At the end of April, I typically reconnect with friends and colleagues who are parents of young people attending university or college, to see how the experience was and what their plans are for the summer. Unfortunately, this year, my conversations have been starkly different with parents who are Jewish and those who are not.

There has been much discussion over the past few months about rallies, freedom of speech, hate speech, encampments and whether the rallies are peaceful. I am not here to debate those issues. I just want parents to realize that their Jewish friends, both parents and their children, are hurting. We feel abandoned by a country and communities that we have supported and helped build.