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The Social Costs of Being Jewish and Supporting Israel on Campus What a Before/After Survey Can Tell Us
Topic:
Antisemitism & Antizionism, Israel & Regional Politics
Principal Investigators:
Eitan Hersh
Study Date:
2024
Source:
Jim Joseph Foundation
Key Findings:
Do Jewish students on college campuses face a hostile environment? Particularly since the October 7, 2023 attack in Israel and subsequent tensions at universities around the United States, the Jewish community has been trying to answer this question. This report shares findings about social tensions from the perspective of Jewish and non-Jewish students.
Between April 2022 and Nov/Dec 2023, a massive increase in students agreeing with all three survey statements in the survey is seen. A third or more of Jewish students in 2023 said they must hide their Jewish identity in order to fit in and that they are judged if they participate in Jewish activities (about double what it was in 2022). Two-thirds to three-quarters of Jewish students agree that they pay a social penalty if they support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state in 2023.
Jewish students are not a monolith. Some Jewish students come from backgrounds where they are very engaged in Jewish life and others have almost no background in Jewish education, culture, or religion. Do both kinds of students experience these feelings of social isolation or just one or the other? One might reasonably think that the students from more robust Jewish backgrounds (who also tend to be more positively predisposed toward the state of Israel) might have felt an increase in social isolation following October 7 whereas students from other backgrounds felt no difference. But that isn’t the case.
Hersh divided the sample by creating a statistical model that takes in information about how much “Jewish stuff” the students did growing up, like attending a synagogue, having a bar mitzvah, etc. Dividing the sample based on those from more or less robust Jewish backgrounds, we see that the increase in feelings of social penalties is present for both kinds of students.
Do non-Jewish students corroborate that Jewish students and Israel-supporting students are socially stigmatized? Of those who agreed or disagreed (i.e., they did not answer, “I don’t know”), 13% of students agreed with the first statement in 2022, which more than doubled to 29% in 2023. Similarly, 2% of students agreed with the second statement in 2022. That more than tripled to 7% in 2023.
Which kind of students say they wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state? The highest agreement comes from those on the far left or who identify as socialist. Among those students, about 50% agree with the statement. Among progressives, moderates, and conservatives, about 25% of each agree with the statement. On the center and right, agreement is lowest among libertarians and Christian conservatives and higher among the students who identify as alt-right. To the question about avoiding Jews, agreement is slightly higher on the right than the left, with alt-right identifiers most likely to agree.
The nonwhite students are more than twice as likely to say they wouldn’t want to be friends with an Israel supporter and that they avoid socializing with Jews. Among non-white students with sufficiently large sample sizes, it is African-American students who are particularly likely to agree that they avoid socializing with Jews. Among white students, 1 in 40 (2.5%) say they avoid socializing with Jews. Among black students, 1 in 7 (14%) agree. Two-thirds of Muslim respondents wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, and a quarter say they avoid socializing with Jews.
Students on the far left – the socialists, the very liberals – as well as Muslim students, non-white students, LGBT and non-binary students are most likely to say it’d be very hard for pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students to be friends.
Methodology:
In the Spring of 2022, approximately 2,000 Jewish students and 1,000 non-Jewish students across the country who were attending 4-year colleges were surveyed. Hersh published a report in 2022 that analyzed several questions related to Israel and antisemitism that have become especially relevant in light of the recent turmoil on campuses. Between November 16 and December 21, 2023 – 40-75 days following the October 7th attack – a second survey was fielded. This survey was completed by about 1,000 Jewish students and 1,500 non-Jewish students. The Jewish students include those who consider themselves ethnically or culturally Jewish even if not Jewish by religion. 155 of the Jewish students surveyed in 2023 were among the students who were surveyed back in 2022.
Both in 2022 and in 2023, Jewish students were asked three agree/disagree questions that gauge whether they perceive a social cost for either being Jewish or for supporting Israel: (1) In order to fit in on my campus, I feel the need to hide that I am Jewish; (2) People will judge me negatively if I participate in Jewish activities on campus; (3) On my campus, Jewish students pay a social penalty for supporting the existence of Israel as a Jewish state.
Two agree/disagree questions that were asked of the non-Jewish students both in 2022 and 2023: (1) I wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state; (2) I avoid socializing with Jews because of their views about Israel. A caveat to do with these non-Jewish samples from 2022 and 2023 is that they are not directly comparable because the first was representative of all college students whereas the second is focused on campuses where there is a sizeable Jewish community present.
All students were asked to identify their ideology from very liberal to very conservative on a 5-point scale. The 2023 non-Jewish students were asked to identify their race and religion, and to answer one more question: (1) Thinking about the atmosphere on your campus, how difficult do you think it would be for pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students to be friends?