Tuesday, March 19th | 9 Adar II 5784

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The 40 Worst Colleges

for

Jewish Students, 2017

The Algemeiner’s 2nd Annual List of the Most Challenging North American Campuses for Jewish Students

When we published our first annual lists last year of the “best” and “worst” colleges for Jewish students in the US and Canada, we weren’t sure what to expect.

We were therefore encouraged to discover just how widespread the interest was. We received considerable reader feedback and fielded interviews for weeks from media outlets across the globe that reported on our findings. The lists even seem to have become a catalyst for the production of similar rankings by other publications.

We also received our share of criticism, which we’ll do our best to address in this introduction to our 2017 list of the “40 worst colleges for Jewish students.”

We undertook the project last year in an effort to shine a spotlight on the concerning state of affairs for Jewish students in this country. Studies show that high percentages of Jewish students say they have witnessed, experienced or heard antisemitism on their campus. To our dismay, this troubling trend does not appear to be slowing down. An Anti-Defamation League report released in early 2018 revealed an astronomical 89 percent rise in antisemitic incidents on campuses between 2016 and 2017.

The launch of our Campus Bureau in 2016 has uniquely positioned us to closely follow developments on campuses across the continent. Often, stories first reported on our pages subsequently garnered national and international attention.

Over the past year, we wrote about anti-Israel activities at Tufts University, Pitzer College, and Claremont Colleges around Passover, and we covered the student leader at McGill University who urged others to “punch a Zionist.” At Rutgers University, we first reported on the employment of a former Assad regime spokesman as an adjunct professor and helped expose another professor’s antisemitic social media postings.

Engaging with campus leaders and Jewish students as we covered these and hundreds of similar stories throughout the year has reinforced for us the importance of publishing these lists. In doing so, we seek to enhance understanding of the landscape and provide tools for parents, alumni, and administrators to work toward stamping out hate and fostering a more inclusive environment for Jewish students.

As we wrote last year, “We do not necessarily believe that Jewish students should avoid these campuses, but do believe it imperative that prospective students and their families be fully informed about the environments they are poised to enter, and arrive prepared.”

The expansion this year of our “best” campuses list stems from our hope that the compilation is seen as motivational, and inspires those who came up short to explore what it might take to rank better in future years.

Responding to the critics

Last year, the response to our first publication of the “worst” colleges list was largely positive. We were particularly thrilled to hear from campus leaders who said they at last felt that the challenges they faced daily were being noticed.

The list also received some pushback. The most common critique was from some Jewish campus groups who felt that their school’s inclusion in the rankings was a criticism of their activism. Others spoke of their own antisemitism-free experiences on campus and wondered if the situation was really that dire.

Our response to the first group is to reiterate what we wrote last year: our recognition of hostile elements at a certain university should not be taken as an indictment of its Jewish community, or the often tireless efforts of those students, faculty, and advocates who remain dedicated to enriching and protecting Jewish life on campus. Rather, it is a reflection of the challenges that some students may nonetheless face, even while enjoying a firm communal foundation.

It is often the case, after all, that those campuses with the most active Jewish communities are also home to the most antisemitism. To address this dichotomy while compiling this year’s lists, we separately considered each school’s negative and positive aspects, and only kept those with exceptional Jewish life on the “worst” list if the hostile activity on their campuses cast a significant shadow over their strengths.

In addition, it is important to note that there are approximately 400,000 Jewish undergraduates at colleges and universities in North America. This means that despite the worrying trends we are seeing, the majority of Jewish students will thankfully have a trouble-free experience on campus. This truth, however, does little to mitigate our overall concern.

What do the rankings take into account?

With the understanding that list-making in general is by no means a perfect science, we have sought to be as comprehensive and thoughtful as possible in constructing our formulas.

In consultation with experienced data analysts, we identified a set of criteria that are likely to have the greatest impact on the environment for Jewish students.  The success of a boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign on campus was a significant factor, for example, as was the active presence of anti-Israel groups and pro-boycott faculty members.  Studies have shown that boycott activity targeting Israel and the presence of Students for Justice in Palestine — a leading anti-Zionist group — are each strong predicators of a hostile campus climate toward both Jews and Israel. Likewise, greater numbers of faculty members who support boycotts of Israel on campus have been linked to more instances of anti-Jewish hostility.

Additional factors we looked at include the number of antisemitic incidents recorded at each school, based on the US State Department’s definition of antisemitism, which recognizes certain kinds of discriminatory attacks on Israel. We also considered the Jewish student population, Jewish Studies offerings, and Jewish resources available at each school, as well as the presence of Jewish and pro-Israel student groups, among other elements.

In addition to the above, we also sought the feedback and guidance of experienced campus leaders whose input has been incorporated into the final compilation.

Please keep in mind that the descriptions accompanying the entries on the list are not intended to explain in full detail the ranking of each college, but rather to shed light on the state of affairs at different campuses through relevant anecdotes and highlights.

Lastly, we are thankful to you, our readers, for taking the time to review this important analysis. We look forward to hearing your feedback and engaging further with you in the comment section below.

