What do Jewish students think about the administration’s claims that this is a widespread and virulent problem?
In a January 2025 executive order, in response to the protests that swept across American campuses in 2023-2024, President Trump claimed that America was experiencing “an unprecedented wave of vile anti-Semitic discrimination, vandalism, and violence against our citizens, especially in our schools and on our campuses.” And in her March 10 letter to 60 U.S. universities demanding they address antisemitism on their campuses, Education Secretary Linda McMahon asserted that Jewish students “continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year.”
But are U.S. campuses rife with antisemitism? One way to know is to ask Jewish students themselves, since they are the ones who experience the bigotry.
Researchers at the Maurice and Marilyn Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University have conducted a number of in-depth studies of Jewish students who had applied to Birthright Israel at U.S.-based colleges and universities. Birthright Israel is a program that takes young Jewish adults – most of whom are university students – to Israel to explore their heritage and thus enhance their Jewish identity. These connections, in turn, might amplify the belief that Israel is an important part of Jewish communal identity.
Survey and interview data from these studies show that while Jewish students are concerned about antisemitism on campuses, there is much more variation and nuance than the Trump administration claims. Three issues in particular stand out.
1. Different campuses exhibit different levels of hostility
There are variances of Jew-hatred across campuses. In a December 2023 study, soon after the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, the Cohen Center examined universities whose Jewish student populations contained statistically significant numbers of applicants to Birthright Israel. These campuses were divided into four categories according to levels of antisemitic hostility: highest (also called “hotspots”), above average, below average, and lowest. Researchers assigned these categories according to a combined score from three questions, regarding perceptions of a hostile environment toward Jews at the school, perceptions of a hostile environment toward Israel on the campus, and levels of concern about antisemitism at the university.
Not surprisingly, Jewish students at universities in the top category – a group of 12 schools, including Columbia University; New York University; University of California, Berkeley; UCLA; and the University of Pennsylvania – felt there were high levels of antisemitism on their campuses. Asked whether they agreed there was a hostile environment toward Jews at their schools, 32% of respondents agreed “somewhat,” 30% “agreed,” and 23% “strongly” agreed, for a total of 85%.
At schools in the lowest category – a total of 13 colleges, including Brandeis University, Duke University, Pennsylvania State University, Tulane University, and University of Colorado, Denver – 32% of respondents agreed “somewhat” that there was a hostile environment toward Jews at their school, 13% “agreed,” and only 4% “strongly” agreed, for a total of 49%.
2. Perceptions of antisemitism are not the same as experiences with antisemitism
Jewish students sometimes feel their campuses have high levels of antisemitism, yet may not have any direct experience with antisemitism.
A study of Jewish students who applied to Birthright Israel between 2017 and 2019 – in the aftermath of a series of overt antisemitic incidents, including the murder of 11 Jews at a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018 – found heightened concerns of antisemitism.
The number of Jewish students who were “very much” concerned about antisemitism on campus rose from 25% to 37% in this period. At the same time, the survey data showed a much smaller increase in the percentage who said they experienced an antisemitic incident: from 18% in March 2017 to 24% in November 2019.
Similarly, in the December 2023 Cohen Center study discussed above, 24% of students at schools in the highest category of hostility toward Jews reported having experienced antisemitic insults or harassment on campus; only 14% of Jewish students at colleges in the lowest hostility category reported the same experiences. The study determined that there was “no significant association between the levels of antisemitic hostility on campus and Jewish students reporting that concerns about antisemitism affected their daily life.”
3. Identification with Israel increases perceptions of antisemitism
Animosity toward Israel is not the same thing as antisemitism, and most Jewish students recognize the distinction.
Between December 2023 and December 2024, after months of campus protests, the percentage of Jewish students who identified antisemitism as a top issue on campus declined slightly, from 37% to 32%. At the same time, the percentage who ranked issues related to Israel – such as the protests and criticism of Israel – as a top issue jumped from 14% to 27%.
In an August 2024 study, just after the semester of protests ended, the Cohen Center found that 60% of Jewish students overall agreed at least somewhat that there was a hostile environment toward Jews on campus. The same study reported that 82% of Jewish students agreed at least somewhat there was a hostile environment toward Israel on campus.
But students who identify closely with Israel are more likely to perceive increased levels of both anti-Israel activity and antisemitism than those with less identification.
In July-August 2014, for example, war broke out between Israel and Hamas. A 2015 Cohen Center study of Jewish students found there was a greater sense of anti-Israeli hostility than Jew-hatred. In that study, only 13% of Jewish undergraduates said hostility toward Jews from other students was either a “very big” or a “fairly big” problem. Yet 27% said the same about hostility toward Israel.
Among those who strongly identified with Israel, 21% thought antisemitism was a “fairly” or “very big” problem on campus. Of those who said they did not feel any or only a little connection to Israel, only 7% said the same thing.
The analysis concluded that “Connection to Israel is the strongest predictor of perceiving a hostile environment toward Israel and Jews on campus.”
These findings suggest a more complex reality
Antisemitism still exists in American society, including on college campuses. And there are real effects on Jewish students’ freedom to identify as Jews, and to feel safe on their campuses. But research suggests the record of antisemitism and antisemitic activities is not as deep and virulent as the administration proclaims it to be.
There are no quick or simple solutions. Understanding the shape and depth of Jew-hatred across American universities is a critical first step to crafting policies to address antisemitism. The Cohen Center studies provide a considerable amount of information based on high-quality research. Recognizing that there are different levels of antisemitism on different campuses, and that this may change over time, allows policymakers to explore what motivates these differences. This type of information also facilitates a comparison of efforts to combat antisemitism, to determine which policies are more successful.
Brent E. Sasley is a 2024-2025 Good Authority fellow.
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