Antisemitism at university campuses

Background: Last month, there were Congressional hearings on antisemitism in American universities – notably following the recent upsurge of anti-Jewish hate in the Western world following October 7 (e.g. usual nasty chants "from the river to the sea" etc.). The presidents of three major US universities (Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, MIT) proved themselves incredibly incompetent on answering the most basic of questions: whether the calling for the genocide of the Jews would violate their campus rules of harassment or bullying. Their answers to this basic question is that it would violate the university's code of conduct – "depending on context" and if "speech becomes conduct".

Yesterday, Dr. Claudine Gay - former President of Harvard - has finally resigned following the strong (and justified) backlash, and the threat of major donors withdrawing money. It also seems that Dr. Gay is guilty of plagiarism which is another serious reason to step down. In this post, I will discuss the culture of antisemitism at universities. 

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Part of the problem is that these presidents have taken the responsibility for their university's policies and practices. Both Claudine Gay and Elizabeth Magill were asked directly if calls for genocide constituted a violation of their university's code of conduct, whether it constituted bullying. Her response was to state that Penn had a "serious decision to make" in reviewing the 'genocide' policy in campus. What does that mean? It's an evasion of responsibility, at best. At worst, and in fact, it is a suggestion that tolerance of calls for genocide is something worthy of consideration. At a time when moral clarity is exigent, these academics chose to dissemble and give cover to the worst expressions of antisemitism in recent times.

Another aspect that scares me is how antisemitism is backed into our institutions of higher learning: "depending on context". Part of these presidents rationalization is that calling for genocide is fundamentally acceptable if it does not lead to action and/or doesn't target an individual. Using that logic, would it ever be acceptable for a student to start chanting racist slurs, as part of a mob on campus, at African-American students because of the conflict in South Sudan, let's say? Or, shouting that the George Floyd's murder was justified, in context, at some black students? Of course not.

When Jewish students say they are feeling unsafe and harassed, and that campus antisemitic speech is threatening; it shouldn't be equivocated. Otherwise it's a shameful moral hypocrisy. History has made these bursts of antisemitism an ominous and existential threat to Jews. They know all too well where these slogans and marches and slurs lead. It should never be contextualised and shouldn't matter whether gentiles can 'identify with it personally'. When Jewish students say they feel threatened, universities should listen and act, as opposed to dancing around semantics.

However, I think our present antisemitism comes from two places:

1. I think people don't regard Jew-hatred – physically or mentally – in the same way as hatred of other minorities. The logic here is that the hatred of a 'peoples' is based around their position in the framework of 'oppressor vs oppressed'. For whatever reason, Jews have been firmly planted in the 'oppressor' category. As such, the hatred & pain inflicted on Jews can be downplayed, legitimised, or denied. Hence, it is "context"-dependent – as opposed to being objectively wrong. If this was any other minority, such attacks would be completely unacceptable and not subject to any 'debate'. Harassment towards blacks or Muslims or gays etc. would never have any "context" to it, and would be regarded as nasty bigotry. But, when it comes to the Jews, there is a "context" that can explain it.
2. These colleges are scared of upsetting certain extremely vocal groups of radical students. They don't want to discipline these students for harassing Jews on their campus. Gay's initial statement (two days after the October 7 Hamas attack) did not firmly condemn the attacks. It also didn't address serious concerns on campus about certain aggressive student groups blaming Israel. Gay did not speak out against the pro-Palestinian student groups who had outrageously condemned Israel as being "entirely responsible for all unfolding violence" following the attack by Hamas. It's all very depressing. Something is very warped in our universities: late to condemn Hamas's barbarism ... but quick to condemn Jews for Israel's response to that barbarism. 

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The BBC has a similar problem as Harvard: Today's Daily Telegraph has a lamentable article criticising the BBC's flawed reportage on the resignation of Dr. Claudine Gay. I haven't read the BBC article (which has since been deleted!) but it seems – just like our universities – that in their warped view of reality, Harvard/Gay are the victims here. The BBC claimed that Claudine Gay was the victim of America's "campus culture wars" as opposed to her inability to condemn the calling for a genocide as unacceptable! Talk about avoiding reality! 

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For antisemitism at British universities: this anonymous article in The Guardian (Why is antisemitism so rife in UK academic settings? I have never found student life more difficult) is a very sobering read: (excerpting only a bit)

Our Jewish Society president had the mezuzah (a protective Jewish prayer scroll) ripped from his door. At a freshers’ event, one Jewish friend told me that she was called a “coloniser” and “race traitor” (the latter by virtue of her non-European descent). I know male students who have removed their kippot (skullcaps) and others who have hidden their Stars of David. On Instagram, I saw students posting pictures of paragliders, celebrating Hamas’s massacre. I waited five long days for my university to condemn “appalling attacks by Hamas” and stress “that there is no place for antisemitism or hate of any faith at Oxford”. An Israeli student whose relatives were murdered at the Nova festival has returned home, telling me she felt safer there than on campus.

The silence we encounter stands in stark contrast to the sensitivity and outspoken support displayed by staff and students to those touched by other events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Beyond Oxford, Jewish students have experienced similar incidents of antisemitism. In Manchester, posters with the words “kill more Jews” and “Yids” have been displayed. On Instagram, a university Jewish society was sent the message: “Wherever you are in the world, we will take you out of your homes and perform a dance of victory and happiness over your bodies”; another was sent a threat, accompanied by a video of beheaded babies, reading: “You must be killed all of u till the last naziest of you” [sic]; a university rabbi received a direct message that said: “You massacred innocent Muslims, I hope you die too.”