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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Aidan Herzlinger, Student and Vice President of Hillel at Baruch College
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Aidan Herzlinger, a sophomore at Baruch College and vice president of Hillel, testifies about antisemitic incidents on campus and the administration's failure to protect Jewish students. He describes a specific event where protesters harassed and intimidated Jewish students at an off-campus dinner, and calls for CUNY to implement Judge Lippman's recommendations to address antisemitism.
- Herzlinger recounts a September 3rd incident where protesters from Students for Justice in Palestine and the Middle East North African Society harassed Jewish students at an off-campus Hillel dinner.
- He mentions being personally labeled a "genocide enabler" on social media by Baruch SJP for speaking out against the antisemitic protest.
- Herzlinger emphasizes the importance of implementing Judge Lippman's recommendation to consider the relationship between Israel and the Jewish people when adjudicating antisemitism cases.
Aidan Herzlinger
3:16:17
My name is Aidan Herslinger.
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I am a sophomore at Baruch College and the vice president of our Hillel.
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I love Baruch College, but that doesn't excuse the administration's failure to properly protect its Jewish students.
3:16:29
On September 3rd, Baruch Students For Justice in Palestine, which is not a chartered club, in collaboration with Baruch Middle East North African Society, which is a chartered club, held a protest in the Clivner Field Plaza between the main building and library.
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That same night, Hillel had a new student dinner at an off campus kosher restaurant.
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The same protesters that began their protest at the plaza went to the restaurant and stood at the entrance and proceeded to harass, intimidate, and threaten Jewish students.
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The protesters were heard shouting, all Zionists are racist, as well as threats like you and going home tonight.
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A protester even shouted at a visibly Jewish couple, quote, where's Hirsch, you ugly ass bitch?
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Go bring them home, end quote, in regards to Hirsch Goldberg Polin, who was murdered by Hamas a few days earlier.
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Additionally, one of our Hillel staff members was assaulted by a pro by a protester.
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What makes the situation even more jarring is that the Hillel Instagram was stalked, and these protesters found out about the dinner through one of our posts and planned in advance to follow our students there.
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And I wanna emphasize that this was a premeditated protest.
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On September 11th, Baruch SJP posted to their Instagram page a response to the Baruch administration's condemnation of that protest.
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In their response, they publicly labeled me a genocide enabler stating that it was, quote, an off campus event that was hosting for genocide enablers like Ilya Brautman, who's the executive director of our Hillel, Maya Homa and Sasha Ravnaya Ravnaya, who are both Hillel staff members, and Aidan Herslinger, end quote.
3:17:55
They publicly labeled me a genocide enabler simply because I called out the antisemitism of their protest.
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In judge Libman's report, one of the recommendations that is made is to increase consideration of the relationship between Israel and the Jewish people when adjudicating whether conduct constitutes antisemitism.
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Merely abiding by this recommendation could have presented could have prevented the incidents I just spoke about altogether.
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I am not here to demand special treatment.
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All I ask is that Jewish students are treated with the same respect and dignity that any other student would be granted.
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The recommendations that judge Littman states in the report can be achieved within legal boundaries, but CUNY and its administration should act on them instead of stand by and do nothing.
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If they choose to do nothing, let me remind them that there are no innocent bystanders in the fight against hate.
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If you stand by and do nothing, you are complicit.