Protestors disrupt Oct. 7 memorial hosted by Claremont Hillel.
Masked protestors disrupted an event held Wednesday evening in commemoration of the two-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, shouting at attendees that they were “all complicit in genocide.” The memorial event, hosted at Pomona College by Claremont Hillel and the Claremont Colleges’ Jewish Chaplain, featured a talk by Oct. 7 survivor Yoni Viloga.
The vigil was scheduled on the Hebrew-calendar anniversary of the attacks and featured candlelighting, prayers, and a presentation by Viloga, who survived the Oct. 7 attacks in his native kibbutz. Viloga reflected on the trauma he experienced alongside his family, and the talk included graphic footage of his murdered neighbors surrounded by Hamas terrorists.
Shortly after Viloga concluded his presentation, four individuals with their faces wrapped in keffiyehs barged in through the room’s fire exit door. The event’s lone security guard was standing outside of the room, stationed at what was believed to be the only accessible entrance.
“The fact that they burst into the room mere minutes after we had watched graphic and disturbing video footage of similarly dressed Hamas terrorists committing horrific atrocities made the moment incredibly frightening and all the more shocking,” a leader of Haverim, the colleges’ Jewish student union that had promoted the event, told the Independent.
Video of the Oct. 15 disruption.
Attendees of the event recalled that the disruptors yelled at Viloga, accusing him of being an “IOF terrorist” and shouting “Zionists not welcome here.” They read off a script, shouting to be heard through the masks and keffiyehs obscuring their faces.
A few seconds after the disruption began, the Claremont Colleges Jewish chaplain and two faculty members moved to stand between the disruptors and the rest of the room.
“My first concern was that they would come into the room more forcefully. I wanted to not allow them to gain greater access to the room so they could not harass students,” Claremont McKenna professor Gary Gilbert told the Independent. “My other goal was to gently shepherd them out of the room as quickly as possible and get them to leave.”
As more attendees joined in to block the disruptors from further entering the room, the singular security guard posted outside was nowhere in sight. Hillel Director Bethany Slater ran to retrieve the guard.
The confrontation between attendees and protestors became increasingly heated as both sides shouted at each other and came into physical contact.
“Get the hell out of here,” attendees yelled as they continued to block the protestors. Footage of the altercation shows some shoving back and forth between the two groups.
“You’re not allowed to touch us,” one of the disruptors said, as another continued to read off of the printed script. “Hands off,” the protestor insisted. “You’re assaulting us.”
“Zionism is still a colonial ideology,” one of the disruptors yelled, again shouting “You’re all complicit in genocide” at attendees of the memorial. “Israel is not real,” they added.
The guard, a contractor working for a hired security company, briefly attempted to intervene before retreating, presumably to call for backup.
By the time Campus Safety officers arrived, the protestors had disappeared back through the doorway, yelling “Free Palestine” as they departed. The disruption lasted a little over two minutes, and the event continued with a candlelighting ceremony, student speeches and poetry readings.
“Every time the door opened for the rest of the event, students would get jumpy. We were so scared,” a student attendee of the memorial told the Independent. “Me and a bunch of the other kids were crying and shaking when it happened.”
As the event was concluding, about an hour after the interruption, Pomona President Gabi Starr and Dean of Students Avis Hinkson arrived and spoke to Slater and Hillel’s Director of Community Relations, along with remaining attendees.
The following morning, Starr sent out an email to the Pomona community.
“We have seen videos of the incident and they are shocking and deeply disturbing,” she wrote. “It is both outrageous and cruel to interrupt a space where members of our community come together to mourn. Antisemitic hate cannot be tolerated here. Our community is better than this.”
“While we have not yet identified the individuals, we are examining video footage taken during the event, as well as security footage to determine how access could have been gained,” Starr added. “We are also reviewing our security protocols for on-campus events.”
Masked demonstrators interrupt event, confronted by attendees.
A spokesperson for Claremont Hillel told the Independent:
“The intrusion at Hillel’s memorial program for the victims of October 7 was completely unacceptable. Jewish students must be able to gather, grieve, and remember without fear or intimidation. We are grateful for Pomona College’s swift response and strong condemnation of this incident, and we are working closely with administration to strengthen safety protocols and support our students in the wake of this upsetting incident.”
Starr’s email also stated that “Security personnel stationed outside were the first to respond,” a claim which was contested by attendees of the event.
It was “absolutely, 100% false” that security personnel were first to respond, Gilbert told the Independent, calling that aspect of Starr’s statement “inaccurate” and “insensitive.” Organizers of the event further confirmed that there was also only one security guard, not multiple “personnel.”
