OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
12:15 PM – Wednesday, November 29, 2023
According to poll results that were released on Wednesday, the majority of Jewish college students have not felt safe on campus since the start of the October 7th terrorist attack initiated by Hamas, and a large percentage also claimed that they have experienced heightened anti-Semitism since the start of their school semester.
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Nearly 73% of Jewish college students have experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism since the beginning of the semester, according to a survey released on Wednesday that was conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Hillel International (HI).
The ADL and HI are advocacy organizations that consistently track anti-Semitic occurrences, especially since the Israel-Hamas conflict began in early October.
This new data shows an increase from 63% in 2021.
In addition, 44% of gentile (non-Jewish) students claimed that they have experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism on campus as well since the start of the academic semester.
According to data recorded from 689 college campuses across the country and 3,084 college students, only 46% of Jewish students said that they felt “physically safe” on their campus after the October 7th terror attacks.
Additionally, 66% of Jewish students stated that they felt “emotionally safe” on campus prior to the war but that percentage later dropped to 33% after the Middle Eastern conflict.
64% who responded to the survey said that their colleges were “welcoming and supportive” of them before the terror attacks, while only 44% felt that way after October 7th.
“Jewish students are experiencing a wave of anti-Semitism unlike anything we’ve seen before, but shockingly, non-Jewish students barely see it,” ADL CEO Jonathan A. Greenblatt said in a statement. “Since the October 7th massacre in Israel, Jewish students feel increasingly threatened on campus, but college leaders are not doing enough to address this very real fear of anti-Semitism. No student should feel threatened or intimidated on campus. No student should feel the need to hide their religious or cultural identities. No parent should ever have to wonder whether it’s safe to send their kids to certain schools, but that’s the sad reality for American Jews today.”
“University administrators need to wake up and recognize that Jewish students uniquely need protection now, and policymakers must step up, provide resources and enforce Title VI,” added Greenblatt, referring to the section of the Civil Rights Act that prohibits discrimination that is based on race, color, and national origin in universities receiving federal financial help.
Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International, stated that the newly released survey findings are a “disconcerting picture of the hate on campuses nationwide,” and that “widespread experiences with anti-Semitism, as reported in this survey, are driving Jewish students to hide their identities.”
Since the October 7th attacks, seven universities have been put under federal investigation for anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, including three Ivy Leagues: Cornell, Columbia, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Therefore, these universities have the potential to lose federal funding if they fail to comply with the Department of Education’s suggestions after the investigation is concluded.
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