Jewish students told "go back to Poland" at campus rallies (2024)

Jewish students studying at prominent American universities have told Newsweek they and their classmates have faced antisemitic abuse and harassment on campus. There was also open support for acts of violence against Israel, following the October 7, 2023 attacks on the country and subsequent invasion of Gaza.

One student said Jews were told to "go back to Poland" and that "you have no culture" by demonstrators on or around campus, adding that "we haven't been listened to" by university authorities. A second said she saw a swastika dubbed on campus, was targeted for displaying a Jewish Star of David, and was escorted to exams by her mother due to safety concerns.

On October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas and allied fighters launched a surprise attack on southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people, predominantly civilians. Several hundred more were dragged into Gaza as hostages, where more than 100 remain, though it is unclear how many of these are still alive. In response, Israel mounted a major air and ground incursion into Gaza that has resulted in over 36,000 deaths, according to the territory's Hamas-run health ministry; this figure has not been independently confirmed by Newsweek.

The Israeli operation sparked a wave of protest camps at American universities including the 'Gaza Solidarity Encampment' at Columbia University. This was created on April 17, and quickly reformed after police moved in and made more than 100 arrests the following day. Other encampments were formed across the country including at Yale, Harvard, the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Southern California and the University of California at Berkeley, most of which have since been cleared by police.

Melina Feradouni, a Jewish student whose family fled Iran following the 1979 Islamic revolution, studied business administration and accounting at the University of Southern California. Feradouni told Newsweek that "the vibe on campus just changed" following the October 7 attacks on Israel, adding: "We were never a very political campus, but it definitely became that way following October 7."

A permanent protest encampment was created on campus in late April and remained on site until it was cleared by police in a major operation on May 5.

Feradouni said that some Jewish students were shouted at and harassed by people associated with the protest "because they were outwardly showing they were Jewish" by wearing shirts with Hebrew script on them. She showed Newsweek a photograph of a swastika she said was drawn on a campus wall.

In response, Feradouni said she "didn't feel safe going on campus" for over a week and was escorted by her mother on the day of her finals because she wasn't comfortable "having me walk on campus alone." When taking graduation photographs with her father, Feradouni said she had people shouting "free Palestine" at her after they saw the Star of David on her graduation sash.

The student said she emailed the provost and president's office to raise her concerns, but "only received a generic email with a link to their website about free speech and harassment" and was later denied an escort to accompany her to class.

Feradouni added: "I did get a couple of messages from campus safety asking if there's anything I wanted, but when I requested for an escort from my car to class just to make sure I wouldn't be harassed any longer, they told me they couldn't provide a GPS officer and that I could use a virtual assistant if I wanted; I don't even know what that means."

Feradouni also said she saw a professor who had been teaching her about the Holocaust at one of the demonstrations, chanting, "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free." This is in reference to the River Jordan and Mediterranean Sea, which she described as "a chant for Jewish genocide." Feradouni added: "How am I supposed to feel safe in that professor's classroom? How's any Jewish student supposed to feel safe in that professor's classroom?"

When approached for comment, the University of Southern California sent Newsweek a statement that read: "The safety and security of our entire university community has been – and remains – our top priority. Since Oct. 7, we have taken many measures to increase safety on campus, including increased security patrols and we instituted a campus perimeter. All of our actions, messages and policies can be found on our resources page.

"We have heard from different members of our community with concerns about safety. We encourage anyone who feels they have been harassed or threatened to report any such behavior to the Office for Equity, Equal Opportunity, & Title IX. All reports are taken seriously and are reviewed," the statement added.

"Our Office of Threat Assessment and Management and Department of Public Safety also address threats of violence and harassment. While we value freedom of speech, we stand firmly against any language that calls for violence against any religious or other group. Hate speech is antithetical to our values and we stand firmly against antisemitism, Islamophobia, racism and xenophobia."

Eden Yadegar is a student at New York's Columbia University and is also president of the Students Supporting Israel advocacy group. She told Newsweek that the atmosphere on campus shifted in the immediate aftermath of the October 7 Hamas attacks.

Yadegar said: "On October 8, I was meeting with a group of friends to take the subway downtown to go to an Israel rally that some friends at NYU had organized and, as we were gathering and getting ready to go, we noticed a group of students in the middle of campus making signs that said things along the lines of, 'resistance by any means necessary,' 'resistance is justified,' 'from the river to the sea, free Palestine' etc.

"This is on October 8, so Israel had not responded. The bodies of our friends and family members were still warm, still hadn't been identified. We didn't know how many people had been taken hostage, how many people had been killed, we didn't know if our loved ones had been affected, kidnapped, taken hostage, murdered and so on. It was completely a stab in the back to see some of the people we sit in class with, some of our peers, making signs justifying the terror attack."

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A pro-Palestinian protest encampment was formed on campus in mid-April, which grew to include an occupation of Hamilton Hall, where administrative offices are situated, until it was cleared by police on April 30.

Yadegar told Newsweek that Jewish students on campus, some of whom participated in pro-Israel counter-demonstrations, were targeted with antisemitic abuse and violence.

She said: "Jewish students had water thrown at them, had rocks thrown at them. One student had his Israeli flag stolen out of his hands by a protester who then took it, ran into a crowd, tried to set his flag on fire. Then, when the student tried to retrieve his flag, he was pushed, hit and cornered out of the crowd of protesters. Other students were told 'go back to Poland,' 'you have no culture,' 'death to Israel;' things of that nature."

In one incident, Yadegar said a masked protester with a sign reading, 'Al-Qassam's next targets,' in reference to Hamas' military wing, stood in front of a group of students holding Israeli and American flags. Footage of the incident was shared with Newsweek.

In response, Yadegar said: "Things were very heated that night and, following that, less and less Jewish students felt comfortable being on and around campus because they saw what happened."

Yadegar added that she personally did "not feel safe" going on campus for "pretty much the entirety of the encampment."

Referring to the camp, she said: "So it was erected on April 17... I got back that evening, and that's when I walked by and saw protesters outside campus kind of like circling around. I was supposed to leave on that Monday to go home for Passover, I was supposed to go on Tuesday, and I ended up going early on Sunday because I didn't feel safe around campus.

"A big part of it as well is the encampment and the groups organizing the encampment invited outsiders, outside organizations, to come and protest at Columbia," Yadegar said. "These protesters that were unaffiliated with the university, that were being invited, were also intimidating, harassing students claiming to be Hamas, praising Hamas' rockets, calling for the death of IDF soldiers, things of that nature. So many of us who don't live within the gates have felt and did feel incredibly unsafe and unable to walk to campus.

"Though some of the rhetoric and chants that we've seen from the outsiders have been more violent, the rhetoric we heard inside the encampment did start to match it. They were chanting to bomb Tel Aviv and burn it to the ground inside Columbia's campus as well; that wasn't just outside."

Asked if she had contacted university authorities, Yadegar said: "Yes, definitely, we have been, and we haven't been listened to. This isn't unique to the past few weeks; over the last six months, we've had several meetings with senior administrators at Columbia, but nothing we say has really been listened to. It feels like they're not taking us seriously and we're being gaslit about our very real experiences of antisemitism. It feels like the university has literally given in to the mob. I've sent a number of emails that I haven't gotten responses to."

Yadegar added: "I know there have been incidents where students have literally called public safety on the phone and I've overheard a couple of these phone calls where they say like, 'we can't help you,' 'we're not available right now.'"

A Columbia University spokesperson told Newsweek: "We are committed to combating antisemitism and taking sustained, concrete action to ensure Columbia is a campus where Jewish students and everyone in our community feels safe, valued and able to thrive."