Jewish students say they don’t feel safe, MPs to probe antisemitism at universities
Jewish students on major university campuses are being forced to hide their Jewish identity and fear for their safety, as they face a tide of antisemitism, which school administrators are failing to protect them from, a group of students said Wednesday.
Six students from schools in Ontario, Quebec and Alberta appeared on Parliament Hill to raise the alarm about a rise in antisemitism on their campuses, which was triggered by the Israel-Hamas war.
They spoke with several Liberal MPs including Anthony Housefather, who helped initiate a parliamentary committee study about antisemitism on campuses scheduled to begin today, which was supported by all parties.
“My friends who used to wear kippot on campus instead now wear baseball caps,” said Nati Pressman, founder of the Canadian Union of Jewish Students.
“This is not because we are any less proud to be Jewish, but because our universities have fostered and create an environment where being openly Jewish could be a threat to our physical and emotional safety.”
Students and pro-Palestinian activists have recently set up encampments at some Canadian universities — including McGill University, the University of Toronto, University of Ottawa and University of British Columbia — to protest Israel’s war against Hamas.
Administrators and Jewish leaders have raised concerns about antisemitic chants and slogans being featured at the protests and said hate will not be tolerated.
Claire Frankel, a student at McGill, says she has heard slogans that “dehumanize Jews,” but believes many students are demonstrating “for the right reasons” and want to see a lasting peace. “Chants heard throughout this past school year and at the encampment at McGill include, ‘All Zionists are racist,’ ‘All Zionists are terrorists,’ and ‘Leave Palestine alone and go back to Europe,’ ” she said.
On a recent walk to class Frankel said she saw a sign that read, “No Zionists are welcome.”
Anastasia Zorchinsky, who attends Concordia University and is Israeli, said the situation on campuses has been allowed to escalate to the level that Jewish students do not feel welcome in the country’s academic institutions.
“We’re not students anymore, because instead of begging for an assignment extension, we have to beg for our safety on campuses.”
Zorchinsky said she’s woken up to read threatening comments on her Instagram account that say, “We will find you on campus.”
University of Alberta law student Rachel Cook detailed how her request last December to have a menorah displayed at the school led instead to the removal of Christmas trees, which were on site.
“I had one of my own faculty members signing an open letter stating that we should contextualize the brutality on Oct. 7 because it did not happen in a vacuum,” she said.
Cook said she is also “deeply sorry” for what her Muslim classmates and the wider Muslim community are experiencing, adding, “there is a lot of hurt on both sides.”
The students on Wednesday described what they called a failure by school administrators to respond to their safety concerns and hold people accountable for targeting Jewish students.