On Wednesday, Feb. 5 the student organization Jewish Deis Bund hosted a vigil to “honor and remember those murdered in Palestine and Lebanon,” as announced in an Instagram post on Feb. 4. 

The vigil was held in the Shapiro Campus Center Atrium, with students filing into the space at 7:00 p.m. The speeches started shortly afterwards. As a group of about 65 students formed a semi-circle around the speakers at the base of the stairs, one student handed out flyers with images of Palestinian children who died throughout the conflict. Most  participants wore face masks. 

Before the speeches started, the crowd was encouraged by Jewish Bund organizers to “not block any walkways,” and to “please leave with a buddy.” Participants were also told to walk away if a police officer approaches them. 

Approximately 10 individuals spoke. The beginning speech began with references to the deaths in Palestine and the need for action. The speaker stated that “the death toll of Gaza is an estimated 60,000 people” and discussed the effects of the attacks on Palestinians. At the end of the speech the speaker expressed a need to continue conversations about the effects the Israel-Hamas war has had on Palestinians. In their words, “... We must continue to talk about the way that the United States has continued to let it all happen. And we must continue to talk about what we can do.” 

Additional speakers echoed these sentiments, with one individual referencing the statement, “mourn the dead and fight like hell for the living,” which was used in light of the Oct. 7 attacks. The statement originated from Mary “Mother” Jones, a labor and union organizer active in the early 1900s. At the time, Jones was fighting “to improve the lives of miners and silk mill workers.”

That same speaker also talked about why the participants were there in the first place, saying, “We should know what it means to love a land. We should know what it means to love the people and to love the community in the land. And that is why we are all here today. Because the fight did not begin on October 7. We did not start mourning on October 7.”  

Before opening the floor for more speakers, a member of the Jewish Bund began discussing a list of demands that their organization has for the University. As an introduction to the demands, the speaker said, “We’re tired of individuals being unmet. We’re tired of having our comrade’s families get murdered [while] the University [just] doesn’t care or empowers those who are involved in the killings. And our university is deeply implicated in the Israeli state occupation, and so is our tuition.” 

The first demand centered around the November 10, 2023 “protest” that took place after the de-recognition of the Brandeis chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine. The Jewish Bund wanted a “formal apology” from the University to the students who were “beaten and arrested” as a result of the protest. Accordingly, they called for the rechartering of Students for Justice in Palestine and the reversal of the free speech policy the University clarified the morning of the protest in an email from the Vice President of Student Affairs, Andrea Dine and the Chief Officer of Public Safety, Matthew Rushton. Dine and Rushton explained that the use of chants such as “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” and  “intifada, intifada,” are prohibited. They said that per the University’s Free Speech and Free Expression Principles, they are examples of “speech that constitutes threat or harassment.” Thus, the Jewish Bund demanded the University repeal this policy because they feel it violates the First Amendment’s assurance of free speech. 

The next demand was for the University to release a “declaration of support of the right of return for Palestinians to historic Palestine.”

The Bund also called for a meeting between Interim President Arthur Levine ’70, University administration, students of color, international students, women and queer students to create a “functional plan to defend their rights” as the Trump administration’s policy became more restrictive towards the groups. Furthermore, they demanded the University release a public statement of condemnation of President Trump’s “racist, radical, anti-immigrant, anti-humanity, anti-queer, anti-woman, policies and rhetoric.” Along with this statement, the Bund demanded the University give a public statement “for the U.S. security control and removal of all Palestinians of Gaza, an ethnic cleansing of 2 million people.”

Another demand was “a direct line of university communication for all students advocating for environmental, feminist, anti-colonialist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist and anti-Zionist policy.” 

Lastly, the Bund called for the University to provide full financial transparency.

Beyond the demands aimed towards the University, other speakers also alluded to Brandeis’ role in the Israel-Hamas war. 

“I’m the last Palestinian student on campus for a while,” a speaker introduced themself. They discussed how they are still processing the impacts of the war. “I don’t believe in Brandeis, the social justice school that we all came to. As much as I learned at Brandeis, as many amazing people as I met, including a lot of you, I don’t believe in any of that anymore.” 

They shared that they are still comprehending the events of the war, particularly as it relates to the loss of their loved ones. The speaker said, “It’s like I’m finally starting to process everything that happened in the last 15 months, it still has not hit me in the way that I thought it would. I still don’t understand that a lot of people that I absolutely love and cherish are gone.”

The speaker discussed the pain of losing their close friend and family members to the violence in Gaza. They talked about the “unjust world” that it “did not just shut up and walk away with taking 34 members of my family, but also the person that I loved most in the world, the person who I was waiting for graduation in three months, just to show him that ‘this is what you did. I am here because of you.’”

