Attacked with rocks… spat on… threatened with homicide: Jewish college students reveal terrifying intimidation by anti-Israel thugs – and two males who confronted down a wild mob rampaging by way of their campus

New York Metropolis cops in riot gear arrested dozens of anti-Israel demonstrators and dismantled a protest encampment at Columbia College on Tuesday, bringing to an finish days of ugly and – at instances – violent turmoil on campus.

However for weeks Jewish college students at Columbia have been pressured to endure harassment, intimidation and even assaults.

These are their tales collected by DailyMail.com – starting with one college pupil, who stared down a crazed mob as they tried to take over the college’s central administrative constructing, Hamilton Corridor.

Rory Wilson, 22, junior, historical past main

After a buddy and I labored our means into the center of the group swarming round Hamilton Corridor, I appeared out on the masked, shouting lots lit by the fixed flicker of cameras. 

My adrenaline soared. 

We began pulling again a desk propped towards the doorways and the group realized we weren’t with them. 

They began accusing us of aiding genocide and calling us idiots for risking ourselves for nothing. 

We have been pinned towards the door. I performed contact sports activities prior to now, so a bunch of shrieking Barnard women half my measurement did not faze me, however then a person dressed all in black jumped up beside us. 

He glared by way of the eye-slit in his masks – and I acknowledged that he had harassed me a number of days earlier than, calling me a ‘Zionist inbreeder.’ I had no concept if he was a pupil or what he was keen to do. 

He began grabbing me, wrenching at my leg, attempting to pressure me away from the doorways. After a quick battle, he jumped away and the screaming mob returned. Finally a buddy obtained me out of there safely.

Wanting again now, I’m grateful to God for the prospect to have stood towards them. But I’m saddened that the college let the state of affairs devolve into such chaos and intimidation.

Chaya Droznik, 22, junior, Laptop Science

As a Jewish pupil, the previous few weeks on Columbia’s campus have been a nightmare harking back to tales I’ve heard about Thirties Nazi Germany.

Simply steps from campus a pro-Palestinian protester, his face coated with a keffiyeh, threatened me that he’d, ‘do what all of the troopers did on October 7.’

‘Good factor you are right here in America, at the least you are not in Palestine, proper,’ he stated.

Making an attempt to enter the encampment carrying my Star of David, a mob of protestors led by Khymani James, threatened to push me and my two associates off the garden.

James has now been banned from campus over a video by which he declares, ‘Zionists do not should reside.’ 

Late Monday night time, when the protestors violently took management of Hamilton Corridor, I tried to watch the takeover, however the mob surrounded me, pushed me, and waved posters in my face.

Jessica Schwalb, 21, junior, Human Rights

Two associates and I obtained caught up in an anti-Israeli mob on campus as they fashioned a human chain to push counterprotesters out of the encampment.

Their chief, Khymani James chanted: ‘Say it loud say it clear, we do not need no Zionists right here!’

Public Security officers watched because the mob marched and shouted, ‘one step ahead, and one other step ahead.’

Then James publicly said: ‘Be grateful that I am not simply going out and murdering Zionists’ – a terrifying echo of Nazi Germany.

However probably the most outstanding scene I witnessed was the violent takeover of Hamilton Corridor. I noticed somebody smashing by way of the home windows of the doorway with a hammer. It was like that scene from The Shining.

Columbia college members have been enmeshed within the pupil protest encampments.

The individuals who have been employed to teach and encourage all college students – sanctioned discriminatory entry to the garden and seemingly endorsed pro-genocide rhetoric.

Hana Cohen, 20, sophomore, Psychology and Fashionable Jewish Research

The final six months at Columbia have been a nightmare. My Jewish associates and I’ve develop into targets of vile antisemitism.

I have been spat on, verbally assaulted, informed to ‘return to the place I come from’, and labeled a ‘soiled Zionist’ numerous instances – even contained in the supposed sanctuary of our eating halls.

I obtain soiled stares in tutorial buildings. My greatest associates have been adopted house by teams shouting ‘yahoodi, yahoodi f*** you’ (an antisemitic slur).

Strolling on campus is now an train in concern and paranoia. Folks know who I’m as a result of I’m very lively within the Jewish neighborhood on campus — they usually ensure that I do know that.

