Patricia Heaton leads counter-campaign against anti-Semitic vandalism on university campuses: “We must fight back”
Actress Patricia Heaton could not believe her eyes when she saw Hamas bodycam footage on social media on October 7 denouncing the terrorist group’s attacks on Israel.
After student protests broke out on several US college campuses, Heaton decided to take matters into his own hands and fight back.
“I couldn’t believe it and was outraged,” the “Everybody Loves Raymond” star told Fox News on Monday.
“I looked around for anyone else who would be outraged… and it was very quiet, so my partner and I formed the October 7th Coalition, or O7C, to help Christians take action, visibly and vocally support Israel and the Jewish people, and fight anti-Semitism.”
ACTRESS PATRICIA HEATON UNITES CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY TO FIGHT ANTI-SEMITISM: “IT’S UP TO US” TO DO SOMETHING
Jewish Americans face anti-Semitism in a variety of ways: Jewish businesses have been defaced with Nazi symbols, protesters have blocked Jewish students from attending classes, and now some Jewish students have even had their mezuzahs – a piece of parchment with a prayer written on it that is usually attached to a doorframe – disappear from their dormitories.
Harvard student Sarah Silverman described her experience in an opinion piece published in The Harvard Crimson earlier this month, in which she wrote, in part: “I was rushing out of my Thayer dorm room, toothbrush and toothpaste in hand, when I noticed something was missing. Where my mezuzah – a Jewish ritual object traditionally attached to doorposts – had been so firmly attached, only a bit of the glue I had used to hang it was still visible.”
The mezuzah was later discovered across the hall, two doors away from Silverman, embedded in a wall.
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“I can only speculate whether this was a targeted act. Worst of all, I wonder if someone on my floor – or even someone I had just met – hated my identity so much that they felt compelled to scare me,” she continued later in the article.
Stories like Silverman’s inspired Heaton and O7C to raise awareness with the #Myzuzah/Yourzuzah campaign, which encourages participants to record and post a video of themselves placing a mezuzah and use the hashtag #myzuzahyourzuzah.
“We have to stand up for the Jewish people… and that’s what we’re working on,” she said.
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