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Jewish Journal

Connect. Inform. Inspire.

February 27, 2024

UC Berkeley Jewish Student Says She Was Choked By Pro-Palestinian Protesters Who Shut Down Israeli Lecture

California, News /

A Jewish UC Berkeley student, who requested anonymity, told the Journal in a phone interview that she was choked by pro-Palestinian protesters Monday evening. The protestors were trying to  shut down an event featuring a former Israeli Defense Force (IDF) soldier as a speaker.

The event, “Israel at War: Combat the Lies” and organized by Bears for Israel (BFI), Students Supporting Israel at Berkeley (SSIB) and Tikvah, was set to feature former Israel Defense Force (IDF) soldier Ran Bar-Yoshafat speaking before being canceled due to the pro-Palestinian protest.

“Minutes before the event was to start, a crowd of some 200 protesters began to surround the building,” University Chancellor Carol Christ and Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Benjamin Hermalin said in a message to the campus community on Tuesday afternoon.  “Doors were broken open and the protesters gained unauthorized entry to the building. The event was canceled, and the building was evacuated to protect the speaker and members of the audience.”

The day before the event, Bears for Palestine (BFP) put out a call on Instagram to shut down the event, receiving more than 2,000 likes.

BFI, SSI and Tikvah met with the university administration to discuss the issue on a Zoom call to discuss the matter. “It kind of felt like we were begging for them to acknowledge the fact that this was a legitimate concern and a legitimate issue,” Danielle Sobkin, co-president of BFI, alleged. “At first that there are no available rooms, that they don’t know if they can change the venue, they wanted to move us off campus to a different school building. We remained pretty committed to this decision to have this event on main campus as we originally attended for weeks of planning.”

“It kind of felt like we were begging for them to acknowledge the fact that this was a legitimate concern and a legitimate issue.” – Danielle Sobkin

Eventually the university offered to move the event from Wheeler Hall to Zellerbach Playhouse, with the event organizers only letting those who RSVP’d know of the location change, but the pro-Palestinian protesters who showed up to Wheeler to shut it down somehow got wind of the new location and ran down to Zellerbach. The student who says she was assaulted told the Journal that she and a couple of friends had been observing the protest at Wheeler and that the protesters “all stormed” into Wheeler before the scheduled start time, and then ran out 15 minutes later saying that “it’s at Zellerbach” and chanting anti-Israel slogans like “intifada.”

BFI Co-President Daniel Conway told the Journal that as the protesters became more violent as police presence increased outside Zellerbach. The protesters were “pounding on the glass doors.” Sobkin said that “people felt the room shaking” from the protesters “literally pounding” on the doors and windows. “It was a very scary and a very intimidating feeling,” added Sobkin.

The student and her group of friends were escorted inside into Zellerbach; the student thought that the security around the event was tight enough to prevent any of the protesters from storming into the building. “We could hear their banging on the walls, we could hear the chants, but inside the actual event it was quiet,” the student said. “It was a really small turnout because no one could get inside.”

But somehow, four protesters wearing keffiyehs and masks managed to get in. “I was with two of my friends. One of them ran backstage because she didn’t know what was going to happen and the other one ran towards the doors to make sure they were all secured and I just stood there,” the student said. “I saw that when they’re walking across the hall they’re heading toward a door that can only be opened from the inside, and I don’t know why but I took it upon myself to chase after them …  and stop the door from opening because I knew that if that door would open, that this hall  — which was filled with Jewish students who are already scared of their safety — was going to be crowded with chants that were against Israel, against the Jewish people.”

The student recalled being “mushed in with a group of three people” while holding onto the door handle to keep it shut. The Jewish students repeatedly told the protesters, “you guys can’t come in” but one of them shouted, “Yes we can!” and yelled to the protesters outside to come in through that door. “The second that happened, I froze, and I’m just holding on to the doorknob trying to shut it close, and some girl to try to get me out of the way or try to stop me from closing the door… was to grab my neck and keep it open,” the student claimed. “Mind you, I was in shock. I didn’t fight back, I didn’t react, I pushed against this door yelling, ‘No no no.’”

Eventually, a police officer pushed all of the protesters and the student outside; the student broke free from the protesters and “ran away.” “People were crying left and right. Everyone was scared,” the student said. She also observed the protesters chanting, “We won! We won! We won!” when the event was ultimately canceled; Bar-Yoshafat and the Jewish students inside were escorted safely out of the building through underground tunnels.

