Rising fear of anti-Semitic attacks causes stampede at UF vigil for Israel
Monday’s candlelight prayer vigil came to a sudden end after one student fainted and crashed to the ground.
Rabbi Aharon Notik explains the unease among members of the Jewish community after the Hamas attacks on Israelis.
A candlelight vigil for Israelis held at the University of Florida on Oct. 9 was interrupted by sudden panic that caused a stampede, according to police. The vigil commemorated the victims of the recent Hamas terror attacks that left thousands raped, murdered, mutilated, and otherwise maimed.
A student fainted during the event, prompting a 9-1-1 call. According to the UF Police, the participants misunderstood the ensuing commotion and pandaemonium broke out. A video captured by one individual and posted on X shows the moment panic erupted.
After the chaos subsided, more than 30 students were hospitalized from the stampede.
In a statement released on X, the UF Police Department confirmed at least five were injured. “We have no reason to believe that there was malicious intent behind this incident,” stated Chief Linda Stump-Kurnick. “It was an accident that was misinterpreted by the crowd that led to panic.”
Chanie Goldman from the UF Jewish Student Center told People magazine that “People came to the event on edge to begin with because there is a fear [of] going to any Jewish event that something could happen.”
“Because of what’s happening overseas, of course there’s going to be tension,” University of Florida Campus Reform Correspondent Emily Sturge said. She stated that she’s never seen an attack on the Jewish community at UF, but she also speculated that the campus’ unease could certainly be caused by the recent terrorist attacks against Jews.
Rabbi Aharon Chaim Notik at UF’s Jewish Student Center seemed to share that sentiment as well.
“Anti-Israel” or “anti-Jewish,” he told Campus Reform, are euphemisms for hatred of the Jewish community. Notik also likened the anti-Semitism behind Hamas’ slaughtering of Israeli citizens to that of the Nazis during the Holocaust, which still ripples throughout the Jewish community worldwide.
When that ideology rears its head overseas, Notik concluded, it is logical that Jewish students will easily panic when someone passes out at a prayer vigil.
The University of Florida enrolls over 9,000 Jewish graduate and undergraduate students, one of the largest in the nation.
All parties mentioned in this article were contacted for comment.
