President of SUNY Purchase Capitulates to Protesters While Hillel Head Writes Anguished Appeal

At SUNY Purchase, the president of the college, Milagros (Milly) Peña, has capitulated to the pro-Hamas protestors on her campus. The head of the college’s Hillel, Esti Heller, has written to President Peña, describing the anguish of Jewish students on campus, and excoriating her for having done nothing to assuage their pain. More on the capitulation and on what Jewish students at SUNY Purchase have been experiencing can be found here: “President of SUNY Purchase College caves to antisemitic bullies,” Elder of Ziyon, May 9, 2024:

Anti-Israel protesters at Purchase College celebrated as they announced that the president of the college, Milagros (Milly) Peña, had caved to every single demand they made.

Over the weekend, it appeared that the college administration  was growing a small backbone in the face of disruptive protests:

SUNY Purchase released a statement, saying students participating in protests were reminded over the past several days that they may assemble protests, vigils, rallies and other free speech activities but only up to the start of quiet hours.

In a statement the school said in part, “Quiet hours are especially important during finals as they respect the rights of Purchase students to sleep, prepare for finals, and complete their final projects.”

The statement went on to say, “Protestors were also invited multiple times to meet with the president and cabinet members to voice their concerns, as long as campus rules were followed, including dispersing at midnight from the protest last night. The protestors chose not to take the offer.”

But all of that meant nothing, Pena met with the group, “Raise the Consciousness” – which is not a recognized campus student group – and the group announced last night that “we got every single demand!”

“After five-and-a-half hours of negotiating, after five days of working in an encampment at SUNY Purchase for the freedom of Palestine, we were able to get Mili Pena to agree to all of our demands in some capacity and we were able to get everything we wanted,” the speaker says.

That was an exaggeration, but not much of one….

The president of Hillel, Esti Heller, wrote a letter to President Pena describing how badly Jews have been treated on campus since October 7. It is a long read but very important.

To President Milagros “Milly” Pena: I have spoken to you many times before. I’ve met with you. You even came up to congratulate me at my senior showcase. I genuinely believed that we had a good relationship. As a Jewish leader through Hillel, StandWithUs, and the JewishOnCampus student union, I have talked to you countless times about providing a safer community for Jewish students since the first antisemitic incident of this year on September 20, and especially after October 7. Time and again, you assured me you would take action. Time and again, I received no follow up.

I am writing to you now out of sheer disgust and disappointment at your appeasement of Raise the Consciousness (RTC) after the repeated disruptions, vandalism, and conduct violations they have committed throughout the year, while failing to give any measurable credence to the harassment and bullying consistently reported to you and your senior leadership. You have effectively rewarded bad behavior and offered nothing in the form of support or protection to victims under your purview who have repeatedly asked for your help. Despite all of this, while I was disappointed in your lack of action in support of Jewish students, I had been sure that you would not actively create a hostile environment for us. Now I see that I was wrong.

Over the course of this year I have brought specific examples of antisemitism from student groups on campus, abuse of power and discrimination from within the student government, and harassment and demonization of Jewish students at Purchase College. I have informed you and your administrators about the organization Samidoun, which is banned in Germany for hosting anti-Jewish rallies and funding the terrorist organization Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), being invited to our campus. I sat with you as an elected student representative accused my friend and I, Hillel board members, of “controlling the student government;” a classic antisemitic trope which you failed to address in the moment, nor since that March 5 meeting. I have forwarded every recorded reference of “intifada”, “from the river to the sea”, and “isra-hell has got to go” documented from protests held on our campus. I have urged you to take action, whether by adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism, providing bias training, or simply establishing a safe, moderated space for students of all backgrounds to respectfully discuss their opposing views. Your response to the vitriol that Jewish and Israeli students have been subjected to was to host a healing circle. Out of the approximately thirty students who showed up, only four were there to attend rather than protest. Those four students were all Hillel members. During this event we were jeered at by our peers, taken photos of, and tossed around like props for your photo opportunity. We received no follow up afterwards, even as we were told that we had blood on our hands by our peers….

I’d like to ask you, President Pena—is this what “think wide open”, our school’s motto, looks like? Your establishment of “free speech zones” in which these students can protest during finals week, in violation of your own campus policy, has created no go zones for Jewish students. The few of them that are left on campus have been forced to spend hours mapping out their route to class in order to avoid that area due to fear for their safety. Your leadership has caused an exodus of responsible Jewish students who have been unable to exercise their right to education in a safe environment….

I have been a Jewish student at SUNY Purchase for four years. I have loved my time on this campus. I was proud of its diversity, commitment to the arts, and the many communities available for students. Now, on this day, I do not recognize it and cannot help but feel a profound sense of disillusionment. My senior year here has been marred by the specter of antisemitism, a scourge that has only grown in strength due to your consistent inaction. I carry with me the heavy weight of disappointment and betrayal, because despite my countless pleas and tireless advocacy, the safety and well-being of Jewish students have been delegitimized. My final days on this campus should have been filled with joy and celebration, but instead, they have been overshadowed by fear and uncertainty. I leave behind a community torn apart by hatred, where we have been forced to flee, to seek refuge elsewhere, because our voices went unheard and our safety was compromised. Until real action is taken to combat antisemitism, my faith in the integrity of this institution remains shattered, and I will continue in my unrelenting fear and concern for the future of Jewish and Israel students at Purchase. Ultimately, you had the power to stop this from happening. I hope you are asking yourself why you did not.

Respectfully, Esti Heller

That’s enough. That’s more than enough. It’s a remarkable cry de profundis. Will President Peña summon the will to answer, or will she continue to remain silent, as she has to so many of Esti Heller’s previous appeals?