31 October 2024
Written by Ben Weinstein, a StandWithUs UK Emerson Fellow at LSE
"Strength and Struggle: Navigating Jewish and Zionist Identity on Campus"
As a Jewish and Zionist student on campus, the last year has not been easy. I say this having nothing to compare this last year to as I started university a mere two weeks before October 7th, which changed the landscape of university campuses across the world for the worse. I was massively excited for this next stage of my life and all the opportunities and challenges it would bring. However, the challenges I have faced over the last year are some that I never thought I would have to grapple with. I recognise that I am not alone in these feelings but also recognise that students do have differing opinions on the matters and the ways, and extents to which, that they are affected. As a result, I conducted a poll of students across many campuses, and even different countries, where participants were presented with statements and they then gave a response between one and five, with one being strongly disagree and five being strongly agree. Below I present the most striking results from this poll.
The largest feeling of agreement was on the statements relating to the strengthening of students’ connection to Israel and Judaism, receiving average responses of 4.4 and 4.1 as well as 67.3% and 52.7% of respondents giving the maximum of five respectively. As there is an increasing hatred towards the Jewish people and state, the greater the feeling of connection and involvement students feel. Students that have never thought of attending Jewish societies have come for the very first time and attendance at Friday Night Dinners reached new heights. This proves the eternal connection between the Jewish people in the diaspora and those within Israel, the indestructible link between the Jewish people and their ancestral homeland and the undeniable intertwining of their Judaism and Zionism.
On a more concerning note, the responses relating to the atmosphere on campus and the universities’ response to it raises some serious questions. Firstly, looking at the responses of other societies at university, for example refusing to collaborate or even speak to members of Jewish and Israeli societies as well as putting out statements that are harmful and inappropriate, both of which I and many of my friends witnessed, gives great cause for concern. An average response of 4.0, indicating heavy agreement, was observed for the statement relating to the above, confirming that other societies overstepped the mark in terms of their response over the last year. Additionally, even those in positions of power at the university, such as lecturers, presidents and student unions, followed in the same vein and were deemed to have shared antisemitic views, either on campus, in lectures or on social media, yielding an average response of 3.7, which is relatively high. A common statement by anti-Israel protesters on campus is that they are antizionist but not antisemitic, but this could not be further from the truth. The consensus among students is that protests and encampments were deeply antisemitic, with an average response of 3.9 and 67.3% of students giving a response of four or five, clearly displaying the attitudes of Jewish students towards the hateful events that take place on their campuses across the world. To further motivate this point, there was large agreement towards the statements that antisemitism is accepted (4.0) and treated differently to every other form of discrimination (4.1) on campus.
Given these pretty clear feelings of Jewish students, you would expect universities to do all they could to, firstly, end the cause of these feelings on their campuses and, secondly, support Jewish and Israeli students. Sadly, this was not the case. When asked whether their university could have done more to support Jewish and Israeli students, the overwhelming response was that they could, with an average response of 4.1 and no students strongly disagreeing with the statement. Instead of the universities providing the necessary support, a reasonable expectation, the responsibility fell upon the Israel and Jewish societies on campus, which are entirely run by students. There was a fairly large agreement, averaging a response of 3.6, that the Israel and Jewish societies filled this gap left by the universities, which is pleasing to see. However, this should not be the responsibility of students on society committees, and is an unfair pressure to put on them, but rather should be the responsibility of the universities to ensure that their campuses are a safe and accepting place for all students, which they are failing to do as, when asked about their safety on campus, around a quarter of students strongly agreed, a response of five, that they felt unsafe on campus. The overall response was slightly lower with an average of 3.4 but still far from where it should be.
A further area of interest was the response of non-Jewish and non-Israeli students and to what extent they offered support to those affected by the climate on campus over the last year. The results were less than promising as, in response to the statement that such students expressed concern for the safety of Jewish and Israeli students on campus, the largest response was strong disagreement, 29.1% giving an answer of just one. The overall picture also leaves much to be desired as the average response was only 2.6, displaying not much support from those outside our community. This is in stark contrast to what I, and many others, have witnessed on campus where the attendance at protests and encampments seems to be a fashionable thing to do and many of the participants not actually knowing why they are there or what the events are even about. This is deeply concerning as uneducated students are happy to attend such protests and encampments, which were established earlier to be harmful to the Jewish community, while they are reluctant to offer support to the very students that they are negatively affecting by attending antisemitic protests and encampments. However, I have personally experienced non-Jewish students offering support to Jewish and Israeli students, which I am always grateful to see. When I put this poll on social media, to gain more responses, I got a message from someone I had never spoken to before who said to me, that although they were not Jewish, they would forward the poll on to their friends who were as it would really help them through this difficult time. Additionally, I represented my university’s Israel Society at the Freshers’ Fair, where new students go to get a picture of all societies available at university. While sat there I was expecting there to be issues from other students but, in fact I experienced the opposite. Students, majority of whom were not Jewish, came to the stand to thank me for what I was doing and offering their support and one even calling me “The bravest person in the room”. The president of another society, seated at a stand across the hall, came to my stand and we exchanged contact details and planned to host a joint event together. Students and societies like this that do offer support to the Jewish community on campus are always appreciated but, unfortunately, they are in the vast minority of students.
