The rise in antisemitism has coincided with increased left-wing support for Palestine. Pro-Palestinian protesters have seemingly targeted many Jewish students at many colleges including Cooper Union and UC Berkeley.

According to Hillel International, the world’s largest Jewish campus organization, there has been a 700% rise of antisemetic incidents on college campuses since October 7 of last year, mostly happening in liberal parts of the country. Some Jewish parents and students are avoiding certain left-leaning colleges because of antisemitism. 

“The rise of antisemitism is [largely at] liberal colleges like Rutgers,” said RV Math teacher and Jewish Culture Club advisor Sarah Redfield. “[Many] Jews are [choosing to to] to St Joespeh’s…since there is no anti semitism …They are more conservative.”

Despite misconceptions, data shows young people who define themselves politically as “left-wing” are not less antisemetic than young people who define themselves politically as “ring wing.”

The 2022 paper “Antisemitic Attitudes Across the Ideological Spectrum” found antisemetic attitudes are more common among young right individuals compared to young left individuals and younger right individuals than older right individuals. The study also found left wing people are in general less antisemitic compared to right wing people.

Researchers asked 2,500 out of 3,500  respondents aged 18-30 to agree or disagree with anti semitic statements such as “Jews are more loyal to Israel than America.” They were also asked to agree or disagree with anti semitic statements and similar statements involving other ethnic groups to check for double standards. For example, the study’s respondents were asked “[Jewish / Indian / Catholic] Americans should be held accountable for [Israel’s / India’s / the Vatican’s] actions.”

“These are young people raised in a generation conditioned by social media to essentially say things that are gonna get attention,” said Tufts University associate political science Professor Eitan Hersh to the Forward. “The older generation of conservatives is more dominated by evangelicals and the evangelical community has a much stronger relationship to Israel.

Dr. Hirsch did a follow up research in February tackling the recent campus anti-semitism spike. Responding college students identifying with right-leaning ideologies were more likely to avoid Jews over Israel and agree all Israelis are “legitimate” Hamas targets. The data breaks many conventions about the rise in campus antisemitism.

“I’m just trying to do my best to answer hard questions,” said Hersh to The Forward. “But people have such strong dispositions of what the data should say.”

RV has not experienced any major reported antisemeitc incidents recently. This does not mean there is no antisemitism at RV since most antisemetic incidents go unreported. 

“I’ll look over and someone is drawing a Swastika on a desk.” said Junior Lennon Heisler “I’ve seen that three times.”

Schools and synagogues in the surrounding south Jersey community have reported.