Skakel McCooey, Senior Photographer

Last Thursday night, a group from the Jewish community in Monsey, New York visited the back terrace of Yale’s Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life with music and food. 

The group is comprised of volunteers from the Monsey Jewish community who have been visiting college campuses every Thursday night to support Jewish students and bring strength during what group members called a difficult time for them. 

The group, which consists of Tova Feldheim, Michael Greenfield, Yitzy Deutsch and others from around the suburban community of Monsey, formed shortly after a Cornell University student posted online threats to “shoot up” the university’s kosher dining hall in October. The group then made their first stop at Cornell in early November. Since then, they have visited Binghamton University, the University of Pennsylvania and, most recently, Yale.  

“As a community, we want to support our Jewish brothers and sisters on college campuses,” Feldheim told the News. “Many of them are far from home from their families. With what they’ve been experiencing, we want to fight hate by spreading love. We’re here to show our love.”

Between Oct. 7 and Oct. 23, the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism reported a 388-percent increase in antisemitic incidents reported nationwide compared to that same time period last year. In late October, the Cornell student — who has since been charged with posting threats using interstate communications — issued a series of online threats, including to shoot, stab and slit the throats of Jewish students. In early November, the Biden Administration noted an “alarming rise” in the number of antisemitic and Islamophobic incidents occurring at schools and on college campuses. The Council on American-Islamic Relations wrote in a report that the organization received 216 percent more reports of Islamophobia and anti-Arab incidents between Oct. 7 and Nov. 4 than it did last year. 

Each Thursday night, the Monsey group shows up to a different campus with a barbecue and their guitars. They invite others to participate in a ‘kumzits’ — a Yiddish word meaning ‘come and sit’ — to close out a long week and start getting into the mood of Shabbat. 

Feldheim said that the group was formed of friends who decided that they wanted to show their love for students who have experienced acts of hate on college campuses. 

“All these organizations are helping families in Israel, but what about here in America and how can we support people here?” she noted.

The event was attended by a range of people from across Yale’s Jewish community, including undergraduates and graduate students.

Several students in attendance told the News that they found the event to be uplifting and supportive. 

“It was empowering to have support. They care about you.” said attendee Samuel Rosenberg ’26. 

Alex Schapiro ’26 wrote to the News that it was “great to bring some simcha,” using the Hebrew word for joy to describe his time at the event. 

In addition to supporting American college students, Feldheim also expressed hope that all of the people whom Hamas took as hostages during its Oct. 7 terror attack on Israel will be released. 

“We are a bunch of entrepreneurs, accountants, lawyers, doctors, programmers, an amazing group of friends, who want to do good for others,” Ethan Pfeiffer, another organizer, wrote to the News. 

The group members told the News they hope to visit the State University of New York at New Paltz next.