Hillel International has joined forces with ADL to address the disturbing rise of anti-Semitic activity on campus through new educational programs and assessments of the climate on campus for Jewish students.
Click here to read more about this project, including the interview with Daniel Bennett, Hillel of Colorado Executive Director.
Click here to read the full NY Times article by Matthew Bronfman, chairman of the board of governors of Hillel International.
Since the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, we have witnessed an increase in anti-Semitic incidents throughout the world and specifically on college campuses in North America. Jewish college students have been attacked and threatened in online forums for expressing their values. Student governments have posted one-sided statements placing full blame for the conflict in the Middle East on Israel and have shunned American Jews and Israelis on their campuses. Jewish students have been made to feel excluded in their own communities.
Online hate — often protected by freedom of speech rules — may seem the least pernicious of these manifestations of antisemitism. It is not. College students learn, work, and socialize online. With the physical isolation brought about by the pandemic, virtual life has become real life for many of them. In recent weeks, the spread of hate online has become an epidemic of its own that must be confronted immediately by university leaders.
As educators. we have an obligation to protect freedom of speech and academic freedom, but also have a moral duty to call out hate speech wherever we see it, and to foster healthy, not inflammatory, discourse.