Spat at, doxxed, threatened: These are the experiences of US Jewish students

Fox flew in 25 Jewish student leaders from around the US to give their testimonies on the onslaught of antisemitism they’ve faced at their universities.

By MATHILDA HELLER FEBRUARY 6, 2025 16:12

Protesters lead a chant during a pro-Palestinian anti-war encampment on the campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, April 29, 2024. (photo credit: Noah Riffe/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Violence, ostracization, antisemitism - these have defined the lives of many Jewish students on US campuses since October 7, as made evident by a recent focus group led by American comedian and entrepreneur Zach Sage Fox.

Fox, who publishes content relating to Israel and global Jewry, posted the new video - titled 'Gaza Graduation Part 2' - to his social media on Wednesday.

The aim? To see how the lies spread about Jews and the Jewish state have affected Jewish students on campus.

Fox flew in 25 Jewish student leaders from around the US to give their testimonies on the "onslaught of antisemitism they’ve faced at their universities, who mostly have ignored their cries for help."

In their words

Lia, who attends Fordham University, experienced such an incident while taking a photography course. In one class, a girl chose to put up a photo of redheaded baby dolls being burned - a reference she believed was to the Bibas babies, Kfir and Ariel, who were the youngest hostages taken by Hamas on October 7. 

The professor replied, "This is the most majestic photo I have seen in my 25 years of teaching."

After the class ended, Lia spoke to her professor, who compared Israel to Al Qaeda.

In another faculty-related incident, Adina from NYU said her teacher arrived wearing a keffiyeh, and sent out an email saying nothing antisemitic was said or done at the pro-Palestine encampment. 

Adina refuted this: "I was there. I have videos of them saying, 'Bring back '48. We don't want a Jewish state.'"

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When Fox asked the group how many had seen faculty involved with encampments, almost every student raised their hand.

The other testimonies varied in severity. One student, Ivy, reported students performing the Heil Hitler salute outside her Jewish fraternity.

Jonathan reported that the building he lived in received bomb threats, and someone posted on a website that they were planning to shoot at and bomb his home.

There were also mentions of university medical staff refusing to treat Israeli students.

Physical intimidation

Some of the incidents involved physical intimidation or threats. Shai said a student tried to physically hurt her, which she reported to authorities, but she was still made to sit next to him in class. She ended up having to drop out of the class.

A different student named Jonathan experienced being surrounded by 50 students who threatened him and said, "A Zionist has entered our encampment."

Daniela was spat on and asked, "How many babies did you kill?"

A police officer, who witnessed the whole incident, said to her, "That's for being a Zionist."

"I've felt unsafe anywhere I go," Daniela told Fox.

Taylor, who attends Rutgers, was on the way to a Shabbat dinner, and at the top of the steps, a man gestured to his pants and said, "I have a gun."

"I was scared because when someone is at a Jewish institution and says they have a gun, it's obviously targeted," said Taylor.

"Antisemitism and antizionism on campus, this isn't a new issue: it's just now we're starting to see it be even more tolerated."

Students for Justice in Palestine

Interestingly, several stories related to the vehemently anti-Zionist group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). 

On Yom Hashoah, SJP spraypainted the words "student-led intifada, you can't hide" on a wall in Case Western Reserve University, Adam, a student there, said.

Aidan, at Baruch College, said [pro-Palestinian activisys] followed them to a new student dinner and harassed and intimidated Jewish students.

"I was pretty vocal about that incident, and in response, SJP put out a post and specifically called me and 3 Hillel members by name and labeled us 'genocide enablers.'"

Doxxing was another theme; one girl said dozens of pictures were posted of different students, and the comments were saying, "Now I know who to target," or "I've seen that girl, I'll be looking around." 

For Fox, there is an irony that Gen Z "has more information at their fingertips than ever before, and yet they are spreading falsities."