— The Algemeiner editors

Jewish Population on Campus
1 .
Jewish Population on Campus

18%

University of Michigan

Ann Arbor, Michigan

The University of Michigan catapulted to the top of our list this year, after its student government passed a divestment resolution targeting Israel in November. A swastika was found at the school hours after the divisive vote, exacerbating concerns among many Jewish students who, according to one freshman, said “they are afraid to walk around campus now.” With an active student group dedicated to advancing the BDS campaign, as well as a branch of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the current of anti-Zionist activism runs high at U-M. And while some of these tensions arise from the behavior of certain student groups, the school’s faculty members have at times only worsened the situation. Earlier this year, despite objections from some Jewish students, the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies sponsored a lecture by former professor and BDS activist Steven Salaita, who has accused “Zionists” of “transforming ‘antisemitism’ from something horrible into something honorable since 1948.” In an environment like this, it’s no surprise that in 2017 alone, there were over a dozen antisemitic incidents on campus. (Photo credit: Ken Lund.)

Jewish Population on Campus

18%

2 .
Jewish Population on Campus

22%

Tufts University

Medford, Massachusetts

Tufts University rises 21 spots on our list this year, after passing a BDS resolution in April 2017. The measure was rushed through the student senate on the eve of the Jewish holiday of Passover, when many members of the Jewish community were home and unable to respond — not an uncommon tactic among anti-Zionist groups. The resolution’s language, “that was deliberately vague enough to allow for an interpretation that meant there should not be a state of Israel, is antisemitism," one student senator said after it passed. Forty-five pro-Israel organizations also denounced the timing of the senate vote, which proceeded despite requests from some 50 people that it be postponed, as an effort to deprive Jewish students “of their freedom of expression and the right to full participation in campus life." That month, an Israeli student wrote that it was not the first time she felt marginalized at Tufts, but warned that “when Jews address antisemitism on this campus, we are seen as inflammatory, abrasive and unaware of our own privilege.” Later in the year, campus activists published an unauthorized guidebook describing the university's Hillel as "an organization that supports a white supremacist state" and “exploit[s] black voices for their own pro-Israel agenda.” The guide's "divisive and offensive assertions" were condemned by the university's president and removed from the official Tufts class of 2020 and 2021 Facebook pages. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

22%

3 .
Jewish Population on Campus

24%

Columbia University

New York City, New York

While Columbia University hosts a large and diverse Jewish community, dozens of antisemitic incidents have been recorded at the school over the last two years. It is also home to over two dozen faculty members who actively support boycotts of the Jewish state, some of whom warn against "Fifth Column Zionists" in the US. Many of these professors are involved with Columbia's Center for Palestine Studies, which was called in December “an academic epicenter for anti-Israel political activism.” According to a recent complaint filed by a Zionist student club at Columbia, this activism is also advanced by anti-Israel student groups, which "have monopolized the conversation on campus relating to the Israeli-Arab conflict and have systematically maligned, harassed and silenced ... pro-Israel voices." And while a Columbia student council rejected a proposed BDS vote in 2017, members of Columbia University Apartheid Divest launched an ultimately successful BDS referendum this April at Barnard College, which is closely affiliated with Columbia. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons.)

Jewish Population on Campus

24%

4 .
Jewish Population on Campus

14%

University of Chicago

Chicago, Illinois

In recent years, the University of Chicago has hosted leading BDS supporters like Omar Barghouti, featured annual “Israel Apartheid Week” displays, and saw threats of violence directed at a Palestinian human rights activist who criticized the Palestinian Authority. The local SJP chapter and pro-divestment coalition regularly promote libels against the Jewish state in the school’s student newspaper, and successfully petitioned their student government to pass a divestment resolution in 2016. “Students in the room that day called us racists and murderers and ‘apartheid supporters,’ for even thinking we, as Jews, could have a voice in the discussion over the one small state we call our own,” recalled one student who witnessed the vote. In June, the pro-divestment coalition said it sent hundreds of letters to members of U of C's investment committee, pressuring them "to divest from apartheid." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

14%

5 .
Jewish Population on Campus

9%

University of California, Berkeley

Berkeley, California

The first of seven UC schools to appear on our list, Berkeley has long been accused of fostering an environment that can be unfriendly to Jews and Zionists. The school’s SJP chapter frequently equates Zionism with racism, as it did during a “die-in” protest in March 2017, and hosts events with speakers who promote BDS, like faculty member Hatem Bazian. A co-founder of SJP, Bazian shared a tweet in July depicting a caricature of an Orthodox Jew — described as an "Ashke-Nazi" — boasting that he can "kill" and "rape" Palestinians. While Bazian issued an apology following a public outcry, it was dismissed by a coalition of Jewish groups at UC Berkeley, who pointed to his years-long record "of spreading or justifying antisemitism and other forms of bigotry." A petition to take action against the lecturer, and condemning the administration's "blind eye to anti-Semitism," gathered over 5,800 signatures since it was launched by the Zionist club Tikvah in late April. Notably, anti-Zionist groups and faculty aren't the only actors advancing toxic tropes on campus. In October, the school's own student newspaper was accused of sanctioning antisemitism by publishing a cartoon depicting legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Jewish and Zionist activist who spoke at UC Berkeley earlier that month, with blood on his hand and a Palestinian under his foot. The image was condemned by UC Berkeley's chancellor, and ultimately retracted by the paper's editors. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

9%

6 .
Jewish Population on Campus

13%

At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, divestment initiatives have been debated over Passover, mezuzahs have been ripped off apartment doors, and SJP has screened films implying that American Jews wield excessive influence over US foreign policy. In April 2017, BDS activists passed a “manipulative” student government resolution targeting Israel, after disguising it as a broad divestment measure targeting fossil fuel and arms companies. Swastikas and neo-Nazi propaganda have also been found on campus, with more than a dozen antisemitic incidents recorded over the last two years. "I know when I go places and I wear my Jewish star, and I wear it proudly, I do get looks," one Jewish student told a local newspaper in October. "I’ve heard a Heil Hitler a few times on this campus directed at me." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

