Jewish Students Can Find Their Good College

A “good college” means different thing for different people. Lately, I have had to ask myself: What is a good college for Jewish students, one where they will feel educated, embraced, happy and safe?

The sad reality is that antisemitic and anti-Zionist events are happening on many campuses.

How do prospective students determine where they will feel comfortable? Since Jews will be celebrating Passover, one of the most important holidays, this week, I felt that it was an appropriate time to try to cover this topic and help Jewish students and their parents make a well-informed decision. I hope that you will read one story of a person who did. His name is Aidan Djavadi, and he is a Jewish cadet at the United States Military Academy, also known as West Point. Aidan’s tale is powerful. Here’s an excerpt.

Being Jewish at West Point is wonderful. We’re a small community, 136 of 4,400, but we’re responsible for representing our people. Many cadets never met a Jew before West Point; our job is to introduce ourselves, ensuring all cadets know that as future Army officers, we will have a Jewish soldier who, like all soldiers, is entitled to excellent leadership.  Simultaneously we have an unspoken duty to dispel notions within the Jewish community that Jews don’t serve.

Aidan’s mother is one of my friends in my professional world, which is how I learned of his story. He reminded me that, as a minority, Jews have a responsibility to dispel stereotypes, especially if they can do it effectively in their own voice. Now I want to lend mine to help Jewish students and their parents consider colleges.

I am Jewish and heard antisemitic slurs growing up.

However, I was fortunate that Jews were well represented in the public schools that I attended in my hometown in Central New Jersey. So, no one ever physically attacked me or damaged my property because I was Jewish. Today, Jewish students face the fear that they will be violated in some way, or at least marked as an enemy before they first set foot on campus. Jewish students on campus are being wrongly held accountable for events far beyond their control. They are being blamed by students and teachers who have little knowledge or understanding of Judaism as a religion nor an adequate understanding of Middle Eastern politics.

So, how do Jewish students decide on a college with help from family, counselors, and friends?

It takes some time to follow campus news from schools that have daily or weekly newspapers to get good answers to questions. This is especially important if you are considering schools that have a college weekly or daily with an online edition.

For example, I subscribe to the online editions for the dailies in the Big Ten, since their schools show up on many radars. The good papers  link back to past stories that you missed. High school juniors who are making their initial college lists should do this now. Check news feeds and share them with their parents to follow the chain of on-campus events. I have generally found that the student journalists covered their campus fairly. They are also a likely resource for regional and national media. Here are some questions that might be answered for you.

• How have Jewish students personally experienced antisemitism on campus?
• Were these attacks verbal or against person or property? It’s one thing to watch students carrying signs, but not disturbing non-participants. But it’s quite another when protesters physically confront people, post defamatory images of students and others in the campus community or vandalize property.
• Have these attacks come from people who are politically liberal, conservative, moderate or with no political leanings at all? It helps to know who are making the attacks and their reasoning behind them. They are coming from multiple directions at many schools.
• Are Jewish students being blamed for Israel’s military actions?  Going further, which student organizations on campus are conflating Jewish students with Israel’s military actions, and how have they called out Jews?
• Who is organizing antisemitic and anti-Zionist events? Some events are not led by recognized student organizations. You might want to know if that organization is strong, weak or non-existent at other schools on your list.
• Are faculty conflating Jewish students with Israel’s military actions?

Are there other outlets to get answers? 

I realize that many schools do not have the same news outlets, so the answers to those questions might not be openly reported. However, there are other ways to gather news during the college search.

• Consider following “Jewish on Campus” or similarly labeled Instagram and YouTube pages where students report on the presence or absence of campus antisemitism and/or Anti-Zionism.
• Prospective students should also consider following Stand With Us and Students Supporting Israel (SSI). Both keep up to date on the various campus issues that touch Jewish students.
• Parents can  follow Mothers Against College Antisemitism on Facebook. As I am writing this piece, over 55,000 Jewish mothers and fathers follow this page.
• Check for Title VI civil rights investigations involving schools that might be on your list. They are a wealth of information not only about what happened, but also how a college administration handled the issues.

I also suggest that Jewish students and their parents follow local media outlets for the cities or regions where your target schools are located. Protests and violence will occur off campus in many cities and college towns. Antisemitic and anti-Zionist feelings extend into local, regional, and state politics and off-campus religious communities.

Learn about the Jewish community on and near campus.

Jewish students who have the opportunity to visit a school that has a Chabad House or Hillel should speak with the full-time staff as well as the student leadership of that organization. They might be able to tell you:

• The size and resources of the Jewish community on or near campus. Sometimes people who live or work outside of your school may be your allies.
• How the community has bonded and changed, for better or worse. Is the population that has their biases against Israel and/or Jews getting stronger or weaker?
• The support that Jewish students have received from the school’s administration as well as student groups that have few, possibly no, Jewish members. It will be comforting to know about possible allies.
• If events have taken place on or near campus to educate or unify diverse groups, including Jewish students, within the college community. Have these events happened at the initiative of students, faculty, administrators, or people outside of the school who live in the community?
• Have actions prejudicial to Jewish students—most specifically condemnation of Israel—been brought to vote by the greater student body? Several colleges and universities have brought such resolutions to referenda where students can vote. While a university administration will make their own decisions, confrontations and protests escalate when they oppose a campus-wide vote.

The information that you obtain should help to introduce you to the “civic architecture” on campus. A civic architecture includes not only the organizations that exist to support Jewish students and their allies; it also covers the politics, policies, and administrative practices of the school in addressing antisemitism and Anti-Zionism.

Learn to be civil and street smart.

Having worked in political settings for several years, I learned that saying any of these four things will help you get through difficult situations with people whose ancestries and faiths are different from your own:

• Please
• Thank you
• Excuse me
• I’m sorry

Diplomacy and tact through those four examples teaches an important lesson for all college students, not just Jews,. If you know nothing about someone’s ancestry, faith, orientation, race, even music and artistic tastes, admit that you don’t know. Let them educate you. Don’t make assumptions. Listening is the starting point to good dialogue, even with those who may not become your friends. Learn to avoid stereotyping others, and hopefully they learn not to stereotype you.

Sharing is caring!