DeSantis to Jewish college students fearing ‘persecution’: Come study in Florida
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, while strongly pro-Israel, has taken heat for campaigning with an anti-Israel congressman and failing to call out antisemitism in his state
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Rep. Thomas Massey (R-Ky.) during a campaign event in Iowa Jan. 5. Photo by Kathryn Gamble/Bloomberg via Getty Images
By Jacob Kornbluh January 10, 2024
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has issued an executive order to make it easier for Jewish college students facing antisemitism on their campuses to transfer to Florida’s public universities, where he said such bigotry will not be tolerated.
“Jewish students are welcome to live and learn in Florida where they will be respected and not persecuted due to their faith,” DeSantis, who is running in the GOP presidential primary, said in a statement.
The executive order, announced on Tuesday, instructs the state’s college and university system to waive specific transfer application requirements for Jewish students struggling with antisemitism at their current institutions. The order addresses the transfer of credits, application deadlines and the possibility of reducing out-of-state tuition for students in financial need.
The move comes in the wake of accusations against elite universities for tolerating antisemitism during the Israel-Hamas war. Two prominent college presidents, University of Pennsylvania’s Liz Magill and Harvard’s Claudine Gay, resigned following a Dec. 5 congressional hearing, in which they wavered when asked whether calls for the genocide of Jews violate their schools’ codes of conduct.
A recent survey of nearly 2,000 Jewish undergraduates at 51 U.S. schools with significant Jewish populations showed that five schools in Florida — Florida State, University of Florida, University of Central Florida, Florida Atlantic University and University of Miami — are ranked among the least hostile antisemitic environments.
“It is understandable that many Jewish students are looking for alternatives and looking to Florida,” DeSantis said.
DeSantis, lagging in the polls with less than a week until the Iowa caucus and ahead of the pivotal New Hampshire primary, has made Israel a key aspect of his political platform.
As governor of Florida, the state with the third-largest population of Jews, DeSantis has earned praise for expanding Florida’s school choice program, boosting security funds for nonprofits and Jewish institutions, and signing a hate-crimes bill that would make publicly displaying a swastika a felony. DeSantis also signed a law in 2020 requiring public schools to certify that they teach about the Holocaust.
But he has also drawn criticism for allowing parents to remove Holocaust literature they don’t like from school libraries. His state education department rejected two new Holocaust-focused textbooks for classroom use. The department also forced another textbook company to remove a reference to “social justice” in the Hebrew Bible, as part of a broader clampdown on what DeSantis calls “woke” instruction.
Critics have accused DeSantis of failing to call out antisemitism and “embracing antisemites” to boost his political career. During his 2022 reelection campaign, a DeSantis television ad featured a controversial pastor who had previously shamed Jews for not converting to Christianity.
DeSantis campaigned in Iowa twice with Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has consistently voted against pro-Israel legislation and resolutions to condemn antisemitism. Massie was the only House member to vote against a resolution that calls on the government to take comprehensive measures to safeguard Jewish individuals and organizations from antisemitism. Just recently, Massie was the only Republican to oppose a GOP resolution condemning antisemitism and anti-Zionism on university campuses.
“You can’t be pro-Israel and bring the most anti-Israel Republican into this state, who voted against fighting antisemitism on college campuses,” said former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is competing with DeSantis and former President Donald Trump for the Republican presidential nomination.
The DeSantis campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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