Thirty-four percent of Jewish students hide their Jewish identity for fear of antisemitism.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

Jewish campus life has received a boost from the Marcus Foundation—a philanthropic organization founded by Home Depot co-founder Bernie Marcus and his wife, Billi—which announced a $27 million donation to Hillel International, the world’s largest collegiate nonprofit for Jewish undergraduates.

Announced on Thursday, the three-year gift will fund new executive talent, strengthen chapter operations across the regional south, and cultivate future Jewish leaders from among the nearly 200,000 students Hillel serves worldwide each academic year.

As The Algemeiner has previously reported, those students face an increasingly adverse campus environment.

For several years before and since Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, Jewish students have faced identity-based assaults, verbal abuse, and other acts of discrimination—from anti-Zionists spitting on Jewish students at the University of California, Berkeley, while calling them “Jew,” to gang assaults at Columbia University’s Butler Library, swastika graffiti, and the expulsion of a sexual assault survivor from a victim support group over her support for Zionism.

Recent surveys capture the toll: 34 percent of Jewish students hide their Jewish identity for fear of antisemitism, 38 percent decline to voice pro-Israel views on campus, 32 percent believe campus groups foster a hostile environment for Jews, and 25 percent say antisemitism was the basis for their exclusion from a group or event.

Jay Kaiman, president and director of the Marcus Foundation, told eJewishPhilanthropy in an exclusive interview that the foundation’s founder had anticipated the crisis.

“Bernie recognized a long time ago that we needed to support campus life because it was going to be and is very difficult today,” Kaiman said. “He was talking about it before it became what the realities are today.”

In a press release, Kaiman added that the gift would help “ensure that every Jewish student has access to a vibrant, joyful, and safe Jewish community.”

Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman thanked the Marcus Foundation on Thursday, saying the investment would help Hillel “foster Jewish joy, pride, and leadership” across the schools it serves while building “an expanded talent and leadership pipeline.”

The gift was not the month’s only investment in Jewish higher education.

At the Contemporary Antisemitism Haifa 2026 conference at the University of Haifa on July 7-9, Gratz College joined two international partners to launch the Contemporary Antisemitism Studies Association (CASA), a global academic body devoted to interdisciplinary research on anti-Jewish hatred.

David Hirsh, academic director and CEO of the London Centre and a CASA founder, said the group would examine all aspects of contemporary antisemitism, “including anti-Zionist antisemitism,” without prejudice.

Both initiatives come amid rising antisemitism and efforts within American higher education to cut ties with Israeli universities under 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.

Antisemitic incidents have surged nationally since the Oct. 7 attack, with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) recording triple-digit percentage increases in its audits.

In New York City, Jews were targeted by more hate crimes than any other group during the first six months of 2026, according to the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) biannual report released on July 2.

The department logged 178 anti-Jewish hate crimes from January to June, even as crimes against Asian, Black, and white residents fell by double digits — fueling concern that antisemitism has intensified during the early months of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s administration.

Lawmakers and advocacy groups, meanwhile, are pressing states to do more.

Last week, former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) proposed a national blueprint for combating antisemitism modeled on measures Virginia adopted under former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R).

As The Algemeiner has reported, Virginia passed HB 1606 in Feb. 2023—signed into law that May—adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and later established an antisemitism task force, new Holocaust curriculum standards, and a Jewish Heritage Month.

Academia has a role to play as well, said Julie Ancis, a professor of informatics at the New Jersey Institute of Technology who delivered a keynote at the Haifa conference.

“Academics provide the theoretical and empirical grounding to this work,” she told eJP, citing her research on social media influencers.

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Last year, Hillel recorded 2,334 antisemitic incidents on campuses, an increase of more than 500 recorded incidents compared to the 2023-2024 school year, which saw 1,853 incidents.

By Grace Gilson, JTA

The number of antisemitic assaults and acts of vandalism on college campuses fell sharply in the last school year, according to Hillel International.

And the anti-Israel encampments that ignited fear among many Jewish college students in early 2024 effectively disappeared in the year since, with just nine encampments taking place in the last school year, the Jewish campus group said in its annual tally of antisemitic incidents, released Thursday.

