Written by a retired civil trial lawyer, CAUGHT IN THE CAMPUS CROSSFIRE explores the limits of the First Amendment right of free speech and the paramount right to be protected from discrimination and intimidation on college campuses. This is done through the fictional story of a shooting during pro-Palestinian campus protests. Latino student, Javier, takes a bullet fired by a radicalized Palestinian student, to save his Jewish best friend, Avi. Avi’s mother, a lawyer and of Arab and Israeli descent, files a lawsuit on behalf of Javier’s family to bring those responsible, including the university, to justice. The novel also includes a discussion of the recent headline-making Congressional hearings on campus antisemitism while sensitively interweaving the complicated history of the Middle East Conflict and going into the evolution of American attitudes toward Jews and Israel, in particular, the history of Jewish and African American relations.
