Avital Indig
Israel Hayom, July 10, 2024
“Columbia was one of the first universities to see violent demonstrations, and as it happened, I had a front-row seat. Until then, I had never experienced anything like what I saw.”
Shai Davidai is an Israeli-American social psychologist, senior lecturer at Columbia Business School and symbol of the fight against the new antisemitism in American academia.
Q: Let me begin with a question I ask every Jew I have met since Oct. 7: How are you?
“That may be the hardest question there is. Right now, on Wednesday at 10 a.m., I’m fine. Tonight, a demonstration is planned against Hillel [an organization to strengthen Jewish identity on campuses] at Baruch College, and I am planning to go and support the Jewish students who will be facing the demonstrators, so I guess if you ask me tonight may give a different answer. I usually come back from these events mentally drained, it really hurts to experience these attacks.
But then I attend events with Jewish communities – for example, today I’m supposed to be talking to a congregation from Montreal on a visit here, and yesterday I was in Philadelphia –that fills me and lifts my spirits. We are in a period that is quite simply a rollercoaster, mentally and physically, and apart from everything that’s going on with me personally, I’m obviously connected to what’s happening in Israel.” … [To read the full article, click here]