mailchi.mp Open in urlscan Pro
23.15.147.104  Public Scan

Form analysis
0 forms found in the DOM

Text Content

Campaign URL Copy
 * Twitter 0 tweets

 * Subscribe
 * Past Issues
 * RSS
 * Translate
   * English
   * العربية
   * Afrikaans
   * беларуская мова
   * български
   * català
   * 中文（简体）
   * 中文（繁體）
   * Hrvatski
   * Česky
   * Dansk
   * eesti keel
   * Nederlands
   * Suomi
   * Français
   * Deutsch
   * Ελληνική
   * हिन्दी
   * Magyar
   * Gaeilge
   * Indonesia
   * íslenska
   * Italiano
   * 日本語
   * ភាសាខ្មែរ
   * 한국어
   * македонски јазик
   * بهاس ملايو
   * Malti
   * Norsk
   * Polski
   * Português
   * Português - Portugal
   * Română
   * Русский
   * Español
   * Kiswahili
   * Svenska
   * עברית
   * Lietuvių
   * latviešu
   * slovenčina
   * slovenščina
   * српски
   * தமிழ்
   * ภาษาไทย
   * Türkçe
   * Filipino
   * украї́нська
   * Tiếng Việt

Hear from our students!

The Explosion of Antisemitism on
University Campuses:
The Reality for Jewish Students in Canada

by Sydney Greenspoon

StandWithUs Canada Emerson Fellow
at the University of Windsor



After attending the University of Western Ontario for my undergraduate degree
and now completing my studies at the University of Windsor (UWindsor) Faculty of
Law, it is safe to say that I have experienced and seen my fair share of
antisemitism on Ontario university campuses. Being a Jew, especially a proud
Zionist Jew, has always been a struggle in my years at university. My
difficulties have included facing derogatory and antisemitic comments made by
classmates, professors singling me out because of my beliefs, and a general lack
of compassion towards the alarmingly increasing rate of antisemitism that has
grown steadily in my time as a student. I have had professors schedule exams on
Jewish holidays, with little understanding of why I would be unable to write the
exam, heard peers and professors belittle or deny the Holocaust, and have had
friends ask me if I denounce Zionism once they find out I’m Jewish. For me,
Zionism is an integral, if not the most integral, aspect of what it means to be
Jewish. Zionism is Jewish self-determination in our re-established ancestral
homeland, where we can be free and safe from the antisemitism that has been
present for millennia.1 I have always understood Zionism in the context of my
religious beliefs and as a major aspect of Jewish life that is ingrained in our
prayers, way of living, and daily practices. It was only when I began university
that I found out that such a fundamental aspect of my religious and ethnic
identity would be a problem. Going into my final year of law school, I thought I
had seen all the ugly faces of antisemitism, but nothing could have prepared me
for the extreme and blatant forms of antisemitism we have currently been facing
at UWindsor. It was only this year that I realized that not only was my Zionism
at issue, but my Judaism was as well.  


Out of the 16,000 students that attend UWindsor, it is estimated that no more
than 35 identify as Jewish, with approximately 30 of us attending the law
school.2 That is just over 0.2% of the student-body, which likely explains the
lack of Jewish organizations and clubs on campus. For instance, there is no
Hillel, Students Supporting Israel clubs, or Chabad on campus (aside from the
amazing local Chabad Rabbi). The sole Jewish representation on campus is the
Jewish Law Students Association (JSA), of which I am proud to serve as
co-president. 
 

If you had asked me prior to October 7th what it was like to be a Jewish student
at UWindsor, I would have told you that there is much apathy towards
antisemitism on campus. I would have explained how Jewish students’ voices were
never truly respected or listened to, likely due to being such a small fraction
of the student population. Every few months there would be an antisemitic
incident, and then, all too often, the JSA executives would receive some sort of
retroactive apology from the school administration. We would hear a variety of
promises for change on behalf of the university (that would never come to
fruition), just to end up in the President’s office a couple of months later to
receive another apology. Though instances of antisemitism would ebb and flow,
after October 7th, it became an almost daily occurrence.  
 

I would now characterize UWindsor as an unsafe place to be an openly proud Jew.
It is a campus that fosters hate and allows antisemitism to flourish, forcing
the few Jewish students to hide any sign of our Jewish identity, in fear for our
physical and psychological safety. This is the new reality we, the Jewish
students, are facing on campus. I realized my life would never be the same as a
Jewish student just a few hours into October 7th, the day of the worst massacre
the Jewish nation has experienced since the Holocaust. 
 

