February 08, 2024 | NEWS | By Seth Jahraus
Disclaimer: The Catalyst does not have any affiliation with any quotations depicted in this article.
Unprecedented tensions have intensified on the Colorado College campus as student groups attempt to cope with ongoing effects of the Israel-Hamas war. Last Wednesday, approximately 50 students gathered outside of Ed Robson Arena to protest a CC Hillel-sanctioned workshop happening inside, which featured visiting speakers from the Anti-Defamation League. Hillel is a student organization that serves to provide community for Jewish students on college campuses across the United States. The ADL is a Jewish advocacy group that has been combating antisemitism since the early 1910s.
Campus chapters of Jewish Voices for Peace along with Student Justice for Palestine led the protest, which included chants of “ADL, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide” and “While you’re shopping, bombs are dropping, while you’re meeting, kids are bleeding.”
The midday scene on a small liberal arts campus in the nation’s 39th largest city underscores a broader ideological conflict rippling across the country. Students with differing viewpoints on the Israel–Hamas war have riled college campuses at a level some have not seen in generations, including at CC.
“I expect this may be the most conflicted we’ve been, since maybe the [Colorado] Labor Wars of the very early twentieth century,” says Owen Cramer, a Classics professor who joined the CC faculty in 1965.
Another longtime faculty member agreed.
“I have never seen student groups in such tension with one another,” said John Riker, a philosophy professor who has been teaching at the college since the turbulent year of 1968.
Less than a week after the Hamas attack, education news organization Inside Higher Ed provided context for the span of the issue by rounding up how the conflicts that resulted from the Israel–Hamas war played out in clashes on college campuses nationwide. The article highlighted repercussions facing some students who have participated in pro-Palestinian protests as well as the growing fears of Jewish students.
At CC, the day prior to the ADL workshop, JVP assembled a teach-in outside the Worner Campus Center to express the reasoning behind the protest of the organization’s presence on campus. Members and student speakers provided information and made claims regarding the ADL’s troubled background, stating that the organization has a history of Islamophobia and even espionage.
The group also disagreed with the ADL’s stance on anti-Zionism. Britannica describes Zionism as a “Jewish nationalist movement that has had as its goal the creation and support of a Jewish national state in Palestine.”
The Catalyst obtained a pamphlet written by the ADL that was distributed at their workshop which states, “Anti-Zionism is antisemitic, in intent or effect, as it invokes anti-Jewish tropes, is used to disenfranchise, demonize, disparage, or punish all Jews and/or those who feel a connection to Israel, exploits Jewish trauma by invoking the Holocaust in order to position Jews as akin to Nazis, and renders Jews less worthy of nationhood and self-determination than other peoples.”
Members of JVP said in interviews that they disagree with the definition, arguing that it is reasonable to separate anti-Zionism from antisemitism. Jewish students at the protest wore tee shirts and held signs with the phrase “NOT IN OUR NAME,” a nationally circulating statement by Jewish individuals who are advocating for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Roughly a dozen students ended up attending the ADL workshop, most of whom were members of CC Hillel. Members of JVP leadership were also present for the start of the meeting but left after initial discussion to participate in the protest outside.
A member of CC Hillel leadership who attended a meeting and asked not to have their name shared in order to protect themselves against potential public backlash (all members of CC Hillel and CC JVP asked to have their names withheld for the same reason) said in an interview that the general consensus of the remaining workshop attendees was, “I wish they had stayed.” Hillel leaders said they thoroughly enjoyed the conversations being had with JVP before their departure. They said the principal goal of the workshop was to facilitate conversation and help individuals ration through disagreement.
The division among CC Jewish students has become a focal point of the campus tensions.
The CC JVP was originally formed in Dec. of 2023 to provide an anti-zionist space and presence on campus.
“There is a certain level of fear that I think I work in,” said a member of JVP leadership. “It’s the disgust, but anger, and then this very core fear that I have as a Jew who has very few ancestors on record.”
The leadership member described their family’s connection to the Holocaust and other atrocities that have occurred against the Jewish people in history. They attributed their desire to fight against continued genocide and their motivation to work within CC JVP to this personal connection.
The same JVP leader highlighted that the division occurs outside of campus as well, “It is a heart wrenching thing to do to your family and the people you love and respect to… hear them support a genocide and to still want to love them despite that.”
The CC Hillel leader expressed similar thoughts regarding the growing divide.“There is a real atmosphere of sadness,” they said. “There’s friends who I have in the JVP who haven’t been to Shabbat in months because they don’t feel comfortable there anymore. I feel awful that they’re not there.” (Shabbat is the weekly dinner held by CC Hillel for all members of the community to participate in.)
A different JVP leader shared their relationship to CC Hillel, stating that last year it was, “how I found community on campus…now I don’t enjoy going anymore because it’s such a one-sided narrative.”
One Hillel leader said the organization has “tried really hard not to take sides,” despite direct pushback against Zionism from JVP. “Everyone has opinions and we’re trying to get them all heard together,” the leader said.
The leaders of CC Hillel say the ADL workshop was simply the beginning of a series of Hillel organized events geared towards conversations surrounding the Israel–Hamas war.
CC Hillel acknowledges the image portrayed by sanctioning a Zionist organization for their first event. “It was the first of many, but if you only see the first and not the many later without any context it just seems like, ‘Yes, Hillel is the Zionist organization who invited the Zionist organization over to talk,’” said a CC Hillel leader. “But hopefully it’s going to be clear in the longer term.”
CC Hillel leadership expressed the desire to communicate with JVP for future events in order to allow all Jewish voices on campus to be heard.
Both CC JVP and CC Hillel leadership said in separate conversations that critical discourse is a primary component of Judaism. Both groups highlighted how several of the holy books in Judaism are built on the foundations of disagreement. Both groups even cited known sayings in the Jewish community regarding the idea. “One Jew five opinions,” said CC Hillel.
CC JVP provided a similar joke. “Two rabbis were having a conversation in front of a congregation and one of them said, ‘Jews can’t agree on anything.’ And the other said, ‘yes we can,’” said a leadership member.
“There will and has always been disagreement about the determination of the Jewish people,” said one of the CC JVP leaders.
CC Hillel expressed a desire to coexist despite these disagreements. “There aren’t enough of us on this campus to split up into these fragmented groups,” said a CC Hillel leader.
On Thursday, a Palestine/Israel Teach-in will occur at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs campus featuring experts on Jewish and Muslim studies. A graphic issued by CC encourages students as well as staff and faculty to attend. The History Department at CC will issue shuttles from the CC campus to UCCS for those wishing to participate.
This article previously stated “The CC JVP was originally formed in Dec. 2023 to provide a space for Jewish students who didn’t agree with the increasing Zionist beliefs being forwarded by CC Hillel.” but has since been updated for accuracy.