I am deeply saddened by Chancellor Daniel Diermeier’s statement about the terrorist attack on Israel. While there are “deep layers” regarding peace and land in Israel and the Middle East, the atrocities of Oct. 7 are far from “complex” as he labels them. They are simply the acts of a terrorist organization.

My grandparents and relatives on both sides of my family lived through the Holocaust. My maternal grandfather was a member in the Bielski Partisan brigade, fighting to survive and save the lives of Jews in what is now Belarus.

It is their sacrifices and struggles that helped shape my life, work and my time at Vandy. As an alum, I condemn the fact that 20 years later, our university leadership still does not do enough to condemn and stop this antisemitism on campus and in the world at large. 

I joined AEPi and was an active member of Hillel. During my senior year, I was president of Hillel and, through the efforts of the executive board, we were able to bring The Schulman Center to fruition in 2002. I was also an active participant in the Holocaust Lecture Series, and I did my part to stand up to ignorant and hurtful statements that remind me of the chancellor’s recent statement.

We cannot accept rape, torture, kidnapping and cold-blooded murder as “nuances,” which is what Diermeier referred to the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks as. Diminishing these atrocities is akin to normalization and acceptance, and our chancellor has a responsibility to set an example to our entire Vandy community to stand against those acts and not normalize them at any level. Diermeier sent a longer statement to the Vanderbilt community about the drop in rankings in this year’s U.S. News Best National Universities rankings than he did about the Middle East conflict. I would argue that Diermeier’s recent comments have a bigger impact on Vanderbilt’s status than U.S. News’ rankings.

There are innocent Palestinians horribly dying in this conflict. Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since 2007, is recognized as a terrorist organization by multiple governments and has self-proclaimed its goal to annihilate the people and state of Israel. In recent weeks, governments across the world have held Hamas accountable for using hospitals and schools as bases and using their own people and hostages as human shields. Our Vanderbilt leadership has a responsibility to ensure these facts are shared, while we also recognize the horrors of war and the living conditions of the Palestinian people.

To truly be a world-class and top-tier university, we must be strong in our resolve and stand up against tyranny, terrorism and injustice. Vanderbilt has a history of encouraging public action and charity (or in Hebrew Tikkun Olam, meaning “repairing the world”). Let us continue that tradition by taking the step beyond “[we] denounce violence, hate, and prejudice in all forms…” Our statements must take a stronger stance and not normalize any hate speech including antisemitism and Islamophobia. While there are many sides to the history of Israel and Gaza, there are not two sides to this conflict; only victims of a terrorist organization and a war caused by their actions, and we as the Vanderbilt community should recognize that and stand up for those victims.