Campus Voices Jewish Students' Experiences of Antisemitism at US Colleges

Key Findings:

This report first explores how October 7, the Israel-Hamas war, and the hostile climate on campus affected the day-to-day lives of Jewish students. It then focuses on how Jewish students and Jewish campus professionals viewed the effectiveness of university and community responses to concerns and events on campus. 

-Nearly two thirds of Jewish students rated issues related to antisemitism, Israel, and the Israel-Hamas war as the most pressing issues on their campus, not only in the days and weeks after October 7, but also during the spring 2024 semester. 

-Few Jewish students experienced concrete threats to their physical safety, but concerns about safety were still common, leading many Jewish students to avoid conversations about Israel or even hide their Jewish identity. 

-The Israel-Hamas war and the climate on campus had an especially profound impact on Jewish students’ social relationships, destroying friendships and widening divisions between Jewish and non-Jewish students. These conflicts also led Jewish students to feel excluded or ostracized from many of the student groups and clubs that are an important part of the undergraduate experience. 

-Stress and anxiety related to the war and antisemitism also affected Jewish students’ academic pursuits, mostly due to interactions with other students as opposed to faculty members. 

-Jewish students and campus professionals felt that university administrators were often ineffective in their response to the events of October 7 and Jewish students’ concerns about antisemitism. 

-Campus Jewish organizations provided a refuge during a time of intense grief, created opportunities to express Jewish solidarity, and made space for students who felt excluded from other campus organizations, but were sometimes the source of conflict and alienation for Jewish students with more nuanced or critical views of Israel. 

Takeaways:

Anti-Israel hostility isolates Jewish students from the campus community and drives perceptions of antisemitism. 

Hostility to Israel had a major impact on the day-to-day lives of many Jewish students, isolating them from their non-Jewish friends and peers, student organizations, academic pursuits, and the campus community more broadly. The hostility reported by Jewish students and campus professionals was rarely expressed using explicitly anti-Jewish language. Yet this hostility contributed to Jewish students’ concerns about antisemitism on campus, especially when it targeted Jews based on their Jewish identity, regardless of their views of Israel, or used language about Israel that the vast majority of Jewish students find antisemitic (e.g., “From the river to the sea...”) 

Well-intentioned actions to support Jewish students can sometimes have negative consequences. 

University administrators were frequently criticized by Jewish students and the broader Jewish community for their failure to act quickly and decisively after October 7, and most students we spoke to had negative views of their university’s statement(s) and actions in response to the attacks. At the same time, many Jewish students we interviewed felt that some actions taken to reduce anti- Jewish or anti-Israel hostility, such as suspending or banning Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), further exacerbated campus tensions around the Israel-Hamas war. 

Actions intended to support Jewish students also came from off-campus entities. Throughout the academic year Jewish advocacy organizations criticized university administrations, made statements about safety on campus, and organized speaker events, protests, and counter-protests, but many of the Jewish students and campus professionals we interviewed saw these actions as heavy-handed and incendiary, also resulting in increasing the level of tension for Jewish students. 

For campus professionals, making Jewish life welcoming for Jewish students with diverse views about Israel requires a challenging and delicate balancing act. 

Jewish campus organizations were a refuge for students who felt alienated, ostracized, or simply exhausted by the intense anti-Israel hostility pervading their campuses. But some Jewish students with more nuanced or critical views of Israel and Israel’s government perceived campus Jewish organizations as politicized and unwelcoming of their views and opinions. For campus professionals, making Jewish life welcoming for Jewish students with diverse views about Israel, while also supporting students seeking a respite from anti-Israel hostility, is a complex challenge that demands further attention and support.