The good college I as soon as dreamed of attending, the place I hoped to search out acceptance and understanding, has now develop into a breeding floor for hate disguised as righteous activism.

Elisha Baker, 21, sophomore, Center East Historical past and Arabic

These protests will not be peaceable and pro-Palestinian, they’re violent, anti-American and pro-Hamas.

Campus demonstrators are calling for an intifada which connotes the homicide of Jews.

Others are shouting, ‘we do not need no Zionists right here,’ ‘you don’t have any tradition,’ ‘return to Europe,’ and even holding up indicators mocking Jewish college students as ‘Al-Qassam’s subsequent goal.’

Off-campus, at a protest close to One World Commerce Heart, I used to be kicked within the abdomen by a keffiyeh-wearing protestor. A couple of minutes later, on the similar rally, somebody set my American flag on fireplace. 

It ignited and the flames burnt a gap at the back of my shirt.

Yola Ashkenazie, 21, senior at Barnard Faculty, Psychology and Economics

I’ve watched as Jewish college students have been assaulted — bodily and verbally — by pro-Hamas protesters on and round campus.

In concern for my very own security and emotional well-being, I left campus and flew to Tel Aviv to be with household for Passover.

It’s unhappy and disappointing, however I really feel safer in a warfare zone than I do at my very own college – a spot I cherished dearly and known as house for the previous 4 years.

Avi Weinberg, 25, Senior learning Economics

On April 21, I tried to entry Columbia’s garden with two associates once I was surrounded by a mob led by pupil protest chief Khymani James.

The demonstrators accused us of being Zionists and threatened to bodily take away us from the garden.

The horde of over 100 college students linked arms and marched towards us. 

There was no response from the college’s public security. We have been left to fend for ourselves.  After quarter-hour of harassment, my associates and I made a decision to deescalate the state of affairs and depart.

As a pupil, it’s not possible to stroll away from these experiences and fake nothing occurred. The bodily security of Jewish college students on Columbia’s campus has been compromised.

Michael Lippman, 21, junior, Monetary Economics and Jewish Thought

I’ve been spat on, harassed and screamed at – all as a result of I’m an outspoken Jewish pupil on Columbia’s campus.

This isn’t ‘free speech’. It is mob intimidation. [I added that]

The protesters overtly and proudly hate Israel and name for the Jewish homeland to be wiped off the map.

Their infantile rhyming chants for ‘intifada’ recall historic murders of Jews, whereas their cries for revolution are actually calls to destroy the material of America.

We should take these protesters at their phrase.

This isn’t a ‘peace motion.’ They’re demanding extra warfare and emboldening Hamas to repeat the atrocities of October 7.

Jonathan Lederer, 22, sophomore, Laptop Science

On April 20, a pro-Palestinian riot broke out on Columbia’s campus and there was no public security or NYPD in sight.

A person stole my Israeli flag and once I tried to retrieve it, a mob of pro-Palestinian protestors surrounded and pushed me.

Two people threw exhausting objects which will have been rocks that hit me within the face.

Then, I used to be backed up towards a gate and the mob lit my Israeli flag on fireplace.

I’ve by no means felt extra weak. I genuinely feared for my life.

On the opposite aspect of the gate, simply off-campus, there have been New York Police Division officers. However they weren’t allowed on campus with out the permission of Columbia President Minouche Shafik.

A number of days later, I used to be bodily assaulted on campus once more and nonetheless the administration refused to permit NYPD on campus.

I now really feel safer off-campus the place the NYPD can extra simply intervene if I need assistance.

Nathan Saldinger, 26, senior, Psychology Main

On the primary day the anti-Israel ‘encampment’ sprung up final month, I had no concept it was there.

Strolling previous the tent metropolis, replete with pro-terrorist indicators and symbols, dozens of individuals I as soon as regarded as friends intimidatingly stared at me as I walked by.

Afterward, I might barely string a sentence collectively in school.

Hanging within the college’s Hamilton Corridor – the place the Workplace of the Dean is situated – I’ve seen anti-Semitic caricatures of Jews.

In the meantime, college workers have carried out virtually nothing to cease the hatred.

My on-campus experiences are actually akin to these my ancestors skilled earlier than the Holocaust.