On-Campus Jewish Community Under Assault
A 2020 Pew poll found that more than 80 percent of the Jewish community views Israel as integral to their Jewish identity. It is for this reason that the on-campus demonization of Zionism at U.S. colleges and universities is no less than a full-scale assault on Jewish identity.
And it is a conscious assault. By separating Jews from Israel, an essential part of the religion, anti-Semites are now able to redefine Judaism itself. This makes way for their next step: the commandeering of Jewish students to be foot soldiers in their project to destroy the state of Israel.
This assault is the subject of a new study, “Campus Antisemitism & the Assault on Jewish Identity,” by the AMCHA Initiative. The study investigates the threats to Jewish identity on over 100 college and university campuses most popular with Jewish students. It also looks at the source of the threats. (For the findings, see below.)
As noted by AMCHA,
“When it comes to campus antisemitism, considerable attention has been focused on incidents that threaten Jewish students’ physical safety or target them for discrimination and harassment.”
These incidents against on-campus Jewish communities have grown increasingly more frequent and violent over the past years. Yet, as AMCHA writes,
“ … it is crucial that the Jewish community understand that hidden within these numbers is an insidious phenomenon that has taken root on college campuses of late: a pervasive and relentless assault on Jewish identity that is likely to have dire consequences for the Jewish community in the years to come.”
It is important to understand the process of this assault:
Step One: Separate the Jewish Community from Zionism
Zionism is the belief in the self-determination of the Jewish people in the nation’s ancestral and historic homeland. This belief is a central tenet not only of the Jewish community but of Judaism itself.
It is for this reason that 38 countries, including the United States, adopted the definition of anti-Semitism put forth by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance [IHRA]. The UN Secretary-General and the European Union also support this definition.
The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism includes:
Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
Today’s on-campus anti-Semites profess they are not against Jews. They justify this by insisting that support for Zionism is not part of Judaism. In reality, separating Zionism from Judaism is nothing short of a redefinition of Judaism.
Once redefined, anti-Semites are able to cloak their Jew-hatred in the guise of “anti-Zionism.” It is also the reason why on-campus “anti-Zionists” fight so hard to prevent their universities from adopting the IRHA definition of anti-Semitism.
Denying that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism is the crux of their quest to pull in the Jewish community and enlist it in destroying the state of Israel.
To read more about why anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, read our blog:
Step Two: Label Israel a Racist, Settler, Colonialist Country
In today’s victimhood culture, fighting to stand up for the perceived underdog rules. That’s why anti-Zionists call Israel a racist, settler, colonialist project and call Palestinians its victims.
Facts about whether or not the “underdog” is really a persecuted victim are not really important to anti-Zionists. What is important is getting allies on board. While groups like Students for Justice in Palestine willfully rewrite history, they count on their allies to be just plain ignorant of it.
Anti-Zionist allies consist of the intersectional crowd. Everyone who joins is hailed as a fighter against worldwide oppression and injustice. But the most prized allies for today’s on-campus anti-Semites are Jews themselves.
Having redefined Judaism as separate from Zionism, it is easy for anti-Zionists to pull in members of the Jewish community. Jews traditionally identify with the underdog.
Step Three: Tar Zionism as Anti-Semitism
Once the connection to Israel has been gutted from Judaism, anti-Zionists can claim that the attempt to link anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism is outright oppression. It is labeled a sinister ruse, a way to silence those who protest against Israel and cover up Israel’s crimes.
Thus, they claim, it is actually Zionism that is exploiting Judaism to achieve its goals. Ipso facto, Zionism is anti-Semitic!
“This begins the process of ‘Jew splitting,’” writes Caroline Glick, an Israeli commentator, “separating the pro-Israel, on-campus Jewish community – now labeled as anti-Semitic oppressors – from the ‘good Jews,’ the ‘authentic,’ anti-Zionist Jews who stand up for justice as well as their Palestinian ‘brothers.’”
Glick continues:
“Pro-Israel, Zionist Jews are then vilified and delegitimized. They are accused of having undue privilege, power and influence. Because they are on the side of the oppressors, all Zionist programs, events and trips must be shut down, boycotted and canceled. Those who go on Zionist trips, for example to Israel through Birthright, are rejected.”
Pro-Israel Jews on campus are bullied, harassed, intimidated and silenced – all in the name of ending oppression. Ironically, those who decry oppression and defame Zionists often employ the same anti-Semitic tropes and tactics as the Nazis themselves.
The Findings: Not Good News for the Jewish Community
As the study notes, no other campus community is routinely subject to campaigns of identity assault as pro-Israel students in the last number of years. These campaigns have been intentional and well-orchestrated.
Shockingly, the assault on Jewish identity is not only coming from fellow students, but also from professors and administrators. Moreover, it reaches every corner of campus life — the quad, classrooms, dorm rooms, student newspapers, social media platforms and student government, among other places.
Incidents involving the suppression, denigration or challenges to the definition of Jewish identity were found on nearly 60 percent of the campuses most popular with Jewish students.
Harvard topped the list of all schools and in all categories.
Incidents involving attacks on Jewish identity increased 100 to 200 percent in the academic year following the 2021 Israel-Hamas war, with the number of affected schools also increasing dramatically.
Faculty and academic departments played a significant role in attacks on Jewish student identity. Schools with BDS-supporting faculty were three to seven times more likely to have such attacks.
More than one-third of anti-Zionist challenges to well-established definitions of Zionism, Judaism and anti-Semitism took place in programs sponsored by academic departments.
Jewish anti-Zionist individuals and organizations such as Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) played a significant role in attacks on Jewish identity. The presence of these groups on campus more than doubled the likelihood that a college or university will play host to incidents involving the redefinition or denigration of Jewish identity.