Clemson University to launch first ever Hillel International office for Jewish students

Higher education is seeing a number of new initiatives for supporting the Jewish community in anticipation of the new academic year.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Academia in the regional south is boosting its reputation as a safe haven for Jewish students, with Hillel International announcing last week the launch of its first-ever undergraduate office for support and mentorship on the campus of Clemson University in South Carolina.

Clemson’s growing Jewish population precipitated the initiative, Hillel said last Wednesday, noting that it has increased “fivefold” in recent years. That surge was not random.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, American higher education has seen an explosion of antisemitism.

Following the outbreak of hostilities between Israel and Hamas over the Palestinian terrorist group’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, anti-Zionist campus groups unleashed a barrage of assaults, hate speech, and building occupations that harassed Jewish campus life for a period that lasted across four academic years.

In many cases, university officials hesitated to denounce the onslaught of hatred, sending a devastating signal to the Jewish students who apply to college every year.

In response, as reported by The Atlantic in 2025, American Jews averted their gaze from the ivory gates of the most prestigious US institutions and caught eyes for public universities and even small Christian schools in The Bible Belt.

In that Atlantic report, the University of Florida’s Hillel chapter said its membership has increased 50 percent, while colleges like Clemson reported being deluged with Jewish students.

Speaking to The Algemeiner on Wednesday, Clemson Hillel faculty adviser and historian Rebecca Shimoni Stoil said that Clemson pulled this off by, more than other institutions, acting quickly to respond to rising anti-Jewish hatred.

Its efforts, she said, went beyond fulfilling the letter of the law and maintaining positive public relations.

The work mattered, as it aimed to create a home where Jewish students can thrive regardless of what is happening in the wider world.

“Clemson has been wonderful, and our students would say much the same,” she explained, noting that students are also drawn to the South Carolina sun.

“It’s been a positive environment, and it continues to be a positive environment, allowing students to build Jewish community in truly meaningful and invigorating ways.”

Jewish students are already kicking off pre-fall festivities, Stoil added, noting that she did not attend Hillel events in college and regrets not having done so given the rich experiences she has enjoyed in aiding a student-led Hillel club that preceded this year’s formal office and participating in the upcoming launch.

“We just had our student club recruitment yesterday and we’ve signed up, I think, over four dozen new Jewish students—so zero pressure, right? We stand there with a sign that says “Clemson Hillel,” and they’ve been coming and actively joining,” she continued, laughing.

“In retrospect, I very much regret not having been more involved in Hillel, and I encourage my own kids who are not in college to be because I think it creates such a positive influence and dynamic in the college experience.”

Speaking via press release, Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman said, “Clemson’s growing Jewish student community deserves a professionally staffed Hillel that can provide Jewish students their fuller opportunities for Jewish joy, pride, and leadership. Strengthening Hillel at Clemson is part of our broader focus on ensuring robust Hillel presence and Jewish campus life at schools in the southeast and the southwest with rapidly growing Jewish student populations.”

Higher education is seeing a number of new initiatives for supporting the Jewish community in anticipation of the new academic year.

Columbia University confirmed last month that it will begin programming at its Tel Aviv Global Center, three years after first announcing the project, moving ahead with an academic hub intended to expand research, teaching, and partnerships with Israel despite pressure from anti-Zionist activists to cancel it.

The center will become the 11th site in Columbia’s international network.

It is not a branch campus but a hub designed to connect Columbia faculty, students, alumni, and programs with Israeli institutions and researchers. Its initial priorities include climate change, technology and entrepreneurship, science, public health, and medicine.

Also in July, Gratz College joined two international partners to launch the Contemporary Antisemitism Studies Association (CASA), a new global academic body dedicated to rigorous, interdisciplinary research on anti-Jewish hatred.

CASA grew out of a partnership among Gratz, a Jewish college in Bala Cynwyd, Pennsylvania, outside Philadelphia; the London Center for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism; and the Elizabeth and Tony Comper Center for the Study of Antisemitism and Racism at the University of Haifa.

Under the arrangement, the London Center will serve as CASA’s administrative center, Gratz will host its new academic journal, and the Comper Center will build out an international research hub and fellowship programs.

In a statement, CASA said it will examine antisemitism across the ideological spectrum — on the political right and left, in religious extremism, and in contemporary anti-Zionist antisemitism — describing its approach as grounded in academic rigor, evidence-based research, and democratic values.

The launch comes amid concern over rising antisemitism and attempts in American higher education to sever ties with Israeli universities in observance of the so-called “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” (BDS) movement, which seeks to isolate Israel from the international community as a step toward the Jewish state’s eventual elimination.