TEL AVIV – The University of Texas’s Student Government passed a unanimous resolution in support of Jewish students in response to the wave of anti-Semitic incidents on campus and at Jewish institutions across the U.S.
Assembly Resolution 26 was drafted after UT’s Hillel building was vandalized and a series of anti-Semitic posts appeared on one of the university’s Facebook pages, student paper The Daily Texan reported.
Jason Taper, a member of Texas Hillel, said the resolution comes at a challenging time for American Jews.
“It is still — luckily — unacceptable to hate Jews at the University of Texas, and when that’s publicly expressed it’s a measure of help,” Taper said. “That said, the people that are anti-Semites, the people that are vandals, the people that are phoning in these threats and showing their hatred don’t care, but they never have … so knowing that we have the community behind us really helps.”
Student government member and author of AR 26 Jonathan Dror told The Daily Texan he hopes the resolution will provide Jewish students with support in the face of anti-Semitism.
“Several Jewish students that I know don’t even feel comfortable wearing their (Star of David) necklace out or small things like that just to express their religion,” he said. “Unfortunately, antisemitism is always around and we can never get rid of it, but right now it’s rearing its ugly head. So, we just thought it was very important to show a message of solidarity with Jewish students, and that we’re supporting them right now.”
Jewish students at other Texan universities have been victims of harassment and anti-Semitic incidents in recent months from student groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association. According to the Algemeiner, at both the University of Houston and the University of Texas, Arlington, vitriol that included calls to violence such as “stuff Jews in the oven” was posted on social media.
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