Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part series about the University of Kansas’ Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) supporting the school’s Jewish students, faculty and community. The first part is available here.
Hamas’ atrocities on Oct. 7 and the ensuing war in Gaza set off widespread anti-Israel protests on U.S. college campuses, some of which featured overt antisemitism and vandalism aimed at Jewish students, including at KU. Several protesters have been arrested at the university amid demonstrations against the war.
Members of the campus Jewish community said they’ve been impacted by anti-Israel student walkouts, the posting of anti-Israel banners, antisemitic rhetoric by protesters, an antisemitic email sent to a faculty member, and an increased need for KU Police Department officers at some events.
Public safety concerns have impacted Jewish students’ studies at KU as well: At the end of 2022, the DEIB office backed the KU Jewish Studies Program’s relocation to a more secure place on campus over safety concerns. DEIB supported the relocation with money from its budget, according to Dr. Rami Zeedan, acting director of KU’s Jewish Studies Program.
“It was a small thing but made a huge difference,” said Dr. David Slusky, current president of the Jewish Faculty and Staff Council (JFSC).
KU has a relatively large Jewish population: Hillel International ranked KU number 50 in its “Top 60 Public Universities by Jewish Population” list published in Oct. 2023. Hillel estimated that around 1,300 KU students were Jewish at that time, making up 7.2% of KU’s undergraduate student body.
There were also around 100 Jewish graduate students, or 1.9 percent of the graduate student body, according to Hillel’s list.
Dori Jezmir, who was president of KU’s Students Supporting Israel (SSI) chapter on Oct. 7, said the university has felt safer for Jews than many other schools.
While students elsewhere were fearful of anti-Israel encampments, “we felt comfortable going to these encampments and counterprotesting because we knew KU staff was there listening to us and willing to hear us out.”
“I feel like on other campuses, Jewish students didn’t feel heard. And I felt heard,” said Jezmir, a 21-year-old senior.
Dr. Slusky lauded the DEIB office’s attention to detail when it comes to Jewish students’ needs, “like when they had [football game] tailgates and made sure we started early enough on Fridays so that [observant] Jews could come,” as well as when DEIB “set up having frozen kosher meals on campus because they said, ‘this is important.’”
The commitment campus DEIB has made to helping all groups means Jewish and non-Jewish communities alike can support each other.
“We are actually all on the same team here, fighting prejudice and discrimination,” Dr. Slusky said.
Multiple Jewish students and campus community members agreed that DEIB programming has helped foster a more inclusive environment for Jews. However, some also expressed concerns over campus DEIB signing off on the Council on American-Islamic Relations’ (CAIR) conducting KU’s anti-Islamophobia training, an invitation made at the request of members of the campus Muslim community.
Leaders of CAIR, the largest Muslim civil liberties organization in the U.S., “often traffic in openly antisemitic and anti-Zionist rhetoric” and “have also posited that pro-Israel organizations are responsible for U.S. police brutality, and that ‘Zionists’ and Israel are analogous to the Ku Klux Klan and ISIS,” according to the Anti-Defamation League.
Several interviewees with knowledge of KU’s April 23 anti-Islamophobia training session said the program was beneficial and filled with important information, but voiced concern about the national organization’s perceived bias and remarks by its leaders.
They stressed that many members of KU’s Palestinian and Muslim communities have also felt marginalized since Oct. 7, and that DEIB staff has worked just as hard to promote inclusivity for them as they have Jewish students and faculty.
DEI initiatives have become a cultural flashpoint across the U.S., including in Kansas, where an anti-DEI law passed by state legislators took effect July 1. The law bars state universities and certain other schools from requiring statements from prospective students and job seekers about their views on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.
At the federal level, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee advanced two Republican-sponsored bills on July 9 aimed at combating campus antisemitism, one of which would levy a fine of $100,000 or more against universities and colleges that have a federal civil judgment entered against them for violating a student’s civil rights under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
After three civil rights violations, the IRS would be automatically required to review the college or university’s tax-exempt status for possible revocation.
The DEIB office at KU, which encourages students to report civil rights violations, has previously spoken out forcefully against rising antisemitism. A November 2022 statement issued by the office urged “our campus community to stand against antisemitism and in support of our Jewish Jayhawks.”
“We have been deeply concerned about the rise of antisemitic expression, hate, and violence nationwide, in our own state, and greater Lawrence community - including but not limited to the dissemination of harmful antisemitic tropes and conspiracy theories, Holocaust denial, and even calls to violence,” read the statement, co-signed by KU’s University Senate, Jewish Studies Program and JFSC.
“By standing up to this form of bigotry, we embody our Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging values as an intellectual community,” the statement read.
Adina Thompson, the current president of SSI, said she had not worked with DEIB staff this past year, but “from what I have seen, I don’t necessarily think they are fostering antisemitism like on other campuses.”
“Personally, I don’t see them doing much to combat it either,” she added.
The 20-year-old junior said she and other Jewish students she’s heard from have felt isolated from peers and classmates since Oct. 7.
“Standing up for Israel is not an easy thing to do… This makes it hard to continue going to and focusing in class and participating in activities when [our] identity is being questioned,” Thompson said.
The university’s Office of Civil Rights and Title IX – hailed by campus DEIB as a key asset for all students – offered academic support to Jewish students amid the anti-Israel protests, said Thompson. She commended the DEIB office’s efforts to make sure Jewish students can miss class on Jewish holidays.
“What would be really helpful coming into this next school year would be the DEIB office meeting with myself or other pro-Israel and Jewish student leaders to hear our experiences and concerns, so that we can go into the school year with that relationship, leading to more support and cooperation,” she added.
DEIB officials have said they are available to meet with any student to discuss their concerns.
Bailey Nakelsky, who was KU Hillel’s interim executive director on Oct. 7, said the DEIB office is educated about Israel and Jewish issues, and “humble enough to admit when they don’t know something to ask for resources, rather than make assumptions.”
“They knew how to pool together the right people with the right knowledge at the right time to be able to make educated decisions” and coordinate resources after Oct. 7, Nakelsky said.
Students and faculty said they were hopeful DEIB’s efforts would help KU’s Jewish community feel safe should more anti-Israel encampments appear in the fall.
More resources for fighting discrimination at KU are also on the way. One of America’s leading educators on fighting antisemitism, Jonah Boyarin, is currently working on materials to fight antisemitism for the university’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging Toolbox.
He expects to hold his next KU training session in the fall.
“Understanding antisemitism and fighting it is going to be most successful when it’s done arm and arm with fighting other forms of injustice,” Boyarin said. “There’s definitely more interest across the country in these kinds of trainings [including at KU] compared to five or ten years ago, and that’s a good thing. I just wish that there weren’t more antisemitism happening in this country compared to five or 10 years ago.”
