A “tsunami of antisemitism” has been discovered on German campuses.
According to a recent report, more proactive policy measures are needed to shield Jewish students from the rise in antisemitism at universities since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
The 26-page report on university antisemitism in Germany
The 26-page report on antisemitism at German universities, where Jewish students have described a climate of fearImage:
Lahav Shapira was beaten on a Berlin street in early February 2024 in what is thought to have been an antisemitic attack. The Jewish student had expressed his opinion at his university on the Middle East conflict. The trial of the alleged perpetrator, a 23-year-old former fellow student of the victim, is due to begin at Tiergarten District Court on April 8.
It was among the most dramatic antisemitic incidents Germany has seen since the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel, after which the country invaded the Gaza Strip. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Jewish students have reported a climate of fear at German universities, where they worry about intimidation and attacks.
On Thursday, the German Union of Jewish Students (JSUD) and the American Jewish Committee Berlin (AJC) presented a “Situation Report on Antisemitism at German Universities.” Outgoing JSUD president Hanna Veiler, 27, spoke of a “tsunami of antisemitism” in the university environment, outlining a chronology of incidents including the brutal attack on Shapira, along with numerous university occupations and “so-called pro-Palestinian protest camps” where people have called for Israel to be wiped off the map.The new report is important because a “really central challenge” for the JSUD has been that there is little research on antisemitism at universities, she said. A such, the 26-page report does not contain any newly collected figures. The authors used statistics from the Federal Association of Departments for Research and Information on Antisemitism (RIAS). According to the report, the number of antisemitic incidents involving universities rose from 16 in 2021 and 23 in 2022, to 151 in 2023.
Veiler said that the report is an important resource for Jewish students, who must deal with the issue whether they want to or not. “Jewish students have had to become experts on antisemitism at universities over the past 17 months,” she said. For some, the fear of entering university buildings and feeling abandoned has impacted the course of their studies, and possibly their financial support as students.