World
College Democrats’ Jewish caucus demands apology for group’s hosting of Hasan Piker
The Jewish caucus of the College Democrats of America on Tuesday condemned the organization for hosting the far-left, anti-Zionist streamer Hasan Piker at the group’s national convention over the weekend.
The College Democrats of America is a campus activist group that says it has more than 100,000 members at colleges across the US.
The group hosted Piker, who has a history of extremist, far-left rhetoric, at its national conference in Washington, DC, on Saturday.
The Jewish caucus statement took aim at Piker’s past statements, such as repeatedly calling some Jews “inbred,” calling a Jewish man a “bloodthirsty, violent pig-dog,” and dismissing Hamas’ sexual violence during the October 2023 invasion of Israel.
The statement also condemned Piker’s past misogyny, such as joking about date rape, and claiming that “America deserved 9/11.”
“The normalization of Piker and his rhetoric in CDA-sanctioned programming is a direct threat to Jewish safety and inclusion within the College Democrats community,” the statement said. “Applying a double standard to the safety and representation of Jewish students is a manifestation of antisemitism and is inconsistent with our shared Democratic values.”
The Jewish caucus said “bigoted rhetoric” should be disqualifying and that the organization’s choices inform members about who is welcome.
“Elevating Piker at this convention sent Jewish students a clear message that they were not welcome,” the statement said. “The same standard CDA would rightly apply to bigotry on the right must also be applied within our organization.”
A member of the caucus, who asked to remain anonymous, told The Times of Israel that members only heard of Piker’s appearance through a surprise announcement on social media, after they had already traveled to the convention.
“Many, many attendees were upset because we had already invested so much of our time and money into coming and we had no idea that someone like him would be speaking to us, representing our cause,” the caucus member said. “It was shocking, it was upsetting and it felt uncomfortable. Just personally speaking, I no longer felt like I really had a place there as a Jew.”
They added that attendees had planned to walk out of Piker’s speech in protest, but that the convention’s organizers headed off the protest by telling participants they would not be able to exit the room, citing security concerns.
The leftist Jewish group J Street also came under fire for co-sponsoring the event with Piker. J Street defended the decision on Monday, saying it had “no role in choosing speakers, no approval over the program and no say in who was invited to address the conference.”
The Jewish caucus statement called on the organization’s national leadership to apologize for platforming Piker and and for restricting members from leaving the room, to publicly condemn Piker’s antisemitic and misogynistic comments, and commit to ongoing dialogue with the caucus on future programming.
The College Democrats of America did not respond to a request for comment.
