Dear Dr. Alexander N. Cartwright

I’m writing to you as an Israeli International student at UCF, Representing numerous Jewish and Israeli students here, who feel being discriminated against and ignored.

On October 7, many people around the world woke up to the news about the terrorist attack in Israel, when over 1200 were murdered, more than 250 people were kidnapped, and many more were injured. It was the biggest attack on the Jewish people since the holocaust. We never thought we would be witness such a thing ever again.

Since October 7, the climate around the world has changed, including at UCF. Jewish students feel scared and unsafe on our campus. Jewish and Pro-Israeli students experience discrimination, double standards and even antisemitism by the university. One example of such discrimination and double standards happened on November 1, when a group of Jewish and pro-Israelis students hung up posters around campus. Those posters contained pictures, names and some Information about the people that were kidnapped by Hamas. There was no incitement content or hateful content on those posters. The very next day, UCFPD opened a criminal investigation against those students and tore down their posters. Since then, Pro-Palestinians have hung up posters multiple times, with contents that incite against Jews and Israel. One of the posters they printed, looked like “hiring” posters of Lockheed Martins, but they presented the company and Israel as genocidal. No investigation were opened against them, for any of those posters. This is only one example of discrimination and double standards against Jewish students by the university.

Many more incidents occurred since October 7. Days after the terrorist attack, PSA (Palestinians students association), opened a table for donation for Gaza, and hanged a banner saying: “It’s not terror, its resistance”. Same PSA also shared a video, saying there is no such thing as innocent Israelis. How is a UCF RSO allowed to post such things without any consequences?

On October 13 and November 1, pro-palestinian rallies and marches were held on campus. The participants were shouting “From the river to the sea”, “if it's not ours, shut it down”. Those statements call for the destruction of Israel and killing Jews. How are Jewish students supposed to feel safe on campus when they walk out of class and hearing those things?

On November 7, YDSA held a public general body meeting. At this meeting, they openly supported Hamas, a recognized terrorist organization. We have a recording of one of the speakers at this event. We gave the recording to multiple people at UCF, and nothing happened. How is it that an RSO at this university publicly support a terrorist organization, and the University does NOTHING about it? A terrorist organization that wants to kill all the Jews around the world! Such support create hostile environment for Jewish students. It gives us all the reasons to feel unsafe around campus.

More incidents happened: a Jewish student was wrapping tefillin, a sacred religious artifact, and someone called him “Dirty Jew”. Another student walked around campus and was called “Jew”. Pro-Palestinians notes were found in the women’s bathroom, and many more incidents. I attached to this letter a list of many of them.

There is one more incident that I want to talk about. On November 26, PSA posted a story that should have disturbed anyone who saw it. The story stated “Only thing keep muslim sane is the promise Allah gave us in the Quran about the destruction of Israel and I hope to be alive to witness it…”. How does a university RSO post something like it, and the university does nothing? The very next day, PSA posted pictures from their meeting with you. When we asked for a meeting, we never got a reply. I know you met with Hillel a few days after that. As much as we appreciate Hillel’s work, Hillel doesn’t represent the Israeli students on campus. We still want to meet with you, and hope to get this meeting. 

Lots of those examples are violations of title VI, which state “No person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance”. The university is failing to protect the Jewish students, who are being ignored repeatedly by the university, and thus violating title VI. We demand that the university stop ignoring its Jewish students, which are 10% of the students. We also demand a meeting with you, Mr President. We demand the university will take actions against those who call for the destruction of Israel, people who support a genocide against jews and against those who support a terrorist organization.

The university supposed to be a safe place for everyone. Help us to make it happen.

Regards, 

Ido Levin, Jewish and Israeli students, and members of the Jewish community.