Pomona Promises to Welcome All Students. Jews Too?

Pomona's Clark dorms.

Three years ago, more than a thousand civilians were murdered on October 7th. Two years ago, protesters stormed Pomona’s Carnegie Hall and spraypainted “intifada” across its walls. One year ago, students from the Claremont Colleges disrupted a memorial for the lives lost in the attacks, shouting “Zionists not welcome here.”

This year, many Jewish students anticipated October 7th with dread. I am one of them.

Growing up in the Bay Area, social justice organizing defined how I was raised. After October 7, 2023, I watched as some of my non-Jewish peers in the social justice movement sided with those who murdered more than a thousand civilians. Some of the most powerful voices against sexual abuse were silent when Hamas members sexually assaulted dozens of Jewish women.

I hoped this would be behind me in college. Diversity, equity and inclusion are core tenets of Pomona’s mission. “The College places great importance on providing resources and energy toward enhancing a campus culture in which all students, faculty, and staff feel welcome and supported,” promises Pomona’s website.

Then, last year, I saw the “Pomona College Approved for Posting” label on flyers that described those that committed the murders as “martyrs.” It promoted an event on October 7th in their honor. I have not felt welcome on campus since.

Had there been a similar poster celebrating “the police officers who protected our streets in May of 2020 after the murder of George Floyd,” students would have been outraged. Last spring there was a massive student response to alleged racism at Pomona. Such a response is the standard when any group sounds the alarm and says they are facing discrimination on our campus. But when Jewish students raised concerns of anti-semitism there was no serious expression of solidarity from the student body.

I wish my experiences were unique, but that’s not the case.

At McConnell dining hall, a visible Star of David necklace led to one Jewish student being followed and repeatedly asked where they were “really from," a Pitzer student told me. When the student refused to answer, they were heckled with “free Palestine!” Had such a question been posed to any other minority student, I am confident there would have been an outcry.

Another Pitzer student recounted to me that on Oct. 12, 2023—five days after the attacks and before the Israeli ground invasion of Gaza began—a guest speaker in one of her classes repeated the slogan “from the river to the sea,”  advocating Palestinian control of everything from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River. When the student voiced her concerns, her fellow students ostracized her and began referring to her as a “Zio.”

“He was probably a Zionist, too,” a woman at Mallott was overheard complaining by a friend of hers when listing the bad traits of a recent ex. We can and should debate the merits of Zionism, but the word has become a generic insult at the Claremont Colleges. Too often, it is just a stand-in for “Jew.” 

This year, organizations that stand with the Palestinian cause are again celebrating terrorism. One event features a speaker who has openly stated “I'm with Hamas, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad.” Despite complaints by Jewish students, the organizers reposted the announcements for the events and claimed “the Zionist entity” tried to shut them down.

Pomona students can’t change the horrors of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But we can all do more to make our peers feel respected. The student body rallied around black students last year, advocated for a dining hall worker that was allegedly fired unfairly, and spread awareness about ICE to protect international students. College activists should do the same for Jewish students that feel unsafe today.