My October 7th began like many other North American Jews: waking up to hundreds
of notifications on my phone, instantly breaking into tears and panic, and
checking on my friends and family in Israel to ensure they were safe. My next
instinct was to jump into proactive action, as I knew from experience that when
war breaks out in Israel, it is always followed by increased antisemitism in the
Jewish diaspora. I felt as though I had a duty to ensure my fellow Jewish
students on campus could feel safe, represented, and heard by the only Jewish
club on campus. So, my co-president and I, like every other JSA club at law
schools across Ontario, posted a statement on Instagram in solidarity with
Israel and condemning Hamas terrorism. Before “Black Saturday” was even over,
the JSA received an email from Windsor Students’ Law Society (SLS), the law
school’s student council. Without an ounce of compassion, the SLS advised my
co-president and I that the SLS executive had made a unanimous decision that the
JSA message was “inappropriate” and asked that it be removed due to its “strong,
targeted, and divisive language and the politicized nature of the post” and that
it was “distressing” to the wider law school community. The SLS also sent a mass
email to over 60 of our peers stating that, effective immediately, a new rule
was enacted that no ratified club under the purview of the SLS would be allowed
to make a “politicized post.” There was not one person who received this mass
email who was blind to the fact that this new rule was created for, and directly
correlated to, the statement made by the one and only Jewish club at UWindsor.
It was a vicious attempt to silence the views, feelings, and grievances of the
JSA and our constituents. Before the blood had even dried in the kibbutzim
ransacked by Hamas, on the worst day in the collective modern psyche of the
Jewish people, the SLS purported to immediately and unilaterally enact a new
rule to suppress Jewish students’ freedom of expression.  
 

Thinking back to how I felt that night, I was very angry. I was angry that
individuals could see the bloodshed on October 7th and not have any empathy for
how it must feel to be a Jewish student witnessing Hamas’ unspeakable brutality.
I felt angry that my homeland was invaded, with innocent civilians brutalized,
and somehow the first instinct of the SLS members was to take active steps to
silence the JSA and belittle our position as “political.” I also felt sad. I was
sad to lose so much respect for those members of the SLS who were, I believed,
my friends. Yet, I decided to harness those feelings to fight for the truth and
for what is right. Recalling the courage of so many of my Jewish ancestors who
remained steadfast in their fight against antisemitism, I was determined not to
be a Jew with trembling knees, but a proud Jewish Zionist, who is immensely
proud of her heritage, her people, and our collective resilience. I would not
let anyone shame me because of who I am, and that was going to start with me
taking on the SLS.  
 

After reviewing the Constitution and by-laws that regulate the SLS, it was
evident that neither the SLS nor its executive members had the power to regulate
a club’s social media posts or compel us to take the post down. Further, as the
SLS never communicated to the JSA about any alleged rule that “politicalized”
posts on a club’s official social media channels were not allowed, we believed
the new rule, aimed at the only Jewish club on campus, was highly discriminatory
in nature. My co-president and I delivered a strongly worded response to the
SLS, asserting that we would not take down the JSA’s statement, arguing the
SLS’s lack of authority to regulate a club’s social media posts, its
discriminatory rulemaking, and disputing the finding of “inappropriateness” by
discussing each sentence of our statement. We noted that we would not be silent
or silenced by their attempts to discriminate against Jewish students.   
 

After five days, the SLS sent out a mass email to university clubs revoking its
new rule. At the same time, the SLS responded to the JSA by referring us to the
mass email, with no reference to the substance of our arguments, their
discriminatory actions, and with no apology. 
 

Following this incident, and as predicted, antisemitism on campus has been
unprecedented. Students have accused me and other JSA members on their social
media accounts of being Islamophobic for saying “From the River to the Sea” and
“Globalize the Intifada” are antisemitic phrases.3 Students have openly mocked
and laughed at the October 7th massacre, spreading revolting blood libels that,
likely unbeknownst to them, have been around for centuries. These are the same
students who, prior to encountering me and my Jewish peers in law school, have
likely never met Jewish people before.  
 

