MIT’s Jewish and Israeli communities shouted their devastation and anger in a rally Wednesday, calling for compassion and support as tensions over the Israel-Hamas war explodes across college campuses in the area.
“We have to make sure no one will forget what’s happening now,” said Israeli MIT senior Dana Rubin. “We should scream it, ‘I stand with Israel.'”
At the rally, held by pro-Israel student groups and organizers at the MIT student center, many students and staff with ties to the country told stories of the deaths and experiences of those they knew and loved in Israel.
Rubin remembered a friend, Liam, she served with who started an organization connecting community, arts and sports and was killed with hundreds at the Nova music festival massacre. Physics Professor Or Hen spoke of a family friend who was murdered in her home with her husband and three young kids, ending lives “full of love, full of promise.”
Postdoc associate Shai Zilberzwige, who returned from Israel two weeks ago, remembered waiting up and watching Whatsapp groups, too afraid to ask what was happening as her Israeli friends and relatives hid and said goodbyes.
“Almost every Israeli has a connection to someone who was killed or injured or kidnapped,” said Zilberzwige. “The very fabric of our society has been torn apart.”
Students, especially those from Israel, spoke to the power of feeling support and community. In the midst of the terror, one student said, being an Israeli in the U.S. has felt “very lonely.”
“I didn’t even know I needed support,” Israeli MIT junior Yuval Mamana said quietly, visibly restraining tears. “I think this was the reason for this, to give us support, and for us to give support for the people there who are still in pain, who are still suffering, who are still in danger. I’m afraid for my loved ones, and I’m worried about them. This is why we’re here today.”
But many also spoke to the need to push back against messages from Palestinian supporters, citing pro-Palestine demonstrations at Cambridge City Hall and statements from student groups like the MIT Coalition Against Apartheid. Many expressed anger at seeing messages like “Free Palestine” around campus.
Some noted the MIT administration has been too protective of free speech or has not been supportive enough of their community.
“I think the letter we saw from MIT was very disappointing,” Rubin said. “An institution like MIT should be brave and say out loud they stand with the right side of humanity after seeing all these horrible videos and actions of terror. … As Biden said, MIT should have said too, ‘We stand with Israel,’ and not whitewash it.”
In an address Tuesday, MIT President Sally Kornbluth said that “brutality perpetrated on innocent civilians in Israel by terrorists from Hamas is horrifying” and “can never be justified.”
The president added she’s heard from Jewish and Palestinian students who feel unsafe and fear being targeted and called any antisemitism and anti-Arab or -Muslim hatred “poisonous to our community.”
“MIT has a moral obligation to resist evil, to call it out when it is blatant,” said student Eitan Moore. “When our sisters are being raped, our babies mutilated, burnt, entire families being wiped out. We must call out this evil.”
