Dozens of students stormed out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony in protest over guest speaker Jerry Seinfeld who has supported Israel since the Oct 7 atrocity by Hamas and throughout the war in Gaza.
The comedian, 70, was met with a a mix of cheers and boos as he was introduced before students carrying flags and chanting ‘free, free Palestine‘ marched out of the Wallace Wade Stadium on Sunday.
As a wave of antiwar protests grip universities across America a flyer distributed on campus before the ceremony said: ‘When you see students walking out, follow them,’ WRAL reported.
Seinfeld has been a staunch supporter of Israel and visited the country to meet with hostage families in the aftermath of the October 7 attack when Hamas invaded and killed 1,200 and abducted 252 more.
Other graduates shouted ‘Jerry! Jerry!’ as the actor received an honorary degree and went on to deliver his speech without any further major interruptions.
Students carrying Palestinian flags and chanting ‘free, free Palestine’ walked out of Duke University’s commencement ceremony when guest speaker Jerry Seinfeld was introduced
Seinfeld visited Israel and has vocally supported it since Oct. 7 when Hamas killed 1,200 people and abducted 252 others
The comedian and his wife Jessica serve as national chairs of the Duke Parents Committee while their daughter Jessica graduated from Duke and their middle son Julian is a current Duke student.
Despite the walk-outs as his speech got underway, Seinfeld, who has been described as being ‘uncharacteristically vocal’ in his support for Jews in Israel, avoided the issue at the centre of the protests during his address.
At one point, he mentioned his Jewish heritage, with his comments met with applause from the crowd.
‘Privilege is a word that has taken quite a beating lately. Privilege today seems to be the worst thing you can have. I would like to take a moment to defend it,’ he said.
‘Again, a lot of you are thinking: “I can’t believe they invited this guy”. Too late. I say use your privilege.
‘I grew up a Jewish boy from New York, that is a privilege if you want to be a comedian,’ he quipped.
Concluding his point, telling the students to use the education they had ‘earned’, he said: ‘You went to Duke, that is an unbelievable privilege.’
Pro-Palestinian protesters raise flags during the University of Michigan’s spring commencement ceremony
During his speech, Seinfeld also said his three real keys to life are hard work, paying attention and falling in love.
‘Whatever you’re doing, I don’t care if it’s your job, your hobby, a relationship, getting a reservation at M Sushi, make an effort,’ he said.
‘Just pure, stupid, no-real-idea-what-I’m-doing-here effort. Effort always yields a positive value, even if the outcome of the effort is absolute failure of the desired result. This is a rule of life. Just swing the bat and pray is not a bad approach to a lot of things.’
‘Every chance you get, fall in love with your coffee. Your sneakers. Your Blue Zone parking space. I’ve had a lot of fun in life falling in love with stupid, meaningless physical objects,’ Seinfeld said.
‘I have truly spent my life focusing on the smallest things imaginable, completely oblivious to all the big issues of living.’
He added that students should remember that ‘not enough of life makes sense for you to be able to survive it without humor, and that they should maintain it even as they work hard to ‘make the world a better place’.
‘When you are done, as I am now, I bet the world because of you will be a much better place,’ he said, adding ‘It still won’t make a whole hell of a lot of sense’.
The protest at the Duke commencement is among a wave of pro-Palestine demonstrations which have swept college campuses in recent days and weeks.
Howard University was forced to shut-down its College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences graduation in the middle of the ceremony on Thursday.
At least one person was injured when chaos erupted after the ceremony reached maximum capacity and guests tried to get into the auditorium, reported FOX 5 DC.
‘During the ceremony, a visitor who was not able to enter the facility, which had reached capacity, leaned on the front door, unintentionally applying pressure to a pane causing it to break,’ the university said.
‘This incident led to a disturbance among guests and a disruption of the program taking place inside. Guests in attendance were immediately dispersed following this incident.’
Columbia University canceled its university-wide graduation ceremony, after weeks of campus protests over the ongoing war in Gaza.
Instead, Columbia will replace the large-scale commencement, which was set to happen on May 15, with smaller celebrations based in individual colleges within the university.
‘Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,’ the Ivy League said. ‘As a result, we will focus our resources on those school ceremonies and on keeping them safe, respectful, and running smoothly.’
The New York Police Department burst onto Columbia with riot gear to break up the tent encampment, arrested over 100 people, and took Hamilton Hall back from student occupiers.
Protesters chanting anti-war messages and waving flags mobbed the stage at University of Michigan’s graduation ceremony on May 4
Many robe-wearing student-demonstrators could be seen waving Palestinian flags and yelling, ‘Palestine will live forever,’ and ‘Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest,’ as the event went on.
Columbia University canceled its university-wide graduation ceremony , after weeks of campus protests (pictured) over the ongoing war in Gaza
University of Southern California administrators canceled the school’s main stage commencement ceremony amid pro-Palestine protests (pictured)
In one video, people can be heard cheering and clapping for the graduates as their name is called on.
While in another video, several graduates can be heard yelling, ‘Shut the f*** up,’ in a sing-song voice while another decries, ‘You’re ruining our graduation!’ as other students chant.
University of Southern California administrators canceled the school’s main stage commencement ceremony as a result of the extra time needed to process the large number of guests coming to campus who will be subjected to increased safety measures.
‘We will not be able to host the main stage ceremony that traditionally brings 65,000 students, families, and friends to our campus all at the same time and during a short window from 8:30am to 10am,’ read an announcement from the school dated April 25.
The decision follows days of unrest on the sunny SoCal campus in the wake of the cancelation of the class of 2024’s valedictorian address, after the honor had been bestowed upon a Muslim student with explicitly anti-Israel views.