WORCESTER, Mass. - The recent pro-Palestinian protests across the country have led Jewish groups, like Clark University Hillel, to ramp up their programming.
Hillel president Ethan Quinn said they're hosting more discussions about what's happening.
He said while there haven't been any physical protests in Worcester, there have been instances of hate speech.
The school responded to hate speech posted in March on an anonymous app students use.
The school said it's a violation of their code of conduct and they are investigating.
Quinn said he's comfortable on campus but knows what's happening can take a toll on Jewish student's mental health.
“The school has opened up resources at CPG,” said Quinn. "Hillel pretty much has now been operating on a 24/7 basis to help and care for students that have been impacted, that do have incidents of vandalism and who have been targeted online and things like that. So Hillel has been like the main go-to resource."
Quinn said there are more than 2,000 students on Clark’s campus and about 500 are Jewish.
Protests erupted on college campuses nationwide more than a week ago to call for an end to what students and faculty have described as a genocide of Palestinians by Israel amid the war in Gaza. As of Sunday, more than 1,000 people had been arrested at student-organized protests of Israel’s war effort in Gaza on university campuses across the country. Dueling groups of protesters clashed Wednesday at the University of California, Los Angeles, grappling in fistfights and shoving, kicking and using sticks to beat one another. Hours earlier, police burst into a building at Columbia University that pro-Palestinian protesters took over and broke up a demonstration that had paralyzed the school.