A march against antisemitism in the German city of Dusseldorf. Photo: Reuters/Ying Tang

A group of Jewish university professors in Germany have announced the launch of a cross-campus network to offer support and develop strategies to combat the rising antisemitic climate since the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas pogrom in Israel.

In an interview on Friday with the Spiegel news outlet, Prof. Julia Bernstein — a founder of the network who teaches at the Frankfurt University of Applied Science — said that many Jewish academics were hiding their identities or staying away from campus because “they no longer feel safe in the workplace.”

“Antisemitism has increased dramatically since Oct. 7, and there is no reason to think that universities, as a microcosm of society, are any different,” Bernstein observed.

The network is currently comprised of 70 Jewish academics at universities in Germany, as well as Austria and Switzerland. Other founders of the network include pianist Roglit Ishay, professor of music at the Freiburg University of Music; Haya Schulmann, computer science professor at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main; Michael Waidner, Head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology in Darmstadt; and Deidre Berger, partner of the Berlin Tikvah Institute and the long-time head of the American Jewish Committee’s office in Berlin.

The immediate goal of the network is to provide Jewish academics with a “safe space,” Bernstein said.

“The pedagogical or academic examination of the topic of antisemitism is important. Now, however, the first step is to ensure security for Jews, at universities and of course beyond,” she added.

Last month, Federal Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger warned that university students who engage in antisemitism could face expulsion from their institutions.

“What before Oct. 7 was perhaps only thought and not lived is now very public — also in the universities,” she said.

On a recent interview with the NZZ news outlet, Hanna Veiler, the president of the Jewish student union JSUD, warned that there had been “a veritable explosion of antisemitic ideas” in the weeks since the Hamas atrocities. She criticized the management of the universities for “reacting far too slowly.” Students convicted of antisemitism should be deregistered, she asserted, along with a ban on “antisemitic, anti-democratic, and extremist” groups.