Shai Davidai
@ShaiDavidai · Pro-Israel advocacy & explainers
Shai Davidai is a Columbia University professor who became a national figure confronting campus antisemitism after October 7.
Almost three years ago, I screamed my lungs out in the center of campus, begging the world to notice the celebration of Hamas and the October 7 Massacre at Columbia University. I did it for one reason, and one reason only: to make sure people understood what was happening. Three years later, I am publishing American Intellectual Antisemitism: The Anti-Jewish Movement Tearing Through Our Universities to help people understand why it happened, who and what made it possible, and how we can fight back. The argument at the heart of the book is simple: Before antisemitism reached the streets, it captured the syllabus. Coming out in less than a month, the book traces how an anti-Jewish, anti-Israeli, and deeply anti-American ideology took hold in our universities and then spread outward—into K–12 schools, the media, cultural institutions, politics, and eventually the streets. It also tells the story of my own journey from professor at Columbia Business School to outspoken Jewish and Israeli advocate, and what I learned along the way. I believe this hatred can be defeated. But first, people need to understand what we are up against. And that is where I need your help. I’m asking you to do two very simple things. 1. Pre-order the book today. If you already have, thank you. Seriously. Every early order matters. Pre-orders don't just sell books. They determine which books get noticed. They tell booksellers, publishers, media outlets, and algorithms that people want to hear what we—Jews, Israelis, Zionists—have to say. You don’t have to buy it for yourself. Buy one as a Rosh Hashanah gift for someone heading off to college. Buy one for a friend or colleague who wants to understand what the Jewish people are going through. Buy one for someone who still doesn’t get it. The people who most need this book may be precisely the people who would never buy it themselves. Help me put it in their hands. 2. DM this post to seven people. Not seventy. Not seven hundred. Just seven. Think of seven people you know will care. DM them this post and ask them to do the same. If each of us reaches seven people, and even some of them reach seven more, this message can travel far beyond the people I could ever reach on my own. That is how bad ideas are defeated: by getting better ideas to more people. So before you keep scrolling: Pre-order the book and then hit the DM button. Seven people. That’s it. May we all find our kivun and kavana—direction and purpose—this coming Jewish year. Shana Tova, Shai https://t.co/9aQB7iDtcv
Hey @mohsenpalestine, welcome to X! Maybe you should start your time here by rejecting the "fighters" and "martyrs" you so boldly said everyone should back?
If even Brad Lander—a token Jew if there ever was one—isn't anti-Israel enough to escape their hatred, imagine what the overwhelming majority of us Jews who proudly support the Jewish homeland face.
...and your regular reminder that @mahmoudkhalel's organization at Columbia literally brought a representative of the terrorist group Masar Badil onto campus.
When will antizionist "pick me" Jews realize that nothing they do will ever be enough for the anti-Israel mob?
.@Etanetan23 is not a journalist. He is an ideologue with an agenda. He would sell his own grandmother for acceptance among the anti-Israel crowd.
4. I count every Jew as a Jew—including antizionist Jews like @rafaelshimunov. Ironically, so do the Jew-haters he affiliates with and allows himself to be tokenized by. And when they eventually turn on Rafael and other antizionist Jews—as antisemites always turn on Jews—I will fight for people like Rafael, too. Not out of love. Out of pity.
2. Even if only 10% of American Jews supported Israel, the majority of Jews worldwide still would. See, antizionist Jews like @rafaelshimunov seem to think America is the center of the world. They have a hard time internalizing that roughly half of world Jewry lives elsewhere—and thinks very little of them.
1. If you actually read the survey—which I doubt @rafaelshimunov has—you'd see that the vast majority of respondents stand with Israel but refrain from using the label "Zionist," presumably because Rafael and his antizionist buddies have worked so hard to turn it into a slur.