On American college campuses, the fallout from the Israel-Gaza war continues to ripple through student life, igniting passionate debate, deepening divisions, and, for many Jewish students, creating an environment fraught with tension and uncertainty. As the two-year anniversary of the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel approaches, the impact of these global events has become deeply personal for students across Illinois and beyond, shaping their academic and social experiences in profound ways.
For DePaul University student Teddie Waxler, the women’s rugby team once felt like a haven—a place of camaraderie and belonging during their freshman year in fall 2023. According to WBEZ, the team supported Waxler, who is Jewish and identifies strongly with Israel, as they mourned the more than 1,200 lives lost and 250 hostages taken during the Hamas attack. But by spring 2024, as anti-Israel activism intensified, Waxler felt the atmosphere shift dramatically. Offers to buy keffiyehs, social media posts supporting Palestinian activism, and heated chat discussions left Waxler feeling alienated. "I just want to play a sport," Waxler recalled telling the rugby club president. "I don’t know why this [issue] is the one that we’re politicizing." During the last game of the season, Waxler said they were ostracized for their Jewish identity and Zionist pride, excluded from travel and dinner plans, and even left out on the field. "Because I continued to advocate for the hostages to be released, they didn’t want to have any association with me," Waxler explained.
This experience is not unique. Across Illinois campuses, pro-Israel Jewish students—many of whom are leaