Ever since the widely reported resignation of Alex Chalmers from Oxford University’s Labour Club, the media has shone a spotlight on antisemitism within the Labour Party at large. The litany of abuses are shocking but, regrettably, becoming less surprising under a Labour leader who cannot see Jew hatred before his very eyes.
In my experience, the overwhelming majority of Oxford teachers and students are intelligent, tolerant and thoroughly decent. Oxford Jewish life is flourishing – with a thriving JSoc and Chabad society, excellent inter-faith relations and a buzzing social scene of both Jews and non-Jews. Most Oxford students resolutely abhor antisemitism, racism and other forms of prejudice. It’s in their DNA.
Before coming to Oxford, I desperately wanted to affirm my Jewishness in this positive vein. I didn’t want my Judaism to be defined by antisemites. Unfortunately, for me and many other Jewish students, that has not always been possible. Four years there have shown me that antisemitism feeds off prejudices that build up incrementally over a long period. Like a plague, it is carried by sometimes unconscious hosts, until it spreads to the point at which it seems unstoppable. Four years have shown me that antisemitic prejudice is far from uncommon at one of the world’s greatest universities. Nor is it consigned to the Labour Club or the radical Left.
The first time I came across it was at a formal dinner. A few chairs away, I overheard a conceited undergraduate talk about what he termed ‘the Jewish problem.’ He explained that Jews exploit the memory of the Holocaust while committing their very own Holocaust against Palestinians (hastening to add, naturally, that Jews control American finance and media).
Not all the expressions of antisemitism I experienced were quite as deranged but they were no less concerning. Genteel forms of prejudice could even infect the dons. When I contacted a member of the academic faculty about a contentious statement he had made, he opined to me in an email about the apparently “genocidal” nature of the ‘Old Testament’ and that I provided “the best advertisement for anti-Semitism” that he had ever encountered.
A conspiracy of silence also pervaded the student press. During a debate on Israel, the then Oxford Union Librarian publicly ranted that what the Israelis were doing to Palestinians was no different from what the Nazis did to their ancestors. None of the major student papers saw fit to publish an article condemning her remarks. Nobody called for her resignation.
There were the Facebook forums where suspected ‘Zios’ were ejected without reason. Countless times Jewish students were told they were making things up and that they were not capable of defining the prejudice directed at them. I could go on and on.
A commendable number of non-Jewish students joined their fellow Jews in challenging online prejudice. Alex Chalmers was one of them. But until recently, few noticed the quiet revolution in some students’ attitudes. Few frankly cared. Even some Jewish students were complacent or wilfully blind.
So why does this all matter? Because if antisemitism can manifest itself at Oxford, it can manifest itself anywhere. It can thrive in environments which are structurally ill equipped to deal with such instances.
It is no surprise that antisemitism at universities is often rife among the same censorious crowd who want to clamp down on freedom of speech through boycotts and no-platforming.
Enough is enough. The university authorities have a duty to uphold common decency and civility. They must lead the way for other universities by introducing the mechanisms of discipline and accountability that ensure that staff or students who engage in racist harassment or defamation are swiftly punished.
Richard Black is a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford, studying Modern British and European History. He has served on the committee of the Oxford Jewish Society and the Israel Forum. He has previously written for Standpoint and a number of student publications.
