism on campus and keeping quiet due to fears for my safety. After conversations with professors and family friends, and because silence felt wrong, I continued writing articles, speaking at a variety of events, getting involved in student government, and meeting with the George Washington University administration; yet, my initial advocacy approach attempted to appease university officials by providing them with constructive solutions, in my efforts to work with them in good faith.
Students like myself have sought to educate rather than expose administrators for their ignorance and negligible indifference. However, after my efforts proved fruitless — and pro-Hamas rallies continued sweeping the nation unabated, with administrators allowing and thus enabling them — this approach was bound to escalate anti-Jewish behavior rather than deter it.
The Jewish people today live in very different circumstances than Elazar, and even Tibbon. While we may not be fully protected by institutions, America stands with us, and Israel ensures our safety like never before. We have the right to defend ourselves, and in this eight-front war against Israel, Jewish courage has risen to the challenge. This courage is vital not only for Israel’s future, but for higher education and Western civilization. Our strength and victories inspire millions, proving that more stand on the right side of history than we may realize.
While it may seem that the Jewish community has never been in this much danger since the Holocaust — and many of the signs that we saw in Nazi Germany with the indoctrination and harassment of Jewish students by their professors and classmates seem eerily familiar — we should engage with the outside world in the ways that Tibbon prescribed.
In following the teaching of Pirkei Avot, “he who is wise learns from everyone,” we should all engage in social groups and academic circles where we may be the only Jew or only Zionist voice. Here, we have an opportunity to share the true stories of the Jewish people — along with personal, family stories that our peers can connect to. We should equally listen to the stories of others who may present opposing narratives and viewpoints — and be okay with that. While fabricated, propaganda-filled curricula should never be held as fact, the power of viewpoint diversity should never be compromised.
The “Good Jew” is the one who, like the shamash, serves the community by lighting all its neighbors with glimmers of wisdom and can be surrounded by those who hold different perspectives.
Simultaneously, the “Good Jew” should be able to read a variety of sources no matter how contrary to their beliefs. As the lesson of Hanukkah prescribes, the “Good Jew” is the one who does not assimilate or isolate himself to one source of knowledge or one community. The ideal response to hatred is continuing to shed light on truth by maintaining an unwavering Jewish spirit — asking challenging questions and spreading written and oral knowledge. Dissent, discourse, and debate are critical to prevent the permeation of fabrications about the Jewish people in the civilized, educated world and the West — a world in which we have the freedom to channel our merits and spread our wisdom.
A miracle is often seen as a divine, unexplainable event. But in Jewish tradition, miracles require human effort. The Hanukkah story exemplifies this: Judah the Maccabee fought against assimilation and prevailing norms among his fellow Jews, setting the precedent for modern Jews to never surrender their identity and power. Similarly, Elazar urged his descendants to stay rooted in Judaism, while Tibbon engaged with diverse philosophies and cultures without compromising his faith.
Exposure to other ideas should strengthen, not weaken, our beliefs. The combination of these elements should resemble the portrait of the “Good Jew,” which we have the duty to embody and channel for generations to come.
The author is a senior at George Washington University.
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Yale University Students Abort Anti-Israel Encampment Attempts After Warning From Officials
Illustrative: Yale University students at the corner of Grove and College Streets in New Haven, Connecticut, US, April 22, 2024. Photo: Melanie Stengel via Reuters Connect.
Yalies4Palestine attempted to establish a so-called “Gaza Solidarity Encampment” on the Beinecke Plaza section of Yale University’s campus on Tuesday evening, prompting a quick disciplinary response from the administration.
The students were told in no uncertain terms that refusing to discontinue the activity by an 11 pm deadline set by administrators would result in disciplinary sanctions, according to a report by the Yale Daily News. Prior to that, they obstructed Jewish students’ right to walk through campus, according to videos posted to social media by a Jewish student at Yale.
Jewish students aren’t allowed to walk through Yale’s campus anymore! pic.twitter.com/ywa8Z7V6KU
— Netanel Crispe (@NetanelCrispe) April 23, 2025
Such action blocking Jews from parts of campus elsewhere has triggered a lawsuit in which the US Justice Department recently filed a statement of interest.
“The group’s activities violated Yale’s time, place, and manner polices,” a university spokesperson told the News when asked about the incident. “University officials clearly articulated Yale’s policies and the consequences of violating them.”
The students eventually left after Yale’s assistant vice president for university life, Pilar Montalvo, walked through the area distributing cards containing a message which implored students to “Please stop your current action immediately. If you do not, you may risk university disciplinary action and/or arrest” and a QR code for a webpage which explains Yale’s policies on expression and free assembly.
