California Must Lead in Rooting Out Antisemitism

Last week, Jews around the world celebrated Passover, which commemorates the Israelites’ escape from bondage in Egypt. The holiday represents an opportunity to gather with our friends and family to reflect on one of the oldest instances of targeted Jewish hate.

Yet, as we broke matzah, sipped wine, and told the story of our ancestors, anti-Israel protests bordering on antisemitic hate rallies were taking place on college campuses across the country. Oh, the irony.

From Columbia to Yale to Ohio State, students occupied public spaces, recited antisemitic chants, and created human chains to prevent Jewish students from attending class. The situation at Columbia was so fraught that a rabbi from the university’s Orthodox Union Jewish Learning Initiative on Campus sent a WhatsApp message to Jewish students to “return home” due to safety concerns.

As high school students who will soon be heading to college to pursue our academic studies, we were terrified to witness institutions of higher learning become safe spaces for unabashed Hamas apologists, Oct. 7 deniers, and protesters calling for Jewish genocide “from the River to the Sea.” Then the demonstrations reached Los Angeles, highlighted by clashes at UCLA and the University of Southern California.

Thankfully, our concerns have been quelled slightly as earlier this month Governor Gavin Newsom released — to underwhelming news coverage — his office’s Golden State Plan to Counter Antisemitism. In the plan, the governor’s office acknowledges the age-old history of antisemitism, cites the rising rates of anti-Jewish hate since Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 attacks, and outlines strategies to combat this form of bigotry.

While we are pleased to see California take the lead on this front — and hope other states will follow the example — we know that a plan is only a plan until action occurs. And based on our own experiences growing up and attending school in Los Angeles, there’s a lot of work to be done.

Antisemitism has, at times, made us feel scared to be public about our Judaism and isolated us from our peers. And while both of us have had unique encounters with antisemitism, our stories mirror each other in many ways.

On social media, we’ve seen individuals tear down posters of kidnapped Israeli hostages, read antisemitic comments on our posts, and have had people unfollow us due to our public support of Israel. In our offline lives, things haven’t been much better. We have heard jokes about the Nazi salute, seen swastikas spray painted on buildings, and listened to others make comments about Jews around us not knowing that we are Jewish. 

Since Oct. 7, these sentiments have only ramped up. Antisemitism has become much more prevalent in activist circles where those we once considered allies have refused to include Jews, often repeating antisemitic tropes and chants like the ones we’ve seen on college campuses across the country. When these instances occur, we are thankful that the state of Israel exists as a refuge for Jews, which of course breeds even more antisemitic fervor.

This upcoming Monday marks Yom Hashoah (or Holocaust Remembrance Day) and another opportunity to reflect on the violent consequences of one of the world’s oldest hatreds. The occasion will also mark 212 days since the Oct. 7 attack, the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

It is up to us as the next generation of Jews to do this not just for ourselves and our future, but for the memories of our ancestors and those who have been victimized by unconscionable antisemitic hate.

We encourage our cohort of young Jews in California and across the country to educate ourselves on Jewish history and make time to urge leaders like Governor Newsom to follow through on their promises to take action. It is up to us as the next generation of Jews to do this not just for ourselves and our future, but for the memories of our ancestors and those who have been victimized by unconscionable antisemitic hate.

Waylon Richling is a Senior at Brighton Hall School. Addison Carson is a Junior at Harvard-Westlake School.