Hi J Street Community,
I’m Talia Winiarsky, a senior at Northwestern University and student leader with J Street U.
Since October 7, Jewish college students like me have been treated as national symbols. Reporters wanted quotes, relatives in Israel called me in panic as though I was living in a war zone and the Trump Administration pointed to campuses like mine with manufactured horror, seizing on students’ real pain and fears to score political points.
Some moments on campus have been difficult. Occasionally, when talking to those on the far left, I hesitate before mentioning that my dad is Israeli or that I lived in Israel for a year. And when I wrote in the school paper that it isn’t antisemitic to advocate for human rights for Palestinians, I was harassed online by the right. Antisemitism on both the left and the right is indeed real – it should be taken seriously and confronted.
But here’s the part you won’t see splashed across headlines: Most days, I walk across campus wearing my Magen David, greeted only by the fierce Chicago wind and smiling friends. I have honest, good-faith debates with peers and professors – the kind the media, politicians and establishment Jewish organizations ignore because alarmism sells and nuance doesn’t.
But J Street doesn’t ignore it. J Street U creates the space for that nuance – a community where students can wrestle with hard questions, debate openly and still feel safe.
That’s why I’m asking you, Right Now, to support J Street and J Street U. Your gift empowers students like me to tell the real story – and to be heard.
Click to contribute!
When the Trump Administration froze $790 million in funding to Northwestern over alleged antisemitism, some Jewish organizations responded weakly – but J Street didn’t. J Street U was there to help us speak for ourselves, loudly and boldly, instead of letting politicians and influencers define our reality from afar.
J Street trusted us and lifted our voices when so many others dismissed or willfully distorted them to serve their self-fulfilling narrative. J Street U staff helped me organize events on my campus, connected me to like-minded students to strategize with and helped me publish an opinion piece in a national news outlet.
When concerned members of the Jewish community ask how they can support students, the first thing I say is: Listen to us. Listening leads to understanding, and understanding to empathy – the kind of world I want to help build.
J Street U has not only given me the platform to use my voice, but the space to create the world I want to live in. Where Jewish students and our Muslim friends are safe on campus. Where Jews and Palestinians have self-determination.
Someday, I want to tell my children the story of how we fought for a just future for Israelis and Palestinians. I have no doubt that J Street will have been an important vehicle for that advocacy.
If you can, please donate now to support this work.
Thank you for listening – and for standing with us.
Talia Winiarsky
J Street U, Northwestern University
