Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

This is exactly it. No one would do that. But it’s acceptable to say things to Jews that no one would say to other groups. We are the victims of over half the hate crimes in the US, and yet people feel like it’s fine to minimize our experiences or basically say “go be with your own.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally (because my child is not college-aged yet) I've heard one parent say that their child was pushed in an alt-rightish direction because of the anti-semitism on campus. Doesn't make a ton of sense (given anti-semitism on the right) but I think this is a real phenomenon. Not so much that the kids become Ben Shapiros and Steven Millers, but that they create an identity out of rejecting identity politics/PC culture/cancel culture.

Steven Miller is more representative of the American Jewish community than you'd like to admit, so I'm not surprised by Jewish students having alt-rightish sentiments. I think it's a chicken/egg issue. I think much of what is viewed as anti-semitism from the left is really backlash for the prevalence of unspoken Steven Miller type sentiments in the Jewish community.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm pretty darn secular, but here's what advice I'm giving my own HS senior, applicable to everything:

Don't operate in a vacuum. Find community, and if you can't find it, build it. We're not the first group of people to be on the wrong end of hate/discrimination/etc. Not by a longshot. And frankly some of our friends have been dealing with worse in more recent history for longer. Be an ally. Learn what that means. Show up for people. Do that, and they show up for you.

I don't think you understand what the OP is asking. It almost sounds like you're diminishing the discrimination Jews have faced, which really is pretty insensitive. We're not talking about allyship here; we're talking about what it's like being part of a discriminated minority.

Hi. I did not intend to diminish the discrimination. I'm sorry that's how it came across. It is the furthest thing from my intention. I'm saying that LOTS of folks besides us (ME) have experienced this. And fostering allyship is a concrete way to combat it. I mean that. Not as a feel-good platitude. I mean it because I've personally found it to give me a sense of hope and community, opportunities for productive discussion, and feeling like we're actually doing something about it.

Ok. But OP is asking about how to advise Jews. In this case, non-Jews would be the allies, not Jews ourselves.

I think the pp is saying if Jews are allies to other minority communities, those communities will in turn be allies for Jews. I think it makes sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

This is exactly it. No one would do that. But it’s acceptable to say things to Jews that no one would say to other groups. We are the victims of over half the hate crimes in the US, and yet people feel like it’s fine to minimize our experiences or basically say “go be with your own.”

Anti-jewish hate crimes were 13% of the total according to the latest FBI statistics.....learn to read a data table.

Most top universities already have a student body that is 20-30% jewish (by fat the most over-represented minority) so I don't think the advice to seek out schools with more jewish students makes much sense.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

Anonymous wrote:Anecdotally (because my child is not college-aged yet) I've heard one parent say that their child was pushed in an alt-rightish direction because of the anti-semitism on campus. Doesn't make a ton of sense (given anti-semitism on the right) but I think this is a real phenomenon. Not so much that the kids become Ben Shapiros and Steven Millers, but that they create an identity out of rejecting identity politics/PC culture/cancel culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, I'm pretty darn secular, but here's what advice I'm giving my own HS senior, applicable to everything:

Don't operate in a vacuum. Find community, and if you can't find it, build it. We're not the first group of people to be on the wrong end of hate/discrimination/etc. Not by a longshot. And frankly some of our friends have been dealing with worse in more recent history for longer. Be an ally. Learn what that means. Show up for people. Do that, and they show up for you.

I don't think you understand what the OP is asking. It almost sounds like you're diminishing the discrimination Jews have faced, which really is pretty insensitive. We're not talking about allyship here; we're talking about what it's like being part of a discriminated minority.

Hi. I did not intend to diminish the discrimination. I'm sorry that's how it came across. It is the furthest thing from my intention. I'm saying that LOTS of folks besides us (ME) have experienced this. And fostering allyship is a concrete way to combat it. I mean that. Not as a feel-good platitude. I mean it because I've personally found it to give me a sense of hope and community, opportunities for productive discussion, and feeling like we're actually doing something about it.

Ok. But OP is asking about how to advise Jews. In this case, non-Jews would be the allies, not Jews ourselves.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Faulty premise. There is no rising anti-semitism.

Ehh. There's a growing nuisance of left-wing antisemitism among the progressive left. See Britain's Jeremy Corbyn and the shell of the Labour Party. Having lived in London it is astonishing the degree to which otherwise intelligent progressive people will trap themselves by failing to distinguish between a political issue, Israel-Palestinian relations, and the greater Jewish faith and identity. As if Jews are not allowed to be anything other than hardcore Israel supporting Zionists who murder Palestinians every day of the week.

For some reason, right-wing antisemitism gets a lot more press and while I don't want to seem to be downplaying it, the left wing antisemitism is more pervasive because it's hidden behind the walls of "progressive causes" and Palestinian rights activists. At least right wing antisemitism is more honest in viewing all Jews = bad whereas left wing antisemitism hides behind the Palestinian / Israel mess as their excuse.

That aside, at least on American campuses, I don't think this will be a particular problem. Every school has its wackos.

Op here. I'm not sure why you think the "left wing" anti-semitism is not an issue here. That's exactly what I shared in my original post. The articles talk about the insidiousness of the left wing anti-semitism and how it's affecting campuses here. I'm looking for some advice from parents of Jewish college students on how to deal with this.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

Plenty of people on this board would tell them (I) it doesn't exist, (ii) this is just PC nonsense, (iii) all reported incidents are just hoaxes, and (iv) their kids don't deserve to be there anyway.

Really? I’ve been on this board for a long time and have never seen that. I have seen lots of people minimizing what Jews go through, though. We apparently aren’t allowed to talk about being targeted because we tend to be middle class.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DC went to a school with a relatively large Jewish population and did not experience anti-semitism (at least anything overt). If you are worried about it you may want to explore colleges with larger populations of Jews and/or more diversity generally.

If a black parent came here asking about racism, would you also advise the black parent that their child should go to a school with a larger black population?

This is exactly it. No one would do that. But it’s acceptable to say things to Jews that no one would say to other groups. We are the victims of over half the hate crimes in the US, and yet people feel like it’s fine to minimize our experiences or basically say “go be with your own.”