Fighting Anti-Semitism

The Brandeis Association Scholarship Fund has been closely monitoring the increase in acts of anti-Semitism in colleges and university campuses across the country and particularly in New York City. Some of this anti-Semitism manifests itself overtly in the form of violent acts, distasteful graffiti, and verbal abuse against Jewish students. This disturbing conduct has been well documented.  

Just as colleges and universities have justifiably become vigilant defenders of the rights and safety of other oppressed minority groups, we respectfully ask that the same protections be instituted for Jewish students. No other racial or ethnic group would permit such conduct against their students and they would be justified in raising objections in the strongest terms. To that end, JBA NY would like to work collaboratively with you to discuss how to prevent the harassment and intimidation of Jewish students at your institution.

An equally insidious form of covert anti-Semitism has also taken root on college and university campuses, typically under the false guise of anti-Zionism. This includes, but is not limited to the participation of campuses in Israeli Apartheid Week, the minimization of Holocaust education, Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (“BDS”), and the institutional protection of student government members/college staff (including professors and administration) that support the aforementioned. It even includes calls to defund Hillel, which provides a cultural safe haven for Jewish students. This form of anti-Semitism may be the hardest to combat, as it is often enabled by policies and programs that have seemingly innocuous messages that are ever-present on college campuses.

It is for these reasons that we have created the Grant to Fight anti-Semitism on Local College Campuses to protect our Jewish students from physical and verbal acts of anti-Semitism.