As a result, the organisation was called on to deliver more than 4,150 hours of welfare and mental health support last year, she says.
“Since the attacks in Israel on 7 October, 2023, British universities have seen sustained and elevated levels of antisemitism.
“Anti-Jewish graffiti, the removal of a mezuzah on Yom Kippur, and lectures denying the reality of these attacks are just some examples of the hostility students face. And sometimes, the danger comes from where it is least expected: a blood libel taught as fact by an academic at one of the country’s most respected universities reminded us that no institution is immune,” she writes.
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UJC provided the JC with several anonymised examples of the hatred facing Jewish students.
One Jewish student in London told how he was pushed down a staircase because he was wearing a kippah. The student stated that the attack was unprovoked and appeared to be motivated solely by his visible Jewish identity.
It left him shaken and concerned for his safety on campus, and the seriousness of the assault raised immediate concerns around student welfare and campus security.
The UJC chaplain supported the student following the incident, and raised the matter with university staff, the Community Security Trust (CST) and the police.
Jewish students at a Scottish university reported being harassed by a Muslim chaplain at a freshers’ fair during an interfaith event.
According to the students, the chaplain began to ask them about “Israeli genocide” and shared anti-Israel/Zionist sentiments.
One Jewish student shared a story of his friend who was murdered on October 7. The Muslim chaplain denied the attacks and implied that Muslim students should not engage with them as they are “Zionist Jews”.
In one of the many fully documented examples of campus hatred from October last year, an Israeli lecturer at City University, Professor Michael Ben-Gad, said he had been threatened with beheading by a masked mob of demonstrators who stormed one of his lectures and branded him a “terrorist”.
It followed a targeted campaign against the economics professor over his Israeli nationality.
In October last year, Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson set out measures to tackle an “unacceptable increase in antisemitism” at universities.
She said the UK government was funding training to help staff and students at universities “tackle this poison of antisemitism”.
Universities UK published guidance for tackling antisemitism in 2021. The JC approached it for comment.
Professor Michael Ben-Gad will be discussing campus antisemitism with Union of Jewish Students President Louis Danker for a JC event in London on January 29. Book your ticket here
