A recent survey shows that more Jewish people in America are fearful of antisemitic treatment. Unfortunately, it’s a fear that is hitting Jews of all ages as antisemitic actions have become more
prevalent on college campuses.
The American Jewish Committee conducted a survey last fall, which highlighted that 41% of Americans Jews are more concerned about their place in society with four out of every five participants believing that antisemitism has worsened, as reported by the Associated Press.
One of the frightening elements of this survey is that the fear of antisemitism is not just a generalization, but something Jewish students are seeing more of on the campus. The American Jewish Committee interviewed Northwestern University student Lily Cohen to hear about her college experience as an American Jew.
“Something that I have noticed frequently over the past about two and a half years was this sense on campus…of Jewish students feeling a little bit concerned sometimes about sharing all of the parts of their Jewish identity specifically when it came to talking about Israel,” Cohen shared.
Cohen shared that while this started out as mostly via social media during the pandemic, it has changed into an on-campus situation that has kept many other Jewish students like herself quiet about their feelings toward Israel.
“This has looked like anti-Israel students on campus, adorning walls and different areas of campus with phrases like ‘from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,’ calling Israel an apartheid state, calling it a genocidal state, and equating Zionists of all forms—American Zionists, and Israelis in the IDF and the Israeli government—sort of as one,” Cohen shared.
Just as Cohen saw a blatant distrust of the Jewish people and their connection to Israel by her fellow classmates, AP noted that 25% of those who took the survey had personally been the target of antisemitic discussions, whether online or in-person.
The history of the Jewish people has been far from easy, and it doesn’t seem that modern times are going to change that. From 400 years of slavery, a whole generation who wandered in the desert before reaching the Promised Land, to the annihilation of 6 million Jews by Hitler, the challenges for the Jewish people have been extreme. But this has not changed the fact that God chose them to be His people, the people from which the Savior of the world emerged. God promised that Abraham’s descendants would be like the stars—too many to possibly count. God has also delivered the Jewish people out of many dangers and given them great victories. Let us remember that God has always had special plans and purposes for the Jewish people, and that has not changed regardless of any political strife occurring in our world.
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Abby Trivett is a marketing copywriter and coordinator and Staff Writer intern for Charisma Media.
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