Senior Leeron Nakash and junior Tehillah Jaffe are picking colleges for their future. Both are Jewish and take the rising antisemetism rates into account when conducting their college searches.
“I’ve experienced antisemitism before,” Nakash said. “But it’s just that antisemitism rates in colleges have gone up in a copious amount. Because of the amount of antisemitism happening with Gaza and Israel. So, I’m just afraid of being a target, I guess.”
Discrimination and antisemitism on college campuses has always been a problem. But after the war in Gaza began on Oct. 7, 2023, at least 73% of Jewish students have reported experiencing or witnessing antisemitism during the 2023-2024 school year, according to a survey by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). In K-12 schools, antisemitism rates have increased by 135%, according to another survey by the ADL.
“I think it’s terrible,” sophomore Nadia Buer said about antisemitism. “I don’t support excluding anybody’s religion or race or where they’re from. I think that we are all humans, and we’re all on this Earth, existing. And we’re all living, breathing bodies that don’t deserve to be hate-crimed because we’re just slightly different.”
Buer, while not Jewish, was emotionally affected by the war in Gaza. Others, like Nakash, have family members in Israel. For her, the war and antisemitism have become a big part of her life.
“My brother lives in Israel, my sister lives in the northern part,” Nakash said. “My brother fights in the army and same with my cousins. So, I’ve been very closely affected. I have a bunch of family whose friends and other family members have been kidnapped or killed. I’ve been impacted in a very big way and, I feel like, every Jew has.”
The war in Gaza started Oct. 7, 2023, when the political and military organization Hamas attacked Israel, killing about 1,200 people. Since then, discrimination and antisemitism rates have increased. While the number of Jewish students feeling completely and very safe on college campuses has decreased by 21.1%, the amount of students feeling only a little, somewhat safe and not safe at all has increased by 14.2%, 36.7% and 3.7%. In the past year, 73% of Jewish students surveyed on college campuses reported experiencing or witnessing antisemitism.
“Now, when I’ve heard of antisemitic comments in colleges and people supporting Hamas, it’s difficult to feel safe in education,” junior Tehillah Jaffe said. “I’m not sure what colleges I want to go to but I want to go to Oregon for college. I feel like whatever college I go to, I will be unsafe. It’s going to be hard to focus on education when I try to focus on keeping myself safe.”
