Ahead of the upcoming academic year, leading American Jewish organizations on Monday proposed recommendations to ensure a safer campus for Jewish students, faculty, and staff.
The Jewish Federations of North America, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Hillel International, and the umbrella group the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations called for universities to adopt enhanced policy enforcement, dedicated administrative oversight, new support systems, campus climate assessments, new harassment policies, and guidelines for faculty accountability.
The organizations said in their joint Monday statements that many academic institutions had made significant progress to address campus antisemitism over recent years. Still, their recommendations were designed to ensure “sustained improvement.”
“We are encouraged by the universities that have taken prior recommendations seriously, implementing changes that have reduced the most severe types of incidents, creating safer and more welcoming environments as a result. But our work is far from complete,” said Hillel president and CEO Adam Lehman. “These updated recommendations provide a road map for institutions to build on their progress and address the challenges Jewish students continue to face,” he continued.
Enforcing codes of conduct
After the wave of anti-Israel protest encampments and building occupations that swept American campuses in the wake of Hamas’s October 7 massacre, the Jewish groups thought it necessary to suggest behavioral expectations and to enforce codes of conduct in particular relating to the time, place, and manner of campus activities.
The proposed enforcement of guidelines was not just limited to students, per their suggestion, but also to faculty members who had to be held accountable after being handed clear guidelines for classroom conduct. The Jewish NGOs posited that this would ensure students would not be subjected to political coercion and identity-based discrimination while attending their courses.
Other recommendations to counter discrimination against Jewish students included efforts to prevent the exclusion of Jewish students from campus activities or disenfranchise them with academic boycotts.
The ADL’s CEO and national director, Jonathan Greenblatt, said in a statement that it was “unacceptable” for Jewish students to have to “hide who they are.”
Civil rights coordinators were proposed to address problems and maintain a transparent complaint process. This move would be complemented by an annual survey of students, faculty, and staff to measure the frequency of antisemitic incidents, community trust, policy awareness, and the effectiveness of institutional responses.
Some Jewish groups also added that safety measures should not just be extended to physical threats, but to cyberbullying and coordinated harassment campaigns as well.
Jewish Federation president and CEO Eric Fingerhut said that being physically safe was a minimum expectation for Jewish students.
“These recommendations provide universities with concrete steps to create environments where Jewish students can pursue their education without fear of harassment or exclusion,” said Fingerhut.
To coincide with the proposals, the ADL has begun a letter campaign in which students can select their institution from a drop-down menu and fill out a form to urge their particular university leader to adopt the recommendations.
The Jewish groups highlighted the necessity of adopting their recommendations by noting a recent ADL, Hillel, and College Pulse survey that showed that almost 83% of Jewish students have experienced or witnessed antisemitism since the Hamas October 7 massacre.
“Campus antisemitism demands continued commitment from universities and colleges,” said Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations CEO William C. Daroff.
“Schools that implement these recommendations will not only better serve their Jewish students, but strengthen the entire campus community’s dedication to academic excellence.”