The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel “is essentially a domestic form of antisemitism that attacks local Jews through the demonizing of the Jewish state,” observed Ben Cohen in 2015. “The only way for Jews to remove this stain is through publicly dissociating themselves from, and loudly condemning, the State of Israel. Quarantining Israel in order to eliminate it may be the stated goal of BDS, but its immediate and often only impact is upon those Jews in the vicinity of the movement’s propaganda activities.”

In the five years since, our college campuses and universities have provided one example after another to prove his point. Here are just a few recent ones:

Last month, the Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt gave a talk at UC Berkeley on present-day antisemitism in the US. Her talk, she said, had nothing to do with Israel. Yet students calling themselves Law Students for Justice in Palestine protested her talk with signs calling for divestment from Israel and complaining about alleged events in Israel in 1948.

Also last month, a Jewish law student said that she dropped out of CUNY Law School, a public school, due to antisemitic harassment from activists claiming to be pro-Palestinian. A petition that targeted the student was signed by several faculty members.

And in November at my alma mater, Oberlin College, the student groups Students for Free Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace erected a memorial to terrorists who targeted Jewish civilians on the campus’ main square.

These and the many other incidents that make the news are alarming, but there is an even more pernicious effect of campus antisemitism: it works to turn young Jews away from their own community as they seek to fit in with their peers.

The ADL’s Jonathan Greenblatt recently explained that “celebrating the miracle of the creation of the Jewish state after 2,000 years of yearning to return to Zion is foundational to the teaching of Jewish history and identity.” While Zionism, in Greenblatt’s words, “links the Jewish people of the present to the ancient Jewish people of the past,” anti-Zionist teachings on campuses — and increasingly in high schools and even elementary schools — seek to sever that bond.

In the 1990s, when I was a college student and then a recent graduate, Jewish organizations were obsessed with “Jewish continuity.” This obsession found expression in programs designed to ensure that young Jews married each other and made more Jews. But today’s anti-Zionism attacks Jewish continuity by asking young Jews to choose between their community and their social lives. My fellow Oberlin alum Julia Redden wrote of how in her first year at the school, a Jewish senior warned her that “You always have to prove you’re a good Jew” and “The good Jews have to be anti-Zionist.”

Make no mistake — anti-Zionism is not just an attack on Israel, it is an attack on all Jews, everywhere.

The wider American Jewish community would be well served to recognize the dire nature of this situation, and to prioritize addressing it. One major step towards doing so was already taken in December of 2019, with the signing of an Executive Order on antisemitism. The order adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which includes “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination,” and “holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.” It also extended to Jewish students the same Federal protections that other minority groups already enjoyed.

Yet there’s been little prominent coverage of the 2020 presidential candidates’ positions on the December 2019 executive order. Indeed, when JTA sent the candidates five questions “about antisemitism and Jewish issues,” the newswire did not even mention the executive order. This is despite the fact that a recent poll showed that 86% of American Jews consider antisemitism either very important or one of the most important issues in the coming election.

This is not a partisan issue, nor should it be. When President Trump signed the EO, Democratic Representatives Elaine Luria (VA) and Max Rose (NY) were there with him, as was Republican Representative Lee Zeldin (NY), among others. Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer (NY) and Democratic Representative Tom Suozzi (NY), and Republican Senator Marco Rubio (FL), have all acknowledged that BDS is a new form of antisemitism.

To be clear, addressing the violent attacks against both synagogues and individuals on the street that have become shockingly frequent certainly must be a priority for the Jewish community. But so too should be addressing a domestic antisemitism movement whose adherents harass American Jewish college students for their attachment to the Jewish homeland and Jewish peoplehood.

In this election season, the Jewish community must educate candidates from both parties to address antisemitism in all its forms, including the anti-Zionism increasingly found in academia.

Karen Bekker is the Assistant Director in the Media Response Team at CAMERA, the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis.

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