Hillel Poll: Antisemitism a Factor for Jewish College Applicants

(Dreamstime)

A majority of Jewish parents of college applicants say their child has dropped at least one school from their list owing to rising antisemitism on campuses after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, according to a new poll from Hillel International.

Parents (96%) say they are worried about antisemitism on campus, and 80% say they are focused on campus safety in their college search process, The Hill reported.

“These findings confirm what we’ve consistently heard from Jewish parents since October 7: They are alarmed by the dramatic rise in antisemitism on campus, and they and their students are changing their approach to the college decision-making process because of it,” said Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International.

Hillel recorded 1,215 antisemitic incidents on campuses from Oct. 7, 2023, to April 1, a 700% increase compared to the previous year.

The House Education and Workforce Committee continues to probe Harvard for on-campus antisemitism. Chair Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has accused Harvard of failing to comply with an unprecedented subpoena for documents, CNN reported.

Harvard reported a 5% drop in undergrad applicants for the class of 2028, compared to the previous year.

Brandeis University, meanwhile, surveyed over 2,000 Jewish undergraduate students in 51 academic institutions across the United States regarding the impact on campuses of Hamas’ attack on Israel and the war in Gaza.

Questions concerned hate-crime incidents involving physical and verbal violence, property damage, graffiti, harassment from faculty and classmates, cyberbullying, and criticism related to classic anti-Jewish stereotypes or actions of the Israeli government.

Columbia, UCLA, New York University (NYU), University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, and UC Berkeley ranked high on the college list for antisemitic incidents, while the University of Florida, Duke, Brandeis, Tulane, and California Polytechnic (Cal Poly) have been ranked among the friendliest colleges for Jewish students, ynetnews.com reported.

One-third of students in institutions with the highest antisemitism rates feel hostility toward Israel from faculty members, compared to around 80% who feel hostility from other students.

Less than 2% of students experienced a physical antisemitic attack, and that figure is relatively similar in all universities in the study.

Regardless of the campus, only 15% of respondents reported that concerns about antisemitism “often” affected their daily lives, although 9% reported that these concerns “always” affected their daily lives.

While 97% of Jewish students in the survey view Israel positively, 56% view the Israeli government positively, ynetnews.com noted.

The survey also found that Jewish students were more concerned about antisemitism from the political left than from the political right, The Forward newspaper observed.

“The finding aligns with the growth of pro-Palestinian activism on the left, some of which has been tinged with antisemitism. Much of it has condemned Israel and embraced anti-Zionism, which many mainstream Jewish groups believe is antisemitic,” The Forward noted.