We’ve seen some pretty ugly anti-Jewish hate on college campuses lately. A shocking number of students and staff on college campuses seem to be cheering on Hamas, and turning in anger towards Jewish students.
The tap-dancing deans on Capitol Hill didn’t help when they finally discovered nuance and loopholes in their schools’ draconian anti-free-speech policies.
But like all news events that outrage, it can be difficult to figure out how widespread an event is. At least once a week, I see a video of someone freaking out on an airline, yet I’ve never seen it once in person. When you realize that about 3 million Americans fly every single day – each with a cellphone and a social media account – it’s easy to see why the skies look nuttier than they are.
So, are college campuses antisemitic? Well, there’s definitely a massive shift towards identity politics in higher education. With Jewish people perceived as both “white” and “rich,” they’re often seen as oppressors instead of as the oppressed.
This article argues, and studies show, that college-educated adults are actually less antisemitic than those who haven’t attended college. College-educated people are also less likely to deny the Holocaust.
Also, often antisemitism is conflated with anti-Israel sentiment. Even Jewish Americans, especially younger Jews, are critical of the Israeli government. A 2021 survey found that about a quarter of American Jews saw Israel as an apartheid state, and more than one-third of Jews under 40 believe Israel is “committing genocide against the Palestinians.” You don’t have to agree with them, but an objection to a government’s actions isn’t antisemitic.
Finally, despite the media spin, conservatives are overwhelmingly pro-Israel by a large margin when compared to liberals.
But generally speaking, it’s possible campus antisemitism isn’t as widespread as we might believe.
And you? For those of you with college-age children or relatives, what have you heard about the situation on campuses in other parts of the country? Does the news coverage reflect the reality they see?
–Ken
P.S. The presidential primary is still over, for all practical purposes.
From my time at university (1960s), probably before as well, college student populations have included a large portion of either purposeful or feckless protestors. It seems the age and pretense of sophistication give rise to that. (Even the Greek origin of the word “sophomore” literally means sophisticated moron). Where students are “trying out” new ideas which are most likely old repackaged ideas this is to be expected and in an effective university needs to happen within constructive limits.
I have fellow alumni who were changed by the university and those who weren’t. Some remained stuck in the idiocy of youth, most moved on. That is not my problem.
What I observe today is too many universities have become indoctrination centers where an echo chamber of monolithic thought is perpetuated. There is less fault on the part of students as there is on the administration that diverts free thought down one acceptable channel and excludes even the expression of anything but one foregone orthodoxy. That’s all been labeled “wokeism” now. That’s the tunnel vision intellectualism that leads the president of a revered institution to accept advocacy of genocide as having some context of acceptability.
Call it foolishness, call it true antisemitism (which is relatively rare), call it experimentation with ideas but whatever it is there have to be side rails. Free speech is a bedrock value but if society, the university, does not draw lines then violent behavior will ensue. It may be burning churches in Mississippi, using lawfare to close a bakery, blow up a federal building, besiege a crazy cult, bombing military offices, swatting a politician, any number of events where free thought and free speech have led to destruction, danger and harm.
I will not advocate universities should teach everyone to think one way but when they fail to teach how to think they have become as worthless to civilization as the European church which triumphed in the inquisition. The heart of mankind will always run to evil; the university if it does not point to a better way, simply and stupidly follows the heart of man.
Having a 30 year career in government policy and Human Resources I have observed the divide between those who have come outvof college with their head in tact - some conservative, some liberal - as compared to those whose abilities by their obedience to the orthodox no longer able to think. Where the latter exists, those universities are a pox on civilization.
Good points, Ken. Overgeneralizing drives us further apart, whether it's "these darn college kids are antisemitic terrorist sympathizers" or "Trump supporters are racist."