The Rise of Antisemitism on College Campuses

By Larry E. Holtz, Esq.

In the wake of the October 7th attack on Israel by Hamas, Antisemitism took hold on many college campuses from New York to California. You would think Ivy League university- educated students would understand Israeli history and be able to identify terrorism when they see it or at least understand the geography of the middle east. Instead, they have been brainwashed by teachers, professors, and Tik Tok. They chant, “river to the sea” without knowing what river and what sea they are referring to. Equally upsetting, it is clear that some of the protestors were paid agitators. When their so called “encampments” pop up with matching tents, professional signs, headwraps, masks and more, that’s a good indication there is a heavily financed group paying their bills.

Harvard

      “Harvard’s handling of Jewish student concerns came under intense criticism from Jewish circles after October 7, 2023. President Claudine Gay resigned following a congressional hearing at which she did not say whether ‘calls for the genocide of Jews’ violated university conduct; the school has also been the site of several Title VI investigations at the U.S. Department of Education. At commencement last month, the Harvard Chabad director publicly confronted an invited speaker over what he believed was an antisemitic comment in her speech.”

      “The situation over the past year has been quite grave, and unless we take significant steps forward by the beginning of the coming academic year, we could be in a position similar to last year, which we want to prevent,” Derek Penslar, co-chair of the antisemitism task force, said in an interview published by Harvard’s newswire. As Pershing Square CEO Bill Ackerman stated on “X”:

      “Last Wednesday, I spent seven hours on campus meeting with Jewish, Israeli, and non-Jewish students and faculty at the [school]. … Over the course of the day, it became clear that the situation at Harvard is dire and getting worse, much worse than I had realized.

      Jewish students are being bullied, physically intimidated, spat on, and in several widely-disseminated videos of one such incident, physically assaulted. Student Slack message boards are replete with antisemitic statements, memes, and images. On-campus protesters on the Widener Library steps and elsewhere shout ‘Intifada! Intifada! Intifada! From the River to the Sea, Palestine Shall Be Free!’ as they knowingly call for violent insurrection and use eliminationist language seeking the destruction of the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”

Stanford

At a January 2024 fireside chat with the University President, Provost, and Israel’s Special Envoy for Combatting Antisemitism, protesters stood outside chanting “Zionist you can’t hide” and “Go back to Brooklyn.” As Jewish students left the event, the protesters are reported to have yelled threatening messages like, “We know your names, we know where you work and soon we’re going to find out where you live.”

      During Family Weekend in February 2024, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) members disrupted President Richard Saller and Provost Jenny Martinez’s welcome session, chanting “Palestinian blood is on your hands” and “Up with liberation, down with occupation.” And in April 2024, pro-Palestinian protestors set up an encampment at the White Plaza in violation of university policies. During the protests, one individual was photographed wearing a green Hamas headband.

Antisemitism on College Campuses Exposed

The rise in antisemitism on college campuses is deeply alarming. If you’re sending a child off to college or have a family member attending, it’s essential to closely examine the data and each school’s policies to determine whether they are truly committed to protecting students.

Consider the following:

· University administrators made astounding concessions to the organizers of illegal encampments. For example, in the case of Northwestern University, administrators entertained demands to hire an “anti-Zionist” rabbi and divest from and remove the brand, Sabra Hummus, from campus cafeterias.

· University administrators deliberately chose to withhold support from Jewish students. Harvard University’s (Harvard) decision making was particularly egregious, as demonstrated by choices to intentionally omit condemnation of Hamas and acknowledgment of hostages in its widely-criticized equivocal statement on the October 7 attacks, and then-President Claudine Gay asking Harvard Corp. Senior Fellow not to call the phrase “From the River to the Sea” antisemitic hate speech.

· University administrators overwhelmingly failed to impose meaningful discipline for those who engaged in antisemitic conduct. Across the board, enforcement of campus rules was wildly uneven, from Harvard and Columbia faculty playing key roles in derailing discipline toward antisemitic conduct violations and Rutgers University (Rutgers) actually disciplining Jewish students who spoke out against the harassment, to the overall lack of consequences for those involved in encampments at schools including the UCLA, UC Berkeley, Yale University, and MIT.

· University administrators considered Congressional oversight a nuisance at best and with open hostility at worst. Administrators at the University of Pennsylvania, for instance, attempted to orchestrate negative media coverage of Members of Congress who scrutinized the university while Harvard president Claudine Gay disparaged U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik’s (R-NY) character to the university’s Board of Overseers.

      Based on a year-long investigation, the Committee on Education and the Workforce majority, under Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC), has released findings on how antisemitism engulfed college campuses while administrators put the wants of terrorist sympathizers over the safety of Jewish students, faculty, and staff.

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