FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA: Report points to rampant anti-Semitism during Semester at Sea
Jewish students participating in the Semester at Sea program were subjected to anti-Semitism in the wake of Hamas' attacks against Israel on Oct. 7, according to a new report.
The Semester at Sea program promises college students that they will be able to earn college credits while seeing more than 10 countries around the globe.
Jewish students participating in the Semester at Sea program were subjected to anti-Semitism in the aftermath of Hamas’ attack against Israel on Oct. 7, according to a new report.
“I know this is happening all over the world on college campuses, but the difference here…is our students are on a ship,” Leora Azoulay Short, whose daughter participated in the program, said. “They are literally confined and stuck on a small ship where they are feeling attacked, unsafe, and in an unfriendly environment by many of the other students.”
The Semester at Sea program promises college students that they will be able to earn college credits while seeing more than 10 countries around the globe. Since 2016, the program has partnered with Colorado State University.
“Before the port of South Africa, they had a lecturer come on board … at the end of her lecture, she made a statement to the students that many years ago South Africa had dealt with apartheid and once again, this is happening in the world with Israel,” Short explained.
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The next morning, Short said, students shouted “from the river to the sea” and “stop the genocide.” Later, the dean of the ship told Jewish students that “they should, in fact, find themselves to be lucky and grateful that they can hide their Jewish identity and that black people do not have that opportunity,” Short noted.
During a rap performance aboard the ship, a performer allegedly criticized Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza, saying, “In Ukraine, Putin is a criminal, but Netanyahu is getting a pass like he is invisible. We picking and choosing exactly who we call a terrorist… it’s f***** up that we can’t agree what is the human side, if it ain’t white kids dying then we just let it slide.”
Hillel of Colorado posted to its website in April, acknowledging the harm that Jewish students participating in Semester at Sea experienced this year.
“Administrators at Colorado State University and in the SAS office in Ft. Collins now understand that what Jewish students onboard have faced is far more than garden-variety antisemitism,” the group explained.
The post also listed additional specific acts of anti-Semitism that allegedly occurred on the trip, including students being “called horrible names as posters and slogans went up all over the ship,” and the charge that “talent shows and student programs onboard regularly featured humor that victimized Israel and Jews.”
Campus Reform has contacted Colorado State University and the Institute for Shipboard Education, which administers the Semester at Sea program, for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