And yet, “the event continued on successfully at Chabad,” Sobkin said.

The student said that she was “shaking and crying” after the events of Monday night and that her neck hurt. “I never have felt scared to be a Jewish student on campus until last night,” she said. The student has filed a police report.

She also alleged that one of her friends was also assaulted by the protesters. “She was trying to hold the main door closed, and someone from the inside and someone from the outside yanked it open, and she sprained her wrist, went to urgent care, and has a brace now.” Sobkin claimed that there were three Jewish students assaulted Monday evening, with the third being “spit on and tugged in by protesters” and that the student whose wrist was injured was checking RSVPs at the door.

However, UC Berkeley Assistant Vice Chancellor Dan Mogulof told the Journal in an email that “we are aware of multiple assaults being reported on social media” but the university has only received one report of an assault so far. “That is one reason the Chancellor’s message urges students to come forward,” he added. “We cannot fully and adequately respond or investigate absent the detailed information formal police reports provide.”

The university has received “a report of an injury to someone’s wrist during a struggle over a door last night. Too soon to say if this would be categorized as an assault, but that’s possible,” Mogulof said.

Additionally, the student told the Journal that people she knows were called “dirty Jews, Zionist pigs,” and told to “go back to where you came from.”

 “We want to express our deep remorse and sympathy to those students and members of the public who were in the building, fearing for their safety,” Christ and Hermalin said in their campuswide message. “Today, like last night, our colleagues in Student Affairs are reaching out with offers of support and we are urging students to report what they witnessed and experienced to UCPD and/or our Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. We share your anger and concern, and we understand that we must do all that we can to prevent anything like this from happening again.” They added that they “worked with the hosting organization to move the event to a different location, one that was believed to be more secure. We also stepped up security and sent a team of UCPD officers to the event. We approach events like this with two priorities: to do what we can so that the event can go forward, and to do what we can to safeguard student safety and well-being. Last night, despite our efforts and the ample number of police officers, it was not possible to do both given the size of the crowd and the threat of violence.”

Christ and Hermalin concluded their message by saying that the university will “decide on the best possible path to fully understand what happened and why; to determine how we will address what occurred; and to do everything possible to preclude a repeat of what happened” and called the events of Monday night “an attack on the fundamental values of the university.”

The student who claimed she was choked accused the university of handling the whole situation “terribly … We had a specific protocol on how security measures were going to go last night, and none of it was followed through,” she said, claiming that the event organizers were promised that anyone who infiltrated the venue or incited violence would be “immediately detained.” “They were very slow,” the student said regarding the security, alleging that the officers simply watched the four people that got into the event and took “10 seconds” for a police officer to come help her.

Conway and Sobkin had similar observations on the event’s security. “There were 8-10 Bears for Palestine rioters that just entered from this other entrance that was being monitored by UCPD and administration,” Conway said. “I saw them come in and out of that door a few times… It was chaos.” He further alleged that security didn’t remove protesters came in who were clearly not on the RSVP list came in, despite that being the protocol, because the officers were busy manning another door. “It was just evident that there was a severe lack of police officers in the moment,” opined Conway. Sobkin added that there was a “lack of follow through” and that “police officers were standing by as students were trying to break-in.”

Mogulof told The Jewish News of Northern California (The J) that he disputed the notion that the university’s security was inadequate, as 19 officers  — including the chief of the university police — were stationed at Zellerbach. The J also reported that, according to Mogulof, “there were broken windows and at least one broken door” at Zellerbach from Monday night’s events.

“This clearly felt like a witch-hunt on Jewish students,” Sobkin said. “The speaker we brought in, he’s not a big-name person … it was really just a speaker for pure educational purposes and these BFP students and the community in general has gotten to a point where they won’t even allow the Jewish community to allow educational events.”

She went onto call the events of Monday night “a breaking point for all of us.” “We’re at a point where we don’t know what else to do … for change to happen on campus,” Sobkin said. “If there is truly no change after last night, there’s no place for Jewish students at UC Berkeley.”

UC Berkeley Jewish Student Says She Was Choked By Pro-Palestinian Protesters Who Shut Down Israeli Lecture Read More »

Columbia Hit with Another Antisemitism Lawsuit

News, United States /

Columbia University has been hit with yet another antisemitism lawsuit, this time filed by Kasowitz Benson Torres on behalf of several students and the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice and others, alleging that the university has failed to adequate address antisemitism on campus for years.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Thursday, Feb. 22, states that following the Oct. 7 massacre, University President Minouche Shafik initially “urged faculty to bring ‘clarity and context’ to the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust” instead of condemning the massacre and was silent on anti-Israel protests following the massacre. StandWithUs argued that the university’s response showed a double standard given that the university in the past denounced “Asian violence in the COVID-19 pandemic and George Floyd’s murder.”

