A total of 2,334 incidents were reported during the 2024-2025 academic school year, which is an increase of more than 500 incidents over the 2023-2024 academic school year.
By Rachel Avraham
Antisemitic incidents on college campuses reached their highest levels ever in the 2024-2025 school year, Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, announced in a recent report. A total of 2,334 incidents were reported, which is an increase of more than 500 incidents over the 2023-2024 academic year (1,853 incidents) and a ten-fold rise compared to the 2022-2023 year (289) – the last year before the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Hillel stressed.
Nevertheless, despite these worrying statistics, there is cause for cautious optimism. Incidents of assault decreased from a high of 50 in 2023-2024 to 32 in 2024-2025, and incidents of vandalism and graffiti declined by nearly 55 percent, the Hillel report found. According to the report, the number of anti-Israel campus encampments dropped by 92 percent.
Hillel also noted that “the research also highlights a dramatic shift in the nature of antisemitic activity, with reported incidents of online harassment surging nearly 185 percent. Graduation disruptions also increased slightly this school year, with 37 disruptions or incidents, compared to 31 the year prior.”
“What we saw this past year was there was a penalty for antisemitism at many universities, and so what it did is it took a lot of these incidents that would have happened on campus, and it moved them online,” Jon Falk, Hillel’s vice president of Israel engagement and confronting antisemitism, told Arutz Sheva in an interview.
Adam Lehman, the president and CEO of Hillel International, told Arutz Sheva that he believed that changes to improve the climate for Jewish students on college campuses were paying off. “Over the past year, many universities have made significant changes to better clarify and enforce their policies and codes of conduct, supported by our work with them to achieve these improvements,” said Lehman in a statement. “When universities step up and enforce their rules, Jewish students and all students benefit from a safer, more inclusive campus environment.”
Even if some forms of antisemitism on campus seem to be in decline, the overall picture remains starkly different from before Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, massacre and the ensuing war in Gaza, which is ongoing, according to Hillel’s data, Arutz Sheva stressed. “All Jewish students should feel they belong on campus, but unfortunately, too often we’re seeing environments that make Jewish students feel excluded and threatened,” Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International, stated in the report.
Nearly one-third (32%) of American Jewish college students report feeling that faculty on their campuses have promoted antisemitism or fueled a learning environment that is hostile to Jews, the American Jewish committee and Hillel International stated in a separate report. “How are Jewish students supposed to show up and engage in class or have trust in their educators if they feel that their professors are creating a hostile environment for Jews on campus?” said AJC CEO Ted Deutch. “If students feel that they need to just keep their head down and earn their grade, they are not fully participating in the educational experience that they have a right to and deserve. Educators and administrators need to take action to ensure that their classrooms and campuses are places free from hate, bigotry, and harassment so that all students – including Jewish, Israeli, and Zionist students – have the opportunity to grow and thrive.”
Photo from Matt Hrkac from Melbourne, Australia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_war_protests#/media/File:Palestine_Rally_End_The_Siege,_Stop_the_War_on_Gaza_(53264633371).jpg
