RSS
Nearly 1 in 3 Jewish college students has witnessed or experienced antisemitism on campus, survey finds
(JTA) – Nearly one in three current Jewish college students has witnessed or experienced some form of antisemitism on campus, according to a new survey.
The survey was released today by Jewish on Campus, a student-founded antisemitism watchdog group, and conducted by the polling firm Ipsos, which surveyed more than 1,000 college students nationwide who identify as Jewish and approximately 2,000 who rfeflect the general population of students and are largely not Jewish. The survey was conducted between March and May and has a credibility interval — similar to a margin of error — of 3.1%.
Of the Jewish students, 14% said they had directly experienced antisemitism on campus, while another 16% said they had witnessed an antisemitic incident.
The findings regarding personal experiences of antisemitism show a lower rate than a similar survey conducted by Hillel International and the Anti-Defamation League in 2021, which found that a third of Jewish respondents had personally experienced some form of antisemitism on campus in the previous year.
Jewish organizations have long expressed concern over campus antisemitism, particularly having to do with student conflicts over Israel but also relating to bigotry from across the political spectrum. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump signed an executive order on antisemitism that spurred a series of federal civil rights complaints from Jewish and pro-Israel groups, including Jewish on Campus, alleging that public universities have not done enough to respond to antisemitism on their campuses.
Protecting Jews on campus is also a prominent feature of the Biden administration’s national plan for combating antisemitism, which was unveiled this spring.
The federal complaints and resulting investigations, which in some cases predated the Trump administration and have continued into Biden’s tenure, have spurred some universities to change their policies. Last school year, months after downplaying the threat of antisemitism on his campus, the president of the University of Vermont issued a formal apology to Jewish students and promised to improve the school’s techniques for addressing the issue.
The Jewish on Campus survey also found that 84% of Jewish respondents believe antisemitism is a threat to the country, and that more than a third had heard of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement against Israel that has a pronounced presence on college campuses. The words “Israel” and “Zionism” do not appear in the survey results.
Notably, among respondents from the general population, the survey found that only 11% had heard of BDS. Nearly twice as many, meanwhile, 21%, said they had heard of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a group best known for a controversial definition of antisemitism that a range of Jewish groups have pushed universities to adopt, in many cases successfully.
Jewish on Campus CEO Julia Jassey said in a statement that the survey should push college students and administrators to “meet this moment and take antisemitism seriously.”
The survey “underscores the urgency of our mission to elevate the voices and experiences of Jewish students,” Jassey’s statement said. “As the new school year begins, these findings provide key evidence of the breadth and depth of antisemitism students face.”
While Jewish on Campus has surveyed campus antisemitic activity in the past, it relied on self-reported data. This was the group’s first survey conducted via a reputable polling firm. It joins a series of studies, conducted by the ADL, American Jewish Committee and others, that aim to measure bigotry against Jews by tallying reported incidents or polling the public — yielding a range of results and sparking debate over which statements or actions, especially regarding Israel, count as antisemitism.
—
The post Nearly 1 in 3 Jewish college students has witnessed or experienced antisemitism on campus, survey finds appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
RSS
Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions
ILLUSTRATIVE: The Iranian flag waves in front of the IAEA headquarters before the beginning of a board of governors meeting, in Vienna, Austria, March 1, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Lisi Niesner
Iran’s currency fell on Saturday to a new all-time low against the US dollar after the country’s supreme leader rejected talks with the United States and President Donald Trump moved to restore his “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran.
The rial plunged to 892,500 to the dollar on the unofficial market on Saturday, compared with 869,500 rials on Friday, according to the foreign exchange website alanchand.com. The bazar360.com website said the dollar was sold for 883,100 rials. Asr-e-no website reported the dollar trading at 891,000 rials.
Facing an official inflation rate of about 35%, Iranians seeking safe havens for their savings have been buying dollars, other hard currencies, gold or cryptocurrencies, suggesting further headwinds for the rial.
The dollar has been gaining against the rial since trading around 690,000 rials at the time of Trump’s re-election in November amid concerns that Trump would re-impose his “maximum pressure” policy against Iran with tougher sanctions and empower Israel to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear deal struck by his predecessor Barack Obama in 2015 and re-imposed U.S. economic sanctions on Iran that had been relaxed. The deal had limited Iran’s ability to enrich uranium, a process that can yield fissile material for nuclear weapons.
Iran’s rial has lost more than 90% of its value since the sanctions were reimposed in 2018.
The post Iran Currency Plunges to Record Lows Amid Escalating US Tensions first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media
Lebanon’s army chief Joseph Aoun walks after being elected as the country’s president at the parliament building in Beirut, Lebanon, Jan. 9, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mohamed Azakir
i24 News – A photo showing US President Donald Trump’s deputy Middle East envoy donning a ring embellished with the Star of David to a meeting with Lebanon’s leader triggered outrage in Arabic social and broadcast media.
As Morgan Ortagus, who is Jewish, shook hands with Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, her Star of David ring was visible in the frame, sparking accusations such as her being “more Zionist than her predecessors.”
Her direct superior, Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff, is likewise Jewish-American, as is his predecessor Amos Hochstein, who was born in Jerusalem and served in the Israel Defense Forces.
Ortagus is the first senior Trump admin official to visit Lebanon amid the fragile ceasefire agreed by Israel and the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadists of Hezbollah.
The post US Envoy’s ‘Zionist’ Ring Sends Shockwaves on Social Media first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
RSS
UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing
Supporters of Hizb ut-Tahrir at a pro-Hamas rally in London. Photo: Reuters/Martin Pope
i24 News – Anti-Israeli activists in Britain applied for a permit to stage a demonstration through London on the morning of October 7, 2023, as Gazan jihadists were rampaging through southern Israel and slaughtering civilians, the Daily Telegraph reported.
At 12:50 PM, as the deadliest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust was still ongoing, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) notified the Metropolitan Police that they intended to hold a rally the following week.
Reports and videos of the Hamas-led onslaught began appearing on social media, and Israeli and then international broadcast media, several hours earlier.
“The Met was contacted on Saturday Oct 7 at approximately 12.50pm via telephone call and informed of the intention to protest,” a police spokesman was quoted by the Telegraph as saying. “The Met committed this to our systems on the same day and are satisfied being contacted by telephone was a sufficient means in which to notify the MPS as the event was taking place seven days after notification.”
The group’s spokesperson defended the move, telling the Telegraph it was “clear” as early as Saturday noon that “the Israeli attacks on Gaza would be of an indiscriminate violence we had not witnessed before, and that 2.3 million people in Gaza – more than 50 percent of them children – were at severe risk.”
The post UK: Pro-Palestinian Activists Applied for a March Permit on Oct 7 as Massacre Was Ongoing first appeared on Algemeiner.com.