Addressing Campus Anti-Semitism Through Interfaith Experiences

This guest post is by Rebecca Russo, director of campus engagement at Interfaith Youth Core.

The past few years have seen an increase in anti-Semitism -- expressions and actions of hatred toward Jews -- both nationwide and globally (ADL, 2019). In the past week alone, we saw news coverage of a Nazi flag at Senator Bernie Sanders’ campaign rally and a deeply disturbing piece about anti-Semitism at a New Jersey school. On college campuses, students, faculty and administrators encounter issues related to anti-Semitism alongside Islamophobia and other forms of marginalization and polarization related to religious identity. Responses to anti-Semitism often focus on how anti-Israel sentiments and anti-Semitism are intertwined, issues of free speech and open discourse about the Middle East, and how to combat anti-Semitism and protect Jewish students from it.

Yet often absent in the national discourse is an approach that focuses on building, rather than tearing down. What can campus administrators and students build together to create a more constructive learning environment for Jewish students and all students? As a deeply committed Jew, a former Hillel professional and an interfaith leader, I am inclined to seek out constructive, relational approaches to the issue of anti-Semitism on campuses. Emerging research speaks to this issue and shows that advancing interfaith cooperation -- the proactive process of respecting diverse identities, building relationships across lines of religious difference and acting together for the common good -- is an approach that leads to specific benefits for Jewish students while simultaneously benefiting all students.

Data from the Interfaith Diversity Experiences and Attitudes Longitudinal Survey (IDEALS) shed light on best practices for increasing respect and decreasing prejudice on campus. IDEALS (jointly executed by Alyssa Rockenbach from North Carolina State University, Matt Mayhew from Ohio State University and Interfaith Youth Core) is a national longitudinal study that explores religious diversity on U.S. college and university campuses. In some ways, the IDEALS first-year longitudinal data, which surveyed over 7,000 students from 122 campuses, confirms other research on the negative aspects of Jewish students’ collegiate experiences. In the first year of college, Jewish students report more insensitivity on campus and experience more negative engagement with religious diversity compared to their peers. Administrators should take this troubling data seriously -- coupled with other research on rising anti-Semitism -- and develop proactive ways to address it.

Yet Jewish students also engage in more “provocative encounters” with religious diversity during the first year of college compared to their non-Jewish peers, according to IDEALS data. Provocative encounters are experiences that challenge students in a productive way, leading them to examine their assumptions and disrupt their automatic patterns of thinking. IDEALS findings show that provocative encounters relate to increases in self-authored commitments, appreciative attitudes toward others and commitment to engaging religious diversity. In short, Jewish students are more likely than their non-Jewish peers to engage in productively challenging experiences with religious diversity, which relate to both a stronger commitment to their own Jewish identity and a greater commitment to engaging religious diversity productively. Additional findings from the remainder of the IDEALS study -- forthcoming later this year -- will continue to shed light on the distinctive ways in which Jewish students experience campus life.

IDEALS findings also help illuminate the factors that can positively influence other students’ attitudes toward Jews. “A combination of safe and brave spaces sets the stage for developing appreciative attitudes toward different social identity groups,” articulates an IDEALS report identifying promising practices for interfaith learning and development. Evidence shows that supportive environments for individual identity groups, balanced with provocative encounters across lines of religious difference, lead to increased appreciation of others as well as a commitment to engaging religious diversity positively. These same two factors are also positively associated with the development of students’ appreciative attitudes toward Jews in particular. In other words, if administrators want to decrease anti-Semitism on campus, they can do so by the same means that they use to advance religious pluralism more generally. By cultivating environments that balance challenge and support, administrators can contribute to decreased prejudice and more positive attitudes about diverse groups, which benefits Jewish students specifically in addition to benefiting all students. The possibilities here are promising, and prompt important questions for campus leaders. What spaces and networks exist on campus to support students of different religious and secular identities? Are there rich and diverse opportunities for students to build relationships with religious others? Are there activities that spark deeper, provocative dialogue about religious identity? If certain groups -- Jewish students or otherwise -- are challenged more than supported on campus, how can those be brought into better balance?

When Jewish students are both supported and challenged, they can and do serve as active bridge builders, creating a different world for themselves and the next generation. In my role at Interfaith Youth Core and as a former Hillel professional, I know many of these inspiring students. One such leader is Ilana Brandes-Krug, a Jewish student at my alma mater, Brown University. At the 2019 Interfaith Leadership Institute, Ilana participated in and helped facilitate an “unconference” session about Israel/Palestine, which lasted six hours and ended in the students from religiously diverse backgrounds concluding Shabbat with a havdallah service together. The ILI environment enabled students to feel supported in their identities, which empowered them to bridge differences and engage in deep conversation on a challenging topic. On campus, Ilana co-founded a project called Building Relationships: Islam and Judaism with Junaid Malik, a Muslim student. BRIJ brought local Muslim and Jewish fifth graders together for weekly learning grounded in the shared values of Tzedakah/Sadaqah and Zakat -- charity and service. In a national context of rising anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, as well as deep rifts between the Jewish and Muslim communities, Ilana and Junaid chose to identify shared values and bring people from their respective communities together.

College educators and administrators have the opportunity to nurture student leaders like Ilana and Junaid -- and simultaneously decrease anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice -- by ensuring students have adequate support for their religious expression and by creating educational experiences that connect religiously diverse students together and provoke them to think in new ways. Campus leaders should be committed to addressing anti-Semitism and all forms of bigotry; one key approach for doing so is building religiously pluralistic environments that benefit all.