Maya Leibzon ’25 stared at her parents in disbelief — they had just told her about the recent antisemitic messages that had been found written at college campuses across the country amid protests and encampments. A million questions raced through her mind, but mostly she felt a paralyzing fear. Leibzon, whose sister went through the college process this past year, said the protests and campus antisemitism at college campuses have made her more wary about where she is applying.
“My parents and sister were concerned when she was applying,” Leibzon said. “I definitely am concerned, but hopefully, it will calm down over the next year, so by the time I get there, it will be fine.”
In March, protests regarding the Israel-Hamas War erupted on college campuses nationwide, but the protests gained national attention after April 17 when encampments emerged at Columbia University. Across the nation, over 140 colleges and universities saw protests take place on their campuses, according to bestcolleges.com.
Leibzon is not the only one who with these concerns. Hillel International, a Jewish organization that serves more than 850 colleges around the world, reported in a survey that 93% of Jewish families are closely following the increase of antisemitic and anti-Israel incidents on campus since the Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel. Hillel International has recorded more than 1,200 antisemitic incidents on college campuses over that period, a nearly tenfold increase compared to the same period last year before the attacks on Israel.
Coordinator of Jewish Life and Community Engagement Sarah Rapaport said the protests, which for some can offer a diverse experience, can challenge Jewish students’ sense of safety on a college campus.
“Every person feels differently,” Rapaport said. “Every campus has had varying experiences about how those protests being done in a way that supports freedom of speech and is not creating a deadline for safety. Freedom of speech and protesting is something that often youth are very vigorously involved in, whatever the cause. But people need to prioritize their safety. If the events and occurrences on campuses are creating an unsafe environment, and I believe in many cases they are creating an unsafe environment for Jewish students, students will be concerned about their safety. They’re going to have to reevaluate what kind of space they put themselves into.”
64% of Jewish high school students have eliminated schools they would have otherwise wanted to attend based on rising antisemitism since October 7, 2023, according to hillel.org.
Charlotte Newman ’24, former co-leader of Jewish Club graduated last year in the spring and now attends Harvard University. Newman said how colleges handled antisemitic incidents and protests on campus impacted where she decided to apply in regular decision.
“There were schools that I decided not to apply to because of how antisemitism was being handled. I ended up at Harvard, which was not famous for doing great stuff for their Jewish students. Still, I had already been looking for schools that had strong bonds and strong Hillels, and if a school didn’t have any of those, I was already sort of on the fence about it. ”
Newman said she solidified her decision to apply to Harvard by reaching out to alumni who were already attending the schools she was considering.
“Because the Harvard- Westlake network is so strong, at every school I visited, I tried to reach out to Jewish kids I knew,” Newman said. “Even if I had reached out to people I didn’t know, or that I knew they went to a certain school, I just talked to them about their experiences.”
Co-President of Jewish Club Edward Ward ’25 said the strength of the Jewish community on campus has informed the way he goes about his college application process.
“When I’ve gone to look at colleges, I’ve looked for the presence of Jewish campus organizations like Hillel and tried to speak with students about what it was like during the big wave of protests,” Ward said. “I try to use it as a barometer of the school’s environment. I don’t like echo chambers, [but I do like] when people disagree respectfully. Talking to people about the protests has been very useful to me to figure out where I’d like to go from both a cultural and intellectual perspective.”
Rapaport said the protests add a certain level of stress to Jewish students’ college and decision-making processes.
“What I’ve gotten from my relationship with parents that are going through these experiences is that there is an awareness that Jewish students do feel anxiety regarding their fears about antisemitism on a particular campus,” Rapaport said. “They have to re-evaluate or use a new lens with which to look at colleges in terms of their decision-making processes for where to apply and what kind of campus they want to be part of. Specifically within college campuses, I think that students are having to really integrate a new way of thinking about what is the right decision for them in a way that Jewish-American students haven’t had to do for a very long time.”
Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said on the ADL website that colleges need to recognize antisemitism on their campuses.
“Jewish students are experiencing a wave of antisemitism unlike anything we’ve seen before, but shockingly, non-Jewish students barely see it,” Greenblatt said. “Since the Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, Jewish students feel increasingly threatened on campus, but college leaders are not doing enough to address this very real fear of antisemitism.”
Ward said he tries to be as open-minded as possible when looking at schools that have had difficulties with protests.
“I’ve been looking in particular at schools that managed the protests fairly and have a strong commitment to free speech for everyone regardless of their beliefs,” Ward said. “It might be a bit naive, but I do believe that through dialogue it is possible for people to come to a better understanding of each other.”
Around 40% of Jewish college students have felt the need to hide their Jewish identity from others on campus due to protests, according to Hillel International. However, for Newman, the role that her Jewish identity played in her college applications made it so that she felt compelled to talk about it in her application.
“Because I was Jewish Club leader for three years, it was something that couldn’t be taken out of my application,” Newman said. “I couldn’t erase being Jewish from my file. Because you don’t have to report your race, you don’t necessarily have to include that you’re Jewish in a college application, but for me it was my main leadership position. I’m really passionate about it, and it wasn’t something that I could just take out of my application. I do feel that’s how I just am now. I can’t imagine going to college and not participating in Jewish life.”
Similarly, Leibzon said she wants to continue to build a stronger bond with her Jewish identity while she is in college, something that she keeps in mind as she applies.
“I feel really connected to my Jewish identity, and my older sister who’s at Berkeley and part of the Hillel found a lot of nice Jewish people that she’s now really close to,” Leibzon said. “I want the same. I want to be connected to who I am and find people who believe in the same things and are connected to Israel in the same way I am.”
Newman said she thinks many Jewish students will approach their college applications with increased caution, potentially leading to a rise in applications to public universities.
“It will impact people probably to some extent, but no one’s going to stop applying to Harvard, Stanford, Yale or even Columbia, which had it the worst, probably,” Newman said. “Jewish students might choose to apply to big state schools because it feels like a safer environment. Places like University of Michigan, University of Wisconsin and even University of Miami are all going up in the ranks [in terms of acceptance rates] and already have solid Jewish populations.”
The University of Florida has the highest number of Jewish students among all North American colleges, with 6,500 Jewish undergraduates, makes up 19% of the total student body, according to ivycoach.com.
Leibzon said although many students acknowledge the antisemitism at many schools, they do not want to give up a good education for it.
“The protests definitely are affecting a lot of people’s opinions about where they want to apply,” Leibzon said. “But all of the protests are happening at all of the bigger and well more known schools. I think a lot of people are still going to apply to them and just try and find their own path at that school. Even though there’s people trying to push them down, I think people still want to have a good education and feel fine going to a school, while trying to feel more safe and connected to their identity.”
