I left the college for a multitude of reasons, but the main one was the way the Emerson community handled the past year. Not the administration, the Emerson community. 

Since Oct. 7, I primarily feared the anti-Semitic demonstrations happening in the city of Boston, but it wasn’t long before the actual fear was of being on the Emerson campus itself. Due to rhetoric being thrown around and the encampment raising tensions, it was impossible to exist as a Jewish person at Emerson. There has always been anti-Semitism at Emerson, but the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has seen a 477% increase in anti-Semitic incidents across college campuses this past year. This is why Jewish people are speaking up more now than ever.

There became no room for both Zionism and anti-Zionism to exist due to conflating the belief in Zionism to the desire to eliminate Palestinians. There will always be Zionists and anti-Zionists, but those opposed to the existence of Israel have framed it as an attack toward those who still have ties to it. You can see it in every “dialogue” that has happened over the past year at Emerson; you can see it in every comment section of the Beacon articles relating to the war. 

It was scary to exist as a Zionist-Jewish person at the college. I felt like I had to constantly look over my shoulder to be careful of what I said or what was being said around me. I didn’t want to be attacked for my views. I don’t believe in the elimination of the Palestinian people, and I also believe in the right for Israel to exist. I believe in the two-state solution as many people do, but there hasn’t been room for that discussion, has there? 

The college’s administration has an impossible job right now. They’re doing their best to make Emerson a comfortable and safe place for everyone, and that safe place has not been primarily destroyed by those in administration, but the Emerson community itself.

The safe place has been destroyed by the people in the Emerson community who seek to call anonymous posters “cowards” or the people who seek to remove anything or anyone that may have a tie to Israel. It’s been destroyed by people who believe there is one viewpoint in this situation that is correct. 

Everyone claims to fight for the right of people to exist, and it’s a noble cause, but by focusing that cause only on those across the seas, you fail to acknowledge the damage you’re doing to your own community. 

Tess Wilensky is a former staff member of Emerson College.