When USC canceled the main stage graduation ceremony, Jewish leaders on campus saw an opportunity.
Before some 19,000 graduates walked across stages Friday to receive their degrees in satellite ceremonies at smaller schools, USC's Hillel hosted a graduation event for Jewish students and their families, a time to come together in unity amid weeks of unrest on campus due to protests against the war between Israel and Hamas.
“A lot of people have been trying to take away these moments of joy from us,” said Mark Rayant, 26, who was earning his master's degree in green technology. “We are able to come together as a community in a safe and healing environment, something the university was unable to provide.”
At USC's Hillel Center, a post-and-beam building next to the university's Catholic student center, more than 50 students in their black robes and red sashes attended along with about 200 family members, friends, professors and classmates .
Stress and anger had marked the weeks leading up to graduation. After senior Asna Tabassum was named valedictorian, Jewish groups on and off campus pointed out that she had linked to a pro-Palestinian website on her Instagram page.
As the controversy escalated, USC canceled Tabassum's speaking slot after the university received threats related to the Instagram account. USC then canceled the main graduation ceremony amid pro-Palestinian camps on campus that ended with two police raids and arrests. USC also canceled the interdenominational baccalaureate ceremony Thursday night.
Dave Cohn, executive director of USC Hillel, acknowledged that the year has ended under a “very, very dark cloud.”
“No matter how you view these issues, as a person of Jewish identity or as a person in general, there is no denying that the atmosphere is exhausted and depressed,” Cohn said.
And so on Friday, families trickled in starting at 8:15 a.m. while private security guards stood guard.
“We have food in the atrium,” Rachael Cohen, assistant director of Hillel, told the graduates and their families. She pointed out bagels, piles of donuts and coffee on the patio.
Cohen said the morning was a “silver lining” for Jewish students. About 2,000 undergraduates and the same number of graduate students are Jewish (about 10% of the student body), and Hillel is a sanctuary for many, he said, a place of acceptance and belonging.
USC's Jewish community is not a monolith, including Persian, Israeli, Latino and Ashkenazi Jews, who have more European roots.
Jewish students at USC have been among those protesting in support of the Palestinians and calling on the university to boycott and divest its financial ties to Israel. And Jewish students have embraced their own meanings of Zionism on campus, finding a deeper connection to Israel.
“It's an ongoing conversation about how to best support our campus,” Cohen said. “Two thousand Jews mean 2,000 opinions. And no two Jews are alike.”
After attendees took their seats, Cohn urged graduates to never let hostility define them.
“We face loss and pain as a university community, but the spirit of our ambition as Trojans allows us to transcend those painful moments,” he said.
Rayant, the engineering graduate student, said he had felt the sting of anti-Semitism before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7. He was concerned about how it had escalated since then, including last week, when he found a swastika scrawled on a brick post next to campus. .
“I am not a defender. “I’m an engineer…but sometimes you need to tell the truth,” she said. Later, Rayant would attend the same engineering ceremony where Tabassum, the valedictorian, would receive her diploma.
“I hope no one spits on me today,” said Sabrina Jahan, 22, who was earning her college degree in business. Jahan said she was spat on during a Seder table last month. She said she has been called a “baby killer” and other names.
“We're used to it, as unfortunate as it is to say, but I'm very proud of who I am,” said Jahan, who had an Israeli flag on his red sash. He criticized how USC administrators had not quickly stopped pro-Palestinian student camps from taking over parts of the campus. “At the end of the day, they were finally able to handle it strategically… and I appreciate that.”
The campus unrest and reports of anti-Semitism worried Shirel Stemmons, who followed the news with her husband, Robert, from their home in London. Her son Jake graduated on Friday.
“We were always going to come and be here with our son,” Robert Stemmons said. “We were just hoping that things could be peaceful, not resolved, so that this important ceremony could continue.”
Shirel Stemmons said there were times when she worried about her son, the only one of the couple's four children to attend college in the United States.
“It doesn't help to be thousands of miles away,” he said. “But he was reassuring; he felt supported,” which she attributed to Hillel.
Jake Stemmons agreed that he felt physically safe, but many friends did not. He acknowledged that at times he has felt discomfort.
“Things were said that made me not welcome in certain spaces,” said Jake Stemmons, who is working as a consultant in San Francisco this summer and wants to be an entrepreneur in the education field.
The ceremony's surprise speaker was actress and former “Jeopardy!” presenter Mayim Bialik, who addressed the students via video.
“What four years you've had,” he said, summarizing how the pandemic and the war between Israel and Hamas had hampered his studies.
“This last year in particular has been a real challenge, but that's life. “This is your life,” Bialik said. “They have had to shine brighter than they thought… and they have had to be committed leaders and advocates.”