Additionally, student and faculty groups issued statements following the massacre explaining that Palestinians have the “right to resist”; students and faculty members also defended Professor Joseph Massad, who lauded the Oct. 7 massacre as “innovative Palestinian resistance” and a “stunning victory.” Shafik did eventually issue statements saying that she’s “devastated by the horrific attack on Israel and the ensuing violence that is affecting so many people” and that “the University will take all available steps to help you” regarding concerns about personal safety on campus.

But Jewish students don’t feel safe on campus, the lawsuit alleges, claiming that five Jewish Israeli students were assaulted in front of the university’s Butler Library; the assailant is accused of attacking the students with a stick after the students confronted the assailant for tearing down hostage posters. The assailant also allegedly punched one of the students, resulting in head lacerations and a broken finger. The assailant was arrested and charged with assault, but the university’s response was to tell the victim to stay off campus on Students for Justice in Palestine’s (SJP) “Day of Resistance.”

On the “Day of Resistance” itself, the lawsuit claims that one Jewish student “had an Israeli flag ripped off his back within direct view of a Public Safety guard booth.” Pro-Palestinian protesters also climbed the Alma Mater statue “and used megaphones to broadcast their threats,” which the lawsuit argues was in violation of university policy barring the endangerment of “property on a university facility” and causing “noise that substantially hinders others in their normal academic activities.” Additionally, pro-Palestinian protesters left their designated area to march around campus, where they allegedly shouted at a Jewish student holding a sign about the Oct. 7 massacre that the massacre was “fake news.” The protesters also marched toward the university’s Hillel, prompting the Hillel to go on lockdown for more than an hour.

Between the Day of Resistance and subsequent pro-Palestinian rallies on campus, one Jewish student anonymously quoted in the lawsuit said they could not concentrate while on campus to the point where they needed to complete their coursework remotely; this student had been frequently going to his lab on campus and was forced to pass through these protests on campus.

Jewish student Miles Rubin is named in the lawsuit as having gone through a similar experience, as he requested to take his classes through Zoom because he simply could not “bear witness” to all the pro-Palestinian protests on campus; his request was denied. Rubin then allegedly experienced two confrontations during a pro-Palestinian campus walkout on Oct. 25: he “was shoved by a student wearing a keffiyeh” and attempting to deescalate a situation where a pro-Palestinian protester was “aggressively waving” a Palestinian flag in front of three Jewish students. In the latter incident, Rubin “was swarmed by students who falsely accused him of being the aggressor.” He was going to report the latter incident, only to discover that “10 officers [were] standing around ignoring the chaos outside”; as for the former, Rubin did report it, but was told that there was nothing the university could do about it.

Columbia did suspend their SJP and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) chapters following a Nov. 9 “Shut It Down!” protest, where protesters allegedly shouted “f— the Jews” and “death to Jews” and “screamed at a rabbi while he was praying with students.” A student organizer is accused in the lawsuit of directing protesters “to physically push a small group of pro-Israel students back.” These were not the reasons why the university suspended the SJP and JVP chapters; instead, they were suspended “for their violations of campus policies,” per the lawsuit, though the university did note there was “threatening rhetoric and intimidation” during that protest. Further, because the suspension simply applied to the SJP and JVP groups but not their members, their members simply got around the suspension by reviving the Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD) group, which the lawsuit alleges disrupted a panel on the Israel-Hamas war and heckled attendees. Eventually, both SJP and JVP have advertised and held events despite the suspension and the university has done nothing about it, the lawsuit alleges.

There are similar allegations throughout the rest of the lawsuit of pro-Palestinian protesters disrupting classes and events, protesters pinning a student to a wall for wearing a shirt with an Israeli flag on it, and protesters harassing and intimidating a student who held an Israeli flag during a pro-Palestinian rally. University staff members are also accused of tearing down hostage posters, and the leader of student club for those who identify as queer and nonbinary wrote in an email that “Zionists aren’t invited” to the club … and the university bestowed an award on her, according to the lawsuit.

