Students across country aware of 'hostile environment toward Jews' on campus: study
A recent Brandeis University study shows that 85% of Jewish students polled in certain schools reported facing an antisemitic environment.
Students were 'substantially more concerned about antisemitism coming from the political left than they were about antisemitism from the political right.'
A new study documents the anti-Semitism perceived by Jewish students at campuses across the nation.
The study, which was conducted by Brandeis University of Waltham, Massachusetts and published in December, 2023 is “based on findings from a survey of Jewish undergraduate students at 51 colleges and universities across the United States.”
The students polled were ideologically diverse, with 47% of them describing themselves as “liberal” or “slightly liberal,” 20% as “conservative” or “slightly conservative,” and 25% of them as “moderate.”
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The report finds that perceived anti-Semitism varies between universities: “At some schools, the vast majority of Jewish students we surveyed reported that there is a hostile climate toward Jews and Israel on their campus, while at other schools, substantially fewer Jewish students feel this way.”
At schools with the lowest levels of hostility toward Jews, “almost half (49%) of respondents agreed at least ‘somewhat’ that there was a hostile environment toward Jews at their school.” In contrast, “at the schools with the highest reported levels of antisemitic hostility, 85% of respondents agreed at least ‘somewhat’ that there was a hostile environment toward Jews at their school, with 23% ‘strongly’ agreeing.”
Of the 51 Universities included in the study, the twelve that scored the highest in the perceived anti-Semitism category were: Boston University, Columbia University, George Washington University, New York University, Ohio State University-Columbus, Queens College-City University of New York, University of California-Berkeley, University of California-Los Angeles, University of California-San Diego, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The study shows that “[a]t the most hostile schools, about 80% of Jewish students reported encountering hostility toward Israel from other students ‘sometimes’ or ‘often.’ At these schools, 30% also reported encountering hostility toward Israel from faculty.”
Brandeis finds that at the schools “with the highest perceived levels of antisemitic hostility” Jewish students “were more likely to report experiencing insult or harassment in person and on social media” including “seeing antisemitic images, slogans, or graffiti, and being blamed for the actions of the Israeli government because they were Jewish.”
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The report describes how perceived antisemitism hurts Jewish students’ “feelings of safety and belonging,” noting that “[a]t campuses with the highest levels of antisemitic hostility, only 34% of our respondents felt like they ‘very much’ belonged on their campus, and only a quarter felt ‘very’ safe (23%) or comfortable (26%).”
The students polled “at all schools” also reported that, in “the context of the [Israeli-Hamas] war,” they were “substantially more concerned about antisemitism coming from the political left than they were about antisemitism from the political right.”
Campus Reform has contacted Brandeis University and each of the authors of the report—Prof. Graham Wright, Prof. Sasha Volodarsky, Prof. Shahar Hecht, and Prof. Leonard Saxe—for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
