Despite reports of growing anti-Semitism on U.S. college campuses, most Jewish students at universities across the country rarely experience incidents of anti-Jewish remarks or physical attacks, according to a new study.
“The Limits of Hostility: Students Report on Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Sentiment at Four US Universities,” issued last week by Brandeis University’s Steinhardt Social Research Institute, found that “antisemitism and anti-Israel hostility,” while thought to be common at a few U.S. universities, is “not a significant issue” on most campuses.
According to the survey, conducted at Brandeis, Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Michigan — all of which have substantial numbers of Jewish students — “Jewish students are rarely exposed to antisemitism on campus.”
At most, 7 percent of the surveyed Jewish students said they felt “unwelcome in a campus organization,” and 7 percent said that they had heard remarks that “The interest of Jews in America are very different from the interests of other Americans.”
The study also reported that support for the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement “is rare” at the four surveyed schools, but “Jewish students are exposed to hostile remarks toward Israel on campus.”
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