Survey reports on Jewish students’ experiences at US colleges

The percentage of Jewish students on U.S. college campuses who said their Jewish identity was very important to them increased significantly from 2022 to 2024, according to a new study by a Tufts political scientist. An increasing number of students also reported that they felt a need to hide their Jewish identity to fit in on their campus and hide some of their opinions to fit in at Jewish activities on their campus, following a year of college-campus protests around the Israel-Hamas war.

Among other findings were that students of higher socioeconomic status, both Jewish and non-Jewish, were the strongest supporters of Israel, and that while many Jewish students saw their schools as aligned against Israel, many non-Jewish students saw school administrations as being pro-Israel.

The study was done by Eitan Hersh, professor of political science at Tufts University, for the Jim Joseph Foundation, which seeks to promote Jewish education in the U.S. The study began in 2022, using data from College Pulse, a survey research and analytics company that focuses on higher education. In 2022, only Jewish students were surveyed, but in subsequent years non-Jewish students on college campuses with significant Jewish populations were included.

Hersh thinks that similar studies for many different groups on college campuses could be useful. “It is really important to have independent research consistently on these questions, not just for the Jewish community, but for the Muslim community—for any community,” he says. “How are things going over time? How do we know if things are going well? How do we know if people are happy or unhappy?”

Hersh, who has done previous scholarly work on antisemitism, co-wrote the report with Dahlia Lyss, A24, who worked with him while an undergraduate at Tufts. Hersh spoke recently with Tufts Now about the report.

What are the main takeaways from the study?

One is that the students who are Jewish tend to feel connected to Israel—it’s an important part of their identity—and it’s not about the politics of Israel. Many of those Jewish students have the worst things to say about the Netanyahu government, but for religious, cultural, ethnic, and family reasons, many feel that Israel is important to who they are.

And the view that they have, which is that there needs to be a Jewish country, is basically really unpopular with some segments of the student population.

The other is that compared to 2022, there is a doubling of students saying that they hide their Jewish identity to fit in on their campus. A lot of the Jewish students we surveyed don’t necessarily like the conduct of the war, but they can’t give up this part of their identity so easily and they don’t intend to—and they don’t want to be socially ostracized. That’s because many students who are on the “Israel is evil” kind of side of the issue don’t see anything wrong with ostracizing students who have a different view than them. I think it’s important to document these trends.

One of the survey findings was about the profound difference between how Jewish and non-Jewish students viewed their schools. You write that many Jewish students see schools as overwhelmingly aligned against Israel, evidenced by the opinions of faculty, staff, and students, while many non-Jewish students tend to see their school administrations as overwhelmingly aligned with Israel.

This really came out in focus groups, and honestly, you can see both sides. They’re both right, in other words.

It’s clear that the students on both sides of this conflict felt aggrieved. There are students who say, “Look, I’ve been in protest movements my whole college career and before this one, the administration seemed to celebrate it and now they don’t.” From their perspective, that’s a real difference. And they attribute that to the administration having an oppositional view from them.

The Jewish students feel that a lot of students are against them. I think that they felt that the last few years particularly have been a time when universities have pressed students to be very sensitive to racial and gender identities, to make sure you’re sensitive about the language you use, so people aren’t offended. And that all of that went out the window when people were chanting “We hate Zionists” or “Let there be an intifada” [uprising against Israel] or things like this. I think the Jewish students felt, “Oh, the sensitivity for some reason stopped at us.”

The study shows that one of the strongest predictors of support for Israel among Jewish and non-Jewish students is higher socioeconomic status. Why do you think that is?

It’s interesting—it’s about the same effect among Jewish students and non-Jewish students, who are both about twice as likely to support the existence of Israel’s Jewish state if they’re from the higher-income families.

There are two competing theories about this. The one that I think is most likely is a social one, which is that there are certain communities like Indian Americans or Jewish Americans who, on average, have higher socioeconomic status and are clustered in some areas. If you’re in one of those kinds of communities, you’re likely to be friends with Jewish people, many of whom as kids grew up with more exposure to Jewish life, to synagogue life or summer camps, and have much more positive views toward Israel. You’re also likely to probably have met some Israelis before. If you know Jews and Israelis, you tend to be more sympathetic to Israel.

What’s the other theory?

It could be that lower-socioeconomic status folks have a different ideology, that they are more sympathetic to oppressed people, and they see the Palestinians as oppressed.

How do you get people to talk, to not villainize the other side, to see nuance?

Honestly, the classroom is a beautiful place for that. This ties into a course on conservatism that I’m teaching. The reason why my class can have deep, thoughtful discussions about trans rights or gun rights or affirmative action—really sensitive issues—is because it’s a place where they’re first of all trying to learn material. What do these authors who we are reading think? It’s an environment where you’re expected to articulate a position, even a position you don’t hold. That’s a very different environment than most people are in.