13%

7 .
Jewish Population on Campus

6%

Ohio State University

Columbus, Ohio

While a BDS resolution proposed by the Committee for Justice in Palestine was narrowly defeated at Ohio State University in March 2017, a second divestment resolution passed in January — yet only after all language involving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was removed, following objections from over 50 students. However, Ohio State has faced divestment campaigns for several years, and anti-Zionist groups — which have in the past warned student senators against going on organized trips to Israel — are likely to continue pursuing them with the support of various allies, while also finding other ways to promote anti-Zionism among their peers. Just in February, a poster advertising a fake geography class titled, "All of Israel is Palestine" was found on campus. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

6%

8 .
Jewish Population on Campus

8%

San Francisco State University

San Francisco, California

San Francisco State University recently faced two lawsuits alleging that the school suffers from "institutionalized" antisemitism, one filed in June 2017 and another in January 2018. Both highlighted what plaintiffs called a pattern of discrimination against Jewish students, including a February 2017 incident when the local Hillel was barred from participating in a campus fair at SFSU, allegedly with the complicity of “high-ranking university officials.” In March, a judge dismissed the June complaint but allowed plaintiffs to resubmit their claim — a welcome development for SFSU, which has argued that “instances of intolerance or anti-Semitism are neither promoted nor tolerated at SF State by the president or by administrators.” Regardless of the outcomes of these cases, it’s clear that SFSU maintains a troubled relationship with its Jewish community. And although the president recently issued a public apology to Jewish students and faculty, it was not entirely well-received by the Jewish community — or by anti-Zionists, who shared graffiti and fliers on campus saying, "Zionists not welcome" and “Zionism = Racism.” One professor described the apology as “a declaration of war” against Arabs, Muslims, and Palestinians, in a message that was shared on the Facebook page of SFSU’s Arab and Muslim Ethnicities and Diasporas Studies program. The incident prompted a condemnation from the chancellor of the California State University system, but heightened the concerns of Jewish groups on and off-campus. Just last May, the SFSU Hillel director wrote that while Jewish students “create vibrant Jewish life on a daily basis," the university “keeps the organized Jewish campus community at arm’s-length, excludes our students from participating in campus events, allows speakers we invite to be shouted down and refuses to publicly stand against intolerance when it’s directed at the Jewish community.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

8%

9 .
Jewish Population on Campus

9%

McGill University

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

This fall — shortly after McGill University’s student government endorsed a ruling rejecting the BDS movement for promoting discrimination based on national origin — three of its members were denied ratification in an unprecedented split vote. All three had campaigned against BDS on campus, and one of the students — who is Jewish — said he was targeted “because of my Jewish identity and my affiliations with Jewish organizations.” While the vote to oust the students was ultimately nullified due to constitutional violations, and all three were later approved in an online referendum, the episode shed light on tensions affecting Jewish life at McGill — a campus where a student newspaper previously pledged not to publish pieces that "promote a Zionist worldview." A report commissioned by the university to determine whether the students were subject to antisemitic discrimination noted that the pro-BDS group Democratize SSMU had employed “anti-Jewish tropes," and that the Jewish community was already grappling with a February 2017 tweet by a student government representative who urged, “punch a Zionist today.” While the report found that political differences prompted the students’ initial removal, rather than antisemitism, it called the Jewish student’s reaction “understandable” and was accompanied by a pledge from the university’s principal “that there is absolutely no place for anti-Semitism at McGill University.” Its conclusion prompted criticism by several Canadian Jewish advocates, one of whom warned that it “may well serve to deepen the divisive and poisoned atmosphere on campus — where antisemitism is interwoven into anti-Israel campaigns.” Yet there may be reason to believe the situation will improve in the future. In March, the SSMU approved all recommendations proposed by its Anti-Semitism Committee, including requiring new executives to attend a session on antisemitism and adopting a definition of antisemitism that recognizes antisemitic attacks on Israel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

9%

10 .
Jewish Population on Campus

2%

The University of California, Irvine made headlines in September after taking disciplinary action against its SJP chapter, placing it on a two-year probation. Months earlier, the group had shut down a lecture featuring young IDF veterans by screaming and repeating chants accusing Israel of "genocide.” These and other extreme tactics have been employed by SJP for years, with one former UC Irvine student saying in 2016, “SJP and the Muslim Student Association] have a documented history of violence on this campus, specifically violence against Jewish students.” While the school’s Jewish community continues to face challenges — including from the over 20 faculty members who openly support BDS — some students have reported feeling like UC Irvine has taken “a big step in the right direction.” A month after announcing its decision to sanction SJP, the school opened its Center for Jewish Studies. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

2%

11 .
Jewish Population on Campus

23%

Wesleyan University

Middletown, Connecticut

With active JVP and SJP groups, Wesleyan University can be challenging for many Jewish students. On campus, BDS activists have called for the removal of Sabra Hummus from the dining halls and organize an annual “lsrael Apartheid Week.” And it's not just the usual culprits going after the Jewish state and its supporters — even Wesleyan Students Against the Fossil Fuel Industry is in on the action. In April 2017, the organization accused “the Zionist state project” of “climate colonialism.” While less than 10 antisemitic incidents were recorded on campus in 2017, the number is significant for a school of only around 3,000 students. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

