As protests have taken hold across the country, we have read and heard many generalizations about students. But when people talk about “Jewish students” on campus right now, who and what are we referring to? With some attending and organizing protests and others leaving campus altogether, it’s impossible to put Jewish students in a box – they, like the Jewish community as a whole, are far from monolithic.
So, in May 2024, Lilith Magazine and New Voices Magazine partnered to collect photographs from Jewish students on college campuses. We asked students to share what their Jewish campus life looks like this spring. Documenting this moment in history, students took snapshots of their experiences. We’re sharing them with you here.
Be sure to check back: this page will be updated as a live archive of student photography.
“Taken from the Gaza Solidarity Encampment, this black-and-white film photograph of a Shabbat service represents the diversity of Jewish thought at Columbia. While national news outlets often depict a monolithic picture of Jews at Columbia, the reality on the ground is far more complex. Over the past three years, I have met Jewish students organizing for Palestinian liberation, Jewish students who served in the IDF, Jewish students who were arrested at the encampment — and Jewish students who called for their arrest. This picture challenges the idea that there is a singular Jewish perspective on Zionism.”
“On the Outside: A conflicted Jewish student’s perspective of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment at Columbia University.”
– Daisy Friedman, 21, Barnard College
“The author’s class notes and printouts for a course in Juhuri (Judeo-Tat) litter the area. This spring, the University of Pennsylvania hosted the sole Juhuri course on a North American campus. The Eastern Caucasus Jewish heritage language, presented in both Latin and Cyrillic scripts, shares an extensive history with Yiddish in the Soviet Union. The five students in the class attend Penn and Haverford College, all actively engaging as Jewish language activists and members of the Jewish diaspora.”
– Tyler Kliem, 21, University of Pennsylvania
“What starts with the Jewish people, never ends with the Jewish people. My parents fled the former Soviet Union, where they were discriminated against because of their Jewish identities. They came to the U.S. in search for a society in which they could live freely from antisemitism. A generation later, the same hate has reared its head. But I am not afraid, and I am not going anywhere. #endjewhatred #jewishandproud.”
– Tessa Veksler, 22, University of California Santa Barbara
“A response art piece for the graduate art therapy program’s show this Spring, called ‘rupture and repair’.”
– Amanda Shafran, 36, NYU Steinhardt School, Graduate Art Therapy
“Jewish Voice for Peace Vermont hosts a ‘liberation Seder’ on the first day of the UVM encampment.”
– Alex Strand, 19, University of Vermont
“Sleeping in encampment on a Friday night after a wonderful Kabbalat Shabbat service.”
