NEW YORK — Elizabeth Pipko stated at The Jerusalem Post Annual Conference in New York on June 1, 2026, that threats against her have intensified after she publicly defended Israel. She also said more than 95% of students at her Jewish day school in New York now choose it because they no longer feel safe in other educational institutions.
Pipko, who serves as president of the school, described receiving explicit threats following her public statements on Israel. “When I sign off after defending Israel, the messages become actual threats,” she said. “People telling me I don’t deserve to live. People saying Hitler should have finished the job.”
She recalled a conversation more than two years before the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack with a Jewish student at the University of Pennsylvania, where Pipko later enrolled in 2021. The student told her, “Our fellow classmates would rather know you were at January 6 than know you’re a Zionist,” Pipko recounted.
Pipko argued that long-standing educational narratives portraying Israel and the United States as oppressors have shaped students’ responses to events like the October 7 massacre. “When you teach people from a very young age that Israel is the oppressor, just like the United States is the oppressor, then something like October 7 doesn’t change their worldview,” she said. “They just do mental gymnastics to justify it.”
She expressed regret over societal inaction, stating, “We turned a blind eye and we let it happen. Shame on every single one of us for not paying attention to what our young people were being taught.” Jewish parents now routinely contact her seeking safe school alternatives for their children—a development she never anticipated. “I never thought those would be the messages I’d get,” she said.
Although raised to stand up for herself, Pipko said she no longer feels comfortable offering that advice to young Jews today. “My grandparents and parents always taught me to stand up for myself,” she said. “But I don’t feel safe giving that advice anymore.” Instead, she tells students to “stay quiet, stay focused on your studies, and protect yourself.”
Born in New York to Soviet immigrant parents, Pipko said she grew up deeply conscious of both her Jewish identity and American patriotism. She described herself as “one of the proudest Americans you’ll ever meet.”
No independent assessment of Elizabeth Pipko’s claims was available.