The Fight for Jewish Students' Rights
Adela Cojab suffered serious antisemitism on campus - and decided to stand up and speak out against it. Listen to her keynote address from the Z3 Conference 2024 where she tells the detailed story of her time at NYU and how it led her to her groundbreaking and game-changing legal work combating antisemitism. In her keynote address, Cojab tells the story of her biggest regret as a student, and how it led her to take action. She talks about the power of community, the asymmetry of institutions when facing minority groups, and how she found a way to speak out. Cojab notes that the current generation of Jews are not stuck in the past: bolstered by the State of Israel, they’re ready to stand up for their future.
About Our Speaker:
Adela Cojab Moadeb is a legal advocate, media contributor, and social media activist focused on protecting Jewish civil rights and addressing antisemitism. Known for filing a 2019 Title VI complaint against NYU for neglecting its Jewish community’s safety, her case contributed to the Executive Order on Combatting Antisemitism and laid the groundwork for subsequent Title VI cases. As a legal fellow at the National Jewish Advocacy Center, Adela manages cases defending Jewish civil rights. In addition to her legal work, Adela has served as a commentator on major news networks including Fox, Telemundo, and Univision. Adela cohosted the interfaith podcast Americanish: Daughters of Diaspora and currently hosts OpenDoc Media's daily YouTube show, Today Unpacked. Adela earned her J.D. from Yeshiva University’s Cardozo School of Law and a B.A. from NYU's Gallatin School of Individualized Study, specializing in Middle Eastern Diaspora Structures. A recent law graduate, she is awaiting admission to the New York Bar.
Video Transcript
Please welcome. Contributing author to Young Zionist Voices and legal advocate for the National Jewish Agency Center, Adela Cojab. Hi everyone, my name is Adela Cojab and it's truly an honor to be with you today. My family is originally from Syria and Lebanon and, as Jews do, they had to leave and they went to Mexico of all places. That's where I was born and I know that we're out west. I don't know how much you know about Syrian Jews, but like all Syrian Jews, we made our way to Deal, new Jersey.
I grew up in Deal, new Jersey, in a beautiful, small, tight-knit Jewish community where Israel, Zionism and Jewish identity were always part of who I was. It's not something I ever questioned, it's not something that was ever challenged, and I always heard about anti-Semitism on college campuses, but I never thought it would be something that I would face. I wanted to go to NYU since I was in fourth grade my dream school. I applied early decision. I had no backups. My advisor said well, what happens if you don't get in? And I said, well, if I don't get in, I'll just go to Israel for the year, either serve or volunteer, and then I'll come back and apply again. Lo and behold, I do get into NYU and I get to my dream school and they say Judaism is great, it's going to be always part of who I am going to go for Shabbat, but I don't want to be known as the Jewish girl on campus. So, yes, I became president of the Pro-Israel Club, but I also had a radio show on WNYU Radio. I joined a sorority and, of course, I joined student government. And for my first two years on campus, I have to be honest, they were wonderful. I had a phenomenal time, especially on student government, fighting for Jewish. So fighting for student rights, fighting for food, insecurity, making sure that students have access to transportation, et cetera.
But my junior year, everything changed Suddenly. Everything became about Israel-Palestine on campus. And it all started with the mention of Zionism by the Minority Student Council, in the same category as racism and Nazism, of all things. And when I saw the email come out, I reached out to my friends who I'd been working with for two years. They said, hey, I saw the statement you put out about Zionism. Can we meet to talk about it? And they responded no, because we don't speak to fascists. And that was the first time that my Zionism kept me from the space I was previously welcomed in, and together with the Jewish community, we wrote a statement all the Jewish clubs except for two I'll let you guess which two not angry, but disappointed that our fellow students couldn't understand why putting Zionism in the same category as Nazism, of all things, is so hurtful to our community.
And the night before I was going to publish, I got a call from a mentor of mine, someone who had been working in the Jewish institutional world long before I braced the halls of NYU and he said international world, long before I braced the halls of NYU, and he said I heard you're putting out a statement. I said yes, we are. And he said are you sure you want to do that? I said what do you mean? He said well, who even reads student government emails? I'm sure you're the only one which I was. If you write a statement coming out against this, you're going to start a campus war. If you ignore it, I promise you it'll go away. But if you write a statement in response, you're only going to make the problem bigger. And I thought about it and I knew that my community came together to write the statement and I made the decision that we wouldn't publish Until this day is my biggest regret at NYU Because we didn't publish the statement.
