College Diversity, Equity, Inclusion Failing Jewish Students, Says New Report

Antisemitism is a blindspot for college diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) bureaucracies across the United States, according to a new report by StopAntisemitism, an antisemitism watchdog.

Published on Wednesday, the report’s findings are based on surveys of Jewish undergraduates, 45 percent of whom experienced antisemitism on campus and others who expressed concerns that DEI administrators are not as devoted to fighting it as strenuously as other forms of racism.

“Respondents who reported antisemitic incidents such as verbal threats, vandalism, and physical threats and violence, have largely been ignored by campus administrators,” said the report, titled “Antisemitism on US College & University Campuses: 2022 Report Card.”

Only 28 percent percent of respondents felt their school took incidents of antisemitism seriously, ultimately jeopardizing their safety on campus.

StopAntisemitism gave “report card” grades to university DEI offices derived from several criteria, including protection, “allyship”, identity, and policy. University of Pennsylvania received the highest mark of any Ivy League school, earning an A-. Yale University and Columbia University both received F’s. So too did New York University (NYU), an elite private school in Greenwich Village, Manhattan.

“Students do not feel that the school administration and DEI staff take antisemitism seriously enough and feel complaints of antisemitism are ignored,” said the report’s evaluation of Yale University. “[It] does not include Jews in its DEI initiatives.”

No public university in the study merited more than a C+. Rutgers University, where in 2021 a high ranking official apologized for condemning antisemitism, was given a C-.

StopAntisemitism recommended that universities issue DEI policies relevant to discrimination experienced by Jews and adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. It also called for faster responses, disciplinary and verbal, to antisemitic incidents.

“Most diversity, equity, and inclusion departments have failed to protect Jewish students at American colleges and universities with only three schools including Jews in their DEI initiatives,” the report concluded. “Without support from allies in higher education, the future for Jews on college campuses remains questionable.”