“My parents left the Soviet Union so that I could live openly as a Jew, something they were never fully able to do. When I think about what they gave up so I could have that freedom, backing down simply isn’t an option. Staying silent would mean surrendering the very thing they sacrificed for,” Tessa Veksler told the Jewish Independent when asked from where she gets her courage.
When antisemitism surged worldwide after Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on Israel, Veksler – who was a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) at the time – stood up against the hate. She has become a prominent Jewish and Zionist voice on social media, and well beyond. Her story is among those featured in the documentary October 8, about the increase in antisemitism in the United States, and she has shared her experiences with many audiences, including at the White House and at the United Nations. On Nov. 15, 11 a.m., she will headline Jewish Federation of British Columbia’s signature women’s philanthropy event, Choices.
“Beyond my family, there’s a resilience etched into my bones from thousands of years of Jewish history,” Veksler continued. “Our people have faced exile, persecution and attempts at annihilation, and every generation has refused to disappear. I refuse to be the broken link in that chain, the one who backs down because of threats.
“And when I remember what happened on Oct. 7, and what my people endured that day, the hate comments directed at me are nothing in comparison. That perspective keeps me grounded. Courage, for me, isn’t the absence of fear. It’s knowing that the cost of silence is far greater than the cost of speaking up.”
Veksler’s parents emigrated from Odessa in search of a better life – more opportunity, but also to escape the antisemitism that Jews faced in the former Soviet Union. They settled in the San Francisco Bay Area because Veksler’s great-aunt was there and she served as the family’s sponsor.
“My family is a huge part of who I am,” said Veksler. “I’m the first in my family born in the United States, but their immigration story is deeply personal to me. Knowing what they left behind, and why, has shaped the work I do today and continues to inspire who I am.”
Veksler has an older brother, Alexey, who was born in the former Soviet Union. The two are “very, very close,” she said.
Veksler grew up in a secular home. At age 17, she went to Israel for the first time, as part of the NCSY program called the Jewish Journey (TJJ).
“Honestly, it wasn’t my idea at first,” Veksler admitted. “A friend of mine, another Russian-speaking Jewish girl from my community, had gone on TJJ the summer before, and my parents were actually the ones who convinced me to go. They thought it would be a fun trip to Israel, something like Birthright. They didn’t realize NCSY was an Orthodox youth movement, and little did they know what the outcome would be.
“I eventually agreed because I was curious. I saw the appeal of visiting Israel and … saw it as a chance to meet new people,” said Veksler, who didn’t know a single person on the trip. The experience changed the course of her life.
“It led me to start a Jewish student union at my high school, spend a gap year in Israel and build my own sense of Jewish identity, one I still live by today,” she said.
In her gap year, with Masa Israel, Veksler studied Judaics at Bar-Ilan University while also doing her UCSB coursework.
“I definitely noticed things at UCSB long before Oct. 7,” she said about the antisemitism that existed. “I enrolled in January 2021, taking my classes online while studying at Bar-Ilan University in Israel … so I was already tuned in to campus attitudes even from afar.
“That May, I lived through the war in Israel. Just a few weeks later, a divestment resolution came up on campus. Having just been there, it struck me as incredibly out of touch, and it’s actually what first pulled me into student government.
“So, yes, anti-Israel bias and antisemitism existed at UCSB well before Oct. 7,” she said, “but not on anywhere near the same scale. It wasn’t a constant thread throughout the year or a daily source of tension. After Oct. 7, it became exactly that.”
Veksler was president of UCSB’s student government when Oct. 7 happened.
“Because I supported Israel openly – on social media and everywhere else – I started experiencing daily harassment. It was a painful and infuriating year,” she told masaisrael.org.
In addition to harassment and threats, she survived a vote six months later to remove her from the student government “after a petition reached nearly 1,000 signatures from her peers, solely because of her open support for Israel,” the Masa article notes.
Veksler graduated from UC Santa Barbara in 2024 with a degree in political science and communication.
“Today,” she told the Independent, “I’m based in New York City, where I work full-time as a public speaker, content creator and advocate. I create social media content, speak to audiences around the world, write, and work on projects that build toward the issues I care about most. I also serve as a UN representative for the National Council of Jewish Women.
“Across all of it, my focus is the same: helping people engage across differences, standing up against antisemitism, and showing that you can hold firm convictions while still building bridges with people who see the world differently.”
Shabbat observance is a large part of what allows Veksler to do this challenging work.
“It’s my weekly reset and the most important part of my week,” she said. “No matter how heavy things get, I know that every Friday night I’ll get to unplug from my phone, the news and the comments section, and instead plug in spiritually.
“Shabbat is when I see my friends, go on long walks, read, and spend uninterrupted time with the people I love. It reminds me that my life is much bigger than the hate directed at me. And every week, I come out of it with the strength to keep going.”
Veksler will be interviewed at Choices by author and journalist Marsha Lederman. For tickets to the Nov. 15 event, go to jewishbc.ca/choices.
