“Scary,” “fear” and “uncomfortable” were words used frequently by many of the 13 college students from the northern suburbs — including eight from Lake County — talking at a roundtable Monday on antisemitism hosted by U.S. Rep. Brad Schneider, D-Highland Park.
Schneider scheduled the roundtable in light of the significant increase of antisemitic and anti-Israel events taking place on college campuses around the country since the war between Israel and Hamas began on Oct. 7.
“It was pretty scary seeing Nazis walking down the street of our campus,” said Margo Weissman, a University of Wisconsin student from Northbrook.
“I can’t go to the library, sit down and feel comfortable,” Noah Shapiro, a George Washington University student from Deerfield, said.
“I felt a lot of fear, especially from the graduate-student assistants,” said Hannah Dalinka, a University of Michigan student from Northbrook. “They were very outspoken and pro-Palestinian.”
Schneider asked the students about the environment on their campuses, support they received there and offered thoughts of his own at the roundtable, held at the Jewish Community Center in Northbrook, to learn from them before his return to Congress.
Since Oct. 7, the Anti Defamation League has recorded 1,481 antisemitic incidents across the United States and 292 were on college campuses, according to information provided by Schneider’s office. It represents nearly a 300% increase since the same time last year.
Ido Zibelman, a Lake Forest College student from Israel and a member of its soccer team, said he felt a chill from his teammates after Oct. 7 and was a victim of complaints from other students.
“Since Oct. 7, they do not look at me the same way,” Zibelman said. “They look at me differently. There were complaints against me. All false. The school made reports, investigated and dismissed the complaints.”
Lyla Prass, a University of Minnesota student from Deerfield, said when she first got to campus she received a few remarks from people who had never met a Jew. After Oct. 7, it was different.
“I felt antisemitism in my classes,” Prass said. “It made me not want to go to some classes, but I’m glad I did (keep going).”
After listening to each student talk about their feelings and experiences, Schneider said he believes anti-Zionism is antisemitism. He also believes both the Jewish and Palestinian people have a different narrative in their historic claims to the same real estate.
“Anti-Zionism is antisemitism because you’re denying the identity of an entire people,” he said.
As soon as Hamas attacked Israel, killing approximately 1,200 people and taking more than 140 hostages on Oct. 7, Schneider began taking a leadership role among his colleagues in Congress.
When demonstrators supporting Hamas used the phrase “from the river to the sea,” Schneider and three colleagues in the House authored a statement supported by 107 other members pointing out not only the anti-Israel undertones, but the antisemitic ones, too.
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“We reject the use of the phrase ‘from the river to the sea’— a phrase used by many, including Hamas, as a rallying cry for the destruction of the State of Israel and genocide of the Jewish people,” they said in the statement.
Aware of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack against Israel early that morning, Schneider said his first thoughts were about those he knew who might be in the area. He called it terrorism, not a military action.
“The United States stands in solidarity and strength with our ally Israel — with our families and friends — as they are attacked by Hamas,” Schneider said in the statement. “Israel, with the full support of its allies, can and will defend her people, their communities and the country.”
A longtime supporter of Israel and an advocate against antisemitism, Schneider has been an activist since his Northwestern University student days more than four decades ago. It has continued into his time as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
Not long after Schneider earned his engineering degree from Northwestern, he said he worked as an engineer at a factory on a kibbutz in northern Israel. He said he learned and experienced how Israelis live there from day to day.