College Students Are Still Finding New Ways to Marginalize Jews on Campus

Inever thought I would spend so much of my college career fighting my university to take antisemitism seriously. During my time in college, I wrote to Harvard’s antisemitism task force more than 40 times to ask the university to take action against the harassment of Jewish students and other discriminatory actions happening on campus. I never received a reply. It took a federal lawsuit to get the richest university in the world to act.

I’m far from the only Jewish student who’s been forced into activism. Antisemitism on college campuses is part of a nationwide pattern, one we have come to expect for years. The latest example comes from New York City: On May 1, the United Student Senate at the New School voted to suspend all funding for and collaboration with its chapter of Hillel, a student group dedicated to prayer and programming for Jewish students on American campuses. The student senate’s Registered Student Organization Compliance Committee produced a 38-page report accusing Hillel of extensive ties to violations of international law, citing the organization’s participation in Birthright, Onward Israel, and Hillel on Base, as well as its hosting of a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow. The student senate classified Hillel as not in good standing and announced in an Instagram post that “effective immediately, Hillel at The New School is ineligible for funding from or collaboration with the USS in any capacity.”

SK

About the Author

Shabbos Kestenbaum

Shabbos Kestenbaum is a political commentator at PragerU and a former lead plaintiff in a civil rights lawsuit against Harvard University.

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Inever thought I would spend so much of my college career fighting my university to take antisemitism seriously. During my time in college, I wrote to Harvard’s antisemitism task force more than 40 times to ask the university to take action against the harassment of Jewish students and other discriminatory actions happening on campus. I never received a reply. It took a federal lawsuit to get the richest university in the world to act.

I’m far from the only Jewish student who’s been forced into activism. Antisemitism on college campuses is part of a nationwide pattern, one we have come to expect for years. The latest example comes from New York City: On May 1, the United Student Senate at the New School voted to suspend all funding for and collaboration with its chapter of Hillel, a student group dedicated to prayer and programming for Jewish students on American campuses. The student senate’s Registered Student Organization Compliance Committee produced a 38-page report accusing Hillel of extensive ties to violations of international law, citing the organization’s participation in Birthright, Onward Israel, and Hillel on Base, as well as its hosting of a Jewish Agency Israel Fellow. The student senate classified Hillel as not in good standing and announced in an Instagram post that “effective immediately, Hillel at The New School is ineligible for funding from or collaboration with the USS in any capacity.”