New data challenges assumptions about campus antisemitism
‘People have such strong dispositions of what the data should say,’ said researcher Eitan Hersh
Members of the crowd listen to a speaker during the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in 2022. A new study found that conservative college students are more likely than liberals to express extreme views about Jews and Israel, though many Jewish students appear to be alarmed about progressive activism targeting Israel. Photo by Getty Images
By Arno Rosenfeld March 21, 2024
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Many liberal college students don’t want to be friends with people who support Israel — but say they’ll socialize with Jews regardless of their views on the conflict. And while more conservative students support Israel, they’re also much likelier to say it’s OK for Hamas to kill civilians — and more likely to avoid hanging out with Jews.
If this makes your head hurt, you can thank Eitan Hersh, an astute scholar of campus antisemitism whose work has received far less attention than it deserves, partly because his findings are inconvenient for partisans on both sides.
“I’m just trying to do my best to answer hard questions,” said Hersh, a Tufts University professor best known for his work on civic engagement. “But people have such strong dispositions of what the data should say.”
Hersh is right that his data, including a study released earlier this month, doesn’t match the conclusions that many people have already reached.
Hersh’s new study does not neatly conform to the conventional wisdom of many pro-Israel advocacy groups, and the arguments put forth by congressional Republicans in recent hearings, that progressive politics have driven a spike in campus antisemitism. But it aligns with his earlier research, and with a poll done by the right-leaning Jewish Institute for Liberal Values two years ago that found that progressives are more likely to take antisemitism seriously than conservatives..
Another surprise in Hersh’s study concerned the issue of whether the Oct. 7 attack was justified. Nearly 20% of students who identified as “conservative” or “Christian conservative” agreed with the statement, “All Israeli citizens should be considered legitimate targets for Hamas,” compared to 1% who described themselves as “very liberal.”
But progressives don’t get off easy in Hersh’s report, which shows that amid left-wing protests against Israel, many Jewish students are significantly less comfortable on campus than they were two years ago:
- 30% said they need to conceal their Jewishness in order to fit in, nearly double the rate who said that in 2022;
- 17% said that they had been the direct target of antisemitic comments or threats in recent months on campus;
- Two-thirds of the roughly 1,000 Jewish students surveyed across 21 campuses said they believe “there should continue to be a Jewish state in Israel/Palestine”; 19% disagreed with that;
- One in 10 of those Jewish students have attended a pro-Palestinian demonstration since Oct. 7, and 32% have attended an event in support of Israel.
Hersh thinks the increased hostility toward Israel may damage the reputation of schools like his own, Tufts, where the local Students for Justice in Palestine chapter celebrated the Hamas attacks.
“The kind of culture you cultivate among your students is going to affect your brand,” Hersh said. “And some families will look at a school that has a big student organization supporting Oct. 7 and say that’s just not a brand for my family.”
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