Universities are not doing enough for Jewish students - opinion

For millions of American Jews, “getting a good education” has been the surest route into the middle class, one that set them on a course to upward mobility. Over the course of the 20th century, school books became sacred texts, and universities became temples for Jewish immigrants and their children. Over time, Jews helped shape the landscape of American education in ways that immeasurably benefited all groups in society; they also used their perch to help combat the antisemitism that was rife among the country’s educated elites.

How ironic, then, that school campuses have now become toxic for Jews, hearkening back to the time when Jews were not fully welcome on America’s elite universities less than a century ago. Over the past 11 months, from coast to coast, Jewish students have been attacked, harassed, bullied both in-person and on social media, and excluded from campus life at universities that have benefited immensely from Jewish students, faculty, administrators, and donors.

In a federal ruling against UCLA, the judge said the university failed to protect Jewish students last spring and must now guarantee them equal access to all campus programs and spaces. He made his shock at the present circumstances clear:

“In the year 2024, in the United States of America, in the State of California, in the City of Los Angeles, Jewish students were excluded from portions of the UCLA campus because they refused to denounce their faith... UCLA claims that it has no responsibility to protect the religious freedom of its Jewish students because the exclusion was engineered by third-party protesters. But under constitutional principles, UCLA may not allow services to some students when UCLA knows that other students are excluded on religious grounds, regardless of who engineered the exclusion.”

The UCLA decision could not have come a moment too soon. Anti-Israel organizers have used the summer break to gear up for further campus disruptions and protests with even greater venom than in the spring. We anticipate major disruptions ahead of the Jewish High Holidays and on October 7, when many Jews will come together to mark the first anniversary of the Hamas massacres.

Radical groups are training to “escalate” their protests “by any means necessary,” code words for actions that could include the destruction of property and even physical violence. CUNY for Palestine, for example, has called for the abolishment of the university, resistance to law enforcement, and the “destruction of US Empire” for the cause of “liberating Palestine.”

To address egregious protest actions, some universities, including Harvard University, Columbia University, Indiana University, the University of Pennsylvania, and others, have announced updates to their codes of conduct and time, place, and manner rules to reduce the chances of violence and infringement on the rights of Jewish and other students. These are positive first steps, but they alone will not solve the problem.

We need a holistic approach that involves a commitment by universities to stand up to antisemitism and Jew hatred on multiple fronts.

The Jewish Federations of North America

Jewish Federations of North America recently joined several other Jewish organizations, including Hillel International, to announce a comprehensive set of recommendations aimed at combating antisemitism on American campuses. We call on campus administrators to review their policies to ensure that they prohibit antisemitic behavior toward students, faculty, and staff.

We urge them to adopt a zero-tolerance policy with appropriate, transparent punishment for violators, including expulsion and referrals to law enforcement; to exclude non-campus actors from all campus protest activity; and to prevent protests from targeting Jewish spaces like Hillel and Chabad centers and kosher dining halls. We also need universities to create a culture of inclusion where differing ideas are tolerated and students can learn free from ideological intimidation.

HOWEVER, THERE’S more that universities should do – and quickly – as students return to campus.

What should be done?

First, universities must take Jewish concerns seriously, whether articulated by students, parents, or communal leaders. Jewish members of the campus community have been gaslighted repeatedly when communicating their concerns to the administration. As Noam Schimmel, who teaches at UC Berkeley, has written, the Berkeley administration’s “frequent denials of the severity and harmful consequences of anti-Jewish discrimination on campus are disrespectful of the Jewish students, staff, and faculty who report them.”

Just like they provide frequent training to confront racism, gender-based discrimination, and LGBTQ+ exclusion, colleges must now educate their faculty, staff, and students on how to respect the rights and privileges of Jews. This means that they must be able to recognize antisemitism and refrain from promoting it through their inaction.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism is an important, useful tool to help understand the contours of antisemitism in the contemporary world. The US government, including the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights, most states, and thousands of institutions worldwide, have adopted the IHRA definition. American campuses should do the same.

Colleges should allocate resources to provide a safe environment for living and learning, enforce their own codes of conduct that prevent violence and harassment, and develop relationships with local law enforcement. They should partner with their local Jewish Federations to understand the needs of the Jewish community and consult with ADL, Hillel groups, and other organizations with expertise on dealing with encampments, hate speech, and all the other manifestations of antisemitism that have roiled campuses this past spring.

Universities must also partner with Jewish organizations to educate students about the basic facts of the conflict. The protests this spring reminded many of the campus upheavals during the Vietnam War era. But this generation of students seems much less knowledgeable about the object of their protests, as shown by a poll in December that found that fewer than half of students knew which river and which sea are referenced in the Hamas chant “From the river to the sea,” which calls for Israel to be destroyed – and all of its residents to be expelled or killed – and replaced by a Palestinian state or Islamic caliphate.

These are not just the right things to do; they are necessary to ensure full compliance with federal civil rights laws and the US Constitution. Jewish students are entitled to the same protections as all other students on campus; otherwise, they will end up going elsewhere, which will be a loss not just to the students but to the world of higher education that they helped to build and shape.

The writer is vice president for community relations at Jewish Federations of North America.