“The security guard stationed outside did nothing,” Gilbert added.
Because Claremont Hillel staff are not directly affiliated with the Claremont Colleges, Hillel cannot request security from the Colleges, and must use students, faculty, or the chaplain as intermediaries. Hillel, or co-hosts of its events, must pay for college-provided security per guard and by the hour, for a minimum duration of four hours.
According to individuals familiar with the matter, the stairway through which the protesters accessed the fire door was supposed to be blocked by a locked door.
Gilbert, who has organized an event with Israeli journalist and author Matti Friedman to take place at Claremont McKenna College later this month, told the Independent that he would be working with CMC to bolster security measures at the event.
“Given what happened last night and what I’ve seen posted on Instagram by Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine, I’m going to be working very closely with the security office at CMC to make sure the event is safe.”
The same night as the Hillel event, Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a movie screening, which was set to begin at 6 p.m. The movie, “The Teacher” has a runtime of just under two hours. The memorial was disrupted around 8:20 p.m.
Earlier in the day, a Claremont SJP co-post with National SJP targeted a member of CMC’s board of trustees, calling her a “Butcher” who made her career “working to arm the Zionist entity to the teeth while silencing all opposition.”
Claremont SJP also held a vigil on Oct. 7 of this year, which an organizer said “was about grieving the collective life lost in the past two years due to colonial and state violence, this includes all Israeli fatalities from Hamas’ [sic] attack on the Nova festival.”
Claremont Students for Justice in Palestine did not respond to a request for comment.
Viloga told attendees after the incident that this was the first time one of his presentations was disrupted by protestors. He is currently touring U.S. college campuses with the organization Faces of October 7, which connects Jewish communities with survivors of the Oct. 7 attacks.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire last week that required the return of all hostages and partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza as a precondition to further negotiations.
Wednesday’s incident marks the first major disruptive action at the Claremont Colleges since the takeover of Pomona’s Carnegie Hall by student protestors on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attacks in 2024. It is also the first time that an event hosted by one of the colleges’ Jewish organizations has been interrupted by protestors.
“We had a year of relative quiet, but any feelings of comfort that we had accrued during that time evaporated when they burst through the door,” the Haverim student leader told the Independent.
“It was very disheartening to see that [the protestors] are still not deterred from their harassment and it makes me worry about Jewish life on campus because this is usually not their MO,” the student added. “This is the first time they’ve stormed and interrupted a Jewish event. I was surprised by that and it does worry me. I don’t want freshmen to be traumatized when they go to Jewish events.”
On Oct. 7 of 2024, the first anniversary of the attacks, hundreds of students participated in the occupation of Pomona’s Carnegie Hall. The building takeover disrupted classes and resulted in extensive property damage. A dozen students were suspended in response, with many more banned from Pomona’s campus.
Attendees of Wednesday’s event told the Independent that the disruptors carried a video recorder with them, possibly opting not to carry their phones to avoid identification through their devices’ connection to the school’s wifi. Wifi connections were used by Pomona to identify students who were present during the occupation of Carnegie Hall.
Prior to the Carnegie Hall incident, student protestors took over President Gabi Starr’s office on April 5, 2024, which resulted in Starr calling the police. A month after the occupation of Starr’s office, students sent up an encampment on Pomona’s Marston quad, forcing Pomona to find a new venue for commencement.
The memorial featured a talk from Oct. 7 survivor Yoni Viloga and a candlelighting ceremony.
On campus, members of the Jewish community reflected on the event’s disruption. In an email to Hillel community members, Slater noted that “Our most important task right now is caring for our students. Our staff is reaching out individually and is available for anyone who needs to talk.”
She also emphasized that “Even as we grieve and process what happened, we are looking ahead to moments of joy and renewal,” and invited students to attend upcoming Hillel events. “Jewish life at the Claremont Colleges is about so much more than struggle; it is about resilience, celebration, and the beauty of community,” she added.
Others expressed concern for the wellbeing of Jewish students and broader state of campus discourse at the Claremont Colleges.
“I was mostly disturbed by the effect this disruption will have on students. I can leave campus and enjoy my life, but it’s much more difficult for students to disengage. What happened last night happened at their home, on their campuses,” Professor Gilbert told the Independent.
“There are plenty of ways to communicate your political beliefs. This is not one of them.”
Emilio Bankier contributed reporting. He was previously an intern and trustee of Claremont Hillel, and a member of Haverim leadership. He no longer serves in either organization.
