Stanford University junior Molly Horwitz, who said she faced anti-Semitic questioning during her campaign for student senate, has won her election.
Horwitz, 21, was one of 15 students elected last week, the student elections commission announced.
“I am very humbled to have been elected,” Horwitz said in an email to J. “I think this is a step in the right direction toward bettering the campus climate.”
Horwitz became the focus of national news coverage after alleging that she had been targeted for being Jewish during an endorsement interview with a student organization. She said that as she was seeking an endorsement from the Students of Color Coalition, an interviewer asked her, “Given your strong Jewish identity, how would you vote on divestment?”
Stanford’s student senate passed a resolution in February calling on the university to divest from some companies doing business in Israel, and divestment remains a hot-button issue on campus. Though the school’s board of trustees said it will not take action on the resolution, Jewish groups and some faculty members say a divisive environment for Jewish students on campus has been created.
Horwitz, whose campaign was focused on improving mental health services on campus, said she would not have minded the question about divestment, which she opposes, if it hadn’t been tied to her Jewish identity. In an op-ed in the Stanford Daily, SOCC denied bringing up Horwitz’s Judaism. Stanford’s student judicial council and university officials are both investigating the matter.
In the days before the election last week, Horwitz’s campaign distributed a poster with the words “Stand Up to Stigma” superimposed over Horwitz’s image. — drew himmelstein