But Hillel International said antisemitic incidents were still on the rise on college campuses overall, citing an increase in online harassment and bullying reported by Jewish students.

The organization said the trend might reflect more aggressive action on the part of universities to intervene on behalf of Jewish students and their advocates.

“What we saw this past year was there was a penalty for antisemitism at many universities, and so what it did is it took a lot of these incidents that would have happened on campus, and it moved them online,” Jon Falk, Hillel’s vice president of Israel engagement and confronting antisemitism, said in an interview.

The finding comes at a complicated moment for the push to combat antisemitism on college campuses, with the Trump administration taking up the cause in ways that have divided Jewish observers.

While many have expressed relief that schools are being encouraged — and in some cases coerced — to adopt policies to stem antisemitism, some are also concerned that the effort is also compromising free expression on campuses.

Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International, said he believed that changes to improve the climate for Jewish students on college campuses were paying off.

“Over the past year, many universities have made significant changes to better clarify and enforce their policies and codes of conduct, supported by our work with them to achieve these improvements,” said Lehman in a statement. “When universities step up and enforce their rules, Jewish students and all students benefit from a safer, more inclusive campus environment.”

Even if some forms of antisemitism on campus seem to be in decline, the overall picture remains starkly different from before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, which is ongoing, according to Hillel’s data.

Last year, the group recorded 2,334 antisemitic incidents on campuses, an increase of more than 500 recorded incidents compared to the 2023-2024 school year, which saw 1,853 incidents.

But during the 2022-2023 school year, Hillel recorded just 289 antisemitic incidents.

The group says it tallies incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, assault and hate speech, as well as incidents recovered from social media, emails, articles and publications.

To collect the data, Hillel cross-references college and university bias reporting portals; reports from students; the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line; and ReportCampusHate.org, a joint project of Hillel, the Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide.

Hillel staff on campuses work to identify and verify each antisemitic incident that is reported, and the resulting data set uses a “technical system so that we make sure that we get every single incident,” Falk said.

“I care deeply that every incident is counted,” he added. “I think that’s what the Jewish people have been doing for centuries. We care about counting, and we want to count correctly, and so that’s what we’re doing every day.”

At a time when campuses are wracked by tension over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, some of the incidents that Hillel counted as antisemitic reflect ongoing complexities around determining what kinds of Israel criticism constitute antisemitism.

The organization said incidents of antisemitic articles and publications had increased by 50% since the 2023-2024 school year, rising from 40 to 61 incidents.

It offered as examples an article in Mondoweiss, a left-wing online publication, by a UC Davis graduate student advocating for a boycott of an exchange program with an Israeli university; a anti-Israel parody of Northwestern University’s student newspaper; and an op-ed by a Jewish student in The Bowdoin (College) Orient criticizing Zionist Jews and the war in Gaza.

“Antisemitic articles and publications negatively impact the climate for Jewish students on campus,” Falk said by email in response to an inquiry about why the articles counted in the tally.

“Each article/publication incident met Hillel’s criteria for an antisemitic incident by containing at least one element of antisemitic language.”

The Hillel data covers a period that included a string of recent attacks on Jewish groups and leaders, including the firebombing of Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in April, the murders of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C., in May and the deadly firebombing of a group demonstrating for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza last month.

The day after each attack, Falk said that Hillel recorded a “spike” in antisemitic incidents on campuses.

“The next day, we would see a spike, both when it comes to social media and when it comes to targeting students,” he said. “I don’t think folks truly understand the impact of incidents that happen outside of the campus space, and how they could impact the campus environment.”

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DropHillel claims to be ‘Jewish-led,’ although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by SJP chapters.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

The campus group National Students for Justice in Palestine (NSJP) is waging a campaign to gut Jewish life in academia, calling for the abolition of Hillel International campus chapters, the largest collegiate organization for Jewish students in the world.

“Over the past several decades, Hillel has monopolized for Jewish campus life into a pipeline for pro-Israel indoctrination, genocide-apologia, and material support to the Zionist project and its crimes,” a social media account operating the campaign, titled #DropHillel, said in a manifesto published last week.