The cards triggered a paranoiac fit, the News reported. Upon receiving them, the students became suspicious that the QR code could be used to track and identity those who participated in the unauthorized protest. “Do not scan the QR code!” they began to chant. They left the area soon after, the paper added, clearing the way for public safety officers to photograph and remove the tents they had attempted to pitch.
According to the News, the protest was triggered by an upcoming off-campus event at which Israel’s controversial national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir — who has called for annexing the West Bank and the emigration of Gaza’s residents — will be hosted by Shabtai, a student group not formally recognized by the university.
Writing to The Algemeiner in a message titled “Yale Maintains Calm Campus and Takes Disciplinary Action,” the university took credit for preventing a style of protest that could have lasted for weeks and upended the campus during final exams. It also confirmed that disciplinary sanctions have already been meted out to several students who participated in Tuesday’s unauthorized demonstration despite having been punished for committing the same infraction in the past.
“University officials articulated Yale’s policies and the consequences of violating them and actively cleared the area, which has remained clear since that time,” a spokesperson wrote. “During the interaction, staff identified students who had been warned or disciplined in previous incidents that violated university policy. Those students have received written notice today that they are subject to immediate disciplinary action.”
The most severe sanction handed down is the revocation of Yalies4Palestine’s status as a registered student organization, which proscribes their holding events on campus indefinitely. Additionally, the group will no longer enjoy access to funds that subsidize club activities and is deprived entirely of the privilege of assembling on university property. A string of transgressions precipitated the action, Yale said in Wednesday’s statement, noting that the group had been forewarned on Monday that it had exhausted the university’s tolerance for its misconduct.
“Concerns have been raised about disturbing antisemitic conduct at the gathering,” the statement continued. “The university is investigating those concerns, as harassment and discrimination are antithetical to learning and scholarship. Yale condemns antisemitism and will hold those who violate our policies accountable through our disciplinary processes.”
Yale University has ample cause to claim credit for quelling the would-be encampment and punishing those who were involved in it. The Trump administration has been impounding federal funds previously appropriated to universities that allow pro-Hamas demonstrations and promote excessive “wokeness.”
In March, it cancelled $400 million in federal contracts and grants for Columbia University, a measure that secured the school’s acceding to a slew of demands the administration put forth as preconditions for restoring the money. Princeton University saw $210 million of its federal grants and funding suspended too, prompting its president, Christopher Eisgruber to say the institution is “committed to fighting antisemitism and all forms of discrimination.” Brown University’s federal funding is also reportedly at risk due to its alleged failing to mount a satisfactory response to the campus antisemitism crisis, as well as its alignment with diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement.
Most recently, the Trump administration cancelled $2.26 billion in federal funding for Harvard University following the institution’s refusal to agree to a wishlist of reforms that Republican lawmakers have long argued will make higher education more meritocratic and less welcoming to anti-Zionists and far-left extremists. Contained in a letter shared by interim Harvard president Alan Garber, the policies called for included “viewpoint diversity in hiring and admissions,” the “discontinuation of [DEI initiatives],” and “reducing forms of governance bloat.” They also implored Harvard to begin “reforming programs with egregious records of antisemitism” and to recalibrate its approach to “student discipline.”
Harvard is now suing the administration in federal court to halt its sequestering of grants and contracts paid for by the American taxpayer. However, resolving the complaint could take months, and any money confiscated from Yale before a ruling in that case is rendered could cause catastrophic levels of harm that lead to hiring freezes, job cuts, and unsustainable borrowing, a measure to which several universities, including Harvard, have resorted to cover budget shortfalls.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Abbas Calls Hamas ‘Sons of Dogs,’ Pushes for Palestinian Authority Control Over Gaza
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas holds a leadership meeting in Ramallah, in the West Bank, April 23, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohammed Torokman
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Hamas “sons of dogs,” while urging the terrorist group to release the Israeli hostages held in Gaza and bring an end to the war.
“The first priority is to stop the war of extermination in Gaza. It must be stopped – hundreds are being killed every day,” Abbas said in a televised speech at the Palestinian Authority’s Central Council on Wednesday.
“We are facing grave danger that could lead to a new catastrophe — a Nakba,” he continued. Many Palestinians and anti-Israel activists use the term “Nakba,” or “catastrophe,” to refer to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948.
During his speech, Abbas pressed Hamas to cede control of the war-torn enclave to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and give up its arms — a demand his ruling Fatah party has reiterated in efforts to reunite Gaza and the West Bank under what it describes as “a single national authority.”
