(The Center Square) – A majority of Jewish students surveyed say they don’t feel safe on college campuses.
After the Oct. 7 Hamas terrorist attack against Israel, antisemitism and violence soon escalated against Jews in America – by nearly 400%, The Center Square reported.
Violence increased on college campuses with leaders failing to stop it. After congressional investigations, student, alumni and donor outrage, the presidents of Columbia, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard were forced to resign. Last month, three Columbia deans’ disparaging text messages about Jews and money were made public, prompting another congressional investigation.
A new poll conducted by Alums for Campus Fairness shows antisemitism hasn’t subsided but increased in frequency and severity.
“It doesn’t take a survey to tell us that Jewish and pro-Israel students faced significant challenges during the 2023-2024 academic year,” ACF, an alumni network dedicated to combatting antisemitism on U.S. college and university campuses, said. When compared to ACF’s 2021 survey, it shows “dangerous trend lines for Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses. Antisemitism is getting worse. Students are hiding their Jewish identity. We are increasingly seeing a lack of safety in both digital and physical spaces.”
Of the more than 1,100 Jewish students and recent graduates surveyed, 83% said antisemitism is a “very serious problem;” 81% said they or their friends had received threatening or antisemitic messages from individuals associated with their university.
Nearly 80% said they avoided places on campus out of concern for their safety solely because they are Jews. “The situation is particularly dire at private universities,” whose campuses saw a 45% increase in reported physical threats against Jewish students., the report found,
Sixty percent surveyed said a faculty member had made an offensive antisemitic remark to them or someone they knew; 58% said they or someone they knew was physically threatened on campus because they were Jewish.
Another 44% said they “never” or “rarely” felt safe identifying as Jews on campus.
“It is painfully evident that Jewish and pro-Israel students faced significant challenges during the 2023-2024 academic year,” ACF Executive Director Avi Gordon said. “The high-profile antisemitic incidents and the pervasive climate of fear on many of our nation’s campuses are well known.”
The survey also includes remarks from students and alumni. One current student at a state university in the southwest said, “My professor went on a rant about how there’s too many Jews in medicine. He also said that terrorism is just what the big army calls the little army, and said Hamas is a group of ‘freedom fighters.’”
Hamas, the acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), was designated by the U.S. State Department as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997. “It is the largest and most capable militant group in the Palestinian territories and one of the territories’ two major political parties,” according to the National Counterterrorism Center.
The Department of Justice recently filed terrorism and murder charges against six Hamas leaders for their role in the Oct. 7 terrorist attack. Hamas took credit for killing 1,200 and taking another 240 hostage; 97 remain in captivity; 33 are confirmed dead, according to the Times of Israel. The administration has failed to negotiate the release of remaining hostages, including six whose bodies Israeli forces recently found.
A graduate of a state university in the southwest also said an Israeli student was “called a terrorist by a faculty member at our school after October 7,” according to the ACF report.
A current UCLA student said, “Jewish students, including many people I know, were assaulted and harassed for weeks and weren’t protected by school response. I’ve heard of people running around with knives for Jewish students or posting pig related artwork to represent Jews. It is insane and rampant.”
The ACF findings were published as several lawsuits make their way through the courts related to antisemitism and Hamas. In one, a Texas congressman sued the Biden-Harris administration alleging it’s facilitating the funding of Palestinian terrorism killing civilians in Gaza and the West Bank, Israelis and Americans, and using U.S. taxpayer money to do it.
In another, Jewish groups sued Palestinian groups arguing they are “collaborators and propagandists for Hamas.” In California and New York, Palestinian groups allegedly supported rioters taking over parts of college campuses, committing violence, vandalism and antisemitism and forced graduation ceremonies to be canceled. In Texas and Florida, rioters were arrested, and graduation ceremonies weren’t cancelled.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis invited Jewish students to “learn in Florida where they will be respected and not persecuted due to their faith.” He and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott advanced efforts to combat antisemitism, directing state troopers to quell rioters. They, their respective legislatures and public university leaders maintain that calls for death to Jews and hate speech is not protected speech.
In another lawsuit, Islamic groups sued Abbott saying his actions suppressed free speech. Abbott not only maintains that pro-Hamas protesters “belong in jail,” but that “Antisemitism will not be tolerated in Texas” and “students joining in hate-filled, antisemitic protests at any public college or university in Texas should be expelled.”