By Katie Vasquez
It was an act of violence that shocked the world.
On October 7th, 2023, Hamas attacked Israel, killing thousands of people and leaving many still in captivity a year later.
It also set off a series of protests, including the violent altercations that happened at Columbia University in April.
A tent city was constructed on campus, and more than one hundred people were arrested before the students cleared out.
Father Roger Landry, the Catholic chaplain at the Ivy League, said that behavior was not a reflection of the school.
“Everything was being focused on 300 students out of 37,000 at Columbia,” Father Landry said.
The situation was terrifying for Jewish students, as an alarming increase in anti-Semitism has occurred at colleges nationwide.
Columbia University is fighting that with an Anti-Semitism Task Force, where hundreds of Jewish and Israeli students share testimony of what they have experienced.
Father Landry says they are doing their best to combat hate.
“The first response to anti-Semitism is not to be anti-Semitic. And rather than have some type of irrational phobia against our Jewish brothers and sisters, actually love them,” Father Landry said. “For us as Christians, that should be super easy. Always. Our Savior was Jewish. His mother, our Blessed Mother, was Jewish. All the apostles were Jewish. St. Mary Magdalene was Jewish. We should have no other response than incredible love for Jews.”
But the Catholic ministry at the Manhattan campus is not taking sides, instead focusing on prayer and helping their fellow students.
“We reached out to our Jewish fellow students to just make sure they knew we had their back, to ask them what concretely they would need,” Father Landry said. “We reached out to our Muslim students, especially those from Palestine, to just see how we would be able to help them.”
One year later, Father Landry says the mood has improved, but it is still difficult for many.
“It’s not the greatest environment for students who have been described as the anxious generation, constantly being reminded every time they go on campus that there might be disruptions in one form or another,” Father Landry said. “And so there are still things that are not back to normal yet. And we pray that they will come back to normal. But it’s way better.”
And just like they did last October, Catholics here will continue to lean on their faith.
“We will be praying in a special way for continued peace and harmony on campus on the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, which is October 7th in our calendar,” Father Landry said. “We’ve been praying the rosary throughout the month of October.”