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U. of Vermont agrees to improve antisemitism training, ending federal case and capping a tumultuous year
(JTA) – A year of strained relations between the University of Vermont and its Jewish community has led to the school resolving a federal antisemitism complaint and pledging to do more to protect its Jewish students — including from anti-Zionist rhetoric.
The university and the U.S. Department of Education announced Monday that they had reached a resolution to the complaint, which the department took up last fall after it was filed by students and pro-Israel groups. The complaint alleged that the institution had not properly responded to Jewish students’ allegations of antisemitic discrimination. Investigators determined that the university “received notice, but did not investigate” several claims of antisemitic behavior on campus, and that the steps it ultimately took did not adequately address students’ concerns.
Notably, the department’s office of civil rights determined that one of the ways the university’s Jewish students had been discriminated against was through “national origin harassment on the basis of shared ancestry,” reflecting a controversial argument promoted by pro-Israel groups that anti-Zionist rhetoric is harmful to all Jews because the Jewish people share Israel as an ancestral homeland. The resolution of the complaint also reflects a sharp change in course for the school, which had initially denied wrongdoing and blamed the accusations on an orchestrated external campaign — a response that upset the campus Jewish community.
“This complaint was overwhelmingly dealing with the antisemitism that masks as anti-Zionism, and what the resolution demonstrates is how seriously [the office] is taking that kind of antisemitism,” Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency after the ruling. A pro-Israel legal group that often involves itself in campus disputes, the Brandeis Center was one of the organizations that filed the initial complaint on behalf of mostly anonymous students.
The Department of Education responded to a JTA request for comment by pointing to its letter of resolution with the university. Its civil rights office has fielded several challenges to anti-Zionist rhetoric since the Donald Trump administration expanded the department’s mandate around antisemitism in 2019 under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The office of civil rights is fast becoming a favorite tool for pro-Israel activists: It also announced this week it would open an investigation into allegations of a professor’s antisemitic behavior at George Washington University, a week after the university’s own investigation cleared the faculty member of charges brought by another pro-Israel group.
In the agreement, the University of Vermont pledged to revise its policies for reporting discrimination and to train its staff on how to specifically respond to discrimination complaints. The Department of Education will also review the university’s records regarding its response to last year’s allegations of antisemitism. One of the areas in which the university said it would train staff is on how to recognize “the Title VI prohibition against harassment based on national origin, including shared ancestry.”
Among the allegations: cases of unofficial student groups denying admission to “Zionist” students (including a support group for sexual-assault survivors); one graduate teaching assistant who had mused on social media about lowering the grades of Zionist students; and a group of students who’d reportedly thrown an object at the campus Hillel building (the complaint claimed it was a rock; Hillel staff told JTA it was a puffball mushroom). More than 20% of the university’s student body is Jewish, according to Hillel International.
Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior at the University of Vermont, poses in his off-campus housing in Burlington, October 13, 2022. Siegel was initially critical of his school for its handling of a federal antisemitism investigation, but praised its eventual resolution. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
The agreement marked a sharp change from how the university first responded when the government announced its intent to investigate the complaint last fall. Back then, the university’s president, Suresh Garimella, issued a combative statement in which he said the university “vigorously denies the false allegation of an insufficient response to complaints of threats and discrimination.” He also issued a point-by-point refutation of the allegations in the complaint.
Garimella further charged that the complaint had been orchestrated by “an anonymous third party” that had “painted our community in a patently false light.” In addition to the Brandeis Center, the complaint was filed on behalf of students by the watchdog group Jewish On Campus, whose antisemitism-tracking methodology has been criticized by other groups.
Garimella’s combativeness at the time was an unusual move for the leader of a university accused of violating Title VI law, which prohibits discriminatory behavior at federally-funded programs or institutions, such as public universities. Groups like the Brandeis Center have increasingly leaned on Title VI in federal complaints to argue that pro-Israel students face discrimination. Title VI cases have become a central component of litigating multiple kinds of Israel discourse on campus, ranging from a pro-Israel student body president being targeted at the University of Southern California to a resolution passed by pro-Palestinian law student groups at the University of California, Berkeley.
In Burlington, where the university is located, some liberal Jews were initially dubious of the complaint. Felicia Kornbluh, a history professor on campus who often teaches American Jewish history, told JTA she was concerned about “playing into the narrative” of a conservative, pro-Israel agenda set by the Brandeis Center, whom she described as “allies of the Trump wing of the Republican party.” (The center’s founder, Kenneth Marcus, served as assistant secretary of education for civil rights under Trump.)