Looking to a world post ceasefire, the speaker talked about the continued violence, “They’re attacking my family, the last remaining people of my family, the people that I call home. Even though the war is over, there’s a deal, they got the hostages back, we’re still being attacked.” They said that the Israel Defense Forces are demolishing family homes and blocks of housing.  

Additionally, the speaker referenced President Donald Trump’s Feb. 4 news conference where he suggested the resettlement of displaced Palestinians outside the territory and the United States to “take over” the Gaza Strip. He proposed a U.S.-led redevelopment of the land, saying that “We’ll make sure that it’s done world-class. It’ll be wonderful for the people … Palestinians, mostly, we’re talking about.” During this news conference at the White House, Trump was accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. 

The same speaker asked vigil attendees, “Who the hell does [Trump] think he is? Has he not learned anything about Palestinians?” They spoke of Palestinian resilience, “We cry our eyes out, but then we wipe our tears [with] one hand, and we use the other to rebuild our homes, to raise our children, to teach them what’s right and what’s wrong, to show them that this land is ours and it will always be ours.”

Another speaker criticized both Trump’s announcement as well as Former President Joe Biden’s role in the conflict. They warned vigil attendees not to be “fooled by the promises and lies of liberals and the Democratic Party,” referencing how Biden said, “If there wasn’t an Israel, we’d have to invent one.”

“Why is that?” The speaker asked. “To represent the interests of American capitalism in the Middle East. They are not looking for solutions and they will never be as long as they are receiving massive profits and donations …” They added that “Gaza is in ruins with two-thirds of its buildings destroyed by bombs manufactured by the United States.” 

The speaker concluded by calling for a one state solution — a “unified, secular, and socialist state,” stressing a right to return for Palestinians.

A speaker turned the vigil’s attention to Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee’s banner hanging in the SCC, explaining why the Bund opted to cover it with a Palestinian flag for the vigil. 

“Just a few weeks ago, [the Brandeis Israel Public Affairs Committee was] tabling in Upper Usdan to send more arms to Israel,” they said. “[Students for Justice in Palestine] got de-chartered for rhetoric, and they took away from many in our community an actual voice for progressive politics and we’re left with a genocidal campus group who has literal material ties to the [Israeli Defense Force], to the occupation.” The speaker also identified a “double-standard” between the students who were arrested by police officers during the November protest for “peacefully protesting” and the students tabling for BIPAC.

“This school is very okay with supporting a group of students with a military with a state …  that’s involved in serious genocide,” the same vigil speaker said. 

According to its website, BIPAC is the University’s Bipartisan Pro-Israel Lobby, “dedicated to proactively discussing the issues facing Israel as well as her surrounding neighbors.” The organization lobbies Congressmen and “looks to create a pro-Israel environment on the regional and national level” by planning programing such as discussions, speakers and communicating with other campus organizations. 

In a Feb. 7 statement to The Justice, BIPAC President Jake Rosen ’27 confirmed that the organization tabled on Nov. 15 “to collect signatures to counter a congressional resolution which would halt arms sales to Israel during its current seven-front war.” He explained that BIPAC “serves to support the essential relationship between the United States and the State of Israel” and “sought not to introduce anything unprecedented but to uphold a longstanding tradition of mutual partnership” between the two. Comparatively, in a Nov. 27 Instagram post, BIPAC publicized a letter to Massachusetts senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren that criticized their support of Senator Bernie Sanders’ “efforts to block weapons transfers to Israel.”

“To accuse our club’s activities of ‘genocide’ shows a clear disregard for the definition and severity of the term,” Rosen wrote. “We are disappointed to see this word being used as a baseless pejorative, as it obscures moral clarity and adds vitriol to the campus atmosphere.”

Amidst conversations about violence, politics and Brandeis’ culpability, there were sentiments of gratitude for the dedication of those who attended the vigil. One speaker expressed their thanks to the participants, “Thank you all for showing up and thank you for proving to me, after a good year and a half of bad experiences organizing on this campus, that community can be made, we can come together and we can and we can accomplish things.” 

Another student speaker said, “in general, [it’s] really important to recognize that we have each other here,” expressing their desire to stand in community and solidarity as a collective. The Jewish Bund group fostered this line of thinking by encouraging participants to get involved with their efforts by joining their email list and attending meetings. Additionally, the group planned on “holding a sit-in tomorrow at the Library of Farber, anytime between 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.” 

The vigil touched upon themes of grief and frustration, but students also talked about action and the significance of community.