By: Bianca Kermani, 4th year student at UCSD
With my undergraduate education coming to a close in the spring, I felt compelled to pursue the activism that so many universities had been embarking on for their own communities. I decided to start my own process of presenting the IHRA definition to our student government as the recognized definition of antisemitism at UC San Diego. This is my story about how, with the help of Hillel of San Diego, our San Diego Jewish community, on-campus family, and my incredible co-sponsor, Sivan Barashy, we achieved an important milestone for all students at UC San Diego.
It started with the first of nearly one hundred Zoom calls: Hillel of San Diego’s UCSD Campus Director Lisa Motenko, Chabad at UCSD Rabbi Yehuda Hadjadj, SAJE Rabbi Eric Ertel, and AEPi board members congregated on the virtual platform, immediately agreeing to support. Their support cascaded into meetings with Jewish community organizations across San Diego, professors and faculty on campus, student organizations, sororities, fraternities, college council members, and more. Week after week, as new connections were made and more Zoom calls were scheduled, I realized that activism is not to be found on the senate floor. The true activism of this process is the hundreds of conversations I held to engage my peers and university administrators in a dialogue about the existence of antisemitism on our campus and society at large. Many of the students who I spoke with were unaware of the reality that their Jewish peers face regularly. Professors were appalled at the lack of administrative infrastructure to condemn antisemitism. And, of course, the San Diego Jewish community was tremendously supportive of our endeavors.
The grassroots, student-run spearheading of the initiative made it all the more special. With the help of students I am fortunate enough to call my friends, we were able to reach out to campus communities with whom we did not have relationships before, and were able to further strengthen those that already existed. Yet, amidst affirmations, there were rejections. It was important to focus on the unwavering support from our peers in acknowledging, defining, and condemning antisemitism. The silence and rejections were muted in comparison to the roaring affirmations – a roar of over sixty co-signing entities!
After three months of outreach and meetings, we scheduled our special presentation for the Associated Students, our senate body. And of all nights of the year, we happened to present such a momentous resolution on the eve of the holiday of Purim! I was humbled and empowered by the resilience of our people’s history in sharing with the student council that Purim is one of the first instances of recorded antisemitism in the Tanakh. As a first-generation American born to two Iranian refugees, the story means a great deal to my family, and the treacheries they endured in the name of antisemitism as well. The Megillah shares the triumphs and bravery of a Persian-Jewish heroine in defending her people against the antisemitism of her time. On the eve of Purim, thousands of years later, our student community at UC San Diego was able to condemn and define antisemitism as it has risen in society so that our campus remains free of unjust, societal viruses.
I want to take a moment to thank the staff of Hillel of San Diego for their unwavering support in this initiative. I want to thank Rabbi E at SAJE and Rabbi Hadjadj from Chabad of UCSD. To those that reached out to corners of our campus to raise awareness of this issue and set the table for these conversations to commence at all, thank you to Sivan Barashy, Nicole Aryan, Jasmine Elisha, Benjamin Zaghi, Corrine Khorshidi-Horesh, Nov Dubnov, and Adee Newman. A big thank you and token of appreciation to our public forum speakers Benjamin Zaghi, Nicole Aryan, Hannah Stalker, Koby Preston, Daniel Vayser, Bella Sung, Joshua Sigal, Andy Neymit, and Alexander Becker.
Bianca Kermani is a fourth-year student at UC San Diego, studying Linguistics & Global Health with plans to attend medical school after graduation. Born and raised in Persian-Jewish household in Las Vegas, Bianca has served as the president of Tritons For Israel and held several leadership positions in the Jewish community that have culminated in passing the IHRA definition on her campus this year.
