CNN
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Amid growing concerns about anti-Semitism on elite college campuses, some Jewish families are removing high-profile institutions from their rosters and prioritizing safety.
Universities were quick to address issues related to freedom of expression, hate speech and political debate as the war between Israel and Hamas entered its third month, but their perceived failure to combat anti-Semitism on campuses has left many Jewish students, faculty and staff feeling at risk.
Merav and her daughter Anna, a high school student in Atlanta, have repeatedly changed their college list since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7.
The Jewish family, who asked that their last name not be used for safety reasons, has set its sights on some of the best schools in the country. But they have since removed the University of Pennsylvania, citing what they consider to be volatile and anti-Semitic incidents and activities on campus.
“I didn’t think I would have to adjust my list of colleges based on concern for the safety of Jewish students,” Merav told CNN. “Our priorities have changed dramatically. The appeal of the Shining Ivy has been diminished by their management responses to the current conflict.
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Anna and Merav review college application materials.
“You will be challenged by the diversity of opinions at the college,” Anna said. “But as much as I like flexibility, I don’t want to be constantly flexible in terms of finding security. I’d like to be safe on campus.”
More than a dozen Jewish families told CNN that their priorities have changed since October 7 when they applied to universities, given the ongoing tension and unrest on campuses across the country.
They “get updates, changes and new requests” every day, said Christopher Rehm, founder and CEO of Command Education, a consulting firm that helps students apply to top-ranking colleges. “We have asked students to completely renew their applications,” he said.
Rehm says many of his Jewish clients are removing schools from their list, such as Cornell and Columbia, both of which are under investigation by the Department of Education after incidents of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, including alleged threats to Jewish students.
Some students are also turning away from the University of Pennsylvania, Harvard and MIT, especially after disastrous testimony by their bosses on Capitol Hill last week, Rehm says.
Liz Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, Claudine Guy of Harvard University, and Sally Kornbluth of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were called to testify at a hearing before the House Education and Workforce Committee.
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From left to right, Dr. Claudine Guy, president of Harvard University, Liz Magill, former president of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Pamela Nadel, professor of history and Jewish studies at American University, and Dr. Sally Kornbluth, president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, testify before the House Education and Workforce Committee Representatives on December 5, 2023, in Washington, DC. The committee held a hearing to investigate anti-Semitism on college campuses.
Magill and her counterparts provided widely criticized testimony in which they failed to condemn calls for the genocide of Jews as outspoken against campus harassment and bullying laws.
Gay apologized in an interview with the school’s student newspaper after facing widespread condemnation for her testimony before Congress. “I’m sorry,” Jay told the Harvard Crimson last Thursday. “Words matter.”
In many cases, families replace those schools with colleges they consider safer for Jewish students, such as Emory, Vanderbilt, and Washington University in St. Louis, Rehm says.
“I’ve seen students who I thought would be highly accepted, for example, at Columbia, make a final decision to never apply there again,” Rehm said.
Jennifer Schultz, a Jewish mother who lives in Harrison, New York, watched her eldest son graduate from Cornell University in 2021, just as her father did. But there has been tension at the school since a series of threats to kill or injure Jews in October ended with a Cornell University student facing federal charges.
“After what happened on campus, and the death threats to Jewish students, I don’t feel safe,” Schultz said.
Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack said in a statement that the school “will not tolerate anti-Semitism.”
“During my presidency, I have repeatedly denounced bigotry and hatred, on and off campus,” Pollack said. “The virulence and destructiveness of anti-Semitism is real and deeply affects our Jewish students, faculty and staff, as well as the entire Cornell community. This incident highlights the need to combat the forces that divide us and push us towards hatred. This could not be what defines us at Cornell.
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Schultz says her youngest son, a high school senior, will not apply to Cornell or many other top schools because of campus incidents she considers anti-Semitic.
“I hope a lot will change in a year,” she said. “Because we have connections to all these places. They’re in our family. They’re places we felt very comfortable with. And it’s devastating for them to be places where our Jewish children don’t feel safe.”
Several elite colleges have responded to these concerns in recent weeks and pledged to combat anti-Semitism on their campuses.
In October, Jay announced a meeting of the Advisory Group on Anti-Semitism at Harvard University. A visiting scholar at Harvard Divinity School resigned from the group after Jay’s testimony on Capitol Hill last week, writing in a statement, “Both the events on campus and the painfully inadequate testimony have reinforced the idea that I cannot make the kind of difference I had hoped.” ”
In November, Columbia University created a university anti-Semitism task force.
“We will not tolerate such actions and act aggressively against anti-Semitic threats, images, and other abuse when they are reported, and we will continue to provide additional resources to protect our campus,” Columbia University officials wrote in a statement announcing the task force.
On Saturday, Magill resigned as president of the University of Pennsylvania amid mounting pressure after her testimony before Congress. In a statement issued on Tuesday, interim President J. Larry Jameson called the past few weeks “a very painful chapter” for the Ivy League school, stressing that “everyone in Pennsylvania should feel safe and secure in the knowledge that hate has no home here.” “.
These concerns are a big topic of conversation among families. One Facebook group — Mothers Against Antisemitism in Colleges — has amassed more than 50,000 members since its creation in October.
The group’s founder, Elizabeth Rand, takes a different approach with her son, Zachary Semple, a high school student in New York.
“I don’t think we as Jews should stay away. I don’t think we should hide,” Rand said. “I think we need to fight this.”
Rand decided to allow Zachary to apply to some of the colleges now facing controversy, adding that she was not “encouraging” him to do so, but “standing by him.”
Zachary explained the decision to CNN:
“I completely understand and respect why many students do not want to attend these universities,” he said. “But I don’t think we, as Jews, should allow this rhetoric to stop us from forging our own path and going where we want to go because that is a kind of capitulation to the opposition, and that is what they want.” “.
In recent years, there has been a growing concern among Jewish parents about the prevalence of anti-Semitism on elite school campuses. This has led to a reevaluation of the traditional preference for prestigious institutions, as parents weigh the benefits of a top-tier education against the potential risks of exposing their children to anti-Semitic attitudes and behaviors. As a result, some Jewish families are reconsidering their choices and seeking out alternative educational options that prioritize inclusivity and safety for their children. This shift reflects a broader societal conversation about the challenges of combating anti-Semitism in educational settings and the impact it has on the choices families make for their children’s futures.