The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) issued a press release on Thursday with some not-so-surprising revelations: America’s colleges and universities are failing to combat antisemitism on campus. This reality has become even more evident after the start of the war in Gaza.
The organization released its “Campus Antisemitism Report Card,” which gives each learning institution a letter grade on its efforts to address anti-Jewish bigotry on its premises.
You will not be shocked to find out that some of the most prestigious Ivy League universities are not doing so hot when it comes to protecting Jewish students, according to the press release.
The Report Card reviewed 85 schools and assigned grades from A through F, to give campus leadership, parents, students, alumni and stakeholders a mechanism to evaluate the state of antisemitism on campus and how schools across the country are responding. Two schools received an “A,” 17 schools received a “B,” 29 schools received a “C,” 24 schools received a “D,” and 13 schools received an “F” grade.
“Every campus should get an A – that’s not grade inflation, that’s the minimum that every group on every campus expects. Like all students, Jewish students deserve to feel safe and supported on campus. They deserve a learning environment free from antisemitism and hate. But that hasn’t been the experience with antisemitism running rampant on campus since even before October 7,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO. “At a time when antisemitic incidents on campus are at historic levels, administrators need to adopt new policies to address this scourge and have the willingness to enforce existing codes of conduct to ensure all students are safe.”
Among those who received “F” grades on the report card are Michigan State University, Princeton University, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and several others. Only Brandeis University and Elon University received “A” grades.
The outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas following the horrific attack the terrorist group launched against Israel on October 7 has ignited a wave of antisemitism across the country. It was as if Jew-haters in the Western world saw the news of the hostilities and collectively said: “Now’s our chance to show the world how much we despise the Jewish people.”
This has been most apparent in America’s universities, with pro-Hamas protesters holding raucous protests and rallies, expressing their support for the Palestinians and calling for the end of Israel. These events have been marked by anti-Jewish chants and even threats against Jewish students.
This trend has brought up questions as to why the leadership of these institutions is allowing blatant anti-Jewish bigotry to flourish on campus when they would never do so for other groups. None of these institutions would ever accept the level of vitriol directed at Jews to be hurled against black or brown students. Yet, they have no qualms with making excuses for antisemitism, a reality that was on full display when the presidents of some of these schools testified before Congress.
However, questions about why Jews are given different treatment than other minorities are easier to answer than it might seem. To put it simply, progressives do not view Jewish folks as minorities; they view them as white, which means it is acceptable to attack them as a group.
In 2016, author Emma Green wrote a piece titled “Are Jews White?” in which she examined this paradigm. In the piece, she discusses the complexities of Jewish identity and race in America, noting that progressives tend to perceive Jews as part of the white dominant culture, which means they are implicit in the oppression of black and brown people, even though Jews have suffered, and still suffer, mistreatment due to their identity.
These are rough sketches of two camps, concentrated at the margins of U.S. political culture. On the extreme right, Jews are seen as impure—a faux-white race that has tainted America. And on the extreme left, Jews are seen as part of a white-majority establishment that seeks to dominate people of color. Taken together, these attacks raise an interesting question: Are Jews white?
“Jewish identity in America is inherently paradoxical and contradictory,” says Eric Goldstein, an associate professor of history at Emory University. “What you have is a group that was historically considered, and considered itself, an outsider group, a persecuted minority. In the space of two generations, they’ve become one of the most successful, integrated groups in American society—by many accounts, part of the establishment. And there’s a lot of dissonance between those two positions.”
As pro- and anti-Trump movements jockey to realize their agendas, the question of Jews and whiteness illustrates the high stakes—and dangers—of racialized politics. Jews, who do not fit neatly into American racial categories, challenge both sides’ visions for the country. Over time, Jews have become more integrated into American society—a process scholars sometimes refer to as “becoming white.” It wasn’t the skin color of Ashkenazi Jews of European descent that changed, though; it was their status. Trump’s election has convinced some Jews that they remain in the same position as they have throughout history: perpetually set apart from other groups through their Jewishness, and thus left vulnerable.
Author Kwame Anthony Appiah also highlighted the issue in an op-ed exploring the same topic.
Although you clearly disapprove of the privilege that comes with white skin in our society, your refusing the word “white” won’t increase the chance that you’ll be discriminated against or decrease the chance that Black people will be. Being white is not just a matter of identifying as white; it involves being treated as white, and that isn’t up to you. So, however you think of yourself, your whiteness is doing work in social life.
In essence, progressives are now treating Jews as white, as the author alludes to. This means they are to be demonized for their supposed role in keeping marginalized communities down. Indeed, this is the exact same mindset applied to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. The Israelis are viewed as white, even though some of them are darker than I am. The Palestinians are viewed as “brown people.” This automatically means Israel/Jews are always evil while Palestinians/Brown people are always good and virtuous.
From where I sit, there is no other factor that more aptly explains why progressives are accepting of antisemitism when they would at least pretend to be offended when bigotry is directed at black and brown people. Understanding this reality is essential for comprehending why progressives treat both groups differently and why they likely won’t ever take the issue of antisemitism seriously – unless they can use it to attack antisemites on the extreme right. For them, it is a matter of politics, not societal change.