“Across the country, Hillel chapters have invited Israeli soldiers to their campuses; promoted propaganda trips such as birthright; and organized charity drives for the Israeli military.”

It continued, “Such actions reveal Hillel’s ideological and material investment in Zionism, despite the organization’s facade as being simply a ‘Jewish cultural space.’”

DropHillel claims to be “Jewish-led,” although only a small minority of Jews oppose Zionism, and the group has been linked to and promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapters.

Hillel International has provided Jewish students a home away from home during the academic year. However, NSJP says it wants to “weaken” it and “dismantle oppression.”

The idea has already been picked up by pro-Hamas student groups at one college, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, according to The Daily Tar Heel, the school’s official student newspaper. On Oct. 9, it reported, a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) unveiled the idea for “no more Hillel” during a rally which, among other things, demanded removing Israel from UNC’s study abroad program and adopting the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement. Addressing the comments to the paper days later, SJP, which has been linked to Islamist terrorist organizations, proclaimed that shuttering Hillel is a coveted goal of the anti-Zionist movement.

“Zionism is a racist supremacist ideology advocating for the creation and sustenance of an ethnostate through the expulsion and annihilation of native people,” the group told the paper. “Therefore, any group that advocates for a supremacist ideology — be it the KKK, the Proud Boys, Hillel, or Heels for Israel — should not be welcome on campus.”

The #DropHillel campaign came amid an unprecedented surge in anti-Israel incidents on college campuses, which, according to a report published last month by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), have reached crisis levels.

Revealing a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena, the report — titled “Anti-Israel Activism on US Campuses, 2023-2024” — painted a bleak picture of America’s higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate.

“As the year progressed, Jewish students and Jewish groups on campus came under unrelenting scrutiny for any association, actual or perceived, with Israel or Zionism,” the report said. “This often led to the harassment of Jewish members of campus communities and vandalism of Jewish institutions. In some cases, it led to assault. These developments were underpinned by a steady stream of rhetoric from anti-Israel activists expressing explicit support for US-designated terrorists organizations, such as Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and others.”

The report added that 10 campuses accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Harvard University, the University of California – Los Angeles, Rutgers University New Brunswick, Stanford University, Cornell University, and others filled out the rest of the top 10. Violence, it continued, was most common at universities in the state of California, where anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.

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‘We want students to be able to see that, despite the challenges, Jewish communities on campus are thriving right now,’ Lehman said.

By JTA

After last school year’s pervasive anti-Israel protests, spring encampments, and an unprecedented rise in antisemitic incidents on campus, Hillel International and campus Hillels have been working overtime to ensure that college and university campuses this fall are safer, more welcoming, and more inclusive for Jewish students as the new school year begins.

“We know Jewish students are coming back to campus with hope and excitement, but also with real concerns and fears,” said Adam Lehman, Hillel International president and CEO. “The message we want to send is that Jewish students are welcome on campus, but antisemitism isn’t.”

That starts with Hillels leaning into the work they do best: making sure Jewish students have a strong sense of community and belonging, from the first moment they step onto campus.

Campus Hillels hosted more than 300 back-to-school events for Jewish students this year, ranging from early move-ins and barbeques to Shabbat dinners and block parties — supercharged with additional support from Hillel International to help reach more Jewish students than ever before.

In addition, Hillel International created a searchable, sortable database of these welcome events to help Jewish students connect with their campus Hillel.

Tens of thousands of Jewish students were able to start their semester with a sense of community, reconnecting with old friends, making new ones, and getting to know the Hillel staff who will be there to support them.

In addition to spreading Jewish joy and building Jewish community, Hillel has also continued to strengthen its commitment to addressing antisemitism on campus from all angles, including at the highest levels of university leadership.

In September, Hillel International, in partnership with the American Jewish Committee and American Council on Education, gathered over 75 college and university presidents for a historic summit to discuss confronting antisemitism on campus.

Participants heard from leading experts on historical and contemporary antisemitism, the balance between free speech and students’ safety, and the impact of Title VI legislation.

