Tekiah Magazine

By Mara Riegel, December 2025

Credit: Zachary Crystal

For years, I’ve prided myself on being able to discuss hard things with people and find some area for common ground. Growing up in an area where I always felt like an outsider, even with people who wouldn’t like me if I paid them, we could at least agree on our disappointment over our mutual favorite baseball team. I’ve accomplished this with Republicans, Muslims, Christians, Democratic Socialists, and a host of other people with whom I’d never be lumped in.

However, among members of groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), Jewish Voices for Peace (JVP) and other similar organizations, it has become increasingly apparent that no matter what I, or really any other proud Jew, could do would make much of a difference and build a common ground. 

These groups advertise themselves as being pro-Palestinian liberation and advocates of a peaceful society in the Middle East. These statements on their face advocate for respect, autonomy, self-determination, and group dignity. These messages are not harmful inherently, in fact they sound ideal if you are someone who values dignity and consideration. However, the groups we see on college campuses advocating for them today have now become antithetical to the core of those messages.

In my work with Jewish on Campus (JOC) here at GW, we hear the stories of and advocate for those who have come into contact with antisemitism and other forms of anti-Jewish discrimination, of which there are unfortunately many. In fact, many Jews I know at this school have dealt with it in some form. In many of those cases, the hate has not come from those who these organizations would label bigots or Islamophobes. This is not to say this hatred doesn’t also come from those people, it does, but particularly recently, it comes from those within these organizations themselves.

Last year, I faced my own instance of antisemitism. I viewed an SJP teach-in in front of Kogan Plaza wherein I was intimidated, my rights to record a public protest were infringed upon, and I was told that I don’t belong there, among other things. In the instance of this teach-in, much like the one conducted on Monday, Nov. 17, SJP enjoyed the free expression, autonomy, group dignity, and freedom from persecution and violence that they so ardently advocate for. 

It is when Jewish students such as myself choose to observe this behavior that SJP chooses to take issue. In attending these events, I know not to call out or disrupt what is happening, mostly because I am well aware that it would only invite more hostility that myself and other Jews like me already endure. 

Moreover, that first instance of disrespect and hypocrisy was not an isolated incident. At this most recent teach-in, a protester I identified as the leader and speaker of the previous interaction identified me by name, pulled me aside and made sure to seek me out to insult me. She said, “Mara, whenever I talk to my friends about you, I refer to you as the [ugly] Zionist, and they always know who I’m talking about.” 

Personally, I do not care about whether or not these protesters find me physically desirable or any other positive adjective, particularly because I don’t attend these events looking for a partner, but the principle of the comment is what I think is worth noting. These protestors are starting to abandon even the illusion of respectability and stoop lower and lower.

Maybe they are peeved that the ceasefire they protested and screamed for is now in place. Maybe they’re upset that the Jews endured yet again. They should be angry that Hamas is still in charge, but that part isn’t convenient for the narrative of Israel and the Jews as the sole oppressor. Regardless, they have forgotten the principle of their own movement.

See, a point I hear often in speaking to members of these groups is that they simply want respect, freedom, and independence for Palestinians. What they neglect to acknowledge is that very many Jews are also proponents of treating everyone, including Palestinians, in a way that wouldn’t make us atone on Yom Kippur. 

But what confuses me is the logic behind behaving the way that they do. If they want that outcome for their people, why is it acceptable to torment and alienate the people that, in their opinion, are able to deliver that result?

Something else I’ve often asked protesters is what they wanted 19 and 20-year-old college students to do exactly. They never have an answer, but considering the fact that they keep targeting us rather than government organizations, they clearly think we have power to give them what they want.

If they truly believe that American Jews are the key to Palestinian freedom, why do they think that hurting us and tormenting us is the way to get us to act in their favor? I think many of them just want a pretext to perpetuate their hatred of Jews. How that hatred came about, we’ll never really know, but they seem intent on maintaining it so much so that they forgot the people they used as their reasoning to begin with. 

After all, if it was independence, non-violence, and respect these advocates wanted, why are there no teach-ins, protests, or fundraisers for the humanitarian effort in Sudan? Why have they stopped speaking about the war in Ukraine? Why don’t they speak publicly nearly as often about the crises happening to immigrants and people of color here in the US?

It is patterns, habits, and behaviors like this that convince me that nothing the Jews could say or do would ever make any of these protesters treat us in the manner they wish the Israeli government treated Palestinians, because it isn’t about Palestine at all anymore. Jewish-American young adults have no say in international politics, but in choosing to harass and target them, SJP, JVP and others show us exactly why the need for a Jewish state exists in the first place.