24 | MAY 16 • 2024 

“These are supposed to 
be the happiest, greatest 
weeks and days of our lives,” 
Goldstein said. “But anti-Israel 
protesters have completely 
taken over the Diag. They 
shout and spit on Jewish stu-
dents when you walk by. The 
university demonstrated in 
these weeks that they have 
prioritized anti-Israel and 
anti-American terrorists over 
everyone else.” 
Goldstein said that on the 
days leading to graduation, 
university communications 
clearly stated that there would 
be no tolerance of disruptions. 
“Yet I (and many graduates 
around me) could not hear a 
single word of what our com-
mencement speaker said. Just a 
few rows behind me, protesters 
continuously shouted for an 
intifada and that the school 
was funding genocide.” 

SOME POSITIVES DESPITE 
THE DISRUPTION
On a positive note, to create a 
festive graduation mood for his 
fellow Jewish classmates and 
their families, Goldstein and 
others raised enough money 
to bring musician Matisyahu 
to perform in his backyard on 
Friday night of the weekend. 
“We knew that our gradua-
tion was going to be disrupted 
in some way,” Goldstein said. 
“Because of that, it was more 
important than ever to bring 
our Jewish graduates and their 
families together in a mean-
ingful way, and we were happy 
to bring in Matisyahu and sing 
with him as the sun set on 
Shabbat in my backyard.” 
Alissa Citron of West 
Bloomfield was in the audience 
of celebrants at the Big House 
with her husband, Jeff, and 
their three children to see their 
daughter Aviva graduate. 

Citron, who lived in Israel in 
the late 1990s, said the inces-
sant chanting for intifada was 
particularly disturbing. 
“The kids who missed out 
on their high school gradua-
tion had to sit directly in front 
of the protesters, who were 
permitted to shout nonstop 
about the intifada,” Citron said. 
“Someone sitting near me told 
me, ‘They are not chanting for 
what you think they mean.’ 
But I was in Israel during the 
Intifada. And to me it means 
being murdered in the most 
horrible way, of bombing buses 
and restaurants. And they 
spewed this hate out for the 
whole graduation.” 
Debbie Goldberg came from 
Rochester, N.Y., and celebrated 
her son Samuel Zarkowsky’s 
graduating with a degree 
in economics. As the chief 
philanthropic officer of the 
Jewish Federation of Rochester, 
Goldberg said the constant 
hateful slogans shouted during 
graduation made her feel 
“physically sick” days after she 
left Ann Arbor. 
“
As a philanthropy profes-
sional, I could not stop think-
ing that some of the (pro-Pal-
estinian protesters) were 
able to attend the university 

because they received scholar-
ships funded in part by Jewish 
donors,” Goldberg said. 
“It disturbed me that these 
students showed such blatant 
disrespect to the university 
where they spent four years 
studying. So, if this is the hill 
these students want to die on, 
in my capacity as a philanthro-
py professional, I will now do 
all that I can to communicate 
through my philanthropy 
channels that (Jews divest-
ing from the University of 
Michigan) is the only kind 
of divestment we should be 
talking about.” 
Rob Goldenberg of Los 
Angeles attended his daughter’s 
Ford School of Public Policy 
graduation. In the months 
leading to graduation, he said 
he was speaking with the Ford 
School about making a gift in 
honor of his daughter’s success. 
“I told them I would be 
happy to make a gift, but if 
there are disruptions in the 
ceremony, I am not doing 
anything,” Goldenberg said. 
“In my talks with some endow-
ment officials, I told them that 
a disruption is going to hap-
pen, and you have to stop it. 
At graduation, I was horrified 
that security corralled the pro-

testers to the back (and did not 
remove them) and the univer-
sity thought that was OK. You 
had about 100 people ruining 
the day for an entire stadium 
full of graduation celebrants. 
Since then, we have heard 
nothing from the university.” 
Sam Appelbaum from New 
York City said he was “largely 
disappointed” that the U-M 
administration did not act to 
swiftly silence the protesters 
who disrupted the graduation 
for thousands of graduates and 
their loved ones. 
“The ceremony for the most 
part went very well, (Meltzer) 
spoke beautifully, and it was 
wonderful to finally enjoy a 
graduation,” said Appelbaum, 
who will attend New York 
University School of Law this 
fall. “But the university disap-
pointed me. It is egregious and 
unfair that the school cannot 
distinguish between heckling 
and free speech. It is not a pro-
tected First Amendment right 
to disrupt such an event for so 
many people.” 
Appelbaum objected to the 
decision made by the univer-
sity to not remove the “pro-
Hamas” supporters from the 
stadium entirely but instead 
move them to one area where 
they continued to shout and 
disturb all those around them. 
Still, Appelbaum said he 
“has not fallen out of love” for 
his alma mater and hopes it 
improves in the future. 
“I still have a pure love for 
Michigan and that it is better 
than what is demonstrating 
right now,” Appelbaum said. 
“I think it is battling a very 
serious time of moral confu-
sion, and I believe it will get 
through it. But for that to hap-
pen, there needs to be serious 
consequences and change.” 

OUR COMMUNITY

Jonah Zisholtz of New York, Benny Shevsky of West Bloomfield, Jonah 
Gilan of Huntington Woods

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