It’s been a while since I told you about student life on our Colorado campuses without focusing on antisemitism. Rest assured that Hillel remains a safe, home-away-from-home for our 2,000 students who flock to us in record numbers to celebrate being Jewish as they always have: Hillel is about Jewish values, Jewish togetherness, and Jewish Joy.
Antisemitism on Colorado Campuses
Unfortunately, these days college is also about anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and Hillel responds daily to rising campus antisemitism throughout the Front Range: a Lisa Sarsour “lecture” at CSU; terrible graffiti on DU dorm dumpsters and signs on and off campus; Hamas QR codes shared at an “information” session put on by DU graduate students; more vandalism at our Golda Meir House Hillel on Auraria…
Free speech in America has a very low bar. Last week I spoke again with DU Chancellor Jeremy Haefner and CSU President Amy Parsons, and participated in a lunch meeting with CU President Todd Saliman. I will continue partnering with our universities who must do more to keep Jewish students safe since the bad actors’ rhetoric, posters and propaganda aren’t stopping anytime soon.
Rabid College Antisemitism on the High Seas?
I’ll be in Porto, Portugal this coming weekend to board Semester at Sea (SAS)’s cruise ship as 600 undergraduates prepare for the last part of their 105-day program that has visited ten countries as students study aboard the ship and onshore. Credit is earned through Colorado State University – hence my involvement.
For the past six weeks I’ve spoken, zoomed, and texted daily with SAS parents (helpless and furious doesn’t do justice to how they feel, and I can only assure them I will do all I can when I get to Portugal – and after). Administrators at Colorado State University and in the SAS office in Ft. Collins now understand that what Jewish students onboard have faced is far more than garden-variety antisemitism. These stateside administrators have listened to us, acted, and committed to do better, which leads me to think that this ugly episode could turn into a potential success story for the Jews (read on). However, for the Jewish students on this ship in this closed society (can’t get more closed than a cruise ship): not so successful. Nobody should have to stand up to stuff like this:
- prior to docking in South Africa, an “Israel is a worse example of Apartheid than South Africa ever was” lecture led to ugly posters (River to the Sea and worse) and veiled – and not so veiled – threats aimed at Jewish students.
- onshore in South Africa many students posted selfies and group photos of them attending anti-Israel rallies – and worse.
- talent shows and student programs onboard regularly featured humor that victimized Israel and Jews.
- an atlas map of Israel was badly defaced in the onboard reference library.
- students were called horrible names as posters and slogans went up all over the ship.
- a large number of students returned from one port-of-call wearing keffiyehs and Yahya Sinwar t-shirts.
It got very bad, very quickly, as a ship is not a place where outside support is easily accessed for those victimized, and the current onboard academic dean, with whom I’ve spoken, cannot or will not check student behavior.
So why do I suggest this could be a success story? After several calls and zoom meetings with SAS parents and me, CSU President Amy Parsons and Semester at Sea President Scott Marshall have acted by:
- Flying me to Porto to support the Jewish students; (hopefully) have a meaningful dialogue with those who have made life for those Jewish students so difficult: let’s see if there are any educational opportunities here; and meet with staff and faculty to assure the last SAS week is far better.
- Requesting I work closely with SAS Vice President of Student Affairs Laura Strohminger who is also flying from Colorado to Porto to intervene, assess, evaluate, and learn.
- Engaging Hillel of Colorado to train and support future SAS faculty and a new SAS academic dean, a CSU professor who President Parsons assures me is anxious to get it right. Our ADL and Hillel International partners have already agreed to help us train SAS staff and faculty so there’s never a repeat of this semester’s mistakes.
- Inviting me to brief with President Parsons before she addresses the SAS board this spring 2024. The President tells me she is determined to do all she can to make CSU programs places Jewish students want to be.
- Connecting me with an SAS board member who is Jewish, a major donor, and is now involved in this SAS institutional change initiative. He and I will meet to plan further when I am in NYC in late May for a conference on designing better programming to help college students stand up to antisemitism.
What’s Next
The SAS situation is extreme, but, as I mentioned, Hillel students need us more than ever. Our responses include retrofitting our buildings to be more secure, upping security at events, hiring additional student-facing staff trained to educate and support, teaming with the Brandeis Center (stay turned for details) to provide support to students and help us assure our university leaders adopt best practices in fighting hate on campus and antisemitism in all forms, and now hiring our first-ever Wellness Director whose Hillel of Colorado Wellness Center will support those traumatized by antisemitism and offer tools so students can stand strong. Thank you for caring. Hillel is on the front lines.