I cannot fathom this level of anti-Jewish hate and cruelty on this, of all days. I have no counter to this, there is no context that renders it slightly explicable.

REPORTER'S NOTEBOOK 'IT’S DISTASTEFUL. IT’S HATEFUL. IT’S MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE'

Pro-Palestinian activists go loud at Columbia as students mark year since Oct. 7 attack

Israel supporters cap a difficult year amid raucous demonstrations by rival anti-Israel groups at NYC school that has been a hotspot since Hamas onslaught sparked the ongoing war

NEW YORK — Standing sentinel on the grassy lawn of Columbia University’s main quad were over a dozen 10-foot-tall milk cartons, each bearing the face of an American citizen kidnapped by Hamas terrorists exactly one year after the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Previously shown outside the Democratic National Convention, “Memory Lane: October 7th Art Installation,” was meant to be a contemplative experience, as many of the 251 people kidnapped and 1,200 murdered in southern Israel during the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre include family members and friends of students.

“This day is about the victims, the hostages. It’s about the families. It’s not about us. We can only show up and be proud to be Jewish,” said sophomore Noah Lederman.

Wearing an “AE Pi Stands With Israel” t-shirt and Israeli flag, Lederman said the day is particularly difficult given the outward displays of anti-Israel sentiment and antisemitism.

“This is a day of mourning. It’s distasteful. It’s hateful. It’s morally reprehensible. To see such a display of hate today, it’s morally corrupt. I can’t fathom the kind of person who does this. It’s not about free speech, this is a celebration of terror,” said Lederman, who was physically harassed by a pro-Palestinian student at a demonstration last year.

Abigail Fixel, a junior and president of the Columbia University chapter of Jewish on Campus, said she’s still processing the installation and the counterprotest.

“I stood there for almost an hour with my jaw on the floor. To see my peers, some of whom I’ve had intense discussions with this past year, walking around and chanting, is unbelievable. I just don’t see how that can anything but a celebration of what happened on October 7,” Fixel said.

Wearing an Israeli flag like a cape, Kfir Slominski,

whose family lives in northern Israel, said he’s been shocked and bewildered by the levels of antisemitism here.

“To see the Hamas flag, the Hezbollah flag, the Iranian flag. It’s not a game, it can lead to violence,” he said.

Earlier this morning, Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD), an unrecognized campus group, staged a walkout as part of a citywide “Students Flood NYC for Gaza” initiative. The demonstration was organized by Within Our Lifetime, an openly pro-Hamas group that calls for Israel’s destruction.

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The demonstrators’ chanting was so loud that even when the teaching assistant in Lederman’s classroom shut the windows, the chants could still be heard, he said.

Since October 7, CUAD has openly supported organizations such as Hamas and Hezbollah — recognized as terror groups by the US and other governments — and glorified terror attacks. “On October 1, in a significant act of resistance, a shooting took place in Tel Aviv, targeting Israeli security forces and settlers. This bold attack comes amid the ongoing escalation of violence in the region,” reads a CUAD Substack post referring to a shooting and stabbing attack in a Jaffa light rail station that killed seven people and wounded 17.

The victims included a Greek-Jewish architecture student, a mother who was shot while protecting her 9-month-old baby, a dancer, and a comic book artist.

The anniversary comes as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has reported more than 10,000 antisemitic incidents in the United States since the October 7 Hamas atrocities in Israel. Of those, at least 1,200 occurred on college campuses, compared with 200 incidents during the same period a year before. This is the highest number of incidents ever recorded in any single-year period since the ADL started tracking in 1979.

“Today, we mourn the victims of the October 7 Hamas attack in Israel, marking one year since the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. From that day on, Jewish Americans haven’t had a single moment of respite,” said ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt. “Instead, we’ve faced a shocking number of antisemitic threats and experienced calls for more violence against Israelis and Jews everywhere.”

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In the last month, anti-Israel protesters vandalized the Alma Mater statue, an important campus landmark, and staged an unauthorized sit-in inside the lobby of the School of International and Public Affairs.