“Hamas must transfer control of Gaza and its weapons to the Palestinian Authority, and transform into a political party,” Abbas said.
However, Hamas has previously rejected calls to disarm — a key condition in ceasefire negotiations with Israel and the United States — dismissing them as “impossible conditions” and a red line the terrorist group insists it will not cross.
“Any truce lacking real guarantees for halting the war, achieving full withdrawal, lifting the blockade, and beginning reconstruction will be a political trap,” Hamas said in a statement last week.
Hamas violently eliminated Fatah, its Palestinian opposition, in a brief conflict in 2007, when the terrorist group took full control of Gaza after winning legislative elections the prior year.
In his speech, Abbas once again denounced Hamas for negotiating with the United States, accusing the group of “undermining Palestinian unity” — a criticism the PA has voiced before.
He also condemned what he described as Israel’s actions to uproot Gaza’s residents from their homes, calling it a “new Nakba.”
“We reject this. It’s an inseparable part of our land — what’s happening in Gaza is also happening in Jenin, everywhere,” Abbas said, seemingly referring to Israeli counterterrorism operations in the West Bank.
Israeli leaders have said they support voluntary emigration from Gaza for those who wish to leave but not forced displacement.
Abbas delivered his speech during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah, where he is expected to announce a successor, addressing international concerns about the PA’s ability to govern the enclave during reconstruction efforts.
“Our vision for achieving peace in the Middle East is based on ending the Israeli occupation and establishing a state,” Abbas said during his remarks.
He added that the PA’s goals are “returning the hostages, lifting the Israeli blockade of Gaza, stopping the displacement of our people in coordination with Arab countries, and defending the ‘Palestinian cause.’”
This is not the first time the PA has attempted to publicly separate itself from Hamas while simultaneously pursuing Palestinian reconciliation talks. However, PA officials have been regularly rationalizing Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel and in some cases even denying it took place or falsely claiming Israeli forces carried out the onslaught that started the Gaza war.
The PA, which has been riddled with accusations of corruption, has also long maintained a so-called “pay-for-slay” program, which rewards terrorists and their families for carrying out attacks against Israelis, leading critics to question whether the PA can effectively govern Gaza.
Abbas’s remarks came as Egyptian and Qatari mediators continued working to restore the January ceasefire agreement, which had halted fighting in Gaza before it broke down last month.
The BBC reported this week that mediators from Egypt and Qatar presented a new framework to both parties, which included a five-to-seven-year truce, an end to Israel’s war in Gaza, the release of all remaining Israeli hostages held in the enclave, and the release of an undisclosed number of Palestinian detainees.
The latest round of talks in Cairo last week aimed at salvaging the ceasefire and freeing Israeli hostages ended with no apparent breakthrough.
Hamas said it would no longer agree to interim deals, but rather called for a “comprehensive package negotiation” to secure the release of all remaining hostages in its custody in exchange for an end to the Gaza war, the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and the reconstruction of the enclave.
“Netanyahu and his government use partial agreements as a cover for their political agenda, which is based on continuing the war of extermination and starvation, even if the price is sacrificing all his prisoners [hostages],” Khalil Al-Hayya, the terrorist group’s Gaza chief who leads its negotiating team, said, referring to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel proposed a 45-day truce in Gaza to facilitate hostage releases and potentially start indirect talks to end the war, but Hamas has already rejected one of its conditions — that it lay down its weapons.
The Palestinian terrorist group released 38 hostages under a ceasefire that began on Jan. 19. In March, Israel’s military resumed its ground and aerial offensive in Gaza, after Hamas rejected proposals to extend the truce without ending the war.
Israeli officials have said that the offensive will continue until the remaining 59 hostages are freed and Gaza is demilitarized. However, Hamas insists it will free hostages only as part of a deal to end the war.
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Global Antisemitic Incidents Decreased in 2024 From Post-Oct. 7 Surge but Remain Alarmingly High, New Study Finds
A pro-Hamas march in London, United Kingdom, Feb. 17, 2024. Photo: Chrissa Giannakoudi via Reuters Connect
Antisemitic incidents worldwide decreased in 2024 following the record surge that followed the Hamas-led massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, but they remain significantly higher than levels recorded prior to the attack, according to a new report published on Wednesday.
Just hours before the start of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day on Wednesday night, Tel Aviv University’s Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, in collaboration with the Irwin Cotler Institute for Democracy, Human Rights, and Justice, released its Annual Antisemitism Worldwide Report, which focuses on anti-Jewish hate crimes in 2024.
