A prominent TikTok influencer and recent graduate of New York University called for college administrators to speak out in defense of Jewish students and condemn the "unconscionable" antisemitic rhetoric happening on campuses across the country.
"Young people need to know right from wrong. You need to give them an open space to express themselves. But at the end of the day, kids need structure and kids need guidance. And some of these kids, they will cry if their identities aren't validated. But you're allowing them to cheer on Hamas and chant death to Jewish people. Unacceptable, unconscionable, disgusting," Link Lauren told Fox News Digital.
Lauren, who covers politics and culture for his TikTok channel, started focusing on serious topics when he realized the majority of his Gen Z peers use TikTok as their only news source. His videos have piled up millions of views, he has nearly 400,000 followers on TikTok alone and has landed interviews with presidential candidates Vivek Ramaswamy and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Lauren’s recent videos have put a spotlight on anti-Israel protests and pro-Palestinian demonstrations erupting at colleges across the United States.
Since the deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists, many Jewish college students in the U.S. have said they don’t feel safe on campus after a plethora of eyebrow-raising headlines. Harvard University student groups faced widespread criticism for signing onto a statement blaming Israel for Hamas' attack, a Cornell professor was caught glorifying the terror, Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at various universities across the country have voiced support for the terror attacks, and NYU, which is Lauren’s alma mater, saw its Student Bar Association president publicly declare "unwavering and absolute solidarity with Palestinians in their resistance against oppression toward liberation and self-determination."
Lauren, who has said he’s "embarrassed" to be an NYU graduate, believes the recent events illuminate underlying systemic issues.
"What we've seen on college campuses the past week, it's actually just the tip of the iceberg of what's been underneath the surface for the past five or ten years with the indoctrination and the coddling of students on these campuses," Lauren said.
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In one powerful viral video, a tearful Jewish University of Washington student was seen pleading with a school official to make an anti-Israel protest come to an end. "They want us dead. Please end it, please," she was heard saying after asking how such an event was even allowed.
A panel of college students recently spoke with Fox News' Lawrence Jones about the antisemitism they have faced since the Israel-Hamas war began.
"People are scared to go to class. You have to sit next to classmates who are posting antisemitic rhetoric, who are promoting rallies that spew antisemitic rhetoric," Julia Wax, a Georgetown University law student, told Jones.
Lauren is baffled that schools aren't doing more to protect Jewish students.
"I always say if you stand for nothing, you fall for everything. And that's what we're seeing on these college campuses. I'm the biggest proponent of free speech and the First Amendment. If you want to go out there and protest something in a peaceful manner, do it," Lauren said. "But when you're making other students cry, scared to leave their classrooms, feel unsafe when you're chasing other students, that's when a university needs to step in, and that's when they need to be real leaders."
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Lauren said schools have a "responsibility" to make all students feel safe and thinks there is a clear hypocrisy at prestigious academic institutions.
"Some of the same kids who are protesting on college campuses right now, they're the same ones who would cry and call the police if a conservative guest speaker came to campus. I mean, we've seen this many times before. So, it's a little bit hypocritical for some of these kids to chant death to Jewish people to cheer on Hamas when they were crying because a conservative speaker came to campus," he said.
"I think in a lot of these fancy Ivy League universities, they say they love diversity. They're always about diversity and free speech," Lauren said. "As long as that diversity means you don't stray from the agenda, and you agree with everything they say."
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