America has been a place of almost unlimited opportunity for its Jewish citizens. The percentage of American Jews, less than 0.1% at the time of the Revolution, peaked at about 3.5% in the middle 20th century. From 2010 to 2020 one third of the supreme court justices and more than 10% of the United States Senate were Jewish. Nearly 30% of American Nobel laureates have been Jewish. Jews should be proud of these achievements.

I was born in NYC in 1945. For nearly 50 years I lectured wearing a kippa srugah (a knitted head covering) at the City University of New York (CUNY). I taught and mentored Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, and Jews. In 2020 at the age of 75 I left CUNY and we moved to Israel to be close to our children and grandchildren.

Early in the 21st century flagrant antizionist and antisemitic actions began to occur at various CUNY colleges. Such activities increased markedly on college campuses after the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti around 2005. This proved to be a rallying point for “pro-Palestinian” college students (Students for Justice in Palestine, SJP) who used divestment as a tactic to promote anti-Israel resolutions.

Dr. Einat Wolf has eloquently demonstrated that the history of Israel-Arab relations dispels the illusion that the Arabs want to live in peace with Israel. Indeed, Wilf who was a Member of Knesset in Labor and Independence parties, both left on the Israeli political spectrum, has stated that Palestinianism is synonymous with being opposed to Jewish sovereignty anywhere in the land now being contested. One concludes that Hamas and its fellow terrorists are not pro-Palestinian they are anti-Jewish and anti-Israeli. Supporting this conclusion were statements by President Mahmoud Abbas that not a single Israeli could live in a future Palestinian state  (https://www.reuters.com/article/world/abbas-wants-not-a-single-israeli-in-future-palestinian-state-idUSBRE96T009/).

College campuses have historically sheltered views on the fringes of societies. The concept of free speech is a hallmark of campus life and is the holy grail of democracy. Anti-Israeli students have every right to........

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