But the complaint also landed in the aftermath of a contentious Burlington city council meeting at which, Kornbluh and others said, pro-Palestinian protesters became hostile to Jews. The meeting featured a council resolution to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign against Israel, and resulted in a raucous scene where pro-Palestinian groups shouted down Jewish students singing prayers for peace. Kornbluh described the atmosphere there as “really scary,” and “a little like Nuremberg.” Vermonters for Justice in Palestine, a local activist group, held multiple rallies on campus in support of the administration after the antisemitism complaint was publicized.
Against this backdrop, Garimella’s dismissiveness left the university’s Jewish community frustrated and angry. During a Jewish Telegraphic Agency visit to Burlington after the president’s initial statement, Jewish students and faculty said they felt like university administration was not taking their concerns seriously.
“I feel like we’re not being supported here,” Evan Siegel, a Jewish junior who is involved with student government, told JTA while sitting in off-campus housing adorned with Jewish summer camp memorabilia. “And that sucks.”
Employed as a campus tour guide, Siegel wondered, “How am I supposed to give tours and be like, ‘UVM is the best,’ when my president is being an ass?”
Other Jewish students told JTA at the time they had no intention of supporting the university financially or otherwise after they graduated, and wouldn’t advertise the fact that they were alums.
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, where one of the alleged antisemitic incidents had taken place, also reluctantly played a role in the drama of the last year, after hoping he would be able to keep his focus on Hillel’s student programming. As the fall semester was starting, he sent an email home to parents reading, “Antisemitism keeps me awake at night.” Throughout the semester, Hillel also became more active in calling out antisemitism on social media.
“Just by default, we’re at the center of it,” Vogel told JTA last fall in the Hillel building, as student volunteers chopped vegetables for that evening’s Shabbat dinner in the next room. “I’ve overheard a student saying, like, a Hillel sticker on their water bottle might turn into a political conversation about Zionism in the first two seconds.”
Matt Vogel, executive director of Hillel at the University of Vermont, prepares for Shabbat in his Burlington office, October 14, 2022. Vogel praised the university for ultimately resolving its federal antisemitism complaint in April 2023 after months of tension. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Soon, Kornbluh decided that the administration’s response to the allegations was unacceptable, and penned a local op-ed opposing it that was later shared by her faculty union in a show of solidarity.
“I was stunned by the tone and content” of Garimella’s letter, Kornbluh wrote in the piece. Accusing the university of “gaslighting,” she added, “I do know that one persistent rhetorical strategy of antisemites in Europe and the United States has been to say that there is no antisemitism.”
Garimella reversed course following weeks of criticism, a strongly worded letter from more than a dozen Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee and news of several high-profile antisemitic incidents nationally. In October, the university published a website intended to support Jewish students — accompanied by a new statement from Garimella, who now condemned antisemitism unequivocally.
“I have listened to members of our campus community who experience a sense of risk in fully expressing their Jewish identity,” he wrote. ”I want my message to be clear to the entire campus community: antisemitism, in any form, will not be tolerated at UVM.”
This time, Garimella pledged not only to investigate individual reports of antisemitism, but also to work to change the campus community’s approach to the issue. He committed to further anti-bias training and building a streamlined bias reporting system for students, and said the university’s diversity office would work to build and maintain “meaningful actions that ensure our Jewish students and community members feel support and care.”
After Monday’s resolution, Garimella was fully supportive of the findings of the Department of Education’s investigation.
“The resolution reflects an important step in UVM’s engagement with our students, faculty, staff, alumni, and the surrounding community,” he wrote in a message to the campus. “It also reflects numerous conversations we have had with our campus Jewish community and important local and national voices on the consequential and complex issue of antisemitism.”
In response to a JTA request for comment, a university spokesperson sent copies of the letters from the president and provost. (Throughout the year, the president’s office had declined multiple JTA interview requests.)
Jewish groups, including the university Hillel, celebrated the resolution. “The President and senior leadership’s new statements today represent tangible and accountable steps forward,” Vogel told JTA in a statement. “We hope this ensures that no Jewish student or any student at UVM experiences discrimination or harassment because of their identity.”
