Lily Levin
Overview
Lily Levin has demonized Zionists and spread hatred of Zionism on campus.As of September 2022, Levin’s LinkedIn page said Levin was a student at Duke University (Duke), studying for a bachelor’s degree in English, slated to graduate in 2023.
Levin was a member of the student advisory board for the Duke Human Rights Center in 2020 and the recipient of Duke’s Kenan Institute for Ethics Summer Fellowship in 2021.
Also as of September 2022, Levin wrote on Levin’s website that Levin had been a “Biweekly Column; Opinion Columnist & Managing Editor” for Duke’s student newspaper The Chronicle from 2019 to 2022.
As of the same date, Levin wrote on Levin’s website that Levin was a “freelance journalist/storyteller.”
As of April 2023, Levin’s LinkedIn page said Levin had been an LSAT [Law School Admission Test] Tutor at Wyzant since January 2023.
As of September 2022, Levin wrote on Facebook that Levin lived in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Demonizing Zionists
On November 17, 2021, Levin wrote an opinion column in The Chronicle, titled: “False claims of antisemitism obscure the need for accountability from pro-Israel organizations.”Levin wrote: “Students Supporting Israel claims to be unaffiliated with Judaism. Yet, when the group was held accountable for the harm they’d caused by inappropriately singling out a peer, they cried Antisemitism. Thus [sic] is the Zionist strategy: a cycle of perpetual victimhood and refusal to see complexity—tied to a narrative that safety can only be achieved through constant violence.”
Zionism is the belief that Jews have the right to self-determination in their own national home, and the right to develop their national culture.
In the opinion column, Levin also endorsed a letter to the editor published a day earlier in The Chronicle by Duke’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter (Duke SJP).
In their letter, Duke SJP claimed pro-Israel student group Students Supporting Israel (SSI) and all “Zionist groups” on campus were “alien to the institution of justice” and guilty of “targeted harassment” which Duke SJP alleged was “the product of Zionist organizing’s fundamental nature.”
Levin wrote the opinion column during a fight in the Duke Student Government (DSG) over giving the SSI chapter at Duke (SSI Duke) official club status.
On November 10, 2021, DSG senators formally recognized the SSI Duke for official club status.
On November 13, 2021, SSI Duke reportedly posted a screenshot on its Instagram page of a Duke student’s tweet which linked an article about DSG recognizing SSI, and was captioned: "My school promotes settler colonialism
."SSI Duke reportedly commented in an Instagram post, responding to the tweet: “...please allow us to educate you on what ‘settler colonialism’ actually is and why Israel does not fall under this category whatsoever…”
On November 15, 2021, DSG president Christina Wang vetoed the senate’s prior approval of SSI Duke due to alleged “inappropriate social media conduct.” Wang reportedly claimed that SSI “singled out an individual student on their organization’s social media account in a way that was unacceptable for any student group.”
On November 17, 2021, DSG senators upheld the veto in a “sealed” vote, with 37 senators voting to uphold the veto, three to override the veto, with 10 senators abstaining and eight absent senators.
The Duke Chronicle reported that Levin spoke at the DSG meeting and “argued against SSI's claim that the veto was anti-Semitic and defended the decision.”
The same day, Levin also published the Duke Chronicle opinion column quoted above, alleging: “crying antisemitism at every semblance of accountability or critique of Pro-Israel organizations is violent.”
Levin also claimed in the opinion column that SSI “is antithetical to living authentically as a Jew” and called on “Pro-Israel organizations to finally begin repairing the deep trauma they have caused their classmates.”
On February 23, 2022, the DSG unanimously reinstated SSI Duke.
Hatred of Zionism
On July 11, 2022, Levin wrote a blog post hosted by Duke titled: “Weeks 4/5: Abolitionism, Zionism, and Forgetfulness.” Levin wrote that Levin was “vehemently anti-Zionist” and claimed that Israel’s “entire existence relies on the subjugation and violence toward another group of people.”In Levin’s November 17, 2021 opinion column, Levin also wrote: “Zionism diminishes our years of abundant survival and persistence and strength to the idea that we cannot have a home without the ethnic cleansing of someone else’s home; that we cannot have strength without someone else having despair; that we cannot have survival without someone else having to die.”
Levin also wrote: “Subjugating Zionism is necessary in recognizing the humanity of us all.”
In Levin’s opinion column, Levin promoted the anti-Israel organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
Levin’s opinion column linked to a document that Levin created with “with various Jewish Anti-Zionist perspectives,” titled: “Working Guide to anti-Zionism: Why it is Meaningful, Important, and Relevant to Jewish history (and not at all Anti-Semitic).”
The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) highlights as one possible contemporary example of anti-Semitism: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” The U.S. State Department adopted the IHRA’s working definition of anti-Semitism in 2016. Over 40 other countries have adopted the definition as well.
In the document, Levin linked to “Key resources” from anti-Israel organizations JVP and Adalah, as well as anti-Israel publications Mondoweiss, Al Jazeera and 972mag.com.
In the document, under the heading: “Responding to common arguments surrounding Zionism’s legitimacy,” Levin denied Jewish indigeneity to Israel.
One way anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is by denying [00:17:45] Jewish history, with the aim of delegitimizing restored Jewish sovereignty, attacking Israel’s legitimacy and portraying Jews as foreign to the Land of Israel.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/lily.levin.90Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/lilylevin_/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-levin-61b80a15b
Personal Website/Blog:https://www.lily-levin.com
MuckRack:https://muckrack.com/lily-levin
- Status:
- Student
- University:
- Duke
- Organizations:
- N/A
- Related Profiles:
- Last Modified:
- 06/23/2025
Photos & Screenshots
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Infamous Quotes
“Subjugating Zionism is necessary in recognizing the humanity of us all.”
