Kathy Manning: “For the purpose of closing. For the past 2 weeks, I have been inundated with phone calls, emails, and texts from frantic…”

“For the purpose of closing. For the past 2 weeks, I have been inundated with phone calls, emails, and texts from frantic parents and terrified students who have experienced online hate, taunting from their fellow students, exposure to swastikas on their dorm walls and doors, chants of death to Israel and Jews, and seeing those words chalked on campus walkways. These students sat through anti-Israel and anti-Semitism rants by professors who were supposed to be teaching them, not spreading anti-Israel propaganda. Rallies were held by students and others who are ignorant about the history of the Middle East and ignorant about the 2,000-year history of anti-Semitism. Our education system is failing us, and we are seeing it come alive on our college campuses. We are seeing that failure at some of the most illustrious institutions in my State of North Carolina and at my own alma mater in Cambridge, Massachusetts. We are seeing the failure and inability of university presidents and university chancellors--people who are able to take the simple step of condemning terrorism against Israel and of condemning the gruesome attack by Hamas on innocent Israeli civilians and the taking of hostages--to simply call out and condemn anti-Semitism. They do this under the guise of free speech.…”