The Hillel building at the University of Vermont in Burlington, October 14, 2022. Hillel found itself at the center of a federal antisemitism complaint against the university. (Andrew Lapin/Jewish Telegraphic Agency)
Also celebrating the ruling was Jewish on Campus, a subsidiary of the World Jewish Congress and one of the groups that brought the initial complaint. “Today’s announcement is a victory for the safety and security of Jewish students,” Julia Jassey, the group’s CEO and a University of Chicago undergraduate, said in a statement.
Avi Zatz, the only University of Vermont student on the initial complaint who has made their identity public, is himself an employee of Jewish on Campus. Citing antisemitism in Vermont, Zatz recently transferred to the University of Florida — in a state that may soon pass legislation that, critics say, could harm Jewish studies on all its public campuses.
“I can’t have hoped for a better resolution,” Zatz, a junior, told JTA from his new school in Gainesville, Florida. While he said he was still glad to have left Vermont, he added, “I finally feel a sense of closure.”
Kornbluh, for her part, said the resolution was “a start,” but criticized the university for not voicing a stronger commitment to Jewish studies or meeting with Jewish faculty.
Reached by phone from Madrid, where he is studying abroad this semester, Siegel said he was “proud, determined, ready for more” following the university’s agreement.
“This resolution was really, in a respectful way, a slap in the face to the university to do better,” he said. “I, for one, am ready to get back on campus and continue my work as hard as I can.”
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California Police Open Hate Crime Probe After Assailants Attack 2 Jews Overheard Speaking Hebrew
Screenshot from video circulated on social media showing three unknown attackers punch two Israeli-Americans in San Jose, California on March 8, 2026.
Police in San Jose, California have opened a hate crime investigation after two Israeli-American Jews were overheard speaking Hebrew and then assaulted in broad daylight on Sunday.
“After arriving at a restaurant, they [the two Jewish men] were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly unconscious,” according to a statement posted by the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) for the Bay Area. “Both victims were transported to the emergency room and later released.”
JCRC is aware of a disturbing incident at Santana Row in San Jose in which two Israeli Americans were brutally attacked while speaking Hebrew. After arriving at a restaurant, they were approached by three unknown individuals and punched multiple times, leaving one victim briefly… pic.twitter.com/GZ9IkMnxfU
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026
An additional video from @jewishsf shows a closer vantage point of the assault.
According to one of the victims, one of the suspects uttered “f***ing Jew” while repeatedly beating him to the ground. pic.twitter.com/GClqx6lkRi
— JCRC Bay Area (@SFJCRC) March 10, 2026
Lior Zeevi, 47, and Daniel Levy, 48, waited for a table outside the Augustine restaurant on Sunday afternoon when the violence began. They told police that the three attackers used antisemitic language as they punched them.
According to one of the victims and local reports, one of the suspects said “f**king Jew” or “f**k the Jews” during the beating.
“Every punch connected directly to where they wanted, to the head directly. It was on purpose to hit and make maximum damage,” one of the victims told ABC7.
Levy lost consciousness briefly after one punch to the head on Sunday. The beating left him with his lower lip split and bleeding. Both men reportedly had swelling on their heads and faces following the attack.
According to ABC7, a witness also heard one of the assailants say, “Don’t mess with Iran,” apparently a reference to the current war in the Middle East.
Keanu Kahrobaie, a retail employee on Santana Row whose parents were born in Iran, filmed one of the videos and said he heard one of the attackers speak in Farsi while fleeing.
“The only logical thing I could think, other than to stop it, because there was way too many people, was to record it, because it could be used as evidence,” Kahrobaie told J. The Jewish News of Northern California. “They actually kind of carried him, then threw him to the ground, and then just continuously hit.’
San Jose’s Mayor Matt Mahan issued a statement condemning the attack.
“I’ve been in touch with Jewish community leaders and our police department regarding this heinous attack, and I will continue to update you as we make progress in our investigation,” he said.
“The attacks on two people speaking Hebrew in San Jose yesterday are reprehensible,” the mayor continued. “Our Jewish community is shocked and angry, and they have every right to be. In recent years in America, violent acts against Jews have nearly tripled and nearly 70 percent of all hate crimes involving religion target Jews.”
Mahan, who is now running for California governor, added that “this is a time to stand with our Jewish neighbors, support their freedoms, their rights, their full inclusion in American society, and it’s time to root out the hate and the ideologies that drive these kinds of violent acts.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office also shared the video on Wednesday and wrote, “This is disgusting. Thank you, San Jose PD, for investigating.”