23%

12 .
Jewish Population on Campus

26%

Oberlin College

Oberlin, Ohio

Privilege, in all its different manifestations, is a frequent topic of discussion on many college campuses. But this October, Oberlin College was plastered with posters calling for the end of “Jewish privilege.” The incident — which was denounced by the university’s president — follows the 2016 exposure of former Oberlin professor Joy Karega, who claimed that Israel and “Rothschild-led banksters” were behind a number of global calamities, including the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 and the rise of ISIS. While Karega was ultimately fired, some Jewish students have indicated that the campus at large is hostile to those who refuse to renounce Zionism. In April, more than 100 alumni and six former and current Oberlin faculty members signed an open letter warning that “hostility toward Israel” at the liberal arts college “triggers blatant attacks of antisemitism.” The accusation was dismissed by the school's president, who argued that it fails to accurately represent “Oberlin College and contemporary Jewish life on our campus.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

26%

13 .
Jewish Population on Campus

8%

Stanford University

Stanford, California

In May 2017, Stanford University’s SJP gave a platform to Aarab Barghouti — son of Marwan Barghouti, a Palestinian terrorist leader who was convicted on five counts of murder — with support from the school’s student senate. Aarab described his father as a “freedom fighter” and called his crimes a form of “resistance.” Jewish students have also had to face hatred directed from the far-right, including over a dozen swastikas and antisemitic fliers that appeared on campus in 2017. Some of these students have accused their peers of remaining silent in the face of anti-Jewish hostility, with one noting that “there’s certainly a feeling of being alone as a Jewish community on campus and not necessarily enclosed in the fold of solidarity that sometimes is shown among different student minority groups.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

8%

14 .
Jewish Population on Campus

4%

University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota

Both far-right, neo-Nazi graffiti and far-left, SJP “apartheid walls” have been spotted at the University of Minnesota. With numerous anti-Israel student groups agitating on campus, UMN is not always “Minnesota Nice" for college-aged Zionists. While some student leaders have shown commendable resolve in the face of these pressures — aiding the defeat of two BDS resolutions in 2016 — a divestment referendum targeting Israel did pass in March, despite warnings from UMN’s president that it “is exacerbating tension and fueling discrimination toward Jewish students.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

4%

15 .
Jewish Population on Campus

21%

Vassar College

Poughkeepsie, New York

Vassar College's Hillel and Chabad offer weekly Shabbat services and dinners, as well as social and cultural programming for Jewish students. However, the school also hosts active SJP and JVP contingents, which lobbied their student government to pass a BDS resolution in 2016. “The debate over the BDS movement led to rampant anti-Semitism that the Vassar Student Association failed to adequately address, in which Jewish students felt unsafe being on campus,” one student recalled in September. The resolution was subsequently rejected in a student-wide referendum, weeks after one Vassar professor also warned that the campus conversation surrounding BDS was “random, facetious and, yes, antisemitic.” Although the school saw over 20 antisemitic incidents that same year, significantly fewer were recorded in 2017, contributing to a slight improvement in Vassar’s rating. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

21%

16 .
Jewish Population on Campus

3%

McMaster University

Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

McMaster University’s student union in 2015 passed a resolution backing BDS — a campaign that is often promoted on campus by the group Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR), a chapter of SJP. In December, SPHR was reported to be affiliated with activists who have praised Adolf Hitler and railed against "Zionist Jews.” Indeed, the group’s 2017 president has repeatedly glorified terrorist organizations, including the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. SPHR has tried to promote its extremism among the broader campus community, hosting an “Israeli Apartheid Week” in March 2017 and several other events throughout the year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

3%

17 .
Jewish Population on Campus

7%

York University

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The Jewish civil rights group B’nai Brith Canada warned in May 2017 that York University suffers from a “systemic antisemitism” problem. They pointed to a litany of offensive incidents — from the “dozens” of swastikas found on campus that academic year, to the adoption of a BDS resolution by the school’s undergraduate and graduate student unions. While the university did fire one of its lab technicians for antisemitic social media posts in 2016, many contend that more should be done to support the Jewish community on campus. The university's student center, for instance, features a mural depicting a Palestinian rock-thrower, whose keffiyah is decorated with a map of a Palestinian state that includes the entirety of Israel. But York has refused to take the offensive painting down — even after a prominent donor pulled funds to the university in protest. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

7%

18 .
Jewish Population on Campus

16%

Northwestern University

Evanston, Illinois

Almost 20 antisemitic incidents were recorded at Northwestern University over the last two years. SJP hosted Rasmea Odeh, a convicted Palestinian terrorist who helped kill two university students in Jerusalem in 1969, for an on–campus event in May 2017. Yet as Odeh urged her audience to confront not only Israel, but also “American Zionism,” some 150 students, faculty, and administrators, including the university’s president, attended a vigil for her victims. Days later, NU’s Buffett Institute for Global Studies, African American Studies department, and others sponsored a talk wherein Israel was accused of “brown washing” and being a “white supremacist” state. In February 2015, the school’s Student Government Senate passed a divestment resolution targeting Israel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

