Campus antisemitism has parents, students reconsidering college choices

A surge of antisemitic acts on college campuses across the United States is prompting some parents and students to rethink their higher education plans, according to an educational expert.

"This problem stems from the top of a university," Jennifer Brozost, co-founder of the Private Education Advisory Service, told Fox News. "These kind of protests and hateful actions and violence would not be happening on college campuses if they were not allowed to be."

"Parents and kids are taking note, and they're watching," she added.

An anti-Israel sign with the phrase "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free" at a protest at Tulane University in New Orleans. The phrase has been criticized as calling for the destruction of Israel.  (Credit: Ryan Zamos)

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Antisemitic incidents surged more than 300% in the month following Hamas' attack on Israel, according to a recent Anti-Defamation League survey. There were 124 incidents recorded on college campuses between Oct. 7 and Nov. 7, according to the ADL, compared to just 12 during the same period last year.

Brandy Shufutinsky, an educational consultant and mother of four, said her Black, Jewish family has "completely reevaluated" where their two school-aged children will eventually attend college.

"The idea that I would send my 14-year-old to any university where he's going to knowingly encounter antisemitism or be targeted or be forced to stay behind locked doors in a cafeteria because there's a lynch mob outside targeting him is abhorrent and ridiculous," Shufutinsky said. "I'm not sending my child to college to be lynched."

Brandy Shufutinsky at the "March for Israel" Nov. 14, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Event organizers estimated 290,000 people attended the rally. (Courtesy Brandy Shufutinsky/via X)

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Hamas' attack coincided with early decision college applications for many students, Brozost said, but now she's hearing from many families who are waiting to commit to schools as they evaluate how safe they will be for Jewish students. Some students are even considering a gap year, she said.

"They're saying, ‘No. I’m not just waiting and seeing a couple months. I want to see real change,'" Brozost said. Her company PEAS helps parents navigate the admissions process.

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Students and parents also aren’t looking at prestigious universities like Harvard and Columbia the same after seeing aggressive anti-Israel protests on campuses, students ripping down posters of Israeli hostages and the publication of letters defending Hamas’ attack, according to Brozost. 

"It's not always about the name at this point," she said. "They're looking at ‘elite’ as a place that they feel valued, respected, they can have a voice."

While Brozost said freedom of speech and expression needs to be protected, she added that college administrators have not been tough enough on hate.

"You can't be locking kids in a library or writing swastikas all over," she said. "Those are actual crimes."

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The Biden administration warned colleges earlier this month they must address discrimination against Jewish and Muslim students or risk losing federal funding.

While Brozost expects the conflict on campuses to "fade over time," she said conversations about antisemitism and safety for students will have long-term impacts on universities.

"[Administrators] have to take a stand that every student is valued," she said. "There is no room in these institutions for hate speech, hate crimes in any way, and for every student not to feel safe."

Shufutinsky hopes things will improve by the time her youngest daughter, now in sixth grade, heads off to college. But she has her reservations.

Brandeis University became the first private university to no longer recognize its chapter of the National Students for Justice in Palestine which "openly supports Hamas … and its call for the violent elimination of Israel and the Jewish people," according to a letter from the president's office. (Getty Images)

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"The disheartening part is, this isn't just students," she said. "What we're seeing is professors leading the discriminatory calls … [and] that's not scholarship. That's not a learning environment that any parent expects their kids to go to." 

Click here to hear more from Brozost and Shufutinsky.