Marco Sermoneta, consul general of Israel to the Pacific Northwest, commented on the beating on X.
“Two American-Israelis brutally attacked in broad daylight in #SanJose just for speaking Hebrew,” he posted. “I call on California elected officials to condemn this vile, cowardly act and for law enforcement to address this grave incident swiftly and effectively.”
On Wednesday, San Jose police said that detectives at this time “have not located evidence indicating the assault would meet the elements of a hate crime.” However, the attack is currently being investigated as a hate crime as investigators continue to review evidence.
The local Jewish community “is very afraid for our safety following this brutal assault in broad daylight,” Tali Klima, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Jewish Coalition, told the San Francisco Gate. “Given the ongoing surge in antisemitism in recent years, we expect San Jose police and local officials to take this matter seriously and take proper action to address not only this specific incident but the overall climate of Jew hatred.”
The attack in San Jose follow an ongoing pattern of antisemitic acts targeting Jews and Israelis who are overheard speaking in Hebrew.
Last month, French tourists attacked three Israelis speaking Hebrew at a bar in Thailand, resulting in hospitalization for two to treat injuries that included broken ribs, damaged teeth, and back trauma. The bar’s employees reportedly joined in the assault, hitting the Israelis with batons.
In December, Israeli tourist Almog Armoza had to flee in Nepal’s capital Kathmandu when someone hit him from behind with an iron rod after hearing him recording a voice message in Hebrew. That same month, criminals targeted an Israeli tourist in Cyprus after hearing him speaking Hebrew on his cell phone outside a hotel. The victim’s father wrote on Facebook that “he was brutally beaten, injured in the head and face, and evacuated for medical treatment.”
The prior month, police arrested a 25-year-old Pakistani man who allegedly assaulted an Orthodox Jewish American tourist at Milan’s Central Station.
In July, Ran Ben Shimon, the coach of Israel’s national soccer team, spoke Hebrew with assistant coach Gal Cohen while walking in Athens. This prompted an assault from a man who yelled “Free Palestine.” That same day, a waiter in Vienna refused service to a group of well-known Israeli classical musicians after they confirmed to him that the language he overhead them speaking was Hebrew.
Jewish organizations have begun tracking the prevalence of Hebrew conversations triggering antisemitic incidents. Following the release of a report on antisemitism in Ireland earlier this month, Maurice Cohen, chairman of the Jewish Representative Council of Ireland (JRCI), stated that “a recurring feature is hostility triggered solely by Jewish identity or perceived Jewish identity, including visible symbols, the Hebrew language, or accent.”
The researchers looking at Irish incidents found that in 30 percent of cases, the antisemitism only began after some reference to Jewish identity.
Surveys following the Oct. 7, 2023 terrorist attacks against southern Israel show that many Jews have begun concealing their Jewish identities when in public.
In February, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in partnership with Hillel International released a survey of Jewish college students revealing that 34 percent made an effort to hide their Judaism to avoid experiencing antisemitism and that 38 percent refrained from voicing support for Israel out of fear of target by anti-Zionist activists.
According to AJC research of the broader Jewish public in March 2025, 56 percent say they changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism and 40 percent said they refrained from wearing or showing items that could identify them as a Jew. The previous year that number was 26 percent.
Much higher numbers of Jews in the United Kingdom report similar sentiments. When the UK’s Campaign Against Antisemitism activist organization polled on the question in November 2023, 69 percent of British Jews said they were less likely to show their Judaism in public. However, by 2025, the Jewish Landscape Report from the Voice of the People initiative reported that number had now risen to 81 percent.
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Hamas Joins Iran in Praising Spain for Hostile Approach to US, Israel
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez speaks at a press conference in Kunshan, Jiangsu province, China, Sept. 11, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Xihao Jiang
The Palestinian terrorist group Hamas has praised Spain for permanently withdrawing its ambassador to Israel on Tuesday, joining Iran in heralding the NATO ally’s hostile posture toward the Jewish state and the US amid ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“We welcome the decision of the Spanish government to withdraw its ambassador from the ‘Zionist entity’ and to reduce its diplomatic representation. This decision continues the honorable positions taken by the Spanish government against the genocide carried out against our Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip,” the Islamist group behind the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel said in a statement.