16%

19 .
Jewish Population on Campus

9%

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

Urbana and Champaign, Illinois

At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, SJP activists co-hosted a rally in September equating Zionists with “fascists” and "white supremacists,” which they threatened to target with “violent resistance–whether it is a black bloc or full-scale armed conflict.” When UIUC's chancellor spoke out against rising antisemitism at US universities, including "anti-Semitic attacks hidden under the guise of anti-Zionist rhetoric," SJP accused him of siding "with the powerful Zionist lobby on campus." The group’s extremism — which led it to disrupt events with Israeli speakers, and launch a divestment bid that failed in March 2017 and again this year — is not the only force targeting Jewish students at UIUC. The menorah in front of the Illini Chabad house has been vandalized and even knocked over in recent years, while swastikas and antisemitic messages like "I hate Jews" have been found on university property. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

9%

20 .
Jewish Population on Campus

2%

Portland State University

Portland, Oregon

Portland State University’s student government passed a BDS resolution in 2016 that referred to the entirety of Israel as “Palestinian land” — betraying a radical stance on Zionism and Palestinian nationalism that has continued to impact the Jewish community on campus. In October, a co-president of the PSU’s Cultural and Historical Association for Israel said she was told by a student senator — in an online conversation that was entirely unrelated to Israel — that "the correct definition of genocide is clearly exemplified by the State of Israel’s atrocities against Palestinians." Her concerns about the exchange, which included hostile comments like “no Zionists here,” were reportedly rebuffed by the student body president, while the senator in question blocked her email address to prevent any further dialogue. But some of PSU’s elected student representatives aren’t the only ones marginalizing Jewish voices on campus. In June, the school's Student Animal Liberation Coalition co-hosted an event accusing opponents of the BDS campaign of "vegan and humane-washing" — that is, falsely painting Israel as “the most progressive nation on the planet in terms of animals and veganism as a means of erasing the Palestinian relationship with the land and its animals.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

2%

21 .
Jewish Population on Campus

2%

University of Ottawa

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Three separate BDS votes took place at the University of Ottawa between November 2017 and March — twice at the Student Federation's Board of Administration and once at its General Assembly. While all three initiatives failed, they caused considerable concern among the school's Jewish community. Students were only notified of the first vote hours before Shabbat, even though it was set to take place that Sunday, prompting the Jewish human rights group B’nai Brith Canada to warn of legal action. The incident took place shortly after the school's Hillel and its sister organization, the Israel Awareness Committee, accused the Student Federation of trying to revoke their club status. “We are currently dealing with a student government that doesn’t care for their own by-laws, doesn’t have a current constitution, and acts based on bias and ideology as opposed to pragmatism,” the director of Hillel Ottawa said in March. Weeks later, after the third BDS defeat on campus, the university's president and vice-chancellor spoke out against the campaign, calling it "divisive and a detriment to an open and welcoming campus environment." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

2%

22 .
Jewish Population on Campus

8%

University of California, Los Angeles

Los Angeles, California

Multiple departments at the University of California, Los Angeles hosted speakers who demonized Israel and denied Jewish indigeneity to the Levant in 2017. For instance, during a two-day conference that May — co-sponsored by UCLA's own office of the executive vice chancellor and provost — an academic called Israeli society “artificial” and claimed that in Israel, “you can incarcerate children, lynch them, execute them, burn them and all this with total impunity.” Jewish students have also had to deal with antisemitic vandalism on campus. In January, UCLA's student body president found that her mezuzah — a traditional Jewish parchment scroll she placed on the doorpost to her office — was torn down. A similar incident took place the previous year, when her Jewish predecessor was in office. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

8%

23 .
Jewish Population on Campus

2%

University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The University of Toronto hosted an “Israel Apartheid Week” in March 2017 with the support of a labor union representing seasonal lecturers and teaching assistants. As in previous years, the event featured speakers hostile to Israel’s continued existence, creating a toxic atmosphere for many Jewish students. “We have heard from several young men and women who simply choose not to go to classes at all during IAW to avoid the veiled threats and subtle intimidation to which they are subject,” one Canadian Jewish advocacy group wrote in a letter to UofT's president. However, the same sort of anti-Zionist rhetoric that’s tolerated during IAW can be found year-round at UofT, which is home to more than 140 faculty members and librarians who support divestment resolutions targeting Israel. This April, a professor at the school rejected a meeting with a student who had been involved with Zionist advocacy, accusing him of being an Israeli government agent. In December, Students Against Israeli Apartheid shared a statement condemning "the US Settler government" for recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of "the Zionist entity." And earlier in the year, a graduate student who also taught at UofT was revealed to have harassed supporters of Israel on social media, including with the pejorative “Zios.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

2%

24 .
Jewish Population on Campus

8%

More than 30 faculty members at the University of California, Davis have openly endorsed boycotts of Israel. Their sentiments — echoed by SJP, which erected an "apartheid wall" on campus in March — are also apparently shared by a significant portion of the student body, whose senate approved a divestment resolution targeting Israel in 2015. During an initial vote on the measure, Jewish and pro-Israel activists staged a walkout while being heckled with chants of “Allahu Akbar,” heightening tensions that continue to be felt today. Days later, two large swastikas were found spray-painted on a Jewish fraternity's house. In a November article condemning antisemitic comments by the imam of the Islamic Center of Davis — an independent mosque by the UC Davis campus, which is frequented by some students — one student said she had seen her “fair share of anti-Semitic actions on campus”: from having “foul and intolerable words yelled at me” for displaying a sticker of Israel on her laptop, to hearing students shout “Death to Jews” at her and her friends when an Arab-Israeli diplomat visited the university. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

