LOS ANGELES — On the busy Bruin Walk at UCLA, students walked right by Eli Sanchez despite his bright blue Hillel T-shirt. He was handing out blue ribbons, standing in solidarity with the hostages kidnapped by Hamas.
“My mom’s family is Israeli,” said Sanchez. “My grandfather actually fought in the War of Independence when he was 16. I always go there, and I have friends there and family there. It’s home to me.”
Sanchez is one of several Jewish students trying to fight the rising antisemitism they’ve faced on campus, even before the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. A lot of Jewish students feel particularly vulnerable, and many are scared.
“Just to have all this tragedy happen and then go on campus and see people screaming and chanting in support of Hamas and saying that this was justified, it really hurts to be a Jewish student seeing that,” Sanchez said.
It’s why Jasmine Beroukhim, who graduated from UCLA earlier this year, is passionate about her new role as program manager for the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles’ Campus Impact Network. She took the job weeks before the war broke out. Her role is to coordinate with Jewish groups at UCLA, USC, CSUN and others to organize programming and provide tools for students to strengthen their advocacy efforts on college campuses around town. She helped co-sponsor the ribbon event.
“Jewish students are struggling,” said Beroukhim. “We are lacking allies, and if we can stand on campus and share a little bit of our story and we can hand out a ribbon that has a notecard, we can spark a conversation.”
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The UC Regents recently announced they’ll commit $7 million for mental health tools, programs focused on understanding antisemitism and islamophobia, and training to help educators and staff tackle these topics.
Rabbi Noah Farkas, who leads JFedLA, says that for too long, colleges and universities have endangered students by allowing hate speech under the guise of free speech.
“Our students are terrified,” he said. “I have people telling me all the time that they’re afraid to wear their kippah or yarmulke or their Jewish star. We have Israeli students who are afraid to leave their dorm rooms.”
Sanchez says many students don’t want to take a side, but he feels it’s because they haven’t educated themselves.
But despite all the rejections, “it’s made up for by just one person taking a ribbon and putting it on and sympathizing with you,” he said.
Sanchez thus remains resilient, advocating for the Jewish people and his homeland a world away.