JEWISH SENTINEL

16 JEWISH WORLD • NOVEMBER 18-24, 2022 incident. However, at a handful of schools, it got off to a highly con- cerning start. Many students were greeted with anti-Semitic messages almost on arrival, and these alarming in- By NATI SZCZUPAK F or most Jewish Agency Is- rael Fellows working as Is- raeli emissaries on college campuses across North America, the 2022 school year began without cidents will stick with them long after they leave the halls of aca- demia. Young men from the white supremacist group the Proud Boys brandished signs on a bridge at University of California Davis in Israel’s program director for the Is- rael Fellows, a collaborative initia- tive with Hillel International, I am increasingly concerned about these anti-Semitic incidents — many of which most students do not even bother to report. The unreported incidents are arguably the ones that affect Jewish life, Jewish pride and Jewish students’ safety the most, because they are not addressed. According to Hillel International’s Israel Action Program report, there were 227 anti-Semitic incidents on campus last year, in addition to over 300 anti-Israel incidents. Moreover, an Institute for National Security Studies paper published last year noted that the overall trend on many college campus- es is the framing of Jewish students “as imperialists, racists and evenNazis and white supremacists.” Rabbi Esther Reed, the interim executive director at Rutgers Hil- lel, recently testified before a U.S. House of Representatives hearing on anti-Semitism and shared the experience of her student Adina, who told Reed, “Every day I am stressed about going to school. Ev- ery single morning, I need to think about things while getting ready for school. Am I dressed too Jew- ish? Do I look too Jewish? Does my shirt have too much Hebrew on it? I can’t wear something if it says Not The New Normal The Jewish Agency ghts campus anti-Semitism late August, proclaiming that the “Holocaust is an anti-white lie” and “communism is Jewish.” A few weeks later, across the country at Cornell University, an image por- traying the Star of David as equal to the Nazi swastika was chalked on a campus sidewalk. At Rutgers University, a Jewish fraternity house was egged during Rosh Hashanah, only a few months after it was also egged during a Holocaust Remembrance Day cer- emony last April. At the Universi- ty of Michigan, anti-Semitic flyers were put up across campus by the white supremacist group the Goy- im Defense League. The flyers ac- cused Jews of being responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. And at the University of Wisconsin-Mad- ison, students encountered graffiti claiming that Jews commit geno- cide and have blood on their hands. W hat do these events say about Jewish students’ safety and well-being on campuses across North America? Is this the new normal? Dialogue surrounding the legitimacy of Israel’s policies is valid. But that is not what is occur- ring here. As the Jewish Agency for REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK Israel Fellows encourages Jewish and pro-Israel students to embrace their heritage, connect to the only Jewish state in the world and make their voices heard. “Every morning, I need to think about things while getting ready for school. I can’t wear something if it says Israel on it.” continued on page 22