“While we greatly appreciate this courageous Spanish position, we reiterate our demand that all countries of the world sever all forms of relations with the ‘Zionist entity,’” the statement continued.
Hamas’s comments came after Spain published an announcement in its official gazette that the ambassador’s position had been terminated. Spain’s Foreign Ministry said its embassy in Tel Aviv will be led by a charge d’affaires for the foreseeable future.
Israel’s embassy in Spain is also run by a charge d’affaires after the country summoned its ambassador last May in protest of Spain’s decision to recognize a Palestinian state, a decision that Jerusalem characterized as a “reward for terrorism.”
Spain’s ambassador to Israel was initially summoned back to Spain in September amid a diplomatic dispute. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez of antisemitism, following Madrid’s latest measures against the Jewish state.
Sánchez unveiled new policies at the time targeting Israel over the war in Gaza, including an arms embargo and a ban on certain Israeli goods.
The Spanish government announced it would bar entry to individuals involved in what it called a “genocide against Palestinians,” block Israel-bound ships and aircraft carrying weapons from Spanish ports and airspace, and enforce an embargo on products from Israeli communities in the West Bank.
Meanwhile, Saar announced sanctions against two Spanish ministers, accusing the government in Madrid of antisemitism and of pursuing an escalating anti-Israel campaign aimed at undermining the Jewish state on the international stage.
For years, Hamas has received funding, weapons, and training from Iran, which last week expressed support for Spain’s decision to block US forces from using its bases for military operations against the Islamic regime. The move left Madrid as the only major EU country to have explicitly criticized the US-Israeli strikes on Iran.
In response to an online news report saying that the Spanish government “denies that the US is using its bases in Spain for the war against Iran,” the Iranian embassy in Spain reshared the headline and added, “Iran fully recognizes and respects this position, which is in accordance with international law.”
While Spain has strongly condemned the US-Israeli attack on Iranian regime targets, other European countries have denounced Iran’s counterstrikes on civilian sites across the Middle East.
US President Donald Trump has lambasted Spain for its stance, even threatening to cut off trade.
“I think they’re not cooperating at all. Spain. I think they’ve been very bad, very bad, not good at all. We may cut off trade with Spain,” Trump told reporters, adding that Madrid has been “very bad to NATO” and does not want to “pay their fair share.”
Spain quickly condemned the strikes against Iran after they began, calling them “dangerous” and “outside of international law.”
Israel accused Spain of “standing with tyrants” for opposing the war.
Since Hamas’s Oct. 7 atrocities started the Gaza war, Spain has been one of Israe’’s fiercest critics on the international stage.
Earlier this month, police raided a steel factory near Bilbao, northern Spain, questioning staff over suspected violations of the country’s arms embargo on Israel
The Action and Communication on the Middle East (ACOM) group, a pro-Israel organization in Spain, described the move as part of a “pattern of political pressure on economic actors for ideological reasons.”
“The combination of state intervention with a political climate that tolerates — and sometimes encourages — aggressive activism against Israel and its partners creates a scenario in which civil liberties and the legal security of companies and citizens are steadily eroded,” ACOM said in a statement.
In September, the Spanish government passed a law to take “urgent measures to stop the genocide in Gaza,” banning trade in defense material and dual-use products from Israel, as well as imports and advertising of products originating from Israeli settlements.
That same month, when Spain recalled its ambassador to Israel, Sánchez accused the Jewish state of “exterminating defenseless people” in Gaza and “breaking all the rules of humanitarian law.”
Sánchez’s administration expanded the boycotted products to ban imports from Israeli communities in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights.
While pursuing such policies and attacking Israel verbally, Sánchez has facing backlash from his country’s political leaders and Jewish community, who accuse him of fueling antisemitic hostility.
Amid a sharp rise in anti-Jewish hate crimes and anti-Israel sentiment, Lorenzo Rodríguez, mayor of Castrillo Mota de Judíos in northern Spain, accused the country’s leader in September of “fueling a discourse of hatred” against Israel and the Jewish people.
“The government is fostering antisemitism that will prove deeply damaging for Spain,” Rodríguez said in an interview with the local outlet El Español.
Comparing Spain’s attitude toward Israel with other countries, Sa’ar stated earlier this month that “the obsessive activism of the current Spanish government against Israel stands out in light of its ties with dark, tyrannical regimes — from Iran’s ayatollahs to [Nicolás] Maduro’s government in Venezuela.”