There was a mixed response to whether Jewish students had altered their daily activities and attendance on campus, average responses of 2.8 and 2.6 respectively, but overall gave a result leaning more to disagreement. This was surprising as students felt that they had to hide parts of their Jewish and Zionist identities while at university with an average response of 3.3 to statements around having to hide their Jewish identity, through clothing, jewellery and in conversation and an average response of 2.6 to the statement relating to how comfortable they were speaking about Israel on campus. Initially, I was shocked by this result. If Jewish students had to hide their identity, then why go to campus at all? Why not stay at home where you can be who you want to be? Most lectures are recorded anyway so there would not be much downside to doing so. Then I realised the answer. As established earlier, the more a Jewish person is told not to associate with the Jewish and Zionist aspects of their identity, the more connected they feel to them. So, in response to slogans such as: “Zionists off our campus”, students ensure that there are Zionists on campus to advocate for Israel despite the possible backlash they may receive.
A further section of the poll was dedicated to Israel education on campus. Students were asked if they would participate in counter-protests and responded on average, with 3.3. They were then asked whether they felt they were equipped enough to speak about Israel on campus, which yielded a less promising average response of 2.9. Despite this, students are keen to learn about Israel and there was overwhelming agreement, average response of 4.2, that more education about Israel and combating antisemitism was needed on campus. This is an area that I certainly will work on at my campus, through my roles in the Israel and Jewish Societies and Fellowship with an Israel advocacy organisation, and will heavily encourage those on other campuses, with official positions or not, to do the same.
The final section of the poll gave a space for respondents to provide any further information that they wanted to add. This was mainly used to share personal experiences on campus over the last year. One response said: “It’s a constant awareness of my surroundings as I don’t know where an antisemitic action or remark will come from” and another said that at one point the climate got so bad that they “ felt completely unsafe, isolated, and was heavily considering dropping out. In fact, I’d never felt so isolated in my life, and I’m not even visibly Jewish.” This point of not being visibly Jewish was echoed by another student who said that “there are very few students on campus who publicly identify as Jewish.” These personal accounts further display the unnecessary difficulties of Jewish and Israeli students over the past year.
Overall, this poll confirmed many initial ideas that I had about how other students felt on campus. However, it also emphasised the work that needs to be done, both in pressuring universities to do more for their students as well as delivering education about Israel, to Jewish and non-Jewish students alike, to promote a more accepting and safe campus climate for all students. The most important thing to remember is that no student should stand alone and, as this poll has highlighted, many of us feel the same way and should use this to stand together and improve our campuses as one cohesive unit. As a result, I urge all students to do all they can to support and educate their fellow students so that the next cohort of students on our university campuses do not experience the same challenges as were highlighted in this poll.
Students from the following universities responded to the poll:
- Aston University
- Birmingham City University
- City, University of London
- King's College London
- Leeds Beckett University
- Liverpool John Moores University
- London School of Economics
- Manchester Metropolitan University
- Queens College
- University of Birmingham
- University of Bristol
- University of Central Lancashire
- University of East Anglia
- University of Edinburgh
- University of Exeter
- University of Leeds
- University of Liverpool
- University of Manchester
- University of Miami
- University of Nottingham
- University of Oxford
- University of Salford
- University of Sheffield
- University of Sussex
- University of Warwick
- University of Westminster
About StandWithUs UK:
StandWithUs is an international, non-profit and non-partisan Israel education organisation that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel, as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism. Founded in 2010, StandWithUs UK has become a recognised support system and leading resource for students on UK campuses. We empower and energise students and communities with leadership training and educational programmes on both school and university campuses. StandWithUs informs through social media, printed materials, digital platforms, film and newsletters. The StandWithUs flagship Emerson Fellowship programme seeks to raise students into future leaders, equipped to stand strong in the face of antisemitism and anti-Zionism. We believe in the right of the Jewish People to self-determination in their historic homeland of Israel. We educate the facts in an unbiased and holistic manner, with an open mind, reflecting on views from all sides of the political, social and humanitarian spectrum whilst promoting peace. StandWithUs UK believe the current discourse surrounding Israel on campus all too often crosses the line between legitimate criticism of Israel’s policies and the dangerous, mainstream, antisemitic rhetoric which stands contrary to the IHRA definition of antisemitism. We work to educate on that distinction, encourage civil discourse on legitimate criticism of Israel, and to fight antisemitism wherever it emerges.
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