14 | DECEMBER 14 • 2023 

OUR COMMUNITY
COVER STORY

way, shape or form with an 
antisemitic rhetoric.
” 
Longtime HMD executive 
director Miriam Starkman 
described the feeling on cam-
pus in two words: “on edge.
” 
Maya Siegmann, a WSU 
sophomore and president of 
the university’s Jewish Student 
Organization, says these times 
have been stressful, with the 
level of intimidation on campus 
being “very intense and very 
scary.
” 
Siegmann says many stu-
dents who’ve had negative 
experiences believe that 
wearing a Star of David or 
any Jewish-related garments 
or jewelry makes them feel 
like they’re putting a target 
on themselves. “People stare 
at their Judaica making dirty 
looks, rolling eyes, whispering, 
laughing, mocking. Students 
are scared to be Jewish on cam-
pus,
” Siegmann said. “There 
are students who avoid leaving 
their apartments, their dorms 
and walking around.
” 
An incident took place in 
October between pro-Israel 
and anti-Israel students at the 

campus Spirit Rock, a giant 
boulder essentially serving as 
a billboard for campus groups 
and events. A Jewish student 
painted the rock blue and white 
with the Israeli flag a day or 
two after the Oct. 7 attack. The 
morning after, it was repainted 
with a Palestinian flag. When 
Siegmann and a couple other 
Jewish students went to repaint 
the rock, anti-Israel students 
confronted them. 
“They gathered around us, 
probably about 20 of them. 
There were only four of us,
” 
Siegmann recalled. “
A lot of 
‘free, free Palestine’ and ‘from 
the river to the sea’-type 
phrases. It was a very scary 
place to be. A couple of stu-
dents actually broke down and 
started crying.
”
WSU’s SJP chapter did not 
respond to multiple requests 
for comment for this story. 

SHAAREY ZEDEK PANEL
On Nov. 13, HMD’s Starkman 
hosted a panel at Congregation 
Shaarey Zedek in Southfield 
that included four Jewish stu-
dents from four different uni-

versities who 
fielded ques-
tions about 
their thoughts, 
feelings and 
experiences on their respective 
campuses since Oct. 7. 
During the panel, Emily 
Goldvekht, a sophomore 
on WSU’s Jewish Student 
Organization board, said she’s 
felt a major shift in how she’s 
viewed as a Jew on campus. 
“Before, I didn’t necessarily 
feel threatened or uncomfort-
able by any groups or people, 
but I felt like an outsider,
” she 
said. “When people would talk 
about the Israeli-Palestinian 
conflict, I would stay silent on 
the topic and not put much 
thought into it. I moved on in 
peace until Oct. 7, when I no 
longer felt accepted on my col-
lege campus.
” 

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
University of Michigan junior 
Rachel Cusnir, president of 
student organization Wolverine 
for Israel, says the temperature 
on campus has been at an all-
time high since 
Oct. 7.

“Jewish students aren’t feeling 
safe,
” Cusnir said. “We’ve had 
students called Jewish terrorists 
on campus. When big protests 
are happening, people are going 
up to individuals who look like 
they’re Jewish, who are wear-
ing kippahs or long skirts, and 
basically confronting them and 
being like, ‘Get away, you Jew.
’” 
The current campus climate 
has also made its way inside the 
classroom. Cusnir says many 
graduate student instructors 
and professors have been trying 
to incorporate their own agen-
das and beliefs on the war into 
their teaching. 
“It’s a difficult time because 
you don’t know where you can 
say you’re Jewish or that you 
support Israel,
” Cusnir said. 
“There was even a ‘die-in.
’ A 
bunch of students lay down 
on the ground emulating the 
people who have unfortunately 
died in Gaza, but no conversa-
tion was being held about the 

continued from page 13

LEFT: An anti-Israel 
march taking place on 
U-M’s campus. 
BELOW: The Star of 
David “x’ed out” on 
U-M’s Rock.