In January, Shafik held a “Listening Forum,” where one of the Jewish students listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit told her that Jewish students don’t feel safe on campus, causing them to avoid parts of campus or the campus in its entirely, and cited the university’s “inaction” on the matter. Shafik’s response was to mention “Columbia’s sponsored events” and cited one event that was actually disrupted by pro-Palestinian protesters, which she failed to mention. She also suggested that the university needs to better prepare students to be “more resilient,” per the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also includes allegations of antisemitism before Oct. 7, including a Jewish professor’s office walls being spray-painted with swastikas and an antisemitic slur in Nov. 2018, students “passing around an image of a swastika” in 2022 while repeating antisemitic conspiracy theories promulgated by rapper Kanye West and faculty members making anti-Israel comments such as claiming that Jews have no connection to Israel and that a map of Israel is a “military map of illegal conquest.”

The allegations of antisemitism listed in the lawsuit, and Columbia’s alleged inaction to those incidents, violate Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and New York state laws, the lawsuit contends. The plaintiffs are seeking monetary damages and injunctive relief requiring the university to better protect Jewish and Israeli students on campus.

“Columbia refuses to enforce its policies or protect Jewish and Israeli members of the campus community,” Yael Lerman, director of StandWithUs’ newly created Center for Legal Justice, said in a statement. “Columbia has created a pervasively hostile campus environment in which antisemitic activists act with impunity, knowing that there will be no real repercussions for their violations of campus policies. Our aim in being a plaintiff in this lawsuit is to hold Columbia accountable under Title VI for blatant failures to live up to their obligations under federal law and to compel Columbia to restore its campus to the safe environment for Jewish students that existed over twenty-five [years] ago.”

“Columbia has created a pervasively hostile campus environment in which antisemitic activists act with impunity, knowing that there will be no real repercussions for their violations of campus policies.” –  Yael Lerman, StandWithUs

This is the second antisemitism lawsuit filed against the university this month. On Feb. 12, The Lawfare Project filed a lawsuit against the university on behalf of a Jewish student claiming that she was forced out of the university’s Dialectical Behavioral Training program due to antisemitic discrimination. The university declined to comment on the matter to the Journal at the time, as the university does not comment on pending litigation.

Columbia Hit with Another Antisemitism Lawsuit Read More »

South Dakota Legislature Passes IHRA Bill

News, United States /

On Feb. 23, the South Dakota House of Representatives passed a bill adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. It followed the state Senate, which passed the bill the day before. It was sent to the state’s Republican Governor, Kristi Noem.

The bill, House Bill 1076, states, “In reviewing, investigating, or deciding whether an alleged violation of this chapter is antisemitic, the Division of Human Rights must consider the definition of antisemitism. For the purposes of this chapter, the term ‘antisemitism’ has the same meaning as the working definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance on May 26, 2016, including the contemporary examples of antisemitism identified therein.” According to National Jewish Advocacy Center Director Mark Goldfeder, the bill “requires the consideration of the definition of antisemitism when investigating unfair or discriminatory practices.”

Governor Noem posted on X that she is “looking forward to signing” the bill into law.

According to a press release from the Israel-American Council, South Dakota will become the twelfth state to codify IHRA and 23 others have endorsed the definition.

“The great State of South Dakota has made the clearest possible statement that we’re going to identify, confront, and call out antisemitism.”
– Elan Carr

Jewish groups lauded the bill’s passage. “Rising Jew-hatred is a threat to all Americans, and South Dakotans today should feel deeply proud of what their government is doing to confront this scourge,” IAC CEO Elan Carr said in a statement. “The great State of South Dakota has made the clearest possible statement that we’re going to identify, confront, and call out antisemitism, and when it rises to the level of discrimination, we’re going to use the full force of the law to rout it out. I salute the South Dakota Legislature and bill sponsors Rep. Fred Deutsch (R) and Sen. Jim Mehlhaff (R)  for their leadership in fighting for justice during these troubled times. And I continue to thank Gov. Noem for her outstanding leadership.”

StandWithUs Director of Policy Education Jordan Cope said in a statement, “With antisemitism having exploded worldwide post-Oct. 7, the IHRA definition remains a tool of paramount importance for helping identify and quell the mounting tide of antisemitism. South Dakota’s moral clarity on this matter sets a clear example from which other states ought to draw inspiration as Jews around the world desperately seek assurances of their own safety.”

South Dakota Legislature Passes IHRA Bill Read More »

Political Commentator Attacked For Israel Stance and…Circumcision???

