What happens when Jews don’t feel safe on campuses

Who would have expected that the finest and most prestigious campuses would have abandoned their Jewish faculty and student population, leaving them to fend for themselves in the midst of a sea of intolerance, rage and false accusation which threatens their safety?

As mind-boggling as it sounds, it is the reality which, although having been widely exposed, has not brought about any significant change. Despite the decision to remove public funding for any university which fails to protect its Jewish students, as well as clamp down on masked protesters, the persecution is still happening on a daily basis.  Even the threat to revoke foreign student visas has backfired, causing all the more outrage and legal challenge.

We’re at the point where interim or new college presidents are either unable to control the troublemakers or are attempting to hoodwink the U.S. administration into believing that they are doing all they can to comply, while simply shutting their eyes to the continued harassment and fomenting of hate directed at Jews who only want to receive the education for which they signed up to get.

It was, therefore, good news to hear that the “Congressional Committee on Education and Workforce sent letters to five American colleges, demanding explanations for alleged permissiveness on antisemitism and anti-Israel protest encampments on campuses.”

Those schools include New York’s Barnard College and Sara Lawrence College, Maine’s Bowdoin College, Illinois’ Northwestern University and California’s Pomona College. These institutions, which receive federal funding, have either failed to adequately address the anti-Jewish activities which continue to occur on their campuses or have been delinquent in providing a safe learning environment for their most vulnerable students – the ones who are being targeted – or have failed to control Hamas sympathizing protesters, who become even more agitated when measures are taken to push back against their actions.

It's almost as if nothing short of a robust police or military presence will be the only intimidating force that can put an end to the obnoxious performative activism which administrators and ordinary staff are incapable of containing. And, perhaps, that is what needs to be done, in order to ensure that Jewish students and faculty are able to study or teach, without fear or apprehension that some harm will befall them, because even a Barnard campus security guard ended up being hospitalized when these hooligans employed physical violence and vandalism.

It took the suspension of eight student activists on Bowdoin College to end a four-day encampment, which had been initiated by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Another 50 students were said to be facing disciplinary action for their participation in the encampment. 

In this case, the congressional committee has tried to provide oversight by following up on the type of punishment which will be meted out to these students, and that is good, because short of their demand for accountability, it cannot be taken for granted that anything will happen, as we’ve seen by these ineffective and weak administrators who either don’t want to take this seriously or are no match for professional activists who are obviously well-organized and handsomely paid for their efforts.

But what message is being sent by these feckless school leaders who have willingly tolerated this kind of terrorizing of students, who have nothing to do with the ongoing war being waged thousands of miles away from their campuses?  

What’s clear is that the injection of a political issue is so obviously a convenient cover for antisemitic fervor which has found a new home on American campuses, attempting to frighten or distance other Jews from enrolling while hoping to keep the Jews, already there from entering the campuses to which they have paid enormous fees in order to receive a quality education.

Ironically, Bowdoin’s president, Safa Zaki chose to address antisemitism by coupling it together with Islamophobia and all other forms of hate, thereby watering down the real issue of anti-Jewish sentiment. Does anyone believe that her main concern is for Jews at the university which she leads? By not singling it out and recognizing it as the sole threat, Zaki already assures us that she either doesn’t get it or doesn’t want to get it.

The administration of Northwestern University was no better, as negotiations were conducted in an effort to make a deal for calm and the removal of tents on the school grounds. Why would anyone ever let it come to that? Adding insult to injury, that university’s School of Law has provided free legal representation to activists in the past.

Just as Bowdoin College, Northwestern University has attempted to implement new policies which they say will create a safe environment “for all students, regardless of their religion, race, national origins, sexual orientation or political viewpoint.”

And there it is again! The failure to address the one, singular issue of anti-Jewish expression and inability to properly identify the quickly metastasizing cancer in these institutions of higher learning, is a huge problem. Furthermore, everyone knows that no one, up until now, has complained of persecution due to their sexual orientation, politics, religion or race. So lumping it together is a not-too-clever way of avoiding the obvious – something too ugly to admit – that Jews no longer feel safe on their campuses.

Because to confess to such a blight is to also acknowledge that bigotry, small-mindedness, ignorance and prejudice still live on, having found a flourishing breeding ground in the one place where a higher level of intellect, reason and good judgment should prevail above the pettiness and foolishness which is more associated with those who lack a good education.

Congress is right to intervene in this sad situation which has largely been ignored by college administrators, but if they really hope to change the tide, they must first recognize the lack of desire and dishonesty of these administrators, who refuse to identify the singular threat to Jewish students and faculty - those with the most to lose.  

The pitiful and disingenuous attempt to obscure the antisemitism, which is rife in these colleges, must be confronted before anyone can curb its spread. Once properly identified and admitted, then real measures can be taken to shut it down once and for all, even if that requires a brigade of professionally trained law enforcement or the National Guard, because Jews feeling unsafe on their campuses must not be permissible, lest America be compared to the 1930s of Nazi Europe when no one did anything to stop the exact same sentiments.