DENVER — Hillel International reports a 700% increase in anti-Semitic incidents on college campuses since Oct. 7 compared with the same time period last year. The head of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) wrote an open letter to university leaders imploring them to do better at combatting antisemitism.
"Universities have by and large been derelict in their duty to protect Jewish communities on campus, in many cases raising serious concern under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act," wrote Jonathan Greenblatt. "Simply put, to date, there have been too few consequences – that must change."
Jews are estimated to make up about 6% of the student body at the University of Colorado Boulder. Since Oct. 7, when Hamas killed about 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped about 240, a CU spokesperson said the university has had 250 cases involving discrimination or harassment.
Fifty-one of those cases, or 20%, involved antisemitism or anti-Israel bias. The CU Ethnic Studies Department published a statement in October:
"This is an historically high period of time for Jew hatred," Scott Levin, director for the ADL mountain states region, told 9NEWS.
The ADL believes university leaders should use winter break to make campus environments better.
"There is an opportunity for college presidents to get their acts together," Levin said.
If universities feel like they cannot block anti-Semitic speech, Levin said, leaders can combat that speech with their own words.
"We think it's a good thing that people have a right to express their opinions, but there's a line over which they cross where it starts being harassment of the students, where they don't feel safe and secure," Levin said. "If someone has the First Amendment right to say the most ugly and awful things, it's up to the presidents and chancellors to use their own First Amendment rights and condemn those type of activities and statements."
He said campus leaders need to make clear what speech is and is not acceptable, and the ADL wants university presidents to enforce their codes of conduct.
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