TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA - MAY 8, 2024: Jewish students, supporters and University of Toronto faculty attend Rally Against Hate, in support of Jewish and pro-Israel students and staff. (Photo by Shawn Goldberg on Shutterstock)
In A Nutshell
- Context: Nearly two years after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, U.S. campuses remain flashpoints for debates over antisemitism, academic freedom, and political protest.
- Research Findings: Surveys of thousands of Jewish and non-Jewish students and faculty show that antisemitism is not widespread but small groups with extreme views create climates of hostility. Jewish students report both harassment and social exclusion.
- Key Distinctions: Most Jewish students see denying Israel’s right to exist as antisemitic, though views diverge on criticisms such as labeling Israel’s actions “genocide.”
- Classroom Impact: Despite public perception, most faculty (76%) said the Israel-Hamas war never came up in class during the 2024–25 academic year.
- Policy Responses: Universities have banned protest groups and expelled students, while the Trump administration has withheld federal funding. Critics argue such measures risk punishing political dissent and deepening divisions.
- Bottom Line: Addressing antisemitism requires not just punitive measures but fostering social connections across ideological lines to reduce isolation among Jewish students.
It’s been nearly two years since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the subsequent start of the Israel-Hamas war – and still, antisemitism shows no sign of abating as one of the thorniest issues at American colleges and universities.
University administrators have responded in various ways to Jewish students’ reports of harassment and discrimination during and after pro-Palestinian protests in 2024 and 2025.
Some schools, such as Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, have banned student organizations associated with the protests, expelled student protesters and instituted anti-bias training programs on antisemitism.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, launched a task force to combat antisemitism at 10 universities, including Harvard and Columbia. It has also withheld federal funding from a range of universities on the grounds of their alleged inaction over antisemitism.
These efforts have often been as controversial as the problem they’re trying to solve.
Critics have accused university administrators of violating academic freedom and penalizing legitimate political protests.
And federal judges have pushed back against – and in some cases blocked – the Trump administration from withholding federal funding to schools, echoing calls from commentators and many American Jews that concerns about antisemitism are merely a pretext for punishing political opponents.
Since the Oct. 7 attack occurred, my team at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University has been trying to understand how antisemitism looks and is changing on campuses.
Our findings show antisemitic ideas are not necessarily widespread among university students or faculty in the U.S. But that doesn’t mean antisemitism is not a serious problem, since just a few students or faculty members with extreme views can shape an entire campus’s climate.
Studying Antisemitism On Campus
We first surveyed about 2,000 Jewish college students in December 2023 at about 50 schools with large Jewish populations. We surveyed those same Jewish students again in the spring of 2024, while also conducting in-depth interviews with students and Jewish campus professionals about their experiences with antisemitism on campus.
During this same time period, we also conducted a survey of over 4,000 mostly non-Jewish students at these same schools.
In the spring of 2025, we conducted a survey of over 2,000 faculty members at 146 research-intensive universities, often called R1. Here are some of our most important findings.
1. Antisemitism Isn’t Just About Harassment
Our December 2023 survey found that the majority of Jewish students said there was a hostile environment toward Jews on their campus. This hostility was much more prevalent at some schools than others.
Students reported personal experiences of antisemitic harassment – especially on social media. But they also said they feel shunned or excluded from campus life. Jewish students at schools with higher reported levels of hostility were also less likely to say that they fully “belong” on their campus.
In our 2024 interviews, Jewish students reported being told by peers that they could no longer be friends due to their – real or perceived – support for Israel. They also said that their non-Jewish peers were actively avoiding them.
As one Jewish student put it, “No one wants to have a conversation with Jews right now.”
The majority of Jewish students who identify as politically liberal were especially likely to feel alienated and isolated. They were also especially likely to feel estranged from other liberals on campus.
Jewish students we interviewed also reported being shunned by friends who were critical of Israel, regardless of their own views on the actions of the Israeli government.
Multiple other studies have found that non-Jewish students reported they would not want to be friends with anyone who supports Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.
2. Some Israel Comments Cross The Line
Our research also shows that when it comes to debates about what is or is not antisemitic, Jewish students see a clear distinction between criticizing the actions of Israel’s government and denying Israel’s right to exist.
When we spoke to Jewish students in 2023 and 2024, we found the vast majority felt that denying Israel’s right to exist was antisemitic. But there was no similar consensus around other statements, such as accusing Israel of committing genocide.
3. Small Groups Drive Antisemitism On Campus
Our research also found that about 34% of non-Jewish undergraduates, and about 10% of non-Jewish faculty held views about Jews or Israel that most Jewish students find antisemitic.
About half the people in these groups expressed hostile views about Israel, such as denying that it has a right to exist and refusing to be friends with anyone who thinks differently.
The other half were less likely to express these extreme views on Israel but tended to agree with explicitly anti-Jewish statements such as “Jews in America have too much power.”
In contrast, two-thirds of non-Jewish students and about 90% of non-Jewish faculty did not hold views that Jewish students tend to see as antisemitic, even if they expressed deep criticism of Israel’s government.
4. Israel Debates Are Relatively Rare In Class
Despite frequent news headlines about classroom discussions or protests related to the Israeli-Hamas war, 76% of faculty said that in the 2024-25 academic year the issue simply never came up in their class.
Other contentious topics such as climate change or racism in America were much more likely to be taught about or discussed in the classroom.
Responding To Antisemitism
In our interviews, many Jewish undergraduates said they wanted their campus administrators to do more to address antisemitism. But some said that heavy-handed actions such as banning pro-Palestinian groups sometimes made things worse by further inflaming campus tensions and prompting criticism that Jewish students were receiving special treatment.
Similar concerns have been raised about the federal government’s approach, which, in the name of fighting antisemitism, has been focused on punishing entire schools and researchers in a wide variety of disciplines that have nothing to do with Jews or Israel, by withholding billions in federal funding.
The government has also initiated civil rights investigations and revoked visas for international students at some schools.
This approach, in my opinion, has the potential to alienate potential allies on and off campus, including faculty and students who oppose antisemitism in all its forms but are being harmed all the same by federal actions. Penalizing people in the name of helping Jewish students could also reinforce antisemitic stereotypes about oppressive Jewish power.
I think that healing Jewish students’ feelings of isolation and ostracism requires building, or rebuilding, social connections across ideological and religious lines. If university administrators, or the federal government, really want to help Jewish students, they should focus on bringing students together rather than driving them apart.
Graham Wright, Associate Research Scientist, Maurice & Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies, Brandeis University. He works for the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
