After toiling for months, putting our homework on the backburner and losing sleep over this resolution, Students Supporting Israel at IU would like to applaud the Indiana University Student Association for voting in favor of condemning anti-Semitism, but more importantly for acting in the interest of our Jewish community here on campus.
At a time when anti-Semitism is at an all-time high for our peers on other campuses, our student congress condemns such actions and has acted toward creating an even more inclusive environment for minority groups on campus.
Over the past school year, seeing what our friends go through on other campuses, we realized how lucky we are at IU.
When we came back this semester, we were inspired to do something for our community. Although we have a mostly inclusive campus, Indiana is not immune from the evils of anti-Semitism.
For example, In March of this year, 30 men marched from the sample gates holding signs and wearing Nazi memorabilia. During Hanukkah on December of 2010, someone took eight Hebrew texts from the Wells Library and placed them in eight different bathrooms. They then proceeded to throw them in the toilet and urinate on them. There are also many unreported incidents of swastikas being drawn all around campus, mainly in dorms.
Our resolution addresses anti-Semitism as a local, national and global phenomenon that is antithetical to the values of the IU community, and thus aligns IUSA with the U.S. Department of State’s definition of anti-Semitism and its implications.
In addition, our resolution makes strides for many on our campus. It guarantees that our future IUSA leaders will be trained in diversity, which was never required before. It is up to our IUSA leaders to know and understand the issues that affect its constituents, and this resolution furthers that commitment. It strives to make IUSA better liaisons to our entire campus by supporting any and all efforts against hate.
We are proud to leave our legacy on this campus and protect future generations of Jewish students at IU, but also inspire other minority groups to do the same. Our current society is reactive and not proactive. We as students need to take a stand and be proactive, which is what our resolution strives to do. We would like to encourage every group on campus to be proactive and not wait for something tragic to happen to make a difference.
We, as Jewish students, took a proactive stance and want to inspire others to do the same.
But of course, none of this could have happened without the organizations that have trained us to be the strong leaders that we are. Special thanks to StandWithUs, Hasbara, Hillel, Aish Indiana and Chabad for supporting us along the way. And most of all, we would like to thank our IUSA allies, Jason Shader Smith, Nate Meyers and Andrew Klepner for standing up for us in Congress. Without them, this resolution would not have had the same amount of support.
Students Supporting Israel at IU
