Virginia Tech’s Jewish community responds to campus protests

BLACKSBURG, Va. (WDBJ) -“It’s definitely a feeling of just being scared. I wear a star of David but have it tucked under my shirt the past few months,” said Ethan Werner is the president of Hillel at Virginia Tech, the campus’s Jewish community.

While they were surprised at the intensity of Sunday night’s protests, he says hostility toward Jewish students has been going on for months. He says anti-Semitic chants have members of the Jewish community on edge.

“I heard from the river to the sea, which Congress just declared that that is officially hate speech and antisemitic, as it calls for the ethnic cleansing of Jews from the area. So it was just a very different vibe yesterday,” said Werner.

He also said they’re not just being targeted with words.

“I know a lot of students who’ve had who’ve been targeted by a lot of anti semitic attacks, swastikas on doors, anti semitic fliers under their doors on the or desks,” said Werner.

Amanda Herring is Hillel’s director. She says it’s unfair to blame Jewish students at Virginia Tech what’s happening in the Middle East as it is far beyond their control.

“Everyone has complicated political views. And so to assume that because someone is Jewish, or because they’re wearing a Star of David, that you can scream at them that they are causing violence in the Middle East is antisemitic, and that’s what needs to end,” said Herring.

Werner and Herring both said they’ve tried to schedule meetings with pro-Palestinian groups on campus to try and get some mutual respect and humanize the situation. However, they say those attempts have fell through. They want a discussion because it is the only way to bring peace on campus.

“If anyone was ever willing to do that with us, we would be more than willing, we’d be beyond grateful to come to that table and have that discussion. Unfortunately, that has not been what a lot of students have been wanting to do. It’s been a lot more aggressive, a lot more.

“Jewish students and Palestinian students could sit together and talk about their shared care and concern for this one small piece of land,” said Herring.

As the semester comes to a close, members of Hillel said they hope the summer will resolve the chaos between the two groups, so they can come together again as Hokies in the fall.

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