The opinions expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of The Prowler. 

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting my best friend at UC Berkeley for three days.

Walking on campus, I saw the ripped-down posters of the kidnapped and killed Jewish children and babies. I wondered how someone could be so inconsiderate of innocent lives. 

After the recent events of Oct. 7 in Israel and the rise of antisemitism on college campuses, UC Berkeley is one of the top schools protesting for “free Palestine.”

I asked my friend Chloe, who is a freshman at UC Berkeley, how she was handling the recent protests: “It’s very alarming to see the growing antisemitism on campus, and coming from a high school where I felt very supported for being Jewish, coming here, it was a culture shock, and I don’t feel as secure as I should as a Jewish student,” she said. 

While there is so much hate against the Jewish people at UC Berkeley, there’s also a strong Jewish community. I had the opportunity to attend Shabbat at Hillel. I felt safe and comforted by being around so many Jews who were in the same position as me. We prayed and sang together, comforting one another. 

Every day, I wear a Jewish star necklace, but I decided to take it off during this visit because I feared getting attacked by Berkeley students. I had to hide a part of myself because of the hate my religion faces.

The people posting “free Palestine” and hate against Israel and the Jewish community continue to be uneducated and focused on spreading hate. 

This is not a war between Palestine and Israel. It is a war between Israel and Hamas. Spreading antisemitism will never free Palestine, and people need to learn to understand that.

The recent attacks on Jewish people are horrific, and people need to educate themselves on both sides of the war. 

After seeing an antisemitic post on social media, I decided to message her to suggest she read more news articles to educate and understand the situation between Israel and Palestine fully. She chose to ignore my message and post free Palestine on her story.

People only care about becoming woke and following trends–the current trend is being antisemitic. Jews will always be discriminated against, and there are not enough people standing up for us.