Jewish leaders warn of rising antisemitism on college campuses
Touro College President Dr. Alan Kadish and Rabbi Abraham Cooper discuss anti-Israel demonstrations at universities.
Educators and Jewish leaders are sounding the alarm on an "outbreak" of antisemitism on college campuses and are speaking out against faculty and students who displayed a complete "lack of empathy" following the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israel.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which has been tracking instances of antisemitism in the U.S. since 1979, reported over 100 antisemitic incidents in the United States since October 7.
The organization also said it received a sharp increase in complaints from college campuses during a conflict between Israel and Palestinian forces in May 2021 and again this month.
Speaking with Fox News Digital, Touro College and University System President Dr. Alan Kadish said Jewish students on college campuses over the past decade have felt an increase in antisemitism but, up until this point, have felt perhaps that it was manageable.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators attend a protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
"I think the most recent outbreak has shattered that illusion," Kadish said of the Hamas terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians.
He said that while many points of view may be appropriate to demonstrate or talk about, there are times when one may need to "modulate" their freedom of expression.
Drawing an analogy, Kadish suggested that while many controversial racial issues are appropriate to discuss on campuses, it would be "disastrous" if protesters highlighted those issues with demonstrations following "traumatic experiences," such as the murder of George Floyd.
"We wouldn't want a demonstration about affirmative action or anti-racism to take place on a college campus the day after that happened. Yet, at campuses all over the country and all over the world immediately after the murder of over a thousand civilians and a mass kidnapping and torture and rape that's almost unimaginable that evoked images of Nazism, students had no compunction about getting up and demonstrating about a problem that's serious but decades old," Kadish said of pro-Palestinian protestors.
Those protests, he added, demonstrated a "complete tone deafness" and "lack of empathy" for Jewish students.
Counter-protester held back by police when confronting an anti-Israel demonstration in Cambridge. (Fox News Digital)
"We need to teach morality. We need to teach values. And we need to demonstrate and reiterate that not all points of view have equal validity. Not everything is truth. Not everything needs to be considered equally valid," Kadish said.
Touro University, the largest Jewish-sponsored educational institution in the U.S., has a student body of around 40% Jews. Kadish said that while things have been relatively quiet on campus, the larger educational system has expressed "tremendous concern" with students seeking mental health counseling over the Israeli conflict, especially on their Jerusalem campus.
"Look, antisemitism has been around for 2000 years and doesn't seem to die. And the hallmark of any racist or antisemitic idea is that you treat groups differently, that somehow groups are different," he said. "And I think blaming Israel and having anti-Israel demonstrations because Hamas murdered a thousand civilians just highlights how outrageous a continuation of long-term antisemitism that is."
Kadish said that by no means is he suggesting that we're reentering the Nazi era, but he does believe there is an undercurrent of sentiment against Jews on university campuses in the U.S. that has been underestimated. In his opinion, the first step is for the adults in the room to stand up and say these beliefs are wrong.
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Simon Wiesenthal Center Associate Dean and Director of Global Social Action Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who recently shared a statement condemning some universities for their silence over student-led comments condemning Israel, said the narrative of Hamas has entered the mainstream discourse on college campuses.
"Whether it's apathy or a lack of will or guts to stand up to it, the universities are allowing the goalposts to be moved," Cooper said.
He said that in the past, campuses have been a prime location for discussing new ideas, especially regarding the history of Israelis and the Palestinians. However, these ideas have since become more muddled, wherein students conflate the aspirations of the Palestinian people with the Hamas narrative.
"Now what you have is young Palestinians and their supporters, probably also Iranians. They can be in London. They can be down in Houston, anywhere. And you have suddenly the defense going out, defending Hamas and showing pride in what they achieved. When, in fact, when you behave that way, you're probably pushing away the dream of having your own state by another generation," he added.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrators attend a protest at Columbia University in New York City, New York on Thursday, October 12, 2023. Dueling demonstrations for both pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli student groups were hosted on the campus amidst calls for global protests regarding the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. (Julia Bonavita/Fox News Digital)
Cooper pointed to Harvard as an example of how large Jewish donors are closing their checkbooks and choosing not to give money to elite campuses, impacting the quality of life of Jewish students.
Recently, the Wexner Foundation, which focuses on developing Jewish leadership, severed its ties with Harvard amid criticism from donors concerned with the school's "tiptoeing" over Hamas' attacks against Israel, a move that Cooper said was "unprecedented."
Harvard did not return Fox News Digital's request for comment.
The U.S. Department of Education has opened multiple investigations into whether U.S. colleges have violated Jewish students' civil rights by allowing a dangerous environment to foster. The agency launched reviews into at least ten schools, such as UCLA, UC Berkeley, George Washington University, the City University of New, the University of Vermont, the State University of New York at New Paltz and the University of Illinois.