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How a Jewish-owned yarn store knitted the symbol of the anti-ICE movement
In January, as violent confrontations between ICE and protesters erupted in the Twin Cities, a knitting group at Needle & Skein yarn shop in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, started brainstorming what they could do to lift people’s spirits. Paul Neary, a designer at the shop with a special love for fiber arts history, quickly found inspiration: a pointed red knit hat with a tassel worn in 1940s Norway to protest the Nazi occupation and boost morale.
“He showed me the picture of the Norwegian resistance hat and I said that is exactly it,” store owner Gilah Mashaal told me.
Although it’s unclear why the red hats became such a popular anti-Nazi tool in Norway, some have noted the link between their design and the Phrygian cap, a symbol of freedom during the French and American revolutions. Neary reverse engineered the Norwegian pattern, creating a more modern beanie-like shape, birthing the “Melt the ICE” hats now seen at anti-ICE protests across the country. Although, as a Guardian article noted, Mashaal had a rule that “nobody talks politics” in the store, she felt stirred to action.
“It kind of transcends politics, in my opinion,” Mashaal said. “When your neighbors are afraid to leave their homes, or they’re afraid to take their sick children to the doctor, or they can’t go to work, something’s wrong with our society.”
The situation feels personal for Mashaal. Her paternal grandparents were from Baghdad and were forced to leave during the 1941 Farhud, a violent attack on Jews similar to the pogroms of Europe. Mashaal’s family settled in Cairo, but that proved to be only a temporary solution.
“When my father was 14 years old, the king was deposed so the military took over and things became very very difficult for the Jews in Cairo,” said Mashaal. Her father escaped to France and eventually immigrated to the United States. “They were forced to leave with absolutely nothing and my father told me the story of my grandmother breaking all the dishes in the house because she didn’t want to just hand it over to the military.”
Mashaal said she’s reminded of the terrible conditions her family had to endure when she sees what is happening in her community.
“This is about human decency,” she said. “This is about caring for your neighbor.”
After Neary came up with the pattern, they planned a knit-along for the following week.
“I thought we were gonna have like, you know, maybe 10 people show up,” Mashaal said. “Then all of a sudden there were more than a hundred people in my store.”
The pattern went viral online when the shop shared Neary’s pattern on Ravelry, a site where knitters and crocheters share patterns, projects and tips. When this article was written, 12,251 users reported they were making or had made the hats and 4,446 had put it in their queue of future projects. The design also inspired a number of customized spin-offs including a version that incorporated “Love is more powerful than hate” in morse code and a mini hat that could be worn as a brooch. Mashaal said that the communal values of the knitting world helped make the hats a success.
“They’re very politically minded,” she said. “And when they see something happening that needs attention, everybody comes together and works towards this common goal.”
When we spoke, Neary couldn’t resist a pun, telling me political activism in the yarn community is “literally knit into the fabric of our history.” Knitters in Belgium encoded messages about military activity in their stitches during World War I. Knitting circles have served as a place where women, who were discouraged from being political in public, could exchange ideas about issues such as slavery and women’s suffrage.
“When you see things happening and you feel helpless, you try to find some way to connect to other people who are also feeling helpless,” Mashaal said. “To create something with your hands is soothing, in a way, and very meaningful.”
Profits from the hats are donated to immigrant aid groups in Minnesota, such as the Immigrant Rapid Relief Fund. Mashaal said they have also received donations from around the world and have raised $760,000 thus far.
Not everyone is happy with Needle & Skein’s new hats. Both Mashaal and Neary told me they’ve received hateful emails, phone calls and letters from people who disagree with their message. But Mashaal said “the positivity far outweighs the negativity that we’ve gotten.”
Neary noted that they have received supportive calls from people who may not necessarily have been as politically engaged before.
“They’ll say something like, you know, ‘Usually I don’t get involved in stuff like this, but this really moved me,’” Neary said. “It’s their kind of gentle way of letting us know, like, ‘We maybe didn’t vote the same way, but obviously we’re on the same team.’”
Mashaal and Neary noted how the knitting community’s diversity connects people across racial, ethnic, gender and generational boundaries.
“It truly does give us all kind of a space to have together to learn more about different people and share comfortably,” Neary said.
“We just all have this one passion. And so we find that one literal common thread.”
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