The Engagement Gap Between Jewish Students on Campus

The Muslim Students Association was co-sponsoring a Seder at American University. The MSA cut ties because they were like, you know, Hillel has policies that involve supporting Israel. And so in some ways the campus fight is also an intra-Jewish fight. Most Jewish students on campus are not engaged. They're not members of either of these groups.

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Since the launch of the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and the collapse of the Oslo Peace Process in the early aughts, the college campus has been a locus of American political conflict over Israel/Palestine. As student Palestine solidarity activists have attempted to introduce BDS resolutions across the country, Israel advocacy organizations have responded by building a vast organizing infrastructure to intervene in student debates about Israel, painting campuses as threatening and hostile places for Jewish students and pushing for greater restrictions on pro-Palestine student speech. In only the latest example, members of the NYU law school’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) chapter—half of them Jewish—are facing media defamation for a statement the group sent to the law school listserv. How does it transform campus activism and the experience of individual students when outside organizations and media commentators get involved? Is it misleading to frame these conflicts as simply a fight between two opposing camps? What do you do when your mom forwards you Bari Weiss’s substack? Jewish Currents Editor-in-Chief Arielle Angel, Assistant Editor Mari Cohen, and Contributing Editor Joshua Leifer discuss these questions and the recent NYU events with Dylan Saba, Jewish Currents fellow and Palestine Legal staff attorney.

Books and Articles Mentioned:

“To the Antisemites Who Sit Next to Me in School” by Tal Fortgang

“NYU Law Erupts In Controversy Over Alleged Anti-Semitism” by David Lat

“Who’s Trying to Kill BDS on Campus? An Interview with Josh Nathan-Kazis” by Rachel Cohen

“How Israel Advocates Shut Down a Union’s Motion to Endorse BDS” by Isaac Scher

Twitter exchange between Yehuda Kurtzer and Joshua Leifer

AJC’s Survey on American Jewish Millennials

“Everybody Hates the Jews” by Bari Weiss

“Does Everybody Really Hate the Jews?” by Mari Cohen

“Princeton Students Voted to Boycott Machinery Used by Israel. Proponents of Israel Are Countering with Misinformation” by Isaac Scher

“Maccabee Games” by Jess Schwalb

“Deborah Lipstadt vs. ‘The Oldest Hatred’” by Mari Cohen