How to effectively fight antisemitism on US campuses - opinion

I went to college in New York City during the 1960s; it was the first time I went to a school outside a Jewish private school system. Although antisemitism existed then, it was diffuse and fragmented, with little resonance in the wider American society. 

Today, in the House of Representatives there are 101 members of Congress who belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus. The single Jewish senatorial member is Bernie Sanders. Although members have different agendas, when Progressives arrive, Jews and Zionists (a smoother code word for “Jews”) have little traction. 

With people like Pramila Jayapal as chair and Ilhan Omar as deputy, the anti-Israel agenda is quite clear. Indeed, my former congressman, Jamal Bowman, came out forcefully for the Palestinians immediately upon being seated in Congress. However, he later refused to sign a letter by Congressman Ted Lieu to the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights urging investigations into antisemitism on American campuses. He did this despite having a large Jewish constituency in his district. Parenthetically, out of 435 voting congressmen, only 38 signed Lieu’s letter.

There are undoubtedly many factors that have led to this situation, but a glaring issue is the open hostility against Jews on American campuses that has been growing for over 30 years. This means that several generations of educated Americans accept many antisemitic tropes as part of their worldview.

The Jewish community has had, and continues to have, many leadership and defense organizations. The premier group that is sensitive to inaccuracies – deliberate or due to journalistic sloppiness – is CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis), founded in 1982 by Winifred Meiselman. It recognized early that the media are a crucial venue for disseminating and supporting trending social values. It also recognized that American journalism was becoming biased against Jews. Its solution was to monitor American media, point out mistakes, and seek corrections.

Over the years, many other organizations that tabulate antisemitic acts and biased publications have been formed. Certainly, these groups fulfill a vital function in monitoring and understanding the extent of the problem. Unfortunately, while this approach has had individual victories, the media’s stance continues to be extraordinarily one-sided. Even when a media outlet grudgingly retracts errors, it has no effect on future reporting. We see an increasing number of omissions, ridiculous simplifications that blur complex issues, and blatant propagandist reporting. It is today’s version of the Dutch boy trying to control leaks in a bursting dike.

The tabulation method has proven to be naïve. The underlying assumptions were that facts and context in trying to establish that truth will lead to a just resolution. Failing that, people used to feel shame when publicly exposed as bigots. Today, all of these expectations are passé. We have entered an era of the supremacy of feelings and the total loss of shame as a social constraint. Add that to the leftist tendency to pick an underdog – usually based on race or supposed ills of European colonialism – and support them uncritically, and the situation for Jews has become completely unbalanced.

Teaching Jewish students about the complexities of Israel’s problems with its neighbors is important. However, I take issue with the notion that harassment of Jewish students is to be expected and endured. Students go to college to learn. No other group has expectations of ill treatment in this forum, and we should not either. 

The Louis D. Brandeis Center strategy: Fight antisemitism, anti-Israel bias in courts

We need to rethink our methods. I believe that the Louis D. Brandeis Center has the best strategy. It files lawsuits against colleges, school systems, and others. In court, facts still matter. One of the difficulties in filing suits is the issue of freedom of speech. Since the law in the US allows almost anybody to say almost anything, it behooves us to find other legal strategies to protect our students. One suggested avenue might be breach of contract. These schools accept tuition in exchange for education under conditions of safety. A decent education cannot be achieved when students are subjected to severe stress that these schools will not address. All schools have codes of conduct that are flagrantly disregarded. Legal redress should be sought to force schools to enforce their codes even-handedly.

High schools need to be more proactive as they prepare to send their graduates onward to higher education. A talking point on “college nights” should be “What is the atmosphere on the recruiting colleges’ campuses in regard to Jewish students? Have there been incidents? Is college security available to protect Jewish events? What mechanisms exist to rectify untoward events and prevent future problems?” Parents need to evaluate not just the academic quality of the campuses their children are interested in. They must investigate the social atmosphere on the campuses. After their children are accepted, they must make their concerns clear to the college administrations. 

The Jewish community needs to grapple with the fact that these are very dangerous times. We spend much time hoping that alliances with other groups will save us. Those hopes are misplaced, as different groups jockey for power and primacy. Allies are useful, but constellations are continuously changing. Just as the evacuation from Gaza proved that peace with the Palestinians as popularly portrayed was a pipe dream, so aid from the Jewish community rendered to others is swiftly forgotten. That unfortunate result has been amply proven by the fact that the key role of the Jewish community in the Civil Rights Movement has been forgotten. We must understand that lesson as well.

The problem of antisemitism will not be resolved on its own. Especially now, after the October 7 massacre, every Jew must realize that he or she has a part to play, whether it is to support lawsuits, to pressure alma maters, to urge Jewish organizations to be more creative, or to be more active politically.  ■