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After suffering through weeks of anti-Israel protests that have bordered on antisemitic, Jewish students are telling their campus and the world that they’re not backing down.

From The Daily Wire. Hundreds of Jewish students at Columbia University signed onto an open letter to the school community vowing not to back down in the face of protests in response to the Israel-Hamas war that caused a major disruption on the New York City campus.

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Shai Davidai, a Columbia professor who last month said he was barred from campus as he tried to stage a sit-in at the site where the anti-Israel demonstrators had set up an encampment, and others shared the letter in a post to X on Wednesday.

According to the letter, the signees are “average students,” who say that those “who demonize us under the cloak of anti-Zionism forced us into our activism and forced us to publicly defend our Jewish identities.”

The letter expressed the view that the Jewish people have a “right to self-determination in our historic homeland as a fundamental tenet of our Jewish identity” and pushed back on claims that Judaism can be “separated” from Israel. …

The Jewish students said they are being “targeted for our belief that Israel, our ancestral and religious homeland, has a right to exist.” They also said the word “Zionist” is being misused as a slur that is “synonymous with racist, oppressive, or genocidal.” …

In concluding the letter, the Jewish students said, “One thing is for sure. We will not stop standing up for ourselves. We are proud to be Jews, and we are proud to be Zionists.” …

Do you find what these students said encouraging? Tell others about it and encourage them!

(Excerpt from The Daily Wire. Photo Credit: alexsl/Getty Images Signature via Canva Pro)