2008 Woodie Awards
Students Join Protest Against Iranian President
Noach Lerman
Issue date: 10/8/07 Section: News
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When Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke to the United Nations and Columbia University on Monday, September 24, tens of thousands rallied against him. Roughly thirty YU students in the area interrupted their Sukkot vacations to join the protests at Columbia.
After hearing about Ahmadinejad's planned speeches and the attendant protests, RIETS semikha student Jeremy Stern (YC '07) teamed with Eitan Ben-David, a fellow RIETS student and former Columbia undergraduate, along with Sara Lefkovitz (SCW '08), to organize YU student participation in these rallies. Armed with posters funded by SOY and blessed with the support of RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Schachter and Mashgiach Ruchani Rabbi Yosef Blau, Yeshiva students made their own presence felt by chanting against Ahmadinejad's.
Mr. Stern thought that Yeshiva students had particularly good motivation to stand against Ahmadinejad. He harped on the anti-Israel language that Ahmadinejad frequently uses and the anti-Semitism he has exhibited throughout his tenure. "This is a person who has threatened to wipe out Israel, the Jewish state, and denied the Holocaust. As Jews at Yeshiva, we have a special obligation to show that this is abhorrent."
While the Jewish facet of this protest was plain for Yeshiva students, Stern felt that their role as university students added another layer to the debate surrounding Columbia's invitation of Ahmadinejad. Heated debate over whether Columbia should have invited Ahmadinejad in the first place surrounded the event. Many argued that Ahmadinejad's previous vitriol and continual support for terrorism placed him beyond the pale of reasoned discourse; others maintained that academic freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas warranted his presence.
Mr. Stern, siding with the former position, believes that college students have unique credibility to take such a position. "As students who are in the world of academia, we decided to make it clear that academic ideas of freedom of expression should be subject to scrutiny themselves."
After hearing about Ahmadinejad's planned speeches and the attendant protests, RIETS semikha student Jeremy Stern (YC '07) teamed with Eitan Ben-David, a fellow RIETS student and former Columbia undergraduate, along with Sara Lefkovitz (SCW '08), to organize YU student participation in these rallies. Armed with posters funded by SOY and blessed with the support of RIETS Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Schachter and Mashgiach Ruchani Rabbi Yosef Blau, Yeshiva students made their own presence felt by chanting against Ahmadinejad's.
Mr. Stern thought that Yeshiva students had particularly good motivation to stand against Ahmadinejad. He harped on the anti-Israel language that Ahmadinejad frequently uses and the anti-Semitism he has exhibited throughout his tenure. "This is a person who has threatened to wipe out Israel, the Jewish state, and denied the Holocaust. As Jews at Yeshiva, we have a special obligation to show that this is abhorrent."
While the Jewish facet of this protest was plain for Yeshiva students, Stern felt that their role as university students added another layer to the debate surrounding Columbia's invitation of Ahmadinejad. Heated debate over whether Columbia should have invited Ahmadinejad in the first place surrounded the event. Many argued that Ahmadinejad's previous vitriol and continual support for terrorism placed him beyond the pale of reasoned discourse; others maintained that academic freedom of speech and the free exchange of ideas warranted his presence.
Mr. Stern, siding with the former position, believes that college students have unique credibility to take such a position. "As students who are in the world of academia, we decided to make it clear that academic ideas of freedom of expression should be subject to scrutiny themselves."
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