Almost three-quarters of Jewish college students feel their campuses are less safe now than they were before Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, according to a new poll by Schoen Cooperman Research conducted in partnership with the Israel on Campus Coalition.
In addition to the 73 percent of respondents who believe they are less safe on campus since then, 77 percent of Jewish college students say the “boycott, divest, and sanctions” (BDS) movement is either antisemitic itself or has antisemitic supporters, while 65 percent think it “poses a threat to Jewish students.”
Where pro-Israel activism and speaking in support of fellow Jews are concerned, 81 percent of Jewish students told pollsters that they believe it is important to personally advocate on behalf of the Jewish community on their campus, and 66 percent said the same about Israel. Sixty-two percent of Jewish students said they feel strongly about countering the BDS movement on campus more specifically.
Schoen Cooperman Research also surveyed a wider group of college and university students in addition to their polling of Jews on American campuses. While support for Israel among the general adult population leads opposition to Israel by 29 percentage points, anti-Israel sentiment beats support for Israel among college students by ten points. Moreover, the polling data show that pro-Israel beliefs among college students have seen a net decrease of 34 percentage points since early January.
As for the BDS movement, 55 percent of college respondents said they do not have enough information to say whether they are in support or opposition to the project, but support for BDS leads opposition by 13 percentage points. Schoen Cooperman Research gave the students information about BDS, and once those students learned about the movement, a plurality — though not a majority — said BDS is either antisemitic itself or has antisemitic supporters. A small plurality also said the movement poses a threat to Jewish students on campus.
Carly Cooperman, chief executive officer and partner at Schoen Cooperman Research, told National Review that much of the increase in anti-Israel sentiment since its war with Hamas began has come from social-media posts — often citing the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health’s inaccurate casualty numbers — and a lack of comprehensive education on the situation.
“I think there’s a steady drumbeat on social media of civilian casualties being highlighted,” Cooperman said. “As you know, college students overwhelmingly get information from social media, and what’s happening on TikTok and Instagram and all the other apps is just showing that narrative as opposed to focusing on the hostages still being held or the brutality of Hamas.”
She also pointed to president Joe Biden’s increased criticism of Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli war effort.
“You’ve seen a real increase in disapproval about President Biden, and he’s increasingly separating from his steadfast support of Bibi — trying to have the United States take its own stance to give aid to people in Gaza, coming out and being less united with Netanyahu than he had previously — and I think that’s resonating and trickling down to people on college campuses,” Cooperman told NR.
She said the impetus for the poll came from a discussion about whether Jewish college students had a strong desire to fight against both antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment within their university communities.
“It started with Jewish college students and a conversation of whether they want to fight for this, to take a stand and be vocal in this work, or whether it almost brings more harm than good and that they just want to feel safe and keep going,” Cooperman told NR. “To us, what was really interesting was to see the real support and interest in being vocal and active in that way.”