Over the Passover holiday and beyond, we have watched with great alarm the eruption of anti-Israel protests on college campuses around the country – including here in Virginia at Virginia Tech, University of Virginia, University of Mary Washington, George Mason and VCU.

While peaceful protests are a critical part of American democracy that must be protected, we must condemn any protests that threaten or cause harm to others, and especially those that are antisemitic.

Too often we have seen in the past week these demonstrations break community norms and standards to a frightening degree, normalizing hateful rhetoric and intimidation of Jewish students and faculty. Indeed, all students – whether Jewish or not – are being impacted by attempts to block their passages to class and other activities and by disruptive tactics interfering with classes. Participants in the protest often celebrate terror, promote global intifada and honor terrorist leaders.

This is unacceptable and is in violation of many University codes of conduct and a clear violation of civil rights and must stop immediately. We encourage anyone on campus who thinks they're a victim of such behavior to report it to school officials, law enforcement and the UJCVP's Regional Security Advisor via our online reporting portal.  

The UJCVP joins with other Jewish Federations in urging our college and university campuses to take the steps below to make sure that their campuses are safe and welcoming for all students.  

1. Ensure their policies clearly prohibit such behavior, and if not, immediately add appropriate amendments to their code of conduct;
2. Adopt a zero tolerance policy with appropriate punishment for violators, including expulsion and referrals to law enforcement;
3. Ensure that non-campus actors are excluded from all campus protest activity; and
4. Prevent protests from targeting known Jewish locations, student groups, and individuals, including Jewish facilities such as Hillel and Chabad centers, Jewish Greek life buildings, and other locations where Jews congregate together as a community.

We particularly want to commend Christopher Newport University (CNU) President Kelly. This week we witnessed a potentially disruptive protest situation at CNU be deescalated through the thoughtful, swift and strong actions of President Kelly and his administration. We are grateful for CNU's commitment to fostering an environment that is safe and welcoming for all students.  

The UJCVP, alongside other Jewish Federations and with our partners at Secure Community Network (SCN), continue to take steps to support Jewish life on college campuses throughout the Commonwealth. These include:

• Outreach and support for our local Jewish campus professionals; 
• Engagement with presidents and senior administrators at our local universities; and 
• Security assessments and close coordination with campus police departments

And at the same time, we also remain laser focused on supporting and enhancing joyous Jewish life on campus. In the words of Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks "we as Jews must fight antisemitism, the demonization of Israel, and the intimidation of Jewish students on campus. But we must never let ourselves be intimidated - and the Jewish way to avoid this is marbim b'simchah, to increase our joy."  

Through the awful headlines this past week, I also saw beautiful glimpses into thriving Jewish life on our campuses.

Shabbat Shalom, 

Eric Maurer
Executive Director
emaurer@ujcvp.org