18 | DECEMBER 14 • 2023 
18 | DECEMBER 14 • 2023 

week. Since Oct. 7, that number 
has skyrocketed to an average 
of 20 incidents per week, with 
many coming from college 
campuses.
Normandin says many sim-
ple requests have been made to 
campus leaders, such as adopt-
ing a definition of antisemitism, 
having the university distance 
themselves from antisemitic 
speakers or events, and deliv-
ering protocols and policies 
for responding to antisemitic 
incidents. 
“There have been admin-
istrators I’ve encouraged to 
educate themselves and their 
staff on things, like what does 
‘from the river to the sea’ actu-
ally mean? I think everyone is 
trying to navigate the situation 
in their own way. It’s never OK 
to have somebody feel as if they 
are not comfortable on campus, 
and I would say universities 
are very concerned about this,
” 
Normandin said.

SOCIAL MEDIA
Beyond on-campus incidents, 
the level of hostility, misinfor-
mation and antisemitic rhetoric 
Jewish college students have 
seen on social media, including 
from people they know, has 

been distressing. MSU junior 
Matthew Zivian believes social 
media is now a dangerous place 
for Jewish students.
Sammy Caruso, a U-M 
Dearborn senior, believes 
there’s so much more nuance to 
the conflict than social media 
will ever show.
“One thing that bothers me 
so much is people are pushed 
where you have to be pro-Pal-
estine or you have to be pro- 
Israel on this issue,
” Caruso 
said. “I think social media 

pushes people further and fur-
ther into their echo chambers.
” 

A DIFFERENT EXPERIENCE 
Jewish experiences on cam-
pus haven’t all been nega-
tive. Caruso’s experience in 
Dearborn has been a positive 
one. While there’s a heightened 
sense of alert in general for 
Jews, Caruso says there largely 
hasn’t been much of a differ-
ence on campus since Oct. 7. 
There’s also been antisemitism 
training with the administra-
tion and leaders on campus at 
U-M Dearborn, he says. 
Caruso said he has never met 
and connected with more Jews 
at U-M Dearborn than during 
this time, while also connect-
ing with non-Jews. He says 
Palestinian students on campus 
offered solidarity following 
Oct. 7. 
“
And after the murder of 
Samantha Woll, Palestinian 
students and people in SJP 
reached out to me, knowing I’m 
Jewish, seeing how I’m doing,
” 
Caruso said. “I really appreci-

ated the gestures and I recipro-
cated, seeing how they’re doing, 
with a lot of them having fam-
ily [affected] and this being a 
personal issue for them, too. I 
think those coalitions make us 
stronger.
”
While there have been many 
pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel 
rallies on campuses, there hav-
en’t been too many pro-Israel 
rallies. In some cases, this is 
heavily debated on and decid-
ed against. In other cases, it’s 
decided against due to the com-
plexity of the situation. 
At MSU, a careful decision 
was made against having a 
rally, figuring if they come out 
with rallies and start putting up 
posters of kidnapped Israelis, 
the response could put Jewish 
students at risk. 

OUR COMMUNITY
COVER STORY

continued on page 20

TOP: WSU students Maya 
Siegmann, Ella Cohen, 
Stella Skolnik and Kaitlyn 
Arnston at the March for 
Israel in Washington D.C.
BOTTOM: Esther 
Shepherd, Chana Shepherd, 
Rivkah Duato and Shterna 
Shepherd enjoy the 
Shabbat for Israel event.

continued from page 17