RESOURCES:
Vision of Humanity: "Gaza conflict leads to rise in antisemitism and Islamophobia"
Vision of Humanity: Global Terrorism Index 2025 Report
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Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. I'm Caroline MacGregor, and my guest today is Rabbi Yitz Pierce. He's the program director at the Jewish Resource Center in Ann Arbor. The scene this past weekend of an antisemitic attack: security cameras caught a young man attempting to break into this Jewish community building. He was actually seen kicking the door, and this is just outside the University of Michigan. Rabbi Yitz, first of all, thank you for joining me today!
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Thank you for having me on!
Caroline MacGregor: Tell me more about what occurred in this incident on Sunday.
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Sure. So, I got a notification on my phone that there was some unusual activity at the front of the building at a unusual hour. I went back and looked at the security footage, and I saw a group of people kind of gathered on the sidewalk, which is common. It's a very public area, and lots of people walk by. And one person then leaves the group running as someone from the group shouts, "Jake!" or "Jay! "Jake, don't do it!" or "Jake, stop!" And this person runs across the front lawn, runs up to the building, hikes up his pants and gives the front door a very nice kick as trying to break it in. He doesn't succeed. And then, he turns around and runs away. And you can hear him on camera screaming quite, quite loudly, "F the Jews! F Israel!" And he's just repeating this over and over again.
Caroline MacGregor: In September of this year, a 19-year-old student was walking down the street. He was asked if he was Jewish. And apparently when he responded yes, he was attacked by a group of males--assaulted. They fled the area on foot. In March, several high-ranking U of M officials were the victims of vandalism at their homes or places of work. I know that messages like "Free Palestine" and other pro-Palestinian messages were on University of Michigan Provost Lori McCauley's home. An object thrown through the window. Subsequently, the University of Michigan assigned 24-hour security to its regents and executive officers during this time. Since the October 7th, 2023 surprise attack by Hamas on Israel that led to 1,200 deaths and the kidnapping of about 250 individuals, we all know, of course, about Israel's subsequent war on Hamas in Gaza that's left tens of thousands of Palestinians dead or injured, this is clearly a situation that has left the people in Gaza and Israel reeling. But as protests continue over this bloodshed in the Middle East, in particular the war in Gaza, right now, of course, they're in a ceasefire.
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Yes. Thank God they are on a ceasefire. And I do hope that that ceasefire holds, and that peace can reign in the region again.
Caroline MacGregor: I'm just building up to what's prompting all these attacks. I believe the Global Terrorism Index has shown a sharp increase in anti-Semitism and Islamophobia since October 7th, 2023, when this attack by Hamas occurred. There's a report by the Council on American Islamic Relations, known as CAIR, which identified an unprecedented number of hate crimes and bigotry in the West. With all that's happened, and it's here, it's affecting us in Washtenaw County, in Ann Arbor, Jewish people are very on edge. This is hugely impacting Jewish students. People are affected in their own ways. How concerned are you right now, considering we're talking about anti-Semitic attacks specifically right now?
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: There's definitely a good reason to be concerned. I think we have seen the move from rhetoric into action in many, many cities. I mean, there was a horrible attack in England during the high holidays that left multiple congregants dead. And England is also one of the hotspots where a tremendous amount of pro-Palestinian rallies have been going on. And I think we would be lying and deluding ourselves if we really believed that peaceful protests--quote-unquote--don't lead to violent action. In my opinion, a lot of these protesters are not peaceful people. Many of them have been arrested. They resist arrest. I've seen a lot of this on campus with fighting the police. It's anything but a peaceful protest movement. And I think, as a result of that, you find that that lack of peacefulness plays out in the actions taken against people--the Jewish people--worldwide. So, there is a big reason to be concerned, which is really why, in this incident that we have the video from, although it was an attack only on a building and although it's only words, that's only one step away from someone activating themselves in a worse way and trying to take this out on a person.
Caroline MacGregor: With the surge in anti-Semitism that we are seeing in America today, it's clearly threatening the Jewish community and therefore democracy. How is this affecting all of us as a society? And what is it going to take to eradicate this hate?
