From Vietnam to South Africa to hostages in Iran to today’s campus unrest

I am proud to observe that a significant number of the students in all of these movements are, like me, Jewish. This is because Judaism is a religion that, at its best, values justice for all people, and because having been oppressed themselves, many Jews identify with the oppression of others. Tragically, Israel has become a state that does not value the rights or lives of the Palestinian people.

Susan Jhirad

Medford

The writer earned a doctoral degree from Harvard in 1972.

Reflecting on the Gaza protests erupting across the country, I am reminded of my own participation in the 1970s in a student occupation of an administration building at Tufts University, with the aim of ending its investments in companies with links to South Africa’s apartheid regime. We were respectful, did not hide behind masks, and did not vandalize property, and we communicated firmly, until we had arranged negotiations with the school’s president, Jean Mayer. My involvement in civil disobedience, which resulted several times in my arrest — and once, two weeks of detention — followed months of training in the practice of nonviolent action. If a cause was just, we believed our methods should reflect that. In the 1970s we derived inspiration from the civil rights and antiwar movements of the previous decade and the moral leadership of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

The dangerous admixture of the current campus demonstrations includes both bona fide peace activists and hate-filled voices espousing antisemitism and the elimination of Israel. This movement, coming into conflict with law enforcement and without a unifying nonviolent ethos or leadership, will end in tragedy. The intimidation many Jewish students feel is also a measure of the indiscipline of many demonstrators.

Most Americans, including many well-meaning protesters, agree that the Israeli hostages must be released, that Gazan civilians must be protected from harm and provided with humanitarian relief, and that a way must be sought that will result in a just and lasting peace for Israel and Palestine. If we are to “study war no more,” as Pete Seeger taught us during another difficult time in our history, our means should match our ends.

If the progressive movement loses its moral compass over Gaza, it will lose a presidential election in the bargain and with it American democracy. The paradox of progressivism is that its greatest strength — its diversity — is also its greatest weakness.

Eric Radack

Santa Fe

The post-Oct. 7 demonstrators are more like the Jan. 6, 2021, rioters than the Vietnam War protesters. They live in an alternate reality and won’t try to deal with facts. These schools need to provide honest, unbiased education on this issue or we are doomed.

Brett Feldman

Franklin

Dear Northeastern University,

I can no longer wear your name across my chest with pride.

I am ashamed that you promote student empowerment and leadership, then handcuff those students for peacefully raising their voices for justice and accountability.

I am ashamed that you are to blame for the arrests of about 100 protesters, fellow students of mine who you were supposed to support and protect.

How dare you not apologize to the peaceful protesters for suggesting that shouts of “virulent antisemitic slurs” necessarily came from our demonstration.

How dare you dismiss our demands to call for an immediate cease-fire, to divest from your connections with Israeli institutions and US military contractors, and to ensure transparency regarding investments and endowments.

Your motto Lux, Veritas, Virtus, meaning light, truth, and courage, does not represent who you are. The ones who embody these words are the students, the organizers, the leaders at our encampment who you view as a threat. It is the students who embody these values, who are putting their bodies on the line for the people of Palestine and their freedom to exist, in spite of you.

Grace Sanford

Uncasville, Conn.

The writer is a member of the Northeastern class of 2026. She is also a campaign intern with Massachusetts Peace Action, which previously posted a version of this letter on its website.

On Nov. 4, 1979, Iranian students stormed the American embassy and took more than 50 American diplomats and embassy employees hostage. Until their release on Jan. 20, 1981, Ted Koppel began his nightly ABC news show by intoning the number of days the hostages had been held. He made it impossible for Americans to forget that our people were captive. Contrast the coverage of the Iran hostage crisis with the blasé media attitude to the hostages who have been held by Hamas for 211 days and counting as of May 4. Not even the fact that five of the hostages are American citizens — Edan Alexander, Omer Neutra, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Sagui Dekel-Chen, and Keith Siegel — can rouse the media from its lethargy on the subject.

Perhaps a daily reminder of those in captivity might educate our impassioned young college protesters of the true nature of Israel’s, and America’s, enemies.

Ken Margolin

Newton

I appreciate the Globe’s thorough coverage of ongoing campus protests. As has been noted, the protest language can feel threatening to Jewish students. Therefore, I issue a simple call:

Protesters should pointedly and clearly distinguish that they are pro-Palestinian, not pro-Hamas.

Essential at every protest is to begin with something like this: “The histories of Palestinians and Jews are painful and complex. That said, we here know these things to be true: The atrocities Hamas committed on Oct. 7, 2023, were barbaric and wrong. Full stop. And the Israeli response is disproportionate and inhumane. It furthers Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s stance against the necessary two-state solution.

“We are here to call for all hostages to be released, a cease-fire, and ________ (whatever the students demand from the university).”

Laurie Sherman

Exeter, N.H.