Since October 7th and throughout this experience, The Palestinian Solidarity
Group (PSG) at UWindsor has busily spewed antisemitic rhetoric, which has spread
rapidly across campus. On October 10th, the first of their many rallies took
place, a rally to “mobilize for the Day of Resistance” in Gaza, with posters
depicting the very Hamas paragliders involved in the massacre of babies, the
brutal rape of women, and the kidnapping of innocent civilians. The event was a
vile glorification of October 7th. As a Jewish student who was grieving for my
family and friends in Israel, seeing such posters celebrating the atrocious acts
of Hamas as “resistance” was soul crushing. It felt like I was watching Nazi
propaganda in the 1930’s. When I reached out to the university administration, I
was told that nothing would be done to supress this event, or similar events in
the future. It was at this moment, after being unjustly discriminated against by
the SLS, having no official condemnation for the celebration of barbaric
terrorism from the school, and being told nothing could be done to stop a club
from celebrating the rape, murder, and kidnapping of Jews, that I realized that
Jewish students at the UWindsor were completely on our own. There would be no
support for us on campus and no attempt by the university administration, nor
the law school, to protect Jewish students against acts of antisemitism. This
inaction served to enable more antisemitism to flourish on campus in the coming
weeks and months.  
 

Rallies and walk-outs continued across campus, and still occur almost weekly, as
well as in the surrounding Windsor-Essex area. At these rallies, people have
been heard chanting “death to the Jews” in Arabic, posters have been held
stating “Palestinian resistance is never unprovoked. Ask why?”, and, most
recently, and arguably most disgustingly, “Saved from Nazis to become Nazis.”
Without any form of opposition to these rallies, the posters have only gotten
more vicious and antisemitic. While sitting in my lectures, as these protests
take place in and around the law school, I am forced to listen to blood-curdling
chants. The participants are, openly and unashamedly, calling for the genocide
of the inhabitants of the State of Israel, where my family and friends live.
When hundreds of students march around campus on a weekly basis chanting for the
genocide of my people, how could any Jewish student feel safe to be open about
their identity? Each of these events has been “explicitly Anti-Zionist,” but we,
the Jewish students at UWindsor, know exactly who they are referring to, and I
feel as though these groups know exactly who they are targeting in their
exclusionary and discriminatory language. It is no longer safe to be a Jew, let
alone a Zionist, at UWindsor.  
 

Then there are my law professors. Many of them have proudly spewed antisemitic
rhetoric in the past, but all bets were off after October 7th. Many tweeted in
celebration of the “resistance” of Hamas on October 7th, denied the rape and
murder of Israeli women, and even went so far as denying antisemitism’s
existence, even though antisemitic hate crimes represent the largest number of
hate-based crimes in Canada.4 The common sentiment among the law professors was
and continues to be that Israel has no right to exist, that all Jews are
“white-colonist settlers,” that there is no Jewish connection to the State of
Israel, and that Zionism is the highest form of evil. This was clear right from
the get-go when one professor tweeted in support of the gruesome Hamas acts on
October 7th, stating it was a “revolt” and that such an act was justified. These
antisemitic views were put on full display at an SLS-run event called “Silence
or Silenced,” where four law professors discussed the suppression of Palestinian
freedom of speech. At this event, one professor stated that he would not allow
any student who identified as a Zionist in his lectures. Another professor
called the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working
definition of antisemitism, which has been adopted by both Canada and Ontario as
the official definition of antisemitism, an “ethno-nationalist doctrine” used to
supress Palestinian scholarship to further the “colonial occupation of
Palestinian territories” through “nationalist attacks on academic freedom.”
These professors claimed that the history of Zionism erases the Palestinian
people’s right to resist under Israeli “occupation” and “apartheid,” thereby
further justifying the “resistance” of October 7th. This event completely
white-washed the Jewish people and our diverse backgrounds and served as a
springboard to further spew antisemitism under the guise of the topic of
Palestinian freedom of speech. Ironically, in my view, there has been zero
suppression of Palestinian freedom of speech on campus; it is, in fact, us Jews
who have been intimidated and scared to discuss Israel, Zionism or Judaism on
campus in the current environment. 
 

It is disheartening that those professors to whom I have entrusted my legal
education are largely those professors who have been agitating with antisemitic
rhetoric at on-campus events, within the classroom, and on their public social
media accounts. It is difficult for me to reconcile how I can properly learn
from individuals who hold such extreme and radical views about my people,
religion, and heritage. They wholly disregard egregious human rights violations,
genocides, and ethnic cleansings that actually occur around the world, while
criminalizing the only Jewish state in an attempt to intimidate Jewish students
and force other students to adhere to their political agendas. I am truly
frightened for what this will mean for the next generation of lawyers and for
what beliefs they will hold when practicing law in the years to come. Will my
peers and the students who come after me think spewing antisemitic rhetoric
under the guise of anti-Zionism is something tolerated in the legal profession?
How can I feel comfortable that my professors are giving me adequate tools to
succeed in the legal field when they hold such hateful viewpoints that are so
blatantly against the free and democratic values that bind the Canadian legal
system together?  
 