The Summit built upon Hillel’s previous work with university presidents and administrators, including the flagship Hillel International Campus Climate Initiative, and the announcement this summer of a comprehensive set of recommendations for college and university administrators, aimed at combating antisemitism on campus.

Those guidelines, which were released as part of a joint effort with Hillel International, the Anti-Defamation League, American Jewish Committee, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, and Jewish Federations of North America, provide clear and proactive steps such as calling on universities to offer antisemitism education training for all students, urging leadership to communicate and uphold campus codes of conduct, and reiterating how critical campus security is for Jewish students.

Hillel is also focused on supporting Jewish students who are seeking information and educational resources about antisemitism on college campuses, and the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas.

Their latest effort is Campus for All, a crucial website to help Jewish students navigate and confront antisemitism on campus, find support and community, and separate fact from fiction when it comes to Israel.

Campus for All combines facts and educational materials with interactive, innovative tools like the “Was it antisemitism?” resource, a questionnaire that enables students to explain what they witnessed or experienced, and receive guidance on what to do next.

Visitors to the site can anonymously report an incident in under 30 seconds, see real-life examples of antisemitism on campus gathered by Hillel International, explore information (and examples of misinformation) about Israel, and find influencers and educators to follow on social media for trustworthy, well-informed perspectives on antisemitism, Israel, and the war.

In addition to providing resources for education and campus support, Campus for All offers students ways to get involved in supporting the Jewish community on their campus.

Students can connect with their local Hillels, learn about leadership opportunities, and find ways to take action by standing up against antisemitism, calling for the release of the hostages, showing solidarity with Israel, and proudly celebrating their Jewish identity.

“We want students to be able to see that, despite the challenges, Jewish communities on campus are thriving right now,” Lehman said.

“We created Campus for All to educate and empower college students with the knowledge, resources, and support they need to feel confident and stay safe. That means everything from knowing how to identify and report an antisemitic incident to getting clear, easy-to-understand facts about Israel from a source they know they can trust.”

Jewish students deserve a supportive and inclusive environment in which they can explore their studies and work toward an exciting future. While there are sure to be challenging moments on campus this fall, Hillel is committed to ensuring that Jewish students have a safe and joyful start to the school year and semester.

This is a Paid Post by Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization.

This is a paid post. JTA’s editorial team had no role in its production.

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A robust Jewish life on campus may ultimately determine where Jewish students choose to enroll, the survey added.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

An explosion of antisemitism at US colleges and universities since Hamas’ massacre across southern Israel on Oct. 7 is affecting how Jewish high school students choose where to pursue their post-secondary degrees, according to new survey results released by Hillel International, the world’s largest network of Jewish campus organizations.

A striking 64 percent of 427 parents of Jewish high school students surveyed by Benenson Strategy Group said their children have “crossed off” schools to which they would have applied because of concerns about antisemitism, Hillel International said on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, 80 percent of parents said concerns about safety have weighed on their child’s decision more than before Oct. 7, and 87 percent noted the atrocities by Hamas had an impact on their approach to selecting a college or university for their child.

“These findings confirm what we’ve consistently heard from Jewish parents since Oct. 7: They are alarmed by the dramatic rise in antisemitism on campus, and they and their children are changing their approach to the college decision-making process because of it,” Hillel International CEO Adam Lehman said in a press release.

“As a result, parents, students, and families are turning to Hillel as the most comprehensive and reliable source of information and support for their child, and we remain committed to our work to ensure that all campuses are safe and inclusive options for all Jewish students.”

A robust Jewish life on campus may ultimately determine where Jewish students choose to enroll, the survey added.

Seventy-four percent of parents said the presence of “Jewish clubs and organizations” at a school is “more important” after Oct. 7, and 91 percent said they are more likely to encourage their child to actively participate in Hillel, which operates on 850 campuses.

Hillel International’s survey results come amid a time of adversity for Jewish college students, 73 percent of whom have reported feeling less safe at school since Oct. 7, according to survey results issued last month by the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC).

Numerous incidents have heightened their fears.

At the University of California, Berkeley, for example, a mob of anti-Zionist activists, some of whom were not students, in February stormed a building where an event featuring an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier was being held. After infiltrating the building, some of them proceeded to spit on Jewish students and scream antisemitic epithets at them.

