Don't Know Much About with Naya Lekht

"The Campus That Celebrated October 7th" with Eyal Yakoby

• Naya Lekht • Season 1 • Episode 37

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In this episode of Don't Know Much About, Naya Lekht sits down with Eyal Yakoby: UPenn graduate, incoming MIT student, and one of the most prominent young voices documenting Jew hatred on campus and in the streets of America.

Eyal was a senior at the University of Pennsylvania when, in the three weeks before October 7th, four antisemitic incidents struck his campus in rapid succession: a swastika drawn inside a campus building, a break-in at the Hillel, vandalism of the Chabad House sukkah, and a bomb threat that students didn't learn about until 13 hours after the fact. When October 7th happened, Eyal watched professors in his own department post celebrations of the massacre. He decided then and there to use every platform available to him to fight back.

In this conversation, Naya and Eyal explore what it actually looked like on the ground — the encampment that took over UPenn's student center at Thanksgiving, the Middle East studies department chair who threatened to have Eyal reported to police for "harassing professors," the civil rights lawsuit he filed against Penn, and the broader ideological rot he sees not just on the left but across Western institutions. Eyal also shares his strikingly optimistic long view: why he thinks Israel is going to be fine, why the real danger is what's happening to London, Brussels, and New York, and why he believes Jewish people, and everyone who cares about civilization, need to be less victim-oriented and more winner-oriented.

Eyal joined Naya at the first-ever World Symposium Against Antizionism in Toronto on May 17th.

In this episode:

  • The Palestine Writes Literature Festival and the four antisemitic incidents that preceded October 7th at UPenn
  • What Eyal saw on campus the morning of October 7th
  • "I went out on a Friday night with my friends. They woke up dead in Gaza or running for their lives."
  • The encampment that occupied UPenn's student center — and who was actually in it 
  • The bomb threat against Hillel that Penn sat on for 13 hours — and why that was the moment Eyal decided to sue
  • Why Eyal believes the issue at universities was never about speech — it was always about conduct
  • The Middle East studies department chair who threatened him with police two months after October 7th
  • Why young people are getting sucked into antizionism — and Eyal's COVID-era community collapse theory
  • The Haredi draft, Arab citizens, and national service: Eyal's take on Israel's biggest internal challenge
  • The difference between Jew hatred, antisemitism, and antizionism — and why it matters
  • Why Eyal thinks the Jewish people are in a better position historically than most people realize
  • Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, and the rise of right-wing antisemitism: problem or losing mentality?

Guest Bio: Eyal Yakoby is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania (Political Science & Modern Middle East Studies) and an incoming student at MIT's Sloan School of Management. As a senior at UPenn, he became one of the leading student voices documenting antisemitism and antizionism on American college campuses. He spoke at a House Congressional leadership press conference in 2023 and testified before the House Judiciary Committee in 2024. He has appeared on CNN, ABC, and Fox News and contributed to The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The New York Post. He is currently a plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit against the University of Pennsylvania.

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