About 100 University of Michigan students and community members marched from the Diag to the Jewish Resource Center Wednesday evening in support of the Jewish community on campus. Organized by the University’s chapter of Students Supporting Israel and advocacy group Let’s Do Something, the march was organized after a person attempted to kick down the door of the center Sunday morning.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Rabbi Yitz Pierce, program director at JRC, described the attack on the center.
“Early Sunday morning, someone came by our building,” Pierce said. “It’s all on camera. They tried to kick in the front door. And when they failed, they left running and were screaming, ‘F the Jews. F Israel. The Jews control us. F the Jews,’ over and over again. And it was pretty disturbing, to be honest.”
During the event, speakers spoke about their experiences with antisemitism, but also the support they received from the Jewish community at the University following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel which killed more than 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 more being taken hostage. The resulting Israeli military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 67,000 people.
Moshe Shear, chief marketing officer of Let’s Do Something, described how the attack on Israel impacted the Jewish community on campus.
“When I look out here on the lawn and see within 36 hours, so many proud Jews, I really see the essence of the Jewish people and why we’ve been around since the dawn of time and why our people are never going to go away,” Shear said. “Even with so much hate, things that happened, like October 7…and how we reacted to that moment, or an antisemitic hate crime on the Jewish Resource Center two years later in Michigan, how Jews react to that and take so much hate and turn it into a place of love and a place of building, and build something positive out of it. And it’s so, so beautiful to see.”
LSA senior Dan Viderman, president of SSI and a speaker at the event, thanked attendees for being present at the march.
“SSI was approached with this idea 36 hours ago, and I want to thank each and every one of you guys sincerely for coming out of here,” Viderman said. “These clubs are only as strong as the people that make them up. And we have so much hatred, so much darkness.”
Pierce told The Daily the march was meant to come out of love and support despite the attack against the center.
“The march is happening as a show of love and unity,” Pierce said. “Because when there’s sort of an attack — even a verbal attack — on this community, the way we try to protest and go against it is by coming together as a unit and just showing that we’re strong and proud and not afraid to be Jews.”
Pierce said while the march was to show support for the University’s Jewish community, everyone was welcome to participate.
“I think when people see that there’s strength in any community, they feel more included,” Pierce said. “Anyone can join in and walk with us. We try to be very open, not intimidating, and it’s peaceful. Everyone looks at this group and they see people are having a peaceful display of unity.”
In an interview with The Daily, Business senior Izzie Haymann, vice president of strategic planning for SSI, attended the event and said she joined the march to stand against the antisemitic act that occurred next door the Inter-Cooperative Council house where she lives.
“I actually lived at the (Inter-Cooperative Council) house next door, and it can be very scary when you have to be worried about events like this,” Haymann said. “So I wanted to march today to show that students at the (University) shouldn’t have to be worried about antisemitism and violent acts occurring due to being Jewish.”
Viderman told The Daily the march served as a reminder of the need to support the Jewish community — which only makes up 0.2% of the world population — in the face of rising antisemitic incidents.
“It’s important now, at a time like this, when Jews make up only 0.2% of the world’s population, to come together to show unity,” Viderman said. “So it’s important for us all to come here.”
Viderman also said all communities can find strength in coming together against hate.
“The Jewish community is not the only community that has to deal with hate crimes, but I do hope that other communities can take inspiration from how we deal with hate crimes,” Viderman said. “The response to hatred is not to spread more hatred against other minority groups or any groups in general. The response should be us all coming together. Let’s all be doing unity events, supporting the great country that is the United States of America, coming together under these pretenses on our amazing campus and coming together in unity.”
Daily Staff Reporter Kayla Lugo can be reached at klugo@umich.edu.