8%

25 .
Jewish Population on Campus

11%

University of California, Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz, California

In March, SJP at the University of California, Santa Cruz shared images on Facebook of Palestinian women, including terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled, holding pistols and assault rifles. The images and accompanying captions — initially uploaded by SJP at UC Santa Barbara — called for armed violence against Israelis, according to some advocates. Yet SJP is not the only group exacerbating tensions on campus. In 2017, protesters led by the African/Black Student Alliance surrounded a Hillel table at an Israeli Independence Day celebration, shouting "F*** Jewish Slugs" and “Free Palestine” while tearing down an Israeli flag. Later in the year, days before the start of the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah, a swastika was found on campus. It was the 11th report of an antisemitic incident that quarter. Some students told Haaretz in 2016 that they remove any outward signs of their Jewish or Zionist identity — like a Chai pendant or a yarmulke — in order to avoid dirty looks. "There's pressure here not to act Jewish," one senior said. In 2015, a Jewish member of the student government was told to abstain from voting on a BDS resolution because he'd been elected with “a Jewish agenda.” The resolution later passed. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

11%

26 .
Jewish Population on Campus

13%

New York University

New York City, New York

New York University boasts a large and diverse array of Jewish student clubs, offers excellent kosher dining options, and is located within walking distance to dozens of synagogues. Nonetheless, its students were greeted at the beginning of the school year with a "Disorientation Guide" that endorsed BDS, equated Zionism with racism, and called on NYU to end its study abroad program in Tel Aviv. The school also employs over 40 faculty members who have publicly embraced boycotts of Israel and hosts several anti-Zionist student groups — including JVP, which earned official club status in October. A month later, JVP released a letter signed by over 20 student clubs, among them NYU College Democrats, denouncing a trip to Israel organized by the school’s Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life. Then, this April, the group helped organize a boycott of NYU’s pro-Israel clubs, Realize Israel and TorchPAC. More than 50 NYU groups committed to the boycott, which also targets off-campus organizations like the Anti-Defamation League, a prominent Jewish civil rights organization. When the school's president expressed his opposition to BDS and support of academic freedom at a subsequent town hall, his comments were reportedly met with hisses. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

13%

27 .
Jewish Population on Campus

5%

The student government at the University of South Florida, which passed a BDS measure in 2016, considered a resolution in January denouncing Washington’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital, as well as alleged Israeli "atrocities" against Palestinians. After intervention by the school's Hillel, the student senators instead adopted a slightly toned-down resolution, which was still condemned as one-sided and inflammatory. The only Jewish senator in the student government — who is no longer serving — said he received online death threats from an unknown commenter over his opposition to the resolution, and that he was visited by police after someone claimed that he would start “another Charlottesville.” Earlier in the academic year, three co-organizers of the Women’s March including Linda Sarsour came to speak on campus about "intersectionality and divestment." The event's moderator accused Israel of practicing "apartheid" against Palestinians during the panel, while several speakers endorsed BDS. (Photo credit: Simon Kellogg.)

Jewish Population on Campus

5%

28 .
Jewish Population on Campus

6%

Georgetown University

Washington, DC

Georgetown is punching above its weight when it comes to both pro-BDS faculty and antisemitic incidents per year. While the university’s campus in Washington is better than its sister campus in Qatar — which in 2017 hosted Sami Al-Arian, who pleaded guilty to supporting Palestinian Islamic Jihad — it’s not entirely free of extremism. The school’s SJP and divestment coalition routinely publish materials and host events demonizing Jewish self-determination and accusing Israel of “apartheid.” Swastikas were also found on campus multiple times in 2017, including on the eve of Rosh Hashana. And in April, an Israeli flag displayed on campus by the school's Israel Alliance was stolen three times. "As soon as the Israeli flag was stolen, students from Students for Justice in Palestine attempted to put a Palestinian flag in its place," the group wrote. Worryingly, a survey carried out by Georgetown's Jewish Student Association in spring 2017 reportedly found that while 87 percent of the 38 students surveyed typically felt "welcome and accepted" as Jewish students, 71 percent also said they experienced antisemitism at Georgetown. However, the school also rejected a BDS proposal in March 2017, and opened a Center for Jewish Civilization in 2016. The university’s president was honored with the Anti-Defamation League's 2017 Achievement award, in part due to his response to multiple instances of antisemitic vandalism on campus that year. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

6%

29 .
Jewish Population on Campus

3%

Ryerson University

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jewish students have long complained of feeling marginalized at Ryerson University. The school’s student government passed a BDS resolution in 2014, while its SJP and Muslim Student Association torpedoed a motion in support of Holocaust Education Week in 2016, with the secret backing of the student body president. In February 2017, a teaching assistant at Ryerson was found to have called to “purify Al-Aqsa Mosque from the filth of Jews,” and that May, a student at the school announced that she was previously told by a university official — who later apologized — that she could not intern at Jewish organizations because of their supposed "anti-Palestinian lean." These disturbing developments have caused alarm in the Jewish community — but also spurred some much-needed accountability. The teaching assistant who denigrated Jews was fired, while the student government adopted an official definition of antisemitism in March 2017 that includes the denial of Jewish rights to self-determination and applying double-standards to Israel. (Photo credit: Alex Guibord.)