But over the next three months, NYU would become the most anti-Semitic campus in the United States. Because, no, we didn't publish. But two weeks later we had a resolution on NYU student government against NYU's Tel Aviv campus, government against NYU's Tel Aviv campus. Two weeks after that, we had a resolution by 70 professors at NYU boycotting all Israeli academics. And two weeks after that we had a boycott pledge by 53 student groups that's one in every six at NYU, pledging not only to boycott Israel the country but realize Israel, the student group I was president of. So at this point, if you were a Jewish student, your student government was against you. Anyone who worked with you would be against you. You'd show up to your class knowing your professor was against you.
And I met with the school every step of the way. Time after time, the school told me I was overreacting, I was imagining non-existent threats. I said maybe they're right, but we were about to have a Yom Ha'atzmaut celebration. We rent out Washington Square, we fill it with students 300, 400 Jewish students in the park wrapped in Israeli flags, singing Hatikvah. And when you look out, you say this this is Judaism in the 21st century. When you look out, you say this this is Judaism in the 21st century.
But that year I knew would be different and I reached out to the school and I said I'm worried for student safety. They told me again I was overreacting and the way that the event kicked off was with an anti-Israel student coming to the forefront of the circle, israeli flag in hand, lighting it on the fire, throwing it on the ground and letting it burn. Other students came with canisters of gasoline to make the flames bigger. And then came that moment where we sing Hatikvah, that beautiful moment. I told everyone let's get back to Yom Ha'atzmaut, let's try to remember why we're here. And as we started singing, another anti-Israel student came to the center of the protest line, started shoving the microphone from a Jewish girl yelling free, free, palestine. We look up, we realize they had taken our Israeli flags, torn them to shreds, hung them from trees and lampposts. Nypd stepped in and made two arrests.
At this point I went back to the school. I said you can't tell me. I'm imagining non-existent threats. There's been violent physical action taken against my community. What are you going to do about it? And the school promised me action. And the school did nothing. No, not only did they do nothing. At this point my professors I was a Middle Eastern Studies major told me to stop coming to class because my Zionism was a distraction that made other students unsafe. They had to take my final exams in a separate room. One student who partnered with me started being boycotted too. She asked to take her final exams with me instead of the rest of the class. I decided my senior year to take classes in creative writing and dance just to get enough credits to graduate, which, if you know me, you know is not something I'd ever do.
Now, at this point, I stepped away from student government, leave my positions in leadership, and I felt so afraid I met with the school and I said I'm begging you to do the right thing, and the school said you're right, a line has been crossed. I said NYPD stepped in. They said yes, nypd stepped in, we're going to take action, but it'll be behind the scenes. I said what do you mean? They said well, we don't want the narrative to be that NYU is choosing one community over the other, so don't worry, we'll take action quietly. And again I was so downtrodden that I said my community is scared, my community is angry and I am making the decision to trust you. My community is scared. My community is angry and I am making the decision to trust you. I left my positions, I receded into the background and I tried to graduate.
It wasn't until about a couple of months before my graduation that NYU revealed the President's Service Award, the highest honor you can receive as a group on campus, and that year's recipient was none other than Students for Justice in Palestine. And in that moment I realized what NYU was telling me, which was that they didn't care about fighting anti-Semitism. They said want to know how to become an award-winning group at NYU? You're going to pick a minority community. You're going to boycott all of their events, boycott their members, assault their members, get arrested by it, burn their flag, throw gasoline on it and so long as that group is Jewish, you will win an award.
Now I tried to meet with the school about this. At this point my friends had called me. I said I'm done. This isn't my fight anymore. I gave three years of my life to this fight on campus. I'm about to graduate. They said Adela, we're begging you, just try to get us a meeting. And the administration refused to meet with me until the week of my graduation and I stepped out of the vice president's office after he refused my meeting time and time again and I started thinking about the flag burning.
I'm not a US citizen, I'm from Mexico. You can say that flag burning is political, it is legal, it is. But if a group of students would have burned a Mexican flag at NYU and said, no, I'm not against Mexicans, it's my political stance against immigration, you're telling me NYU isn't even making a statement about it. Now, if you want to say I identify as a Zionist, I chose that, I decide to out myself and that's why I was boycotted. If a group of students burned an LGBTQ flag, I doubt NYU would be giving an award to the group that burned it. And if you want to take all of politics out of this all politics, all identity, I come from greek life. If you couldn't tell, I was vice president of my sorority. And if you would have had two fraternities in washington square park, one of them burned the flag of the other, assaulted their member and got arrested by nypd, are you telling me that fraternity can recruit in spring? That fraternity is surely not getting an award from the school? So why is it? The only flag you can burn is mine, and not only is it not alarming, it's celebrated.
