Jessica Seinfeld is praising the "amazing crowd" of Duke University students who stayed put as dozens of others walked out on Sunday to protest her husband's commencement speech. In a post on Instagram, Jessica Seinfeld said a "small group" of protesters "tried to interrupt" Jerry Seinfeld's speech, Fox News reports. "Despite their efforts, it had no impact on the ceremony. In fact, they were boo'd and it inspired the crowd of 7,000 to chant 'Jer-ry! Jer-ry! Jer-ry!' and applaud even louder," she wrote, adding that the speech "was amazing and received a standing ovation from grads and their parents."
Some students chanted "Free Palestine" as they left the ceremony, Reuters reports. Jerry Seinfeld has been a vocal supporter of Israel since the Oct. 7 attacks. Jessica Seinfeld, a cookbook author, recently disclosed that she funded counter-protests at UCLA, reports AFP. In a post on Instagram Monday, she said she supported an April 28 counter-protest at the university, but she condemns "in the strongest terms" the violence that erupted two days later, when counter-protesters attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment on campus.
At Duke, students who walked out of the ceremony were accompanied by faculty and family members at an alternative ceremony, the Chronicle student newspaper reports. Student organizer Zella Hanson, who is Jewish, described Jerry Seinfeld as "an avid supporter of the Israeli military" and said students were also protesting how "every university in Gaza has been destroyed." Student protesters are calling for Duke to divest from its holdings in Israel. After Sunday's alternative commencement ceremony, they posed in front of Duke Chapel to recreate a scene from 1985, when anti-apartheid protesters walked out of the commencement ceremony.
(More
Jessica Seinfeld stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
