How to Understand the Plight of Jewish Students on Campus

Let me try to relate to you what it’s like to be a religious or Zionist Jewish student on most major college campuses right now by telling the story as if these students were African-Americans at these schools:

-Imagine if black students were inundated daily with aggressive protests, posters, and emails created by white students purporting to know more about them, their traditions, & their entire life experiences based on some classes they may have taken or something they heard from a professor, or material on social media.

-Imagine if black students were regularly told they are not a real ethnicity or historic community, but just lumped together because of skin color.-Imagine if black students were told that they are personally too far removed from the slavery era to claim any real connection to it or to demand any lessons be learned and applied to this time.

-Imagine if many white students and professors openly praised the KKK, etc, for its understandable “struggle” against blacks in America and the unfair marginalization and demonization the KKK suffers when it’s called a terrorist or murderous organization.

-Imagine if the same university administrators and presidents who routinely block marches and literature on campus deemed as hate speech, clearly made exceptions for such marches and literature targeting black students and allowed them.

-Imagine if black students complaining about growing verbal and even physical threats on campus were ganged up on by adult media sources denouncing them as hysterical and trying to incite larger conflicts.

-Imagine if the few adult reporters supportive of these black students decided to name and shame the people on campuses attacking and threatening them… only to see themselves portrayed as the bullies.

-Imagine if some of the wealthiest black Americans responded by pulling their donations from these universities, only to be portrayed by many as just using this as an excuse to be greedy and dramatic.I know I’d be outraged by all of the above even though I am not black. I would think most of America would be. But this is PRECISELY what’s facing Jewish students on campus now.

Let me break it down for you:

Jews are routinely told they are not an ethnicity, do not have any real ethnic or communal history in Israel, but are communally responsible for the real or imagined conduct of the state of Israel.

These attacks are carried out by students who believe a class in Middle Eastern Studies or two, or some “research” online gives them the right to insist Jewish students know less than they do about Judaism, Zionism, and the Land of Israel.

Professors at several major schools are engaged in openly praising Hamas and expressing their excitement when hearing about the atrocities of 10/7. They are often actively participating in rallies filled with antisemitic rhetoric and imagery and some are even giving classroom credit to students who attend these rallies.

Many university presidents are claiming they cannot block these activities, no matter how offensive or threatening they can be, because of their schools’ commitment to Free Speech rights. This is a blatant lie as it’s very common knowledge that these same administrators would effectively block any such protests or dissemination of literature if it similarly insulted or threatened the schools’ “favored minorities,” none of which include Jews.

When Jewish students on these campuses provide evidence of harassment, illegal stalking, and having to be barricaded in campus libraries for safety, even some of the most cynical and diligent critics of official government and establishment claims suddenly take the same official sources’ words for it when they say the students are overstating the danger or the details of each incident.

Wealthy Jewish donors (and some very ethical non-Jewish donors) who have pulled their donations have been smeared as trying to bully universities with their money.

Outside journalists and activists who have worked to expose the instigators and worst offenders on these campuses, (I’m one of those journalists), have been attacked as the “real bad guys” in this scenario and demonized for ruining the lives of students simply because they wanted to express their feelings publicly.

Do you get it now?