Culture /

During his Feb. 24 livestream covering Donald Trump’s victory in the South Carolina Republican primary, liberal commentator David Pakman’s commentary took a left turn. Around 45 minutes in, he turned to his producer and asked, “should I do the circumcision rant?” Pakman, who has more than 2 million YouTube subscribers, explained that since someone called in with a question about circumcision the previous day, people have been emailing him and he wanted to address the topic once and for all.

“I know this may come as a shock because I’m Jewish, I don’t think about circumcision ever unless someone calls in and asks me about it,” Pakman said. “… The last I checked, the American Academy of Pediatrics said the benefits outweigh the risks but it’s not an issue of critical importance and parents should decide … the anti-circumcision people sent me about 100 e-mails in the last 24 hours. Half of them are overtly antisemitic, a quarter were subtly antisemitic, and the other 25 didn’t appear to be antisemitic, but they also said I was completely wrong.”

Pakman explained that some people won’t listen to his views on the Israeli Palestinian conflict because he is Jewish and that makes him biased and some will say the same about circumcision, even though it is not political. There are some men, he said, who can’t find a partner and blame it on either being circumcised or blame society for conditioning women to prefer circumcised men.

“It’s a little weird,” Pakman said.

Pakman listed some health benefits for circumcision, as well as the argument that circumcision violates the bodily autonomy of a child. Adult circumcisions are extremely painful and parents make other decisions for kids, such as having them get vaccines. From what he’d seen, the risk of complications for circumcision is rare. It’s also been claimed that circumcision could reduce a man’s sexual pleasure, but Pakman said it’s hard to measure and that argument was not compelling to him.

Some left-wing commentators have been using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a litmus test. One example is “The Majority Report,” hosted by Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland. Vigeland thought Pakman was wrong to not bring up the topic on his show; Seder commented that he’s had a disagreement with Pakman on the Israeli Palestinian conflict for a decade. Cenk Uygur of “The Young Turks” and Kyle Kulinski, a co-founder of Justice Democrats and the host of “The Kyle Kulinski Show” on YouTube, are among those on the left with large followings who have called Israel’s actions genocide.

On Jewish comic and musician and political commentator Ami Kozak’s show, “Ami’s House” Pakman said he’s “treading a fine line,” and that for a long time he saw antisemitism from the right — including “overt Nazis” — and now he’s getting shots from those on the left.

“How dare I say it’s tough to do a ceasefire with someone that says ‘we will never stop attacking you’”? – David Pakman

Pakman thinks those on the left aren’t happy with him because “I’m not aggressively … and in an unrestrained fashion denouncing Israel as a mere concept of existence. How dare I say it’s tough to do a ceasefire with someone that says ‘we will never stop attacking you?’ I think it’s tough to do a ceasefire with group that says that … Unfortunately the situation has become one where if I talk about this issue, I’m attacked for not saying the right things, if I don’t talk about it, I’m attacked for hiding behind my Judaism…”

Pakman, who Kozak complimented for having guests that disagree with him on his show, finds it “extraordinarily frustrating” that some say his being Jewish means his opinion is not valid, when that same concept is not applied to issues of other groups. Pakman said he lost 500 to 600 paid subscriptions based on his not roundly condemning Israel, but later got 1,500 new ones. “What I say on my show is absolutely what I think and there is no calculated position that I’m taking in order to prevent some negative effect.” He believes if there is a conflict and one side is perceived as not being white, the non-white population must be the oppressed one, or if the U.S. is allied with Israel, Israel must be in the wrong.

Political Commentator Attacked For Israel Stance and…Circumcision??? Read More »

Barbra Streisand Calls Out Antisemitism at SAG-AFTRA Awards

Featured, Film, Hollywood /

In the 30 years the Screen Actors Guild Awards have existed, singer and actress Barbra Streisand never received an award. That changed this week, as Streisand was the recipient of the lifetime achievement award.

Her nine-minute acceptance speech at the Shrine Auditorium was loaded with both inspirational memories and her earliest dreams in the arts. She began by recalling how, prior to becoming a union actor over 60 years ago, she used to see black-and-white films at the Astor Theatre next door to her high school in Brooklyn. She also spoke of the time she paid a quarter to see “Guys and Dolls” at the historic Loew’s Kings Theatre.

“I saw the most beautiful actor, Marlon Brando, and it was my first crush,” Streisand said. “He was so real, so believable, and I wanted to be the one he fell in love with, not Jean Simmons. That make-believe world was much more pleasant than anything I was experiencing. I didn’t like reality. I wanted to be in the movies, even though I knew I didn’t look like the other women on the screen. And my mother said, ‘you better learn to type,’ but I didn’t listen. And somehow some way, thank you, God, it all came true.”

