One Year After 7/10: Is Life as a Jew at the University of Denver Any Easier?

October 10^th, 2024

Like many American universities, the University of Denver (DU) has been swept off its feet by the post-7/10 wave of antisemitism. A few days ago marked the one-year anniversary of the October 7^th attacks, and I fear that my university’s administrators have not learned any lessons from the previous year.

For me and many other Jewish students at DU, last year was characterized by constant harassment from our fellow students and faculty; it felt like each day was worse than the last. Many of us lost friends we thought were close, we felt singled out in our classes, and for the last few months of the year, we were afraid for our physical safety when we stepped foot on our campus that had been taken over by an encampment that ended up costing DU $400,000 in damages.

Due to the quantity of reports of antisemitic harassment throughout the encampment’s lifespan, a third-party investigation was conducted and on October 1^st, 2024, Chancellor Jeremy Haefner publicly announced that the investigation had determined that the campus had indeed become a hostile environment for Jews throughout what felt like an extremely long month of May for the Jewish community. Haefner expressed his sympathies for the students affected, and we were provided a link to the investigators’ comprehensive report: EOIX Third-Party Investigations | University of Denver (du.edu). On the same day that Chancellor Haefner sent out his message, he and other university leaders approved an anti-Israel campus event for October 7^th.

This event took place on the anniversary of Hamas’ inhuman attack on Israel. The organizers for the event wrote that the event was intended to “mourn” the “martyrs,” and the event itself included praise for the “resistance.” There was no attempt made by the organizer of this event to hide its antisemitic nature; after all, the stated purpose for the October 7^th terrorist attacks was to indiscriminately kill as many Jews as possible. To choose the one-year anniversary of the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust to honor the perpetrators of said terrorist attack and their goals is to intentionally target our Jewish community, to celebrate the death of Jews, and to advocate for violence against Jews worldwide.

I simply can’t comprehend why DU’s chancellor, provost, and other administrators would approve such an openly and proudly antisemitic event that sought to glorify violence against Jews. I really hoped that DU’s administration would understand that the Jewish community should not and could not be expected to endure another year of violence and hatred from terrorist sympathizers who just five months ago were calling us “k*kes” and threating us with rape and decapitation. After seeing my university return to what seems to me to be a policy of indifference, I worry that my expectations of a senior year free from persecution were unrealistic.

It was this time last year that DU’s administration lost control of campus; if they don’t learn from their mistakes soon, Jewish students, faculty, and staff at the University of Denver will once again be forced to live through the “hostile environment” that was forced upon us by their failure to act.