Inside the Chabad House near the Emory University campus, two Israel Defense Forces reservists were preparing to meet 50 local students on Tuesday, April 2.  

Outside, a crowd of about 30 people were gathering in protest of Israel. Emory Students for Justice in Palestine spread the word to show up and protest, which attracted a non-student crowd who proceeded to yell and scream obscenities at Jewish students. 

IDF reservists Eliah Levkovitz, 33, and Gil Schlesinger, 30, commanders in a special task force in the 55th Paratroopers Brigade, Battalion 66, were in Atlanta to speak with students and elected officials about where they were on Oct. 7, how their unit responded, and what they accomplished on their mission. 

Michael Cohn, an organizer who learned only of the visit 10 days ago, said the reservists were “shocked, quite frankly, at the brutal hate speech and vitriol directed as Jewish students. The Jew-haters have every right to protest, but standing on the sidewalk forcing students to walk through a cesspool of hate, some so clearly imported from off campus, was disgusting.”

The security detail for Chabad was approached by a protestor who lifted his shirt to show he was armed with a gun. 

Days earlier, Chabad had released information that the IDF reservists would be in town to a small group of people. It was reposted on social channels. Messages asking to attend began flooding the inbox of Chabad rebbetzin Miriam Lipskier recognized as “outside the community.”

Lipskier tried to warn DeKalb County Police Department that a protest was in the works. They declined to be present before the event began.

Cohn said the reservists recognized that the students are fighting a different kind of war on campuses across the country. 

Two protestors were arrested at the scene. DeKalb County Police have not yet provided an incident report to Rough Draft.

“It’s upsetting that this passes for public discourse in America,” said Lipskier.