Reflecting on her first film, “Funny Girl” (1968), she offered praise to director William Wyler and cinematographer Harry Stradling. “These two men were extraordinary,” she said. “They had no problem with a young woman who had opinions. I could suggest ideas for a scene to Willie and try various lighting effects with Harry. And they never ever put me down. Looking back, they were really ahead of their time, and that was fantastic.”

Streisand’s speech also included a moment of remembering how Jewish persecution in Europe affected early Hollywood. “It’s really a privilege to be part of this profession,” Streisand said. “For a couple of hours, people can sit in a theater and escape their own troubles. What an idea. Moving pictures on a screen. And I can’t help but think back to the people who built this industry. Ironically, they were also escaping their own troubles. Men like Szmuel Gelbfisz, who changed his name to Samuel Goldwyn. Lazar Meir, who became Louis B. Mayer, and the four Wonsal brothers who became Warner Brothers. They were all fleeing the prejudice they faced in Eastern Europe simply because of their religion. And they were dreamers too. Like all of us here tonight. And now I dream of a world where such prejudice is a thing of the past.”

Though she did not explicitly state that the early Hollywood leaders were Jewish, nor mention Israel in the speech, addressing antisemitism was certainly a priority for Streisand.

She remains one of the most lauded and prominent Jewish entertainers of all time. In light of the dialogue on whether Streisand is doing enough to help her fellow Jewish community in this time of crisis, the Journal has compiled a list of public statements she has made on the topic since Oct. 7.

Three days after the Oct. 7 attacks, Streisand posted a story to her 1.6 million Instagram followers that read, “The population of Israel is under 10 million people. There are over 700 confirmed Israeli dead from the terrorist attack on civilians. The equivalent in the US would be over 25,000 dead in New York City on 9/11.”

On Oct. 16, she wrote in an Instagram post, “All people deserve to live in peace … to raise their children where a future is hopeful, in a country with stability and self-determination. Peace is dependent on a two-state solution that respects the human rights and the humanity of people in Israel and Palestine.”

The next day, she wrote on X, “When visiting The Hebrew University a decade ago where I have funded scholarships for both Arabs and Jews, I said, “Human dignity means giving all people a voice… It’s only through dialogue that people and countries can come together.” The following week she posted,  “My heart is broken for all the suffering of innocent civilians in Israel, Palestine, and Ukraine. Terrorism must not triumph.”

A month after the attacks, on Nov. 8, Streisand’s long-awaited memoir, “My Name is Barbra”  was published by Viking Press. To promote the memoir, Streisand appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,”  in a taped segment recorded at her home in Malibu. The interview has since been posted in five separate parts on YouTube (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4), including The Colbert Questionert segment.

“We all want the same thing. We all want love in our hearts. We all want a family. We all want to feel secure. I hope for the best because this is heartbreaking.” – Barbra Streisand

In Part 3, Colbert asked Streisand about the rise in antisemitism and fascism around the world and in the United States. “It’s so sad,” Streisand said. “It’s sad about what’s going on today. People have to live together even though they’re different religions or whatever. People are people. It’s true, you know, we all want the same thing. We all want love in our hearts. We all want a family. We all want to feel secure. I hope for the best because this is heartbreaking. What’s happening now — these people, the children, the mothers — it doesn’t matter what religion they are. You know what I mean? This is beyond religion. This is insanity for us to not learn how to live together in peace. See? This is what’s hard to talk about my career or even my book when this deadly combustible thing is happening in the world … I could easily cry about this. You know, where is God in this time? Where is he or she? Why can’t that energy stop this madness?”

On Dec. 8, Streisand wrote on her Instagram account,  “When I first met Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres years ago, I asked him ‘How can you help the Palestinians?’ He replied ‘By making their lives better!’ We needed his advice then, and should urgently heed it now. In my humble opinion, we need a two-state solution that will hopefully bring peace and prosperity to the region.”

On Jan. 12, Streisand wrote on X, The last ceasefire to exchange hostages worked in Gaza. The parties need to propose it again. On Feb. 2, she posted  “The United States has long been a supporter of Israel but our policy is for a 2 state solution with security safeguards. Netanyahu has publicly ruled this out so it is time for a new government that at a minimum, tries to achieve it.”

Barbra Streisand Calls Out Antisemitism at SAG-AFTRA Awards Read More »