Professor Rebecca Kobrin, the Russell and Bettina Knapp Associate Professor of American Jewish History at Columbia University, was a special guest at Congregation Tifereth Israel’s Tikkun Leil Shavuot event, held on Tuesday, June 11. Professor Kobrin joined Rabbi Gadi and two other speakers, all of whom connected their remarks to receiving the Torah at Mount Sinai, the focus of the Shavuot observance.

Professor Kobrin talked about the protests and violence on the Columbia campus in the aftermath of the brutal Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack on many scores of Jews in Israel. Encampments by Palestinians protesting Israel’s retaliation were common on college campuses across the U.S.