Digital Library
A Looming Crisis for the American Jewish Community Campus Antisemitism & the Assault on Jewish Identity
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism, Israel & Regional Politics
Principal Investigators:
Leila Beckwith and Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Study Date:
2022
Source:
AMCHA
Key Findings:
This study investigated the nature, scope and trajectory of the threats to Jewish identity on over 100 college and university campuses most popular with Jewish students and the potential sources of those threats, with a particular focus on faculty and anti-Zionist Jewish groups and individuals.
254 incidents involving either suppression, denigration, redefinition, or some combination of these threats to Jewish identity occurred from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 at 63 (58%) of the 109 U.S. schools most popular with Jewish students.
A comparison of the ten-month period before the onset of the conflict (July 1, 2020 – May 9, 2021) and the first ten months of the 2021-2022 academic year (July 1, 2021 – May 9, 2022) found a 100% increase in overall threats to Jewish identity, from 114 incidents in 2020-2021 to 228 incidents in 2021-2022. In addition, the total number of schools with overall threats to Jewish identity rose from 41 to 58, a 41% increase.
Schools with five or more faculty boycotters were 6.5 times more likely to have incidents involving the redefinition of Jewish identity. Schools hosting one or more SJP or similar groups were 4.5 times more likely to have incidents of redefinition.
Schools with five or more faculty boycotters were 3.4 times more likely to have incidents involving the denigration of Jewish identity. Schools with one or more (non-Jewish) anti-Zionist student groups were 6.0 times more likely to have incidents of suppression.
Academic departments were involved with the purveying of 21% of all incidents containing threats to Jewish identity, 36% of the incidents containing redefinition, 13% of incidents with denigration and 7% of the incidents involving suppression. Jewish anti-Zionist individuals and organizations were involved with 12% of all incidents containing threats to Jewish identity, 19% of the incidents containing redefinition, 12% of incidents with denigration and 8% of the incidents involving suppression.
Eighteen schools (17%) had an active Jewish anti-Zionist student group such as JVP, and each of those schools also had one or more non-Jewish anti-Zionist student group such as SJP. However, 51 of 69 schools with an active non-Jewish anti-Zionist student group such as SJP had no JVP or similar group.
In the short term, the pervasive and well-coordinated attacks on Jewish identity will undoubtedly result in increasing numbers of Jewish students feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus, or to detach from Jewish life partially or completely. In the long term, the sheer scope of the assault on Jewish student identity - which negative affects the level of communal identification and participation of an entire generation of young Jewish adults - presages a major crisis for American Jewry.
Methodology:
Data were gathered from 109 North American public and private colleges with significant populations of Jewish students (as denoted by Hillel International) by reviewing submitted incident reports, media accounts, social media postings and on-line recordings. Each incident occurring July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 was analyzed to determine whether one or more academic departments were involved with the incident, and whether an anti-Zionist Jewish individual or organization was involved.
Incidents were identified as being threats to Jewish identity if they contained one or more of the following behaviors or types of expression:
- Redefinition (Zionism ≠ Judaism, Anti-Zionism ≠ Antisemitism, Zionism is anti-progressive, Jew Splitting);
- Denigration (vilifying of specific Jews, Jews generally, and campus/U.S. Zionists or Zionist organizations with accusations of malign intent and undue privilege, power or influence used to cause, support or promote harm to Palestinians or their supporters);
- Suppression (Calls to eliminate Zionism from campus and beyond, cut all ties to Israel, Zionism or Zionists; Attempts to boycott, shut down, or cancel specific Israel-related programs, events, trips, articles, or collaborations or dialogue with Zionists or Zionist student groups; Encouraging students to reject Birthright trips; denigrating Birthright and those who go on it; Bullying, intimidation to silence Jewish and Zionist expression)
Negative binomial regression was used to isolate the respective contributions of faculty boycotters and the presence of Jewish and non-Jewish anti-Zionist student groups, controlling for the size of the school and whether it was a private or public institution.