As I begin my second semester at Emerson College, I’ve been reflecting on my decision to leave the University of Vermont after the spring of 2024.
While my dissatisfaction with UVM’s film department was a factor, the greater issue was that I felt unsafe as an Israeli Jew on campus.
I’ve always faced difficulties with my identity as an Israeli living in the U.S., but the Israel-Hamas war made life harder. I took off my Star of David necklace on Oct. 7 and only began wearing it again the following January.
I stopped calling my parents between classes, fearing how people would react to me speaking Hebrew. Former photography clients stopped hiring me because of my nationality. When the encampment began, I took the long way to my classes, even if the walk from University Heights to Cohen Hall was already long.
In February 2024, a fellow student verbally harassed me in front of our entire class, targeting me for being Israeli. Reporting the incident to UVM’s Office of Equal Opportunity was a tiresome month-long process, only for them to decide the assault wasn’t an act of bias.
I felt dismissed by the department meant to support me. I stopped attending the class for the rest of the semester and worked with the professor to submit assignments privately just so I wouldn’t have to see the student again.
This was not an isolated incident. In 2022, the United States Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights investigated UVM for failing to address antisemitism. Yet the University continued to neglect its Jewish students, even as more antisemitism reports surfaced in 2024.
These events took a toll on me. Sometimes, I cried to my mom on the phone. UVM’s inaction broke my trust—and that of countless others as well.
Leaving UVM was largely about finding my sense of security again. While I am grateful to have found a better environment in Boston, I remain deeply disappointed by UVM’s failure to act.
I hope that UVM’s administration will begin listening to its Jewish students and that my fellow Jews at UVM will continue to fight for a better future at the University.
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