This campus has already seen action between the university administration and student groups regarding the ongoing war in Israel since classes started on Aug. 26.

As students were acclimating themselves back into routine on the first day of classes, texts were circulating among Jewish students about SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) reserving McKeldin Mall to hold an event on Oct. 7 – the one year anniversary of the day Hamas launched a terror attack on Israel – causing distress within the community.

In a statement released on Aug. 27, UMD Hillel Executive Director Ari Israel told the community that he immediately approached the administration about the situation.

“We apprised them of the emotional load SJP’s callous behavior will bear on our Jewish community, if they protest on the greatest Jewish day of mourning and tragedy since the Holocaust,” Rabbi Israel said.

“Abiding by university protocol does not justify morally bankrupt actions,” said the Jewish Student Union at this university in a since-deleted statement from Aug. 29.

Yossi Lestz, a senior finance major from Dallas, Texas described this action as a jab towards the Jewish community on campus.

“They can have this protest any other day, but to do it on that day while we are all mourning… [they are] just [trying] to get people aggravated and upset,” Lestz said.

On Sep. 1, University President Darryll Pines released a statement canceling the SJP event “out of an abundance of caution,” to assure that any university-sponsored events happening on Oct. 7 would only “promote reflection.”

Later that day, JSU released a statement saying the cancellation of the event “ensures that our physical and psychological safety is protected on this day of grief.”

SJP also sent out a statement two days later announcing that the organization is “deeply angered” that the administration would cancel their event. SJP said Oct. 7 marks “one year since the Zionist entity began its most recent genocidal campaign against the Palestinian people.”

Rabbi Israel met with President Pines before the Sep. 1 statement, and Pines announced his intentions to Israel before the statement was published.

“I was appreciative of the university for understanding that this is a sacred day for the Jewish community, and that SJP would not be sanctioned to dishonor it,” Rabbi Israel said.

Even though McKeldin Mall will not be used, “we will make the best of the situation,” said Yoni Wolf, the operations chair for Terps for Israel – an organization dedicated to “engaging the campus community on matters related to Israel through educational, cultural, and political programming,” according to its website.

The sophomore aerospace engineering major from Silver Spring, Maryland is optimistic the Jewish community on campus will still come together that day and “have a meaningful, very powerful event, regardless of the situation.”

In May, Wolf was hopeful the summer break would “settle a lot of things down” at this university and on college campuses across the country. He also stated protests seem likely to occur because “in the end, it is really a trend. It is a trendy thing to protest Israel.”

“Obviously, things didn’t die down,” Wolf recently said. “But the university has shown that they’re still trying to temper things [down].”

Despite what occurs on this campus, Rabbi Israel’s goals for the school year remain the same – to “continue to build the thriving Jewish life” and to ensure that “Jews are both physically and emotionally safe.”

Regarding how outsiders see what happens on this campus, Israel’s message to them is to “separate the noise from the news” and to “trust [the] students who are on this campus and [who] are resilient.”

The general consensus among the Jewish community at this university is unconcerned that the feel of campus will turn hostile between student groups like GW’s or Georgetown’s campuses. 

Because of that, Lestz assures that Jewish students should be comfortable to display their Jewish pride and “not to back down or be scared to wear a kippah or dress in a certain way.”

Rabbi Israel makes clear that there are people on this campus who are “continuing to create cacophonic noise.” Rabbi Israel also stated that “our job is to inspire Jewish music of joy.”