A survey released in March 2024 by the Anti-Defamation League and Hillel International shows that 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism since the start of the school year. On college campuses today, Jewish students are being harassed, excluded, and silenced, not because of anything they’ve done, but because of who they are. The Anti-Defamation League – a non-governmental organization founded to fight antisemitism and other forms of bigotry – released an audit on April 22, 2025, that recorded 9,354 cases of assault, harassment and vandalism of Jewish people in the United States.
Incidents of discrimination aren’t about politics but about human dignity. In an educational atmosphere, everyone should feel safe, heard and understood. Allowing such hatred to go unchecked makes the school appear to be failing to uphold values they stand for.
Jewish students are being targeted for who they are, not just what they believe. The ADL recently looked into 135 total American universities to analyze their handling of antisemitism. These schools were chosen because of reports of harassment, exclusion, and judgement for expressing their connection to Israel which for many Jews isn’t a political stance, but part of their identity.
According to a Pew Research Study survey, eight in ten Jews say that caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them. This represents the historic reality that Jews as a people originated in ancient Israel and found safety there after the systematic killing of 6 million during the Holocaust. This means people are shaming or threatening Jewish students just for showing pride in their connection to the one Jewish state that has ever existed in the history of the world.
Campus responses to reports on anti-semitism have been inconsistent or weak, leaving Jewish students feeling unsafe and unsupported.
In many cases students are denied direct aid for the harassment they report. At American University in Washington D.C. one Jewish-Isreali student was repeatedly spit on by fellow students and had his piano recital flyer vandalized with swastikas and “DEATH TO THE ZIONISTS HITLER WAS RIGHT.” Dormitory doors of Jewish students were also marked with swastikas. One student received a text from an unknown number that said, “I know who you are, jew.”
As documented in the complaint, while the university took prompt and effective action in response to incidents of Islamophobia, AU officials ignored the anti-Semetic discrimination. The complaint even describes how the university chose to further harass and discriminate against several Jewish students by subjecting them to a baseless disciplinary hearing. This complaint is listed in the Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and was Titled VI Complaint with the Department of Education.
Another complaint to the Brandeis Center for Human Rights came from Jewish students at Yale University who experienced disparate treatment, discrimination and exclusion from Yale events. Jewish students wearing yarmulke, wearing a Star of David charm or known to be Jewish were physically blocked by masked protestors from entering Sterling Memorial Library and the Yale Law School library during finals week. Though these actions violate Yale policies, the administration elected not to mention or enforce their policies when Jewish students complained. While these are examples from only two universities there are similar stories in campuses across the nation.
Allowing antisemitism to spread also threatens the integrity and values of education. Zach Sage Fox is a University of Pennsylvania Alumni and a Jewish-American. In a series he calls Gaza Graduation he interviews students protesting for Palestine on college campuses to see what they know about the conflict. In one interview, he sat in a roundtable with Jewish college students and allowed them to share first-hand stories of anti-semitism they’ve witnessed.
A female student at Syracuse University spoke about witnessing a protest outside of a Jewish frat where people yelled “Heil Hitler.” One Jewish student from Fordham University described that students posted on a school organization online platform, “All Jews are pigs” and “All Jews are baby killers.” Shai Davidai was an Israeli professor at Columbia University who was kicked out of the campus after speaking up against student harassment there.
Two students from The New School of Design described how Jewish students didn’t go to their classes for weeks in the spring of 2024 afraid for their physical safety. These kinds of occurrences are not progressive to the values of education and inclusion.
Many protesters believe that campus protests are part of broader human rights advocacy. They believe that Israel, as a nation with military power, should be held accountable and they are not attacking Jewish identity or religion. However, protestors should care about human rights, but can do it without fueling a hate movement. They can demand peace without enabling violence. By choosing to not do both, they aren’t helping anyone.
Before choosing to take these acts of aggression people should ask themselves, “Will this move us closer to peace?” They should recognize whether it will inspire the same hostility and fear that extremists have used to keep the war going. Many protestors say they do not support Zionists. However, being a Zionist means supporting the empowerment of Jewish people, not supporting Jewish people at the expense of Palestinians or anyone else.
According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance the working definition of Antisemitism is, “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.” Anti-semitism is relevant today in the United States and we have to teach each other how harmful bigotry and discrimination is.
“If your idea of protesting Israeli government policies is to assault or harass or intimidate Jews, that doesn’t make you a political activist, that makes you a bigot,” Oren Segal said, ADL’s senior vice president for counter-extremism and intelligence.
