How the Gaza war changed a generation of young Jews around the world, in their own words

The Gaza war may be finally coming to an end, but it has made a long-term impact on Israel and the way the world views the Jewish state – including Diaspora Jews – especially those who spent the war on turbulent university campuses. 

Judy Maltz, Haaretz's Jewish World Editor, surveyed the effect of the two-year conflict on a group of young Jews from around the world, seeking to understand how their evolving views on Israel, antisemitism and Jewish identity changed since October 7. 

She found that a “vast majority of them” were “very, very troubled and distressed” after the October 7 attacks and were initially fully supportive of the Israeli incursion into Gaza. But two years into the war, “I did not find even one who could say wholeheartedly that they supported its continuation.”

For some of the students, their changing sentiments propelled them into activism supporting protests to end the war. Others were motivated to step up their involvement in fighting campus antisemitism, which many experienced for the first time in their lives. 

Sometimes, students in the same country had completely contradictory experiences, Maltz reported. In Australia, she found one student who said they had encountered no hostility whatsoever, even as she was out demonstrating for the hostages with an Israeli flag.  Yet another “had such a horrific experience that he's moving to Israel at the end of the year. He says Australia is no longer his home.”

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'I Was Defending Something I No Longer Believed In': How Two Years of the Gaza War Changed Jewish Students Around the World

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