What was a problem on many North American college and university campuses, including in Canada, has become an epidemic following the Palestinian terrorist attacks on October 7, 2023.

The prevalence of anti-Jewish rhetoric, while long present on many campuses in some form, was given a major boost following those massacres, much of it under the guise of anti-Israel activism. 

While post-secondary institutions are supposed to offer students a marketplace of ideas and a venue to challenge their opinions, far too often, they have become incubators of anti-Jewish hate. Whether it is a university lecturer telling a Jewish student to “go back to Poland,” Nazi swastikas found on campus, or a group of anti-Israel protesters taking over a room reserved for a student Shabbat dinner, these incidents have served to harass, intimidate and accost Canadian Jewish students and their allies.

These are not the only victims of antisemitic incidents on college and university campuses. When culprits attack Jewish students or their events, they are also sending a message to the wider student body – and indeed, all staff and stakeholders – that Jews are second-class citizens who ought to be treated differently, and that everyone else must consequently fall into line, lest they too be targeted by the mob.

In fact, this is exactly what has happened in recent years. These incidents above are just a tiny slice of real-life examples that have taken place on Canadian campuses in recent months, but this is by no means exhaustive. Mobs have blocked roads, smashed windows, attempted to force themselves into classrooms and more. And while Jewish students are often the first target, they are rarely the last.

To quote the poem First They Came by Pastor Martin Niemöller, “Then they came for the Jews/ And I did not speak out Because I was not a Jew/ Then they came for me And there was no one left To speak out for me.”

During times of heightened tensions as a result of conflict in the Middle East, Jews in the Diaspora are often treated as proxies for the State of Israel. Sometimes this can be well-meaning, though misguided, but far more often, it is meant to use a faraway conflict to demonize and target members of Canada’s Jewish population, making them feel isolated and under attack.

Against this backdrop, it is critically important that university administrations, staff and students speak out clearly and unapologetically against the scourge of anti-Jewish hate crimes taking place underneath their noses, and to their friends, peers and classmates. And no differently, it is critical that the media shine a light on anti-Jewish hate crimes, whether on campuses or anywhere else.