In some cases the targeting of Jewish and pro-Israel students has turned violent. At Tulane University, just weeks after Oct. 7, a Jewish student’s nose was broken during a vicious assault near campus.

US college campuses have experienced an alarming spike in antisemitic incidents — including demonstrations calling for Israel’s destruction and the intimidation and harassment of Jewish students — since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre.

Elite universities have been among the biggest hubs of such activity, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing the Hamas atrocities.

In December, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) noted that between the Oct. 7 onslaught in Israel and Dec. 7, the Jewish civil rights organization “recorded the highest number of antisemitic incidents ever recorded during any two-month period” in over 40 years of tracking such data.

On college campuses alone, the ADL recorded 470 antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7 and Dec. 18. During that same period, antisemitic incidents across the US skyrocketed by 323 percent compared to the prior year.

Experts have told The Algemeiner that the situation on college campuses would improve if the Biden administration issued long promised regulations that apply the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism to civil rights investigations — a measure which, they argue, would help protect Jewish students from antisemitic discrimination and harassment rooted in anti-Zionism.

The regulations, based on a directive given in Dec. 2019 by then-US President Donald Trump in response to rising anti-Zionist hatred on college campuses, were scheduled to be issued already but have been delayed and will not be instituted until at least Dec. 2024, after the next US presidential election, according to a copy of the proposed rule on the website of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism — which has been adopted by dozens of governments and hundreds of civic institutions around the world — includes examples of anti-Israel bias, such as “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” “denying the Jewish people their right to self determination,” and “applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

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A recent poll by Hillel International revealed that 37% of Jews in college feel the need to hide their identity and 35% have reported acts of antisemitism in universities.

By Dion J. Pierre, The Algemeiner

More than one in three Jewish college students reported feeling the need to hide their Jewish identity on campus since Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, according to a new survey.

A striking 37 percent of Jewish students said they have needed to hide their Jewish identity, according to the results of a poll published on Monday by Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization in the world.

The survey, which included 300 Jewish college students, found that 35 percent of respondents said there have been acts of hate or violence against Jews on campus. A majority of those surveyed said they were unsatisfied with their university’s response to those incidents.

The findings came amid a historic surge in antisemitism across the world, especially in the US and Europe. A recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), for example, recorded 832 outrages targeting American Jews between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7 — an average of 28 incidents per day and a 316 percent increase on the same period in 2022. Across Europe, meanwhile, governments have experienced record increases in antisemitic incidents in countries such as France and Germany since the Hamas pogrom in southern Israel on Oct. 7.

College campuses across the West have been hubs of such antisemitism over the past six weeks, with students and faculty both demonizing Israel and rationalizing Hamas’ terror onslaught. Incidents of harassment and even violence against Jewish students have also increased. As a result, Jewish students have expressed feeling unsafe and unprotected on campuses. In some cases, Jewish communities on campuses have been forced to endure threats of rape and mass slaughter.

“The hate that fueled Hamas’ attack on Israel has rapidly spread to college campuses, leaving Jewish students feeling both unsupported and unsafe,” Adam Lehman, CEO of Hillel International, said in a statement. “And the data show that it’s getting worse. At a time when Jewish students need to feel safe, supported, and protected by university presidents and administrators more than they ever have before, Hillel International is working day and night to ensure universities are taking concrete actions to protect Jewish communities on campuses.”

Hillel International’s survey found that 68 percent of Jewish students reported feeling sad and 54 percent said they were afraid in the current environment. About four out of five Jewish students (78 percent) said Jewish spaces were more important than ever.

Even before Oct. 7, the problem of Jewish students being afraid to show their identity existed. In 2021, after the last conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, 30 percent of Jewish students concealed their Jewish identity, according to a survey taken that year by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The findings showed Jewish students sought to avoid conflicts with professors and classmates, fearing low marks and verbal and physical attacks they had seen or heard about.

Hillel’s latest survey was conducted online by Benenson Strategy Group on behalf of Hillel International between Nov. 14 and 15.

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