Brown University students call for divestment from their pro-Palestinian encampment on the campus’ Main Green in Providence, Rhode Island, April 24, 2024. (Anibal Martel/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(JTA) — The number of antisemitic assaults and acts of vandalism on college campuses fell sharply in the last school year, according to Hillel International.
And the pro-Palestinian encampments that ignited fear among many Jewish college students in early 2024 effectively disappeared in the year since, with just nine encampments taking place in the last school year, the Jewish campus group said in its annual tally of antisemitic incidents, released Thursday.
But Hillel International said antisemitic incidents were still on the rise on college campuses overall, citing an increase in online harassment and bullying reported by Jewish students.
The organization said the trend might reflect more aggressive action on the part of universities to intervene on behalf of Jewish students and their advocates.
“What we saw this past year was there was a penalty for antisemitism at many universities, and so what it did is it took a lot of these incidents that would have happened on campus, and it moved them online,” Jon Falk, Hillel’s vice president of Israel engagement and confronting antisemitism, said in an interview.
The finding comes at a complicated moment for the push to combat antisemitism on college campuses, with the Trump administration taking up the cause in ways that have divided Jewish observers. While many have expressed relief that schools are being encouraged — and in some cases coerced — to adopt policies to stem antisemitism, some are also concerned that the effort is also compromising free expression on campuses.
Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International, said he believed that changes to improve the climate for Jewish students on college campuses were paying off.
“Over the past year, many universities have made significant changes to better clarify and enforce their policies and codes of conduct, supported by our work with them to achieve these improvements,” said Lehman in a statement. “When universities step up and enforce their rules, Jewish students and all students benefit from a safer, more inclusive campus environment.”
Even if some forms of antisemitism on campus seem to be in decline, the overall picture remains starkly different from before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and the ensuing war in Gaza, which is ongoing, according to Hillel’s data.
Last year, the group recorded 2,334 antisemitic incidents on campuses, an increase of more than 500 recorded incidents compared to the 2023-2024 school year, which saw 1,853 incidents. But during the 2022-2023 school year, Hillel recorded just 289 antisemitic incidents.
The group says it tallies incidents of antisemitic harassment, vandalism, assault and hate speech, as well as incidents recovered from social media, emails, articles and publications.
To collect the data, Hillel cross-references college and university bias reporting portals; reports from students; the Campus Antisemitism Legal Line; and ReportCampusHate.org, a joint project of Hillel, the Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions nationwide.
Hillel staff on campuses work to identify and verify each antisemitic incident that is reported, and the resulting data set uses a “technical system so that we make sure that we get every single incident,” Falk said.
“I care deeply that every incident is counted,” he added. “I think that’s what the Jewish people have been doing for centuries. We care about counting, and we want to count correctly, and so that’s what we’re doing every day.”
At a time when campuses are wracked by tension over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, some of the incidents that Hillel counted as antisemitic reflect ongoing complexities around determining what kinds of Israel criticism constitute antisemitism. The organization said incidents of antisemitic articles and publications had increased by 50% since the 2023-2024 school year, rising from 40 to 61 incidents. It offered as examples an article in Mondoweiss, a left-wing online publication, by a UC Davis graduate student advocating for a boycott of an exchange program with an Israeli university; a pro-Palestinian parody of Northwestern University’s student newspaper; and an op-ed by a Jewish student in The Bowdoin (College) Orient criticizing Zionist Jews and the war in Gaza.
“Antisemitic articles and publications negatively impact the climate for Jewish students on campus,” Falk said by email in response to an inquiry about why the articles counted in the tally. “Each article/publication incident met Hillel’s criteria for an antisemitic incident by containing at least one element of antisemitic language.”
The Hillel data covers a period that included a string of recent attacks on Jewish groups and leaders, including the firebombing of Jewish Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro’s home in April, the murders of two Israeli embassy workers in Washington, D.C., in May and the deadly firebombing of a group demonstrating for the release of the Israeli hostages in Gaza last month.
The day after each attack, Falk said that Hillel recorded a “spike” in antisemitic incidents on campuses.
“The next day, we would see a spike, both when it comes to social media and when it comes to targeting students,” he said. “I don’t think folks truly understand the impact of incidents that happen outside of the campus space, and how they could impact the campus environment.”
