Organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine exploit a university’s policies to harass Jewish students.
Ronn Torossian | Jan 3, 2024
A few months ago, I got to know a man who is now a friend and in many ways embodies Jewish pride post-Oct. 7, 2023, by standing up, saying something and doing something. Jakob Schanzer is a Jewish student at Tulane University working on his doctorate in chemical engineering.
A few days after Oct. 7, 2023, there was a protest right outside his office that turned violent. He watched it all unfold, and, as he explained to me the first time we spoke, he thought about his Jewish roots, although he hadn’t prayed or been a part of the organized Jewish community in many years. Since then, Schanzer has been actively cleaning up what feels like endless antisemitic graffiti, stickers and fliers in his New Orleans neighborhood.
On Rosh Hashanah 2024, Schanzer tried to spray-paint over a very large antisemitic mural that said “All eyes on Gaza” near his house and was confronted by a woman with a camera who filmed him. He calmly and confidently explained to her what he was doing, saying that he would return again and again and again if the antisemitic mural was repainted. As he said, “Jews fight back. Get used to it.”
The video went viral, and the next morning, Schanzer was doxxed, and his personal information was released online. A campaign launched to have him expelled from Tulane generated more than 3,000 emails to the university.
The school immediately called him for questioning about this off-campus graffiti incident. Shockingly, Tulane didn’t support him. Instead, they warned him about his behavior, even though it took place off-campus. Since then, as Schanzer continues with his activism, he has been relentlessly harassed by Tulane’s Office of Student Conduct.
With Betar’s support, Schanzer detailed that he had nothing to apologize for and called on the community to support him. Betar generated thousands of emails to Tulane University in support of Schanzer, who urged all in New Orleans to join him in continuing to remove hateful graffiti.
While the school asked him to stay home for a few days, fearing they couldn’t protect him, Schanzer refused to hide. Instead, he continued with his routines. A few days later, his car windows were smashed in front of his home, yet he still went about his business.
Recently, pro-Hamas student groups hosted a library encampment where they sat with pro-Hamas flags, their faces covered, harassing many people. Schanzer was summoned for questioning by Tulane’s student conduct office for his interactions with the protesters. As he told me, “These allegations are completely false. I simply went to the library, got a soda and took pictures. We will not be silent in the face of hate.”
Schanzer has received conduct letters from Tulane that are aggressive and intended to intimidate. For example, the Monday before the Thanksgiving break, he received a letter scheduling a meeting for the following Sunday when the university was closed and people were away on Thanksgiving break. Another letter informed him of a meeting to be held the next day while stating that he would need to provide two days’ notice if he wanted to reschedule. These communications continue even though he informed the university that he has retained a civil rights attorney to handle his case.
What’s happening feels systemic. Organizations like Students for Justice in Palestine exploit a university’s policies to harass Jewish students. Anonymous complaints, even if they are baseless, can trigger aggressive letters from a school’s conduct office accusing students of serious misconduct and crimes. One Jewish freshman was called into so many conduct meetings that she eventually transferred to a different school.
In Schanzer’s case, a conduct office investigator told him he wasn’t allowed to “destroy public art” and lectured him about using spray paint instead of paint rollers, even after he showed photos of hateful messages calling for violence against Jews and Zionists. Tulane University should remove this hate or stay quiet. What it should not do is intervene in off-campus activities that Jews work to address on their own.
The Betar movement has many activists like Schanzer who are being questioned or condemned at numerous universities, including students at the University of Pittsburgh, the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University. As jihadis walk around with faces covered and praising Hamas and Hezbollah, Jews who challenge them are punished and threatened by police, security and conduct officers who see these efforts as “balance.” There’s a large difference. We are good and right, and we don’t call for violent revolution or praise illegal terror organizations. However, the reality is that it is much deeper than that. “They,” including administrators at schools like Tulane and NYU, stand with our enemies or are our enemies. We have received reports of countless Tulane leaders who openly support a “Free Palestine.”
As Betar’s founder, the great Zionist leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky, said, “It is not the antisemitism of men; it is, above all, the antisemitism of things, the inherent xenophobia of the body social or the body economic, under which we suffer.”
The reality is that not only have the United Nations and International Criminal Court been completely corrupted, but so, too, have many institutions. Tulane University’s conduct office appears to have an antisemitism issue, as do so many other universities. When questioned as to why Jewish students are being threatened and the conduct office weaponized, a Tulane spokesman said it is “not our policy to comment on student conduct proceedings, which is also prohibited by federal law, or personnel matters.” One has to wonder, how many of the decision-makers in the conduct offices are anti-Zionist—10%, 30%, 50%?
Schanzer and other bear Jews won’t back down. We have nothing to hide from and nothing to be embarrassed about. Like many other Jews on college campuses, he has become close with the local Chabad rabbi and has since kept the occasional Shabbat. He refuses to hide, and as a strong Zionist and Betar leader in New Orleans, he will keep fighting.
However, in this fight, lawsuits aren’t enough, nor is publicity. Jews must lean in and stand up louder and prouder. Students for Justice in Palestine and their ilk have mastered the art of lawfare at universities and in the community, where they have many allies and supporters inside this administration. Jew-haters have weaponized campus policies against Jewish and pro-Israel students. Jews must follow the example of Schanzer and others, and fight back in actions and spirit.
Ronn Torossian is an Israeli-American entrepreneur and president of Betar USA.
When questioned as to why Jewish students are being threatened and the conduct office weaponized, a Tulane spokesman said it is “not our policy to comment on student conduct proceedings, which is also prohibited by federal law, or personnel matters.”
Perhaps this genius spokesman should be informed that violating the Constitutional rights of American citizens is also prohibited by federal law.