So I walked out of that office and I got in touch with lawyers and I asked if I had a case against the school, and the lawyers told me no. I said what do you mean? And they said well, title VI of the Civil Rights Act protects discrimination against nationality, ethnicity and race, not religion. So we're so sorry about everything you're going through, but unfortunately you don't have a case. And I said let me send you what I have and you'll let me know if I do. Sent them. My papers, screenshots, emails don't date me. It's a horrible time. And they told me within the day that not only did I have the case, I had the strongest case they'd seen and they made it very clear you're not going to win, but your case could become the foot in the door. It could become the cornerstone in Jewish law that helps us understand Judaism as an ethno-religion, not as a faith-based religion.
So I decided to call my mom and I said Mom, I'm suing NYU for anti-Semitism. Now I'll walk you through what happened after. Again, remember when I sued, the law was not on my side, it was purely publicity. So I spoke everywhere I could. I spoke to every platform. I spoke on Fox. I spoke to the New York Times Anyone who would have me on. I spoke until I got a call from the White House. Turns out that the president at the time heard about my case at the time and it would be his honor if I speak with him. At a conference in Miami. I decided to take the platform. Three days later, he signed the executive order against anti-Semitism, which officially codified Judaism as an ethno-religion, thereby falling under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. In that moment I understood that everything was worth it. Why? Because when I sued NYU, I did it so no NYU student would go through what I went through. I had no idea that my case would have a national impact.
Now, October 7th changed our reality. On October 7th, I was in Dubai. I was getting updates in real time from my friends on the ground telling me it's not just rockets, it's not just rockets. I was in Dubai hiding my magen David, as I heard that Israeli tourists were being killed in Egypt simply for speaking Hebrew. And when I came back to the States, I saw people celebrating. Not only were people celebrating on college campuses, but in the streets of New York and I said what has changed? But I realized everything has.
Because when I came back, I didn't see students who were afraid of the way I was, who were retreating, who said if I draw attention to this, I will make the problem bigger. No, I saw students like Talia, who you heard from today, like Maya, like Alissa, like Avi, like Charlie. I saw people like Eylon Levy, like Amy Albertson, who were putting themselves, stepping up to the plate because they were not afraid. When I saw people standing up, I said we're not the Jews of the past. And that got me thinking about my biggest regret. When I saw the mention of Zionism and Nazism in the same category. When the Jewish community came together to write a statement and I was told by a mentor that if I draw attention to it I will make the problem bigger and if I ignore it, it'll go away, I realized that that is the mentality of the Jews of the past.
Now, the Jews of the past and thank you, the Jews of the past. It doesn't matter where you came from. If you came from the Middle East, like my family, eastern Europe, western Europe, Russia, at some point being Jewish made you and being different made you a target, and when it became dangerous to be Jewish, we would hide that Judaism in order to protect ourselves. It's intergenerational trauma, where we understand that we are guests in a host country and we cannot run. We can only hide, but we are not the Jews of the past.
What changed from the Jew of the past to the Jew of today? The state of Israel. Not as a contingency plan, not as somewhere that we run when it gets dangerous, but as an anchor of our Jewish identity, as a testament of Jewish strength. We not only solidified ourselves as a Jewish people in our homeland, but that homeland solidified the Jewish people in the world. I can only exist as a proud Jew in the diaspora because of the existence of the state of Israel, because I understand that my identity as a diaspora, because of the existence of the state of Israel, because I understand that my identity as a diaspora Jew and the existence of the state of Israel are inherently intertwined, hand in hand Israeli Jews and diaspora Jews.
I want to take you back to what we're doing here today over this Z3 conference. Our future starts now, but, much like hope is created, the future is built and we, the Jews of today, the Jews who awoke, have the opportunity to build the Jews of tomorrow. Every decision that we make today and this point forward as a Jewish people gets us one step closer to the true meaning of Zionism, because Zionism didn't end with the creation of the state of Israel. What is Zionism? You can say it with me, because we've been told this a thousand times it's the Jewish right to self-determination. That does not only mean within our homeland, but every time that the Jewish people as a people make a decision is us practicing our self-determination and solidifying ourselves in this planet. The next panels you will hear will get you to think, to reimagine what the Jewish future can look like. I want you to ask yourselves how much is a generation of proud Jews look to you and what can we do to build that future? Let's build that future together, thank you.
