Israel/Hamas war and college campuses - part 2

Last week, I sat down to write a blog post about the Israel/Hamas war and the intense debate on college campuses. The topic weighed heavily on me. Sometimes, I get an idea for a piece of writing, let it percolate for at least a couple of weeks, and then set time aside to work on it. Not this one. This happened quickly. I felt compelled to write about the topic, and two hours later, I had something to share.

This week, it is still feeling urgent, but my thoughts have been jumbled. I tried to create a coherent piece of writing to express my feelings, but all that came out was a bunch of nonsense. 500+ words of nonsense.

Even with all of the chaos swirling around in my brain, I keep coming back to the same place. I am sad that political entities are resorting to violence and destruction to achieve their aims. I feel immense compassion for the Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering.

Instead of sharing my 500+ words of nonsense, I wanted to share a piece that moved me.

As a college counselor who specializes in working with the Jewish community, I pay close attention to New Voices, a magazine by and for Jewish students. I find their work relevant and meaningful both as an individual and as a professional. The piece I would like to share is from there, and it is written by a Jewish student.

This is a time of extreme polarization on college campuses. Infamously, numerous student groups on various campuses have released statements praising Hamas for its pogrom and saying that Israel brought this violence upon itself. These student groups are not just excusing but celebrating the actions of a terrorist organization. This does not leave room for nuance or compassion, and these loud student groups have created a difficult campus environment for Jewish students.

Since nuance is hard to come by these days, especially on college campuses, I was moved to read this New Voices piece that is all about embracing formlessness and uncertainty. The writer, Mx. Mones, talks about the importance of nuance in an abstract sense, but it is clear what they are getting at.

Mones explains that a recent Torah portion took us to a time before creation, when everything was a formless mess (tohu v’vohu in Hebrew). They posit that “this churning complexity of chaos and pain” in Israel/Palestine is bringing us back to tohu v’vohu. While we as humans are inclined to stuff the messy ambiguity “into something structured, clear, and contained,” we need to sit in the uncertainty. Mones says:

“It’s so much more excruciating and confusing to attempt to hold so many things at once. If only anyone, anything, any “side” was one hundred percent just, righteous, and infallible. Tragically, that is a physical impossibility. Justice, righteousness, reality, and grief, are messy, multidimensional things.”

I invite you to read the piece. I found it refreshing, and it gave me hope.

Seeing this student journalist come out in favor of nuance and ambiguity was especially meaningful amidst all of the extreme rhetoric coming from college campuses. It gives me hope that there are spaces on campuses where students can process recent events with an open heart, grieve the loss of life, and feel compassion for Israelis and Palestinians who are suffering.