Almost half of Jewish students don’t feel safe identifying as Jews on campus – survey

A whopping 95% of collegiates and recent graduates say antisemitism is a “problem” on their campus.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Almost half (44%) of Jewish students and recent graduates said they never or rarely feel safe identifying as Jews on their campus, a survey by Alums for Campus Fairness (ACF) revealed as the new school year is beginning in educational institutions throughout the United States.

The reason is simple – and alarming.

Fully eight in ten say that they or someone they know have experienced antisemitic remarks from another student.

Sixty percent of the respondents said that either they or someone they know have even received offensive or threatening antisemitic comments from faculty or staff at their educational institution.

The respondents could anonymously report specific incidents on the online survey, and one wrote, “My professor went on a rant about how there’s too many Jews in medicine. He also said that terrorism is just what the big army calls the little army, and said Hamas is a group of ‘freedom fighters.’”

Fully 69% worry about their safety on campus, which is not a surprising statistic when combined with the fact that over half said that they or someone they knew have been physically threatened for being Jewish.

Nearly four fifths (78%) avoid certain places, situations and events on campus out of fear of whom or what they may encounter

Overall, a whopping 83% of Jewish students and fresh alumni say antisemitism is a “very serious problem” on their campus, with another 12% agreeing that it is a “problem.”

Over half of them agreed that the Jew hatred is getting “bigger and bolder” every year.

ACF Executive Director Avi Gordon said, “The results…expose dangerous trend lines for Jewish and pro-Israel students on college campuses.”

“It is painfully evident that Jewish and pro-Israel students faced significant challenges during the 2023-2024 academic year,” he added. “The high-profile antisemitic incidents and the pervasive climate of fear on many of our nation’s campuses are well known.”

Anti-Israel encampments popped up on dozens of American college campuses, especially in the Ivy League universities, during the recent spring semester, as hundreds of students and outside provocateurs demonstrated, often violently, for the elimination of Israel and in many cases turned their hatred against innocent Jewish students for being “Zionists.”

They falsely accused the Jewish state of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip as it fights the Hamas terror organization that invaded the country on October 7 and murdered in brutal ways 1,200 people, including by raping and burning them to death.

While some universities shut down the protests quickly, others did not, showing an apathy to their Jewish students that has led to several private lawsuits and investigations by the federal government for their lack of compliance with anti-discrimination laws.

The question now is what will happen in the new semester. While some universities have come out with tightened guidelines to discourage antisemitism, in Columbia University, a leading hotbed of Jew hatred before the summer break, anti-Israel protestors picked up where they had left off, loudly calling for Israel’s destruction outside a school event Monday that was meant to welcome Jewish students.

“Jewish students have the right to learn in an environment free of hate, without fearing for their safety,” said ACF when it released the results of its survey, which took place in May during the height of the campus mayhem.

ACF was established to combat antisemitism and demonization of Israel on college campuses throughout America by holding administrations accountable as well as by encouraging open dialogue and respectful debate on contentious issues.

American antisemitismAmerican college campusesanti-Israel activistsjewish studentsSurvey