COLLEGE PARK, Md—- Months after the University of Maryland Student Government Association passed a resolution backing the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, Jewish students and Hillel leaders say the debate left frustration and tension that still linger on campus.
At Maryland Hillel, the reaction mixed disappointment with resignation. Dan Kling, the IAct coordinator who organizes Birthright Israel trips and Israel education programs, said the resolution’s wording “overly moralizes an issue,” leaving little room for nuance. He felt the vote was driven more by student-government politics than by campus sentiment. “It’s a shame,” he said, “but I don’t think we felt like it was representative of the community at
large.”
Kling connected the vote to a broader pattern. Over three semesters, he said, similar BDS resolutions had surfaced, pushed through committees with “underhanded tactics” that limited wider participation. By this fall, he added, the SGA was passing “almost an anti-Israel resolution a week,” which made some Jewish students question whether their government was serving the campus or debating “a conflict on the other side of the world.”
He has heard more reports of hostility and said a few Jewish students even resigned from the student government, feeling isolated. Still, he insisted Jewish life remains strong. “BDS can make students feel more isolated,” Kling said, “but Jewish students are going to make their voices heard.”
Attempts at dialogue have continued, he added, though results have been limited. Early on, Rabbi Israel and student organizers met with supporters of the resolution, but Kling said those talks didn’t lead anywhere. For real progress, he believes both sides must stop starting
conversations by declaring their own rightness. “If we are always going to the table demanding you recognize that my side is right,” he said, “we’re probably not going to get places.”
For Uriel Appel, a senior neuroscience major, the vote landed with more irony than anger. The results were announced the night before Passover, and many Jewish students were already focused on preparing for the holiday. “Honestly, nobody in the Jewish community cared,” he said. “We were sitting down that night to talk about a much bigger threat than the SGA.”
Appel saw the timing, holding the vote on a Jewish holiday, as disrespectful. To him, it felt like organizers were “rubbing it in,” scheduling the decision when many Jewish students couldn’t attend. He also questioned the impact of the resolution itself, calling it a symbolic statement with “no enforceable power.”
“The referendum has no real power,” he said. “They passed it, and I don’t care.”
While Appel felt BDS activists had grown bolder, he doubted most students even understood the debate. “Every single BDS resolution over the past few years was completely different,” he said. “People definitely don’t understand what any one of them means.” He also dismissed the SGA’s overall relevance. “I think the SGA this year is a joke. The student body doesn’t take it seriously.”
Despite fatigue and frustration, both students pointed to the same hope—that conversation remains possible if approached differently. As Appel put it, “Come talk to us. Let’s talk about it.”
