On the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 terrorist attack in Israel, followed by the ongoing war in Gaza, members of the Middlebury community came together in a variety of spaces this Monday to mourn the lives lost and reflect on the past year of violence.
Beginning at 11:30 a.m., approximately 100 students, faculty, staff and local residents gathered at the Middlebury Chapel for a walk-out and rally organized by the Middlebury Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on Monday, Oct. 7. Over four hours of SJP programming was divided into six segments: the walkout, a rally, a 100 year history lesson on Palestine, a divestment workshop and a grief space. The event was registered and approved by the college in line with the administration’s communication at the start of the semester clarifying that unregistered protests may result in official college discipline.
Later that night at 7:30 p.m., members of the college community gathered for a memorial service for the lives lost in the Oct. 7 attack last fall. This event followed a day of open spaces on campus hosted by Middlebury Hillel and the Scott Center for Jewish students to come together, grieve and reflect on the ways the conflict has impacted their lives this past year.
Middlebury SJP’s “Week of Rage”
The SJP programming on Monday began with a rally, where student speakers called on students to keep thinking about the genocide in Gaza and to continue to speak out against Israel’s pursuit of the war.
“Palestine is what should unravel our view of the world, of our governments, of the international institutions that we thought would protect humanity, but instead continue to enable and be active participants in the genocide of Palestinians,” the first speaker said. “While we get to sleep at night, bombs rain down on Palestine and Lebanon.”
Athena Antippas ’26 spoke next, reminding protestors of Middlebury College’s financial connections to companies protestors alleged are tied to war profiteering in Israel.
“We are disgusted that money paid by every single American student, faculty member and staff member on this campus goes towards funding weapons and technology that fuels the global military industrial complex and specifically has led to thousands of deaths in Gaza,” Antippas said.
Protestors periodically interrupted her speech with calls of “Shame,” punctuated by a student loudly playing the tuba. They also participated in chants, such as “Middlebury, you can’t hide, you’re supporting genocide,” “Not another nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel’s crimes” and “There is only one solution, Intifada revolution.”
Antippas also spoke about the impact of the Gaza Solidarity Encampment that student activists established last spring, when they camped out on McCullough lawn for eight days with various demands, including divestment, a call for a ceasefire by the college and other institutional actions.
“The administration would never have let us into those negotiation rooms on their own good will without the encampment. The administration would never have agreed to accept Palestinian students from Gaza without the encampment. The administration would never have called for a ceasefire without the encampment,” Antippas said.
As the day went on, the group transitioned from speeches to educational workshops, offering education on their divestment efforts in hopes of building new momentum this fall, according to SJP leaders.
“Today was really just about commemorating one year and raising awareness and education and really bringing back the spirit of the encampment from last year,” said one leader of SJP in an interview with The Campus following the protest. “It is really important that we continue educating people and continue getting people out, because we want to hold the school accountable to what the student body wants.”
“We're grateful for our relationship with administration, and we appreciate that they're listening to us in their physical presence at our demonstration,” another leader of SJP said that afternoon. “We also hope that it's a reflection of their actual policy changes, in the promises that they made last semester, especially in the statement.”
The statement in question, “A Commitment to Common Educational Values,” called for a ceasefire and promised conversations with both students and trustees about the codification of divestment from armaments. It recognized SJP’s demands from the encampment last semester, prompting the encampment to disband. Members of the organization remain in communication with administrators about their proposals on divestment, and SJP leaders acknowledged how college leadership is coming to the table with a different perspective than them.
“Once we're in these rooms with administrators, there is a level of bureaucracy that we do have to deal with,” one leader of SJP said. “Making sure that even in those meetings, negotiating with the urgency of a genocide is really important to us.”
Oct. 7 Memorial Service
At 7:30 pm that day, the Middlebury Chapel also hosted an Oct. 7 Memorial Service sponsored by Middlebury Hillel and the Scott Center for Spiritual and Religious Life that invited community members to “remember and grieve the lives lost on October 7 through poetry, music, prayer and ritual,” according to the event listing on the college’s calendar.
Co-President of Middlebury Hillel Evie Happel ’26 shared the group’s intentions for hosting opportunities for Jewish students to gather together on Monday.