With every new walk out, rally or event permitted or condoned by the university
and the law school, it demonstrates that hate and antisemitism have a place on
campus. The climate for Jewish students is a climate of fear and intimidation.
UWindsor has become a hotbed for antisemitism, where Jewish students are
compelled to not only accept, but expect antisemitism to occur. This was exactly
the case on January 30th, when the JSA participated in a club’s day event at
UWindsor. We expected to receive backlash due to the rhetoric spread on campus,
but we did not expect to be verbally harassed, threatened, and called
“murderers” by other students while sitting at our booth promoting Jewish
culture, religion and, ironically, teaching about the dangers of antisemitism.
In fear for our physical safety, we were forced to flee the event. No bystanders
offered us any support and, to the contrary, many of them joined in on the
slander, yelling “Free Palestine” at us as we departed. This is the new climate
of Jew-hatred on campus.  
 

The administration at UWindsor must take action to protect Jewish students by
being vocal in their support for the safety of Jewish students on campus. This
starts with the administration unequivocally rejecting the hateful push for a
“widespread adoption” of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement
that is being imposed by students on our campus. They must denounce the hateful
rhetoric being spewed at the university’s rallies and those that take place
inside the law building, as they are attempts to intimidate and silence the only
meaningful population of Jewish students on campus. Only then can we work
together to make UWindsor a place where, regardless of one’s religious, cultural
or ethnic background and beliefs, students can feel safe to be themselves on
campus.  
 

Though it is hard to find a silver lining to all this hatred on campus, I am
proud of the strength and resiliency of my Jewish student colleagues in these
turbulent and exhausting times. I attribute so much of my own strength and
resiliency to being an Emerson Fellow with StandWithUs Canada, an organization
that has served as a beacon of light and support for not only me, but all Jewish
students on campus. Though we may be small in numbers, the Jewish students at
UWindsor have been amazingly brave in the face of extreme adversity and overt
antisemitism, and have shown incredible perseverance that has inspired me to
continue to be an advocate for change. As the Jews have always done, we will
overcome. This too shall pass. Am Yisrael Chai.  
 

Footnotes

1. For more information on the definition and history of Zionism,
see https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/a-definition-of-zionism.  

2. This is an estimate, as the University of Windsor does not conduct a
census asking about individual Jewish identity. Outside the law school, the
writer is only aware of two Jewish students in the undergraduate programs
and three in other graduate programs.  

3. “From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free” calls for the
establishment of a state of Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean
Sea, thereby erasing the State of Israel and removing all the Israeli civilians
who live between the “river” and the “sea”. There is nothing antisemitic about
advocating for Palestinian rights, but to advocate for the elimination of the
Jewish State, which this phrase calls for,
is antisemitic. (https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/From-the-River-to-the-Sea).  

“Globalize the Intifada” is a call for violence against Israelis, Jews, and
institutions supporting Israel. The First Intifada was a period of widespread
acts of violence in Israel from 1987 to the early 1990s, with the Second
Intifada beginning from 2000 to 2005. These periods were characterized by high
numbers of indiscriminate causalities through suicide bombings in civilian
areas, with over 1,000 Israeli civilians murdered. Calling to “Globalize the
Intifada” calls for people around to world to participate in the rising up
against Israel and Jews
worldwide. (https://www.ajc.org/translatehate/Globalize-the-Intifada)  

4. https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/230322/cg-a004-eng.htm  

Click Here to Make a Gift to StandWithUs Canada Today



About StandWithUs Canada 

StandWithUs Canada is a non-profit and non-partisan Israel education
organization that works to inspire and educate people of all ages about Israel,
as well as challenge misinformation and fight against antisemitism.

The StandWithUs Canada chapter launched in 2013. Through university fellowships,
high school internships, conferences, materials, social media, educational films
and missions to Israel, StandWithUs supports people around the world who want to
educate their schools and communities about Israel.

Visit our website, Facebook, and Instagram to learn more.

Visit our Website

Copyright © *2024* *StandWithUs Canada, All rights reserved.

Our mailing address is:
StandWithUs Canada
PO Box 73529 Wychwood PO
Toronto, Ontario M6C 4A7
Canada

Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.