Jewish Population on Campus

3%

30 .
Jewish Population on Campus

26%

George Washington University’s student government adopted a divestment resolution in April targeting companies that do business with Israel, after rejecting a similar measure by a slim margin in May 2017. The senate also voted down a resolution to censure one of its members, who has faced criticism for boycotting multicultural and interfaith events that include GW Hillel and the Jewish Student Association. The student — who claims to have targeted the Jewish groups because of his opposition to Israel — was the subject of a subsequent protest by about 70 of his peers. “The SA has failed the Jewish community at GW, and we do not feel safe knowing that student leaders don’t think we matter,” one student organizer said at the rally. Worryingly, it seems vitriol directed toward Zionism and Israel has been mainstreamed by multiple progressive groups at GWU. A November 2016 letter to administrators following the election of US President Donald Trump — sent by SJP and a coalition of liberal groups — called for divestment from "colonialism and apartheid in Palestine" and the increased enrollment of Palestinian students who are subjected to “escalating state-sanctioned genocide." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

26%

31 .
Jewish Population on Campus

9%

Princeton University

Princeton, New Jersey

Princeton University's Hillel runs a popular kosher dining hall that serves three meals every weekday, and two meals on Saturdays and Sundays. It also hosts over a dozen student groups, as well as daily Orthodox minyanim and weekly Conservative and Reform services on Friday nights. While these and other resources help enrich Jewish life on campus, students at Princeton have also faced hateful acts — antisemitic posters denouncing "Jewish Supremacy" were found at on campus in December, while a swastika was discovered days before the Jewish New Year in September. That month, a student at Princeton was “harassed by another student for her Jewish beliefs,” the ADL reported. In April 2017, fliers promoting the white nationalist group Vanguard America — and claiming that "Jews are 10% of Princeton students, an overrepresentation of 500%" — were found in at least four areas on campus. While several student groups rallied to protest against the hateful propaganda, other sources of tension on campus for Jewish students often remain unacknowledged. More than a dozen faculty members have publicly endorsed BDS, and various departments have hosted speakers who vilified the Jewish people's right to self-determination. The American Studies program, for instance, helped give Norman Finkelstein a platform in February 2017 to equate "Zionism with ethnic cleansing" and compare Zionist endeavors to those of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, according to one Princeton student. The previous year, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese granted "generous support" to the construction of a mock “apartheid wall.” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

9%

32 .
Jewish Population on Campus

6%

University of Washington

Seattle, Washington

In February, the University of Washington's Students United for Palestinian Equal Rights (SUPER) group hosted a "Palestine Awareness Week," complete with an "Israel Apartheid Wall" and a lecture with Miko Peled, an activist who was disinvited from speaking at Princeton University in 2016 after tweeting that “Jews have reputation 4being sleazy thieves." SUPER had also assembled the same wall the previous year, yet according to the school's Coalition of Husky Allies for Israel (CHAI-UW), it was deliberately erected next to their own, pro-Israel display. While the CHAI-UW display remained up for a week — despite a failed campaign by anti-Zionist students to get administrators to remove it — it was ultimately vandalized by an unknown individual. “He just came behind us, said ‘F*** you guys’ and tore down our sign,” one student recalled. Shortly afterwards, another Jewish student wrote that just as Nazi recruitment posters were found on campus, “a friend of mine was told, ‘Ashkenazi Jews are not real Jews,’ the intent being that the white skin we inherited with our Eastern European descent disqualifies Ashkenazi Jews from our Judaism, history, and ‘otherness.’” (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

6%

33 .
Jewish Population on Campus

7%

Northeastern University

Boston, Massachusetts

The student government at Northeastern University overwhelmingly voted against holding a divestment referendum targeting Israel in February. One advocate noted shortly afterwards that it was “the third time in four years that a referendum connected to the global boycott against Israel has been voted down at Northeastern University.” Nonetheless, the school’s SJP continues to advance efforts to delegitimize Israel on campus. In November, the group organized a protest against two former Israeli soldiers, one Jewish and one Muslim, who were invited by NU Hillel to speak about their military service. The demonstration was reportedly co-sponsored by about 20 student and off-campus groups, and attended by nearly 100 people. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

7%

34 .
Jewish Population on Campus

2%

University of California, San Diego

San Diego, California

The University of California, San Diego is home to an active Jewish community and opened a 24-hour dining hall with kosher and halal offerings last January. Yet it also employs 15 faculty members who have openly endorsed boycotts of Israel. In March, a guest lecturer at the school — invited by a professor whose office door is adorned with a poster for the play "I Heart Hamas" — claimed that in 1948, the Jewish state was engaged in the "removal of indigenous Palestinian peoples" and said Israel and the US have employed "a similar strategy of genocide." Jewish students at the school have also found swastikas on campus, and last May had to contend with a "Justice in Palestine Week" hosted by the Muslim Student Association and SJP. The event included a 100 ft. "apartheid wall" and a call to participate in the Salt Water Challenge, which expressed solidarity with hunger-striking Palestinian prisoners, many of whom have been convicted of various security offenses, including murder. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