“We’ve acknowledged that it's a time of extreme grief and loss, and we've been doing a lot to support students. In honor of the anniversary, we're having open hours for Jewish students at our at the Jewish student center and having a memorial service,” Happel said, adding that the open hours would allow students to come together and connect in a quiet, reflective space.
Middlebury Chabad previously held a vigil outside of McCullough Student Center in conjunction with Jewish students on Oct. 11, 2023 for the lives lost on Oct. 7 last year. The Muslim Students Association held a “Vigil for Palestine” inside the chapel on Nov. 9, 2023 to mourn those who died in Gaza.
A Jewish student who asked to remain anonymous said they helped plan the SJP protest, adding that the location of the rally was decided before the organization knew about Hillel’s intention to hold a vigil there that night. The student shared that the organization did not want to create any tension between the two groups with its protest.
Amidst the memorial and open spaces for Jewish students to gather on Monday, Middlebury Rabbi Danielle Stillman reflected on the increasing challenges posed by antisemitism at Middlebury in the wake of the war in Gaza.
“I’ve noticed an increase in antisemitic stereotyping on social media, including Middlebury’s Yik Yak platform. These things sometimes spill over into real life,” Stillman wrote in an email to The Campus. “This war has brought a lot of polarization here in the U.S., and with it there has been an increased tendency to make assumptions about people based on their identities, rather than seek them out for conversation that would lead to more understanding.”
Students at the college have previously expressed varying levels of concerns about antisemitism in the past year; the StandWithUs Center for Legal Justice filed a complaint with the Department of Education last January alleging a “hostile campus climate for Jews,” a claim that the college responded to by launching a public webpage detailing community standards and support for students affected by the conflict.
“I think some members have and some members haven't,” Happel said, when asked if Middlebury Hillel has noticed a similar rise in antisemitism this past year.
Stillman added that even if others at the college do not intend to be antisemitic, their actions may have a negative impact on Jewish students at the college.
“When people make assumptions, it can be experienced as antisemitic even when this is not the intent. There has also been a lot [of] insensitivity to the emotions that some Jewish students have been feeling,” she wrote. As a member of the Scott Center, Stillman said cooperation with colleagues across Middlebury’s religious life is still a key part to supporting each other and a variety of students on campus.
“We make every effort to listen to each other’s different perspectives, care for each other and the different student constituencies we each work closely with, and learn from each other,” Stillman wrote. “The only change since October 7th is the importance of this communication with each other has intensified.”
SJP visits Boston, looks to future action
In the spirit of building more momentum and maintaining pressures on the college for change, some members of SJP traveled to Boston this past weekend to attend the International Day of Action organized by the Boston Coalition for Palestine. The event was a convergence of different SJP chapters from the New England area, as well as independent protestors.
“It's really great to leave the Middlebury bubble and see what people on the ground are doing, especially in metropolitan, more densely populated areas,” said one SJP leader who attended the rally in Boston. “It was a really great opportunity to just meet with other people who treat this issue with as much importance as we do, who understand the gravity of the situation, and who aren't necessarily so isolated like we are in such a rural setting.”
Protestors marched from Boston Common to Storrow Drive, eventually rallying outside the Israeli consulate. Flyers stating “One year of genocide, one year of resistance” were spread by the pro-Palestinian student groups organizing the event.
Throughout the development of the war and SJP’s evolving approaches to its activity on campus, grief and sorrow have been constant. Leaders of the club have stated they intend to prioritize creating grief spaces for all students on campus.
“I think another really big element that we have today is grief. We will be holding grief spaces in the future, because we think it's an important thing to have,” another SJP leader added.
The National SJP has designated its Oct. 7 through Oct. 11 protest series the “Week of Rage,” calling for vigils, rallies and many speakers across college campuses in the U.S. Middlebury’s chapter of SJP expressed a desire to bring back the high energy from last spring, while acknowledging the developments these past six months will impact their mission.
“The student protest scene has also been changing a lot, and I think it's been really great to see turnout for a new semester and a refreshing course of action for what we're gonna get accomplished this year,” one of the organization’s leaders said.
Editor’s Note: Editor in Chief Ryan McElroy ’25 and Managing Editor Cole Chaudhari ’26 contributed reporting to this article.
