Jewish College Students Share Campus Experience: 'Under Attack'

Jewish college students said they have felt "under attack" on campus since the October 7 assault by Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants on Israel, following a hearing on a rise in antisemitic incidents at universities in the U.S.

In a press conference on Tuesday, students from two of the institutions being represented by their presidents at the hearing said they and members of their cohort had been told "you're a dirty little Jew, you deserve to die" and that concerns about safety were dismissed by staff as "if they are scared, they should go back to Israel."

Eyal Yakoby, a senior at the University of Pennsylvania, said that while walking to class a few days ago he had seen "90 percent of pigs are gas chambered" written in chalk, adding: "Let me be clear: I do not feel safe."

On October 7, around 1,500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants staged a surprise attack on Israel, killing an estimated 1,200 people, including many civilians, and taking around 240 hostages back to Gaza.

Since Israel began an intensive campaign of airstrikes on Gaza and a subsequent ground offensive in Gaza—killing 16,200 Palestinians, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry—there have been pro-Palestinian demonstrations around the world, including on many U.S. college campuses. In some cases, these protests have spilled over into expressions of support for Hamas' actions and overt antisemitic threats.

Many American colleges have faced criticism over what has been viewed as a soft approach to instances of anti-Jewish hate, and have been accused of not doing enough to protect Jewish students on campus.

Liz Magill, the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Sally Kornbluth, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Claudine Gay, of Harvard University, were on Tuesday hauled in front of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, where they faced a grilling from lawmakers over the issue.

At the same time, a growing number of educational institutions are being investigated by the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights over allegations of antisemitism and Islamaphobia, while Penn has become the third major American university, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, to be sued by Jewish students—of whom Yakoby is one—over its response to antisemitism.

Newsweek approached MIT via email for comment on Wednesday. A spokesperson for Penn declined to comment.

At the press conference, Yakoby said he was there because "36 hours ago I, along with most of my campus, sought refuge in our rooms as classmates and professors chanted proudly for the genocide of Jews while igniting smoke bombs and defacing school property."

He claimed that "countless" Jewish students have faced harassment since October 7, and that they had been asked not to wear items that could identify them as Jewish.

"I love Penn; I've wanted to attend this university since before I can remember," Yakoby, who reads political science and Middle East studies, said. "I am here because the Penn I attend today is unrecognizable from the Penn I once used to know.

"Penn, once renowned for ground-breaking discoveries like the mRNA vaccine, is now a chilling landscape of hatred and hostility. Our university, revered for its pursuit of knowledge, has devolved into an arena where Jewish students tiptoe through their days, uncertain and unsafe. The situation at Penn has escalated into a full-blown crisis."

He added: "Penn's ambivalence fuels the crisis that has shattered my academic sanctuary. Policies meant to safeguard us have become hollow promises."

Meanwhile, Talia Khan, a graduate student at MIT, who has both Jewish and Muslim parents, said the university was "currently immersed in an extremely toxic antisemitic atmosphere" and that Kornbluth had "failed to address the crisis of rampant antisemitism on campus."

"An Israeli student whose identity and personal info was sold online for a bounty has not left his dorm room in weeks out of fear due to death threats," she recounted. "For my part, I was forced to leave my study group for my doctoral exams halfway through the semester because my group members told me that the people at the Nova music festival deserved to die because they were partying on stolen land."

Khan said that a recent poll found that 70 percent of Jewish MIT students felt forced to hide their identities. "This atmosphere is intolerable," she added. "President Kornbluth, please let me go back to being a scientist, let me go back to being a student."

During the hearing, Magill said she was determined to balance "safety and free expression," adding: "We must get this right; the stakes are too high." She condemned antisemitism in the "strongest possible" terms and said allegations of hate on campus were being investigated "immediately."

In her opening statement, Magill expressed "my and Penn's unyielding opposition to antisemitism" and said the university was taking action "to combat this centuries-old and resurgent threat." On November 1, she announced a new antisemitism action plan, which included the creation of a task force and student advisory board.

Kornbluth, told the committee she saw a difference "between what we can say to each other—that is, what we have a right to say—and what we should say as members of one community."

She added that "problematic speech needs to be countered with other speech and education," and emphasized that MIT's free speech protections did not extend to harassment or the incitement of violence.

Update 12/07/23, 3:00 a.m. ET: This article was updated to include a response from Penn and further information.