During Sunday\u2019s commencement at Duke University, students walked out as speaker Jerry Seinfeld was introduced. The reason why is that Seinfeld has openly supported Israel. This incident is the latest in a string of disruptions at colleges across the country.\n

As they left the ceremony, the students\u00a0chanted\u00a0\u201cFree, free Palestine,\u201d as a group of other graduates appeared to jeer them.\n

The walkout triggered many online comments, suggesting that the students were protesting because Seinfeld is Jewish, with some accusing the participants of antisemitism.\n

David Swanson \/ Reuters\n\n
Former U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger, an Illinois Republican,\u00a0posted, \u201cSo students at Drake [sic] walk out because the speaker, Jerry Seinfeld, is Jewish? This is antisemitism, cloaked in concern for Gaza.\u201d\n
Democratic U.S. Rep Daniel Goldman of New York,\u00a0posted on\u00a0X,\u00a0\u201cJerry Seinfeld is a Jewish American who has nothing at all to do with Israel\u2019s foreign policy or military defense. Holding an American Jew responsible for the actions of the Israeli government is quintessential antisemitism.\u201d\n
\n
$\"\"$
YouTube\/ The Guardina\n\n
The organizers of the walkout claimed their decision had nothing to do with the actor\u2019s religion but with him being vocal in supporting Israel. Further, the protesters called for Duke University to disclose its investments in Israel and consider divesting from companies with connections to Israel. They called for a ceasefire amid the ongoing conflict.\n
Seinfeld received an honorary degree and delivered his speech without major interruptions.\n
\u201cWe\u2019re excited and delighted for the Class of 2024 and their families. We understand the depth of feeling in our community, and as we have all year, we respect the right of everyone at Duke to express their views peacefully, without preventing graduates and their families from celebrating their achievement,\u201d Duke spokesperson Frank Tramble said in a statement.\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
During Sunday\u2019s commencement at Duke University, students walked out as speaker Jerry Seinfeld was introduced. The reason why is that Seinfeld has openly supported Israel. This incident is the latest in a string of disruptions at colleges across the country. As they left the ceremony, the students\u00a0chanted\u00a0\u201cFree, free Palestine,\u201d as a group of other graduates …\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":84547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84546","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84549,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84546\/revisions\/84549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/echowoven.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

Seinfeld received an honorary degree and delivered his speech without major interruptions.\n