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: That's a huge question! You know, when it comes down to this hate, we have to understand what part of the hate is just innate human bias that some people just don't like other people, that is a possibility. But there's also, I think, a strong influence from outside actors trying to get people to create dissent for whatever political reasons or geopolitical reasons that is coming from. But I would just point out that the protests against Israel, they didn't start two months into the war with Gaza. They didn't start after images were coming out or numbers were coming out, but they happened October 8th. That's the day after Israel was attacked. There was a day where the world said, "Oh my God!" And then, immediately, there's protests in the streets in New York against the Jewish nation. That was very, very eye-opening to me. And I realized that it's impossible to get a large-scale protest to happen in a day. This was planned beforehand. There's money going into it. We can look at the source of that money. And there are major groups funding this dissent and discord amongst people to attack the Jewish nation.
Caroline MacGregor: I know that we spoke very briefly on the phone about how social media is influencing, in particular, young people with regards to their perception of Jewish people and ultimately contributing to these anti-Semitic incidents. Tell me a little bit about this, if you would.
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Yeah. The influence of social media on developing opinions, especially in the younger generation, is tremendous. It's huge. Much of the quote-unquote news that the young people are getting is from TikTok. It's from different reels they're seeing on Instagram. And those algorithms are designed to provide to the user exactly what they want to see. So, if a dissenting opinion is going to not get a view from them, then that's not going to show up in their feed afterwards. So, once a person locks himself into one of the two echo chambers, whether it's the pro-Israel camp or the pro-Palestinian camp, almost all the information you're going to see after that is going just support that same idea. And what that causes is a lack of critical thinking or a lack of ability to see that potentially what you are viewing as propaganda. Because there's nothing to counterbalance what's coming through on your feed. And if you take that as being absolute truth, I can understand how people would be extremely upset and angry and believe that Israel is apartheid and genocide. And that's all their feed is showing them. When on the other side, I think there's a wealth of information that says that's not the case, but they're not being exposed to it.
Caroline MacGregor: Through all of these incidents locally, Jewish students must be feeling very insecure or, at least, they're not feeling safe on campus. How is your organization and other Jewish organizations helping to support them through this time?
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: That's a great question! So, there is definitely an unnerving in this that's on campus, particularly when there's loud protesters out there who have a tendency to move towards very disruptive behavior, which can be frightening. Really, the role of a campus organization or any sort of community organization is to ensure that the community is not cowering in fear. Because when people make an attack or they make protests, part of the hope is that they're going to break the will of the other side. And if you let that happen, then people can sink into actual desperation and real fear. So, what we try to do is normalize life on campus to kind of float above the rifts going on and to show the Jewish community at the University of Michigan that they have a lot of support. There's tons of eyes on the ground. People are looking out for each other. There is a lot camaraderie. And we really try to combat what has turned into a narrative of extreme hate and violence into a narrative where we look at it as way of further gaining strength in our community and working on our own happiness and seeing that life can be good and bright, even when there's people out there that hate you and would like to see harm.
Caroline MacGregor: Are you happy with how U of M's administration is handling or responding to these hate crimes so far?
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Yeah. So, this has been going on for several years now, particularly post-October 7th. And I think the response of universities across the nation was a little bit flat-footed. I don't think anyone knew exactly what to do. And that includes the U of M. But I would say that the U of M made a big 180 and came out very, very strong in support of the minority groups on campus to really try to create an environment that's safe and designed for learning. And it took a while. But what happened in the past is in the past, and I think that the lessons have been learned. We have a very close relationship with many of the regents and the deans of students. And they ask us for our input. They're constantly checking in on security situations. And I think they're doing a good job. If I could just add, the students, particularly at the University of Michigan, are extremely, extremely strong. And we're very proud of them for who they are, for standing up for what they believe in and for not cowering and not to what could have been easily something to fold and sort of slink into the shadows. And one of the phrases that we came up with through the past couple of years is that we're fighting everything with Jewish joy. And that really has been our motto that we try to stay happy, stay positive. And despite everything that's going on, I think that's a place of strength that people can tap into. And I'm very proud of them and hope we continue that tradition.
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU. My guest today has been Rabbi Yitz Pierce. He's the program director at the Jewish Resource Center in Ann Arbor. Thank you for joining me today!
Rabbi Yitz Pierce: Thank you so much! Have a great day!
Caroline MacGregor: This is 89.1 WEMU-FM Ypsilanti.
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