By Amy Zewe—
What can you do to help curtail the growing cancer of antisemitism and antizionism on college campues across the US, Canada, and UK?
The first thing is to become aware of what is going on.
In California, for example, K-12 curriculums are being instituted that would water down or otherwise eliminate the study and examination of the history of Jewish persecution, up to and including the holocaust. Categorizing Jews as privileged whites. Moreover, the modern issues ongoing in Israel are defined as colonialism and as such, a continuation of the European white-supremacy binary that they say has existed for centuries.
If we are baking antisemitism and antizionism into our curriculum for young people, why would we surprised if at the college level, Jews on campus are on the receiving end of continuous hostility and beratement, if not outright discrimination?
Jews are often barred from certain leadership positions—based on some age old trope that there would be “dual loyalty”? Jewish students who have no particular passion for Israel and its ongoing politics find themselves the target of anti-Zionist efforts on campuses—which go far beyond academic debate and discussion.
Those who even appear to try to shed an objective light on issues surrounding Israel or who try to rebut false information being disseminated on college campuses via flyers, social media posts, guest speakers and events such as Israel Apartheid week, find themselves physically threatened and openly harassed.
At Arizona State University recently, the leadership there vowed to curtail the antisemitic and anti-Zionist propaganda found on campus. But again, they have failed to provide any accountability to groups that are distributing hate speech and thus providing a threatening environment to Jewish students.
No other ethnic, racial or cultural groups or religion could be the focus of such hateful campaigns and met with silence and shoulder shrugs?
Again, what can you do? Be aware of what is going on in your local schools, the schools you have attended or have family and friends attending, and call out injustices and lies when you see them. Don’t let a lazy mainstream media set the agenda for what news you and your network have access to. JNS.org, Times of Israel, Jpost, Algemeiner and a myriad of other small news outlets will run these stories so you can know about them. Many have email services so you can get the news weekly. Or you can just go to their website and read the latest.
As well, Facebook has several groups that will curate news stories focused on antisemitism in schools and universities. You can follow their sites and never miss an important story. Our own Facebook and LinkedIn sites and our blog page on our website will repost news articles on this topic.
In addition to staying informed so you can pray specifically, you can also help in an extremely tangible way: you can help us send one, or more, American students TO Israel to study for an entire semester at the Hebrew University. By doing so, we allow students to participate in the rich, diverse, experiences of Israeli society. Engaging both local citizens of all backgrounds and international students, students who participate in this program return to their US based college as a witness for truth and begin to counter the narrative being set forth by ill-informed or simply corrupt student groups.
Jewish advocacy organizations for both students and faculty do exist on many campuses. Their voices are sometimes heard, and then ignored. We want to augment that voice. We want to provide the resources to stand in solidarity with the jews and folks who support Jews on college campuses when they are being sidelined and demonized, often through an anti-Zionist lens.
Please consider a recurring or one time donation to our scholarship program. If you are a student or know a college student who may be interested in this program, refer them to our website. Students from any major or course of study and from any US-based university that has a study abroad program is welcome to explore this opportunity.