2%

35 .
Jewish Population on Campus

18%

Rutgers University

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Rutgers University — home to a large and diverse Jewish student body — made national headlines in 2017. In October, Rutgers professor Jasbir Puar came under criticism for arguing that Israeli soldiers shoot “to maim rather than to kill" not due to humanitarian concern, but rather a desire to disable Palestinians “in order to control them.” Days later, microbiology professor Michael Chikindas was found to have published multiple antisemitic, misogynistic, and homophobic social media posts. The following month, it was reported that Rutgers was employing former Syrian diplomat Mazen Adi — who once accused Israeli officials of trafficking children’s organs — and then attempted to legitimize the hire by citing Adi’s "expertise in international law." Disturbingly, multiple swastikas were also found on campus throughout the year — in one October incident, the hateful symbol was drawn on a Jewish student's car — while in September a Jewish student reported being "harassed over Shabbat while walking on campus," according to the ADL. These developments, compounded by the Rutgers president’s defense of the three faculty members on free speech grounds, drew an outcry from Jewish leaders, locally and nationally. Thankfully, the university ultimately announced disciplinary action against Chikindas in December, and revealed in February that Adi is no longer an employee. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

18%

36 .
Jewish Population on Campus

7%

The University of Texas Austin's local Hillel center was vandalized in February 2017. Shortly afterwards, a member of the Jewish group detailed a number of antisemitic incidents that occurred on campus — including the slurring of a student visibly identified with a Jewish fraternity as a “baby-killing Jew”; the harassment of Jewish students tabling for the Israeli medical charity Save A Child’s Heart; and comments by a professor who interrupted his calculus lecture to share “his favorite way they murdered Jews [during the Holocaust].” In an expression of solidarity, the school's student government unanimously passed a resolution in March 2017 supporting Jewish students on campus. The author of the resolution — which was drafted after antisemitic posts were made on the UT class of 2020 Facebook page — said “several Jewish students that I know don’t even feel comfortable wearing their [Star of David] necklace out or small things like that just to express their religion.” Later that March, the Palestine Solidarity Committee (PSC) held its annual protest of the large Israel Block Party hosted by Texans for Israel, holding signs with inflammatory statements including, "Zionism Is Racism" and “A Proud Zionist? Yikes.” Earlier in the year, a speaker at a protest organized against President Donald Trump's inauguration by groups including the International Socialist Organization and PSC — which was attended by 400 people — shared a number of demands for UT, including "divestment in companies complicit in the illegal occupation of Palestinian land." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

7%

37 .
Jewish Population on Campus

14%

Brown University

Providence, Rhode Island

In March, Brown University's Middle East Studies program held a panel discussion promoting "a newly-published collection of essays supporting the boycott of Israeli universities," according to one student columnist. The event was one of a nine-part “critical conversations” series, four of which were about Israel. "Not one has included an individual who defends Israel with half the intensity of the median panelist who criticizes it," the student wrote. In 2017, the Middle East Studies program and SJP co-hosted a talk on "how we can connect BDS to Black Lives Matter," shortly after Brown's Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs co-sponsored a panel on “Palestine-Israel in the Trump Era” with known supporters of the BDS campaign. None of these events were uncharacteristic; the school's own Middle East Studies director withdrew from a 2015 symposium that included an Israeli academic (and Brown colleague) in order to comply with BDS. And as a Brown student explained in 2016, “for SJP, nothing has a higher priority than pushing to obliterate the Jewish State and attach a high personal price to Zionism (or, in some cases, Judaism) on campus." Yet there is reason to believe the situation may be improving. Brown's Israel Fund — which is opposed by SJP — began initial programming last year, and aims to help Brown students and faculty learn and research in Israel, while bringing visiting scholars and speakers to Brown from Israel. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

14%

38 .
Jewish Population on Campus

13%

University of California, Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara, California

In May 2017, a pro-Israel mural was displayed at the University of California, Santa Barbara, with the support of a pro-Israel student organization and the local Hillel. Within five days, it was vandalized twice, while an “apartheid” wall featuring false claims and fake quotes remained prominently displayed on campus. The vandalism was blamed on pro-BDS students, who rejected the charge but nonetheless failed to win a single vote for their divestment resolution during a student government meeting the following week. "I have never felt so unsafe and unwelcome on campus than I do during the BDS campaign," one Jewish student said. Months later, in March, Santa Barbara's SJP posted images on Facebook of Palestinian women, including terrorist hijacker Leila Khaled, holding knives, AK-47s, and pistols, prompting concern among members of the Jewish community. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

13%

39 .
Jewish Population on Campus

28%

A 2016 Brandeis University survey found that at Brooklyn College, “the majority of Jewish students perceive a hostile environment toward Israel, and over one quarter perceive a general environment of hostility toward Jews on their campus.” The school’s SJP chapter remained active in 2017, urging students to stand up against "zionism, white supremacy + US imperialism” that January, and to attend a discussion on antisemitism — and the "backlash" faced by "critics of Israeli policies" — at the CUNY Graduate Center the following month. (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

28%

40 .
Jewish Population on Campus

8%

Pomona College

Claremont, California

SJP’s “Israeli Apartheid Week” at the Claremont Colleges Consortium — of which Pomona College is a founding member — coincided with Passover in 2017. One pro-Israel activist at Pomona said at the time that her picture was circulated online and shared publicly by SJP, while a satirical op-ed with fake, defamatory quotes attributed to her was submitted to the student newspaper. “I am tired of being harassed and discriminated against by Students for Justice in Palestine for my political beliefs,” she wrote. “I am tired of watching my friends experience antisemitic hatred because of this bullying club.” Another pro-Israel activist, from Claremont McKenna College, wrote later that month that “student members of Zionist and Jewish groups at Claremont campuses have been systematically harassed, shamed and silenced by SJP." (Photo credit: Wikipedia.)

Jewish Population on Campus

8%

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