DAVIS AND THE BATTLE FOR JEWISH IDENTITY

(For the SoundCloud audio, scroll down)

Tucked into the flatlands of Northern California, somewhere between the political corridors of Sacramento and the tech utopia of San Francisco and the Bay Area, lies Davis. It’s not the kind of place you stumble into by accident. If you’re in Davis, it’s always on purpose — and that purpose is UC Davis.

Originally a sleepy agricultural outpost, Davis was transformed in the early 20th century when the University of California decided it needed a dedicated “Farm School.” That modest institution eventually grew into UC Davis — now a world-class research university with over 40,000 students, renowned for its cutting-edge work in agriculture, environmental science, and veterinary medicine.

But despite its academic pedigree, Davis has never lost its off-the-beaten-path charm. It’s quirky, a little rustic, and proudly so. Downtown boasts the Davis Food Co-op — a community-owned grocery store on G Street — and on any given Saturday, the most heated debate will likely be about compost bins or whether it will rain.

It’s the kind of place where you expect friendly farmers markets, earnest book clubs, and maybe a spirited debate over heirloom tomatoes. What you don’t expect are flag-waving fanatics calling for the destruction of the world’s only Jewish state.

So why am I telling you all this? Because earlier this week I hopped on a plane to Sacramento and made my way to Davis at the invitation of Dr. Amir Kol — a gentle soul and Israeli expat who teaches at the world-renowned UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. In addition to teaching, Amir does groundbreaking stem cell research that could one day help cure life-threatening diseases.

Or at least, that’s how I see him. But to a growing chorus of campus agitators, Amir Kol isn’t a mild-mannered scientist. Oh no — he’s a war criminal. A former IDF soldier. A baby-killer. A genocide supporter. A full-blown villain in their warped worldview.

Before October 7th, Amir lived a quiet, unassuming life. Like most of us, he was aware that antisemitism existed, but it didn’t touch his day-to-day. He wasn’t political. He wasn’t an activist.

But after Hamas’s horrific October 7th massacre — and the grotesque reaction on campus that followed, with Jewish students harassed, Israeli flags torn down, and Hamas banners waved — Amir realized he could no longer stay silent. He began to organize Jewish get-togethers and to advocate to the administration for the pro-Israel community on campus.

Without meaning to, Amir soon became a lighthouse — a source of light for others who felt isolated and afraid. And believe me, many Jews at UC Davis feel exactly that. According to the campus Chabad shliach, Rabbi Mendel Greenberg, there are an estimated 2,000 Jewish students on campus.

Fewer than twenty showed up to hear me speak. I asked where the rest were. The answer came back in three categories: indifferent, intimidated, or — and this is the most disturbing — absorbed into the very protest movements that vilify Jews and demonize Israel.

It’s in this surreal context that I was introduced to something called the MAPA Report. No, it’s not a new brand of hummus. MAPA stands for Muslims, Arabs, Palestinians, and Allies — an acronym I’d never encountered before, now proudly formalized by the City of Davis Human Relations Commission in an 88-page document that makes George Orwell’s 1984 look like an optimistic fairy tale.

This “report” — and I use that term loosely — is built entirely on subjective anecdotes, unverified stories, and the worst kind of identity politics. It paints Davis — yes, sleepy, bike-friendly, compost-loving Davis — as a bubbling cauldron of Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian bigotry.

Seriously? Not only is there no verifiable data in the report, there’s no methodology. It’s just raw feelings, haphazardly compiled and amateurishly packaged as “findings” in a slickly designed deck.

Amir Kol sits on the Commission and was at the meeting where this nonsense was presented for adoption. He offered a sane, balanced critique. Public comment was no less scathing. But common sense didn’t stand a chance — the other six commissioners rubber-stamped the report anyway.

Meanwhile, over on campus, Chancellor Gary May and his administration are completely enthralled by the protesters. They call it “de-escalation.” But let’s be honest — it’s not de-escalation. It’s appeasement. UC Davis allowed protesters to set up illegal encampments for months — intimidating students, defacing property, glorifying Hamas — while the administration shrugged and claimed their hands were tied.

The U.S. Department of Education didn’t buy it. After investigating multiple complaints of discrimination and harassment from UC students, they concluded that the UC hierarchy had failed to respond promptly or adequately to antisemitic incidents during the protests.

But Chancellor May thinks he deserves a medal. In his version of events, UC Davis achieved a monumental victory: “There were no protests at graduation.” That’s what he’s proud of. That’s what counts as success. Of course there were no protests — the protesters had already won. The administration was on their side.

In Parshat Bamidbar, God commands Moses to count the Israelites — not as a faceless crowd, but individually, by name. This wasn’t merely a census — it was an act of recognition. Each tribe, each family, each person was counted, acknowledged, and affirmed.

The message is unmistakable: in a vast and hostile wilderness, survival begins with identity. There is no other way to make it through. You need to know who you are, stand proudly in your place, and be counted as part of something greater.

What’s happening in Davis — and on campuses across America — is the exact inverse. Jews aren’t being counted — they’re being erased. Jewish identity isn’t recognized, it’s condemned. Jews are being recast as villains in someone else’s twisted narrative. Instead of being considered, they’re being canceled.

Instead of being allowed pride in their national heritage — a right now sacrosanct for every other group in every sphere of society — Jews are being told to sit down, stay silent – or worse, to join enthusiastically in their own erasure.

But Bamidbar won’t let us do that. The Torah says: Stand up. Be counted. Know your name, your tribe, your people. Don’t hide. And never — ever — apologize for existing. That’s what brave Amir Kol is doing. And that’s what those who showed up to hear me speak at UC Davis this week are trying to do, even if we were just a handful.

Because yes, it may be true that you don’t end up in Davis by accident. But if you’re Jewish — or unapologetically pro-Israel — you certainly won’t survive there, or anywhere, if you’re invisible.