I've been traveling a lot the last few weeks, visiting grad campuses, student leaders and friends of our organization. In these meetings I could talk JGSI all day and night, and because of my love for what I do I almost never tire of it! But my conversations have shifted in recent months. Increasingly, students and friends alike are sharing their fears about antisemitism. And I can't blame them, because the reality is the game has changed. Across North America, our students are reporting more than ever that they are afraid to be visibly Jewish on campus.

And that was before Kanye and Kyrie happened.

Since then, the topic of antisemitism has dominated the majority of my conversations. Personally, I think both Kanye and Kyrie are total nutjobs. But no one can deny that both have a huge reach and profound influence, especially on young people. To me, what especially hurts here is not their inane comments per se, but the fact that they illustrate how vulnerable the Jewish community still is, despite the incredible success and acceptance we’ve achieved in this country. We’d rather forget it, but there are still people out there–even famous and popular people–who are rabidly antisemitic and will use their platform to encourage millions of others to hate us too.

With the haters increasingly vocal, we Jews can’t stay on the fence. History shows that at times of persecution, the Jewish community rallies and grows even stronger. Our response to antisemitism has to be to double down on being Jewish.

When Jewish students feel increasingly vulnerable on campus, that’s when JGSI works even harder to create a feeling of a strong Jewish graduate community. When a grad student walks into a JGSI program on campus, they immediately enter a safe space where they can connect to Jewish community and heritage proudly and without fear. Grad students are at the time in life when they are cementing their identity – including whether or not to publicly identify with being Jewish – and it’s our job to help them affirm their Jewishness with confidence and strength.

I am thankful for all the amazing Jewish organizations who are out there fighting antisemitism head on, and they deserve our support and praise. At JGSI, we fight antisemitism with pro-semitism. By reinforcing through our grad programming how awesome it is to be Jewish, no matter what Kanye, Kyrie or the other haters may say.