Sohaib Hasan, the founder of the online learning platform OhMyClassroom, told Fox News Digital that several factors have been identified as potential contributors to the rise of antisemitic incidents in higher education.
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Supporters of Palestine gather at Harvard University to show their support for Palestinians in Gaza at a rally in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on October 14, 2023. (Photo by JOSEPH PREZIOSO/AFP via Getty Images)
According to Hasan, one of the primary drivers is the polarization and politicization of issues related to the Palestinian conflict, which she said spills over into college campuses, creating a "hostile environment" for Jewish students and faculty.
"As a result, criticisms of the Israeli government's policies can morph into antisemitic rhetoric, thereby contributing to an atmosphere of intolerance and prejudice," she said. "Additionally, the growing influence of far-right and far-left ideologies, often associated with antisemitic beliefs, has contributed to the propagation of discriminatory attitudes on college campuses."
Queens College Associate Professor Jay Shuttleworth highlighted a recent study by the Anti-Defamation League, which found that around 22% of Jewish students at American universities in 2022 experienced antisemitism and hate at some point while attending school.
Shuttleworth said the study was "sad, disturbing and unacceptable." He suggested that although rhetoric surrounding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict requires thoughtful, evidence-based dialogue, rhetoric "elevating violence" is "dangerous" and signals a person's disinterest in "humane, rational and probable solutions."
The professor also suggested various ways colleges can preserve free speech while protecting Jewish students.
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Pro-Israel counter protestors chant across a line of police officers towards a vigil organized by NYU students in support of Palestinians in Washington Square Park in New York City on October 17, 2023, amid ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (ALEX KENT/AFP via Getty Images)
He said that campus newspapers provide a broad swathe of free speech protections. However, this freedom should not demand that these papers' editors publish antisemitic materials. Shuttleworth also stressed that campus members should establish forums where multiple informed perspectives are presented on an issue.
"Bigoted viewpoints have no place in such discussions, and those with a record of it should be politely avoided by event planners. Including such perspectives creates the mistaken view that any dangerous, hateful viewpoint offers a legitimate solution to a controversial issue," Shuttleworth added.
A new survey from the ADL and the University of Chicago Project on Security and Threats found that about 10 million U.S. adults hold high levels of antisemitism and express support for political violence.
Emmy award-winning producer Daniella Greenbaum told Fox News Digital that although polls show Americans overwhelmingly support Israel in its struggle against Hamas, ADL polls show a "disturbing" difference among the 18-21 demographic.
"Anti-Israel college groups like Students for Justice in Palestine have always downplayed Hamas's genocidal tendencies, but this latest conflict has truly been a mask-off moment. Student activists have blatantly supported last week's massacre as the resistance they have been calling for; they are trying to rebrand Hamas as 'freedom fighters' instead of as the bloodthirsty terrorists that they are. It's the very reason you're seeing college students pull down flyers of innocent babies who have been kidnapped by Hamas," she said.
Hate crimes data released on October 16 by the FBI shows that reported hate crime incidents in 2022 rose to 11,634, the highest number ever recorded since the FBI started tracking such data in 1991. The country's reported single-bias anti-Jewish hate crime incidents sharply rose by more than 37%, reaching 1,122 incidents, the highest number recorded in almost three decades and the second-highest number on record.
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Many experts who spoke with Fox News Digital attributed the rise in antisemitism partially to social media.
Hasan, who currently works as an educator and psychologist at Brilliant Career Secondary School, noted that extremist groups increasingly use social media platforms to "disseminate hateful and anti-Jewish propaganda," influencing susceptible individuals within the college community.
"The impact of the digital age cannot be underestimated either," she said. "The ease of spreading hateful messages through online platforms has facilitated the rapid dissemination of antisemitic propaganda, contributing to a broader normalization of discriminatory behavior among some groups."
While specific statistics may vary depending on the region, Hasan said numerous anecdotal reports and some studies have indicated increased antisemitic incidents on college campuses. Jewish students have reported harassment, discrimination, and exclusion, leading to concerns about their safety and well-being.
Cooper was also alarmed by social media posts and educators pushing the narrative of "Jew hatred" and denying crimes against humanity. He urged parents or interested family members to hit back on the rhetoric coming out of those schools, noting that many receive federal and state money. In his opinion, there has been a "poisoning of the well" at many of these schools, led by many "unindicted coconspirators."
"The Hamas narrative is not about speech. It's about action and about the ultimate acts of antisemitism. And yeah, they're worse than the Nazis. The Nazis tried to hide it, and they're livestreaming it," he said.
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