Some Jewish Emerson College students say they were forced off campus by protests
BOSTON - Pro-Palestine encampments at Boston colleges that were later broken up by police have many students who live on campus on edge.
Many Jewish students at Emerson College say they are unnerved by the protests. One student, who wished to stay anonymous, said she is one of several Jewish students who chose to live in an off-campus hotel room provided by the college.
"Now that I am not on campus anymore, I feel a definite sense of peace," the student said. "Every day, I am nervous to wear my necklaces."
Her dorm room is located right outside where the encampment used to be. "I could focus more. I could rest. I didn't have to fall asleep listening to them screaming chants," she said.
Emerson sophomore Arthur Mansavage still sees pro-Palestinian comments written on the campus walls in the common areas. "There have been quite a lot Jewish and Israeli students who have felt very uncomfortable with this encampment," Mansavage said. He also chose to live in a hotel during the encampment. "I shouldn't have to be moved to a different place to feel comfortable. It's definitely very comforting to be able to walk into a building not feeling so intimidated," he said.
Now that the encampments have been removed at Emerson, students say the school is no longer paying for the hotels, so many of them are moving back on campus. They also say the good news is that now that school is almost over many are packing up to go home at the end of the week.
Mansavage is back on campus and packing up his belongings. He leaves Friday. "It will be a nice reset over the summer. We'll see how the fall goes," he said.
Meanwhile another student decided not to return her dorm room, and is now paying out of pocket to live in a hotel until she returns home to her family in Israel in a few days.
"I just felt very unsettled. But, to me, the most unsettling thing is my family in Israel texting me, worried about me," she said.
