Issue No. 5
Northwestern University in the News
Defiled Israeli Flags on Deering Meadow: Students placed 1,200 Israeli flags near the Pro-Palestinian encampment, and only a few hours later, the flags were vandalized with red paint. "This [encampment] has been here for, I think, several weeks now. We walk by it every day and we thought we would just add something that we thought was peaceful and looked nice on the lawn."
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House Investigation: Congressional Committee demands NU documents. "They, despite having ample policies in place, turned the other cheek, stood idly by the taunting, the harassment, the intimidation of Jewish students."
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Lawsuits: Students sue and Jewish groups call for Schill’s ouster. “The events of the past week laid bare Northwestern’s gross breach of these promises… Northwestern ignored those rules, opting instead to facilitate, encourage, and coddle a dystopic cesspool of hate.”
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Lack of Support: Northwestern’s Jewish Community has been “on edge” since Oct. 7. “There were endless antisemitic chants being chanted and shouted.”
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Alumnus Questions What to Do: Northwestern alumnus and CEO of Americans for Ben-Gurion University shares thoughts on how to respond when alma mater threatens “core values as both an American and as a Jew … Northwestern President Michael Schill set a dangerous precedent when he negotiated an agreement with anti-Israel protesters without apparently even consulting with the Advisory Committee on Preventing Antisemitism and Hate that he himself appointed just this last January.”
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Schill's Partial Truths: Pres. Schill's Op-Ed omitted critical details about the fact that the encampment didn't decamp and deeply entrenched persists on campus. "Jewish students are not protected, as he describes. They are vilified."
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NU Protest: Antisemitism is rampant in Deering Meadow. “Despite attempts to normalize the rampant antisemitism spouted by the protestors on Deering Meadow, the reality is their entreaties ARE antisemitic.”
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Viral Post on X/Twitter: A mother does what Schill could not do and makes it look easy. “All it takes is an angry mom who loves her Jewish friends.”
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Comments from Northwestern Students
I would like to sign the In Our Name email but I'm afraid to. My department is full of pro-Palestine profs and they encouraged their students to support the encampment. I'm so uncomfortable here that I'm considering transferring to another university.
We cannot sign our real names to that email because of the pervasive antisemitism in the classes we take. We truly believe that were we to sign our names, our professors would target us and our classmates would harass us to the point of forcing us to leave campus, which we are considering doing anyway due to the hateful atmosphere here at NU.
The theater department was a nightmare for me as a Jewish student, so I dropped that double major. History isn't great either but so far I'm dealing with it.
My friends and I are feeling helpless. We know that whatever Schill says about expectations or consequences will not be followed through on. We are really struggling.
The Jewish members of this dance group had to leave. Jewish students have been leaving or de-activating from other groups and orgs after the groups signed on to the open petition to drop charges for the Daily. These votes were often split, with only Jewish students voting against signing. No one is standing up for us.
There is pernicious discrimination within clubs against Jewish students who don't actively advocate for the destruction of Israel. It will probably be much worse next year. Jewish kids shouldn't have to be activists all the time. We just want to enjoy a normal college experience.
Comments from the NU Community of Jewish Alumni & Families
The Meadow is still not so much cleared as not cleared. Apparently the route of Schill’s self-congratulatory victory lap skips this part of the university.
Schill has to go. This agreement he negotiated with the students in the encampment sets a terrible precedent. Even putting aside antisemitism, these colleges simply can’t cave to student terrorism. He has to go.
Rather than caving into student demands, Schill should have explained to the students that this is a university with conduct guidelines that they agreed to when they became students. These involve protecting the rights of all students and enabling our core educational mission. What if a group of White Supremacists showed up, took over the Meadow, and refused to leave until we met their demands?
None of this behavior from students, faculty, admin, outside agitators is acceptable in any way, shape or form. It happened (and is still happening) on Schill’s watch. His “deal” is a disaster and it’s not being enforced.
NU is so steeped in a culture of bias that it will take decades to fix. MENA does not even attempt to present a balanced view of the Middle East.