“Antisemitism is not just a problem of the past or a fringe issue,” said Professor Uriya Shavit, the report’s editor. “It is a mirror to our societies. And in 2024, that reflection is still deeply troubling.”
The 160-page study revealed that anti-Jewish hatred, which spiked in the wake of the Hamas onslaught, continues to persist across continents a year and a half into the ongoing Gaza conflict.
“Contrary to popular belief, the report’s findings indicate that the wave of antisemitism did not steadily intensify due to the war in Gaza and the humanitarian disaster there,” Shavit said. “The peak was in October-December 2023, and a year later, a sharp decline in the number of incidents was noted almost everywhere.”
“The sad truth is that antisemitism reared its head at the moment when the Jewish state appeared weaker than ever and under existential threat,” he continued.
Australia saw the most significant rise in anti-Jewish incidents, with 1,713 recorded in 2024, compared to 1,200 in 2023 and 490 in 2022.
Despite the sharp surge in anti-Jewish hate following the Oct. 7 attacks, Australia recorded 478 incidents between October and December 2024, a notable drop from the 827 incidents reported during the same period in 2023.
A rise in antisemitism compared to pre-war norms continued into this year. In February, for example, Australia experienced a scandal in which two nurses were caught on video vowing to kill Israeli patients, prompting outrage from authorities. After the video went viral, both nurses were suspended and permanently barred from employment within the New South Wales state health system. They were later charged with crimes.
The United States also saw notable increases in anti-Jewish incidents, especially in cities like Chicago, Denver, and Austin. The Anti-Defamation League released its own report on Tuesday showing that antisemitism in the US surged to break “all previous annual records” in 2024, with the civil rights group recording 9,354 antisemitic incidents last year.
In New York, the city with the world’s largest Jewish population outside of Israel, police recorded 344 antisemitic hate crimes in 2024, up from 325 in 2023 and 264 in 2022. Last month, Jews were the targets of more hate crimes than any other group, according to police data.
However, between October and December 2024, New York saw 68 antisemitic incidents, a sharp decline from the 159 incidents recorded in the same months of 2023.
Canada recorded a record-breaking 6,219 anti-Jewish incidents in 2024, up from 5,791 the previous year. Although members of the Jewish community make up less than 1 percent of the country’s population, they were targeted in one-fifth of all hate crimes.
“Around the world, levels of antisemitism remain significantly higher compared to the period before Oct. 7,” Shavit said in a statement.
In Europe, Italy experienced a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate, with 877 incidents reported in 2024 — nearly double the 454 recorded in 2023.
Switzerland and Spain both saw a rise in antisemitic activity in 2024. For example, nearly 2,000 antisemitic incidents were reported in French-speaking Switzerland last year — an increase of 90 percent from 2023. The German-, Italian-, and Romansh-speaking regions recorded a 43 percent rise compared to 2023 and a staggering 287 percent increase compared to 2022.
One of the most notorious recent cases was the Zurich attempted murder, in which an Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed and left with life-threatening injuries by a Swiss teenager, an Islamic State supporter of Tunisian origin.
On the other hand, France reported an overall decline in antisemitic incidents in 2024, but there was a concerning rise in physical assaults. The total number of antisemitic outrages last year was a slight dip from 2023’s record total of 1,676, but it marked a striking increase from the 436 antisemitic acts recorded in 2022.
Last week, a Jewish man wearing a Star of David pendant was brutally attacked and called a “dirty Jew” in Villeurbanne, a city in eastern France that is home to the country’s second-largest Jewish community. In another egregious attack that garnered international headlines, a 12-year-old Jewish girl was raped by three Muslim boys in a Paris suburb last year. The child told investigators that the assailants called her a “dirty Jew” and hurled other antisemitic comments at her during the attack.
In the United Kingdom, 3,528 antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2024, down from 4,103 in 2023 and 1,662 in 2022. The country also saw a sharp decline in October, with 310 incidents reported in 2024, compared to 1,389 in the same month of 2023.
Despite recording an 18 percent drop in anti-Jewish hate crimes from the previous year’s all-time high, the UK still experienced its second worst year for antisemitism in 2024.
In Germany, 5,177 antisemitic incidents were recorded in 2024, down from 5,671 in 2023 and 2,811 in 2022. During the October-December period, 671 incidents were reported in 2024, a significant decrease from 3,163 in the same period of 2023.
In South America, both Argentina and Brazil experienced increased antisemitic activity in 2024. For example, Argentina saw a 44 percent rise in reported anti-Jewish hate crimes compared to the previous year.
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