Following pressure from Jewish groups at the University of Maryland, the administration reversed course on Sunday and canceled an anti-Israel rally slated for the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attacks.
But the policy reversal was met with mixed reactions from Jewish leaders on the College Park campus, who simultaneously applauded the decision while also “requesting a more complete response” from the university — especially a better understanding of “how to identify antisemitism.”
UMD initially granted the campus group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) a permit last month to hold the Oct. 7 demonstration on the campus’s central McKeldin Mall, prompting swift backlash and calls from campus groups including Hillel and the Jewish Student Union — and from former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, who’s running for the Senate — for the school to reverse course.
On Sunday, in a letter from university President Darryll Pines, the university announced it had canceled the event. Pines wrote that the decision was made following a “safety assessment,” which, he added, did not identify any threats to the campus. He did not, however, specifically address the Jewish community, which has faced unprecedented levels of antisemitism on college campuses nationwide — often related to SJP demonstrations — since Oct. 7.
“Given the overwhelming outreach, from multiple perspectives, I requested a routine targeted safety assessment for this day to understand the risks and safety measures associated with planned events,” Pines wrote. “UMPD [University of Maryland Police Department] has assured me that there is no immediate or active threat to prompt this assessment, but the assessment is a prudent and preventive measure that will assist us to keep our safety at the forefront.”
“Jointly, out of an abundance of caution, we concluded to host only university-sponsored events that promote reflection on this day,” he continued, adding that “all other expressive events” will be held prior to Oct. 7 and permitted to continue on Oct. 8.
The decision from Pines came following a letter, signed by tens of thousands of members and allies of the broader University of Maryland Jewish community, co-authored by Gilad Chen, an associate dean for research in UMD’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, and a parent of a sophomore at the university. On Monday, Chen co-penned a follow-up letter, addressed to Pines and Chancellor Jay Perman, expressing several concerns regarding the statement that canceled the SJP event.
“While we were relieved to learn yesterday that UMD will not allow SJP to rally on our campus on October 7, we respectfully request a more complete response to our letter from last Friday,” Chen wrote. The letter goes on to claim that Pines’ statement shows an “apparent lack of understanding by UMD regarding Jewish identity and how to identify antisemitism.”
The letter also states that UMD is lacking in “clear guidelines for the UMD community at large as to what actions and speech contribute to a hostile environment for the Jewish community on campus,” as well as “enforceable policies and procedures for protecting the Jewish community from hate and a hostile environment on the UMD campus.”
Chen told Jewish Insider that because the cancellation states that no events — other than university-sponsored ones — can occur on Oct. 7, it sets a standard that there is “a comparison between the Jewish organizations gathering to mark Oct. 7 and an SJP rally.”
In a joint statement, Maryland Hillel and the Jewish Student Union echoed that “only university-sponsored events will occur on Oct. 7,” calling that decision “not an ideal situation,” but also noting that “it ensures that our physical and psychological safety is protected on this day of grief.” It has not been announced whether the university will hold its own event to mark Oct. 7, but Hillel on campus said it plans to hold an event to memorialize “the atrocities of Oct. 7.”
Despite criticism that Pines’ language did not convey the magnitude of trauma that Oct. 7 — and the subsequent rise of antisemitism — has caused for Jewish students, Maryland Hillel and JSU, as well as Maryland elected officials, commended the restriction of anti-Israel events held on Oct. 7.
“We are reassured to learn that SJP will no longer be permitted to host their event on McKeldin Mall, or anywhere, on campus, on Oct. 7,” the groups wrote in a joint statement.
Hogan, a Republican, wrote on X that “university officials are right to reverse their inexplicable decision to allow a major anti-Israel protest on October 7th. Antisemitic bigotry has no place in our state, and especially on our college campuses.”
Hogan, who was the first Maryland leader to release a statement urging for the Oct. 7 event to be called off, called for “more to be done to ensure Jewish students can feel safe on their own campuses.”
“Hogan will never hesitate to call out antisemitic hate and that’s why he condemned the despicable protest scheduled for Oct. 7,” Blake Kernen, a spokesperson for Hogan’s Senate campaign, told JI.
Angela Alsobrooks, Hogan’s Democratic opponent in the Senate race, initially didn’t provide a comment when JI reached out to her spokesperson.
After the story’s publication, the Alsobrooks spokesperson reached out to JI with a statement in support of UMD’s decision to cancel the anti-Israel protest.
“I’m the mother of a 19-year-old daughter, so I can tell you that I agree with the parents and families who want nothing more than for all of our kids to be safe on college campuses; to feel safe and to actually be safe,” Alsobrooks said in the statement. “I know the University considered the safety of its students in its decision. I do agree with the decision. I think that October 7 is a solemn day. To have it as a day of remembrance, I think, is important.”
“I know too that the right to protest is foundational to our nation and that right must be protected. But I am unequivocal that any such protest must not call for violence or target any groups of people. Full stop,” she added.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, a Democrat, in a statement to JI, said that “everyone in Maryland has the right to peacefully protest, to voice their opinions, but not to call for violence against each other and it is my expectation that any demonstration at the University of Maryland follows that very ideal.”
“I’ve led soldiers in combat. I’ve seen not just the direct impacts of terrorism, but also the collateral damage it leaves. Terrorists target civilians, and that’s what Hamas did on October 7th. And, that’s what that day should be remembered as, a terrorist attack that took innocent lives.”
Moore continued, “If you stand with Israel, you stand against Hamas. And if you stand with the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination, you stand against Hamas too. We must strive to achieve a permanent cease-fire that brings home the hostages, that ends the suffering of innocent Palestinian civilians, and leads to a permanent peace.”
In a statement to JI, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said: “October 7th marks one of the darkest days in our recent history — we must never forget the lives that were taken and the hostages seized by the brutal Hamas terrorist attacks. I support the University of Maryland’s decision to preserve this day as a day of reflection. We must immediately bring home the hostages and end this war.”
With one of the largest Jewish student populations in the country — nearly 20% of the College Park undergraduate student body of more than 30,000 is Jewish — UMD has largely avoided egregious episodes of antisemitism that have occurred on many campuses. But Einav Tsach, a junior studying journalism and marketing who leads Mishelanu, an on-campus Israeli-American cultural association, told JI that in recent months, “SJP has taken on a larger and more noticeable presence and that is impacting Jewish students.”
On Monday, SJP UMD wrote on Instagram that it will still “find ways to honor the martyrs of this genocide and mark one year of resistance” on Oct. 7.
“They’ve worsened their rhetoric in the past year,” Tsach continued, pointing to the group’s July statement that it “unequivocally states that the Zionist state of Israel has no right to exist,” and another social media post that “openly supports armed struggle.”
“Those are things that are very alienating to Jewish students,” Tsach said, adding that he is “thankful for the direct outcome of the letter, which is that SJP cannot hold a rally on a day of immense suffering for the Jewish people.”
While Tsach said he hoped Pines’ letter would “get more into the specifics of what happened on Oct. 7 and reassure that it’s a day of mourning,” at the same time the university has “made every effort to hear from us and be in touch with us, with Pines attending our vigil on Oct. 9 last year.”
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Publish date : 2024-09-02 14:25:00
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