2022 YIR: Top Ten Anti-Jewish Campuses | An Update

In the Aug. 11, 2022, issue, an article about antisemitism on college campuses was featured, listing the 10 worst offenders named by Stopjewhatred.org. The colleges and universities cited were Florida State University, Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, University of Chicago, Boston University, San Francisco State University, Rutgers University, University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Houston, and the University of Minnesota.

According to Sara Dogan, national campus director at Stopjewhatred.org, sponsored by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, antisemitism continues to be an urgent issue on American college campuses. Dogan pointed to a recent report from the Amcha Initiative, an organization dedicated to documenting and fighting antisemitism in higher education, which indicated, “Incidents involving the suppression, denigration or challenges to the definition of Jewish identity were found on nearly 60 percent of the campuses most popular with Jewish students.”

Several campuses, including three that made the Freedom Center’s “Top Ten list of Jew-hating Campuses,” University of Chicago, Rutgers, and UCLA, were home to 10 or more such incidents during the 2021-22 school year.

In the months since the report was released, all of the campuses highlighted have been struck by additional incidents of “Jew hatred,” the term used by the organization. At Rutgers, the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi was targeted by egg-throwing vandals during Rosh Hashanah. Last month, at UCLA, graffiti written in chalk stated, “It’s not cool to shill for Israel” and “Ye was Right,” in reference to the rapper’s comments and Holocaust denial.

At University of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine told fellow students to “Boycott Sh***y Zionist Classes” stating that, “By attending these classes, you are perpetuating a propaganda campaign that creates complicity in the continuation of Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestine.” At the University of Michigan, the anti-Israel group, Students Allied for Freedom and Equality, constructed a mock apartheid wall on campus, featuring the message, “Power to our Freedom Fighters, Glory to Our Martyrs,” and was accompanied by an image of convicted Palestinian terrorist Leila Khaled with a gun.

While the report’s intent is not to steer students away from any specific college or university, Dogan recommends students and parents should carefully investigate potential schools before applying or attending.