Antisemitism on College Campuses Causes Fear and Pride Among Jewish Students

365 days. 

That is how many days it has been since Hamas, a terrorist organization, launched a brutal attack against Israel. That day, Hamas killed 1,200 innocent Israeli citizens and captured another 251 people. Since then they have launched nearly 19,000 rockets into Israeli territory, executed hostages in cold blood, and used Palestinian schools, hospitals, and civilian structures as cover for their rockets and as a hiding place for terrorists. 

Yet, the majority of college students in America support Pro-Palestinian protests on their campuses. According to a survey conducted by Intelligent, more than half of college students sympathize with Hamas, 10% of students have an unfavorable opinion of the Jewish people, and 9% of college students believe Israel does not have the right to exist.

To dive deeper into this issue, we interviewed two DJDS alumni, Andrew Zimmerman and Rachel Kaufmann, who lived through unprecedented amounts of antisemitism on both their college campuses.

Rachel Kaufmann, DJDS class of 2023, attended Barnard College in New York last year. Andrew Zimmerman attended Northeastern University in Boston. Barnard, which is affiliated and across the street from Columbia, was at the epicenter of the Pro-Palestinian protests, among other demonstrations, while Northeastern had far less extreme protests and demonstrations. Despite how different their stories are, their shared experiences remind us of valuable lessons we often overlook.

For many of the months following October 7th, Northeastern’s campus was peaceful and relatively calm compared to other schools such as Columbia or UCLA.  “After October 7th, people didn’t really know how to react, nothing really changed. People just moved on with their lives,” Andrew said. 

Many of Andrew’s non-Jewish friends were very supportive and tried to comfort him after October 7th. As nice as it was, Andrew felt it was a little weird how these people who had no connection to Israel suddenly decided to pick a side. However, some of his “friends” didn’t feel the same way; they chose to support the other side of the conflict, often ghosting Andrew or cutting him off entirely simply because he supported Israel and they didn’t. All it took was one essay he wrote, discussing how misinformation about the Israel-Hamas conflict fueled antisemitism, for a friend to completely cut ties with him.

Following that experience, Andrew decided that when he was meeting new people he’d just focus on the humanity they shared. “Friends first and policy second,” he said. “There’s so much more two college students agree on than disagree on. At the end of the day, you're two 19-year-olds are trying to meet new people and learn new things, don’t let a war five thousand miles away prevent you from becoming friends.”

Rachel experienced many similar situations and experiences to Andrew. People who had once been there for her didn’t even make eye contact passing one another in the hallways. 

While this might not be a clear act of antisemitism it is a form of passive antisemitism. It isn’t direct or easily defined and often falls into the gray area between anti-zionist and antisemitic. 

As the year progressed both Barnard and Northeastern saw an uptick in violent, antisemitic incidents. 

While Andrew was attending Shabbat dinner at Chabad on Friday, December 1st, a sit-in by over 100 “Huskies [Northeastern’s mascot] for Palestine”, were chanting and holding up signs right outside. “It was scary to be a jew outside and have to navigate the protests… it was scary to see so many people freak out,” Andrew said. Many students say the sit-in was targeting and at the very least disrupting their peaceful Shabbat dinner.

Rachel and Jewish students and teachers at large were being doxed and were being publicly shamed for being Jewish. Rachel, who proudly wears her Magen David necklace was called a “dirty jew” and told to “go back to Europe.” Not only that, but many pro-Palestinian students were heckling Jewish students who had visible signs they were Jewish, such as a kippah and tzitzit. “Six million isn’t enough” and “Go kill yourself” were just some of the things said to Rachel's friends by students at Columbia.

Rachel’s dorm did not have AC and was on the second floor of her building. During the encampments and the height of the protests in late April, she had to leave her windows open to stay cool. As a result, she would often hear the protests, which lasted late into the night (two, three, or even four in the morning). Rachel said she struggled to get sleep during the weeks of protesting. 

“It felt like a once-in-a-lifetime moment [witnessing firsthand the riots and encampments on Columbia]… it was almost surreal to be a part of something that was being nationally televised,” Rachel said. 

Throughout all of the struggle, hateful speech, disruptions to her sleep, and friends abandoning her Rachel would still recommend Columbia to all of her Jewish friends. “I think we have one of the strongest Jewish communities that exist on college campuses,” she said. Rachel explained how having to fight for your community and having to face adversity makes you appreciate what you do have so much more.“We have to stick up for each other and be there for each other… As a result, the Jewish community is so tight here.”

Later, I asked Andrew and Rachel what they thought the future held. As the first semester ramps up, will protests and encampments reappear?

Andrew recalls “Black Lives Matter” and the support for Ukraine. He believes at some point, supporting Palestine and calling to stop supporting Israeli businesses, will fade. Andrew identified how the “trendiness” of supporting one of these political movements will become old news. The average American, who does not have a deep religious, ancestral, or familial connection to Israel or Palestine will stop paying attention to what’s happening. Despite Ukraine and Russia still being at war it is rarely mentioned in day-to-day discussion, both Rachel and Andrew predict this will also happen in the coming months. Rachel has already seen a significant decline in the number of protestors. This year on her campus, the protests that used to have 100+ participants now have fewer than 15 protestors.

Being a Jew in today’s world isn’t easy, especially on a college campus where some of your peers don’t believe your country or even yourself has the right to exist; nonetheless, we continue to thrive. As Jews we are no strangers to overcoming adversity, it’s a defining part of our story and our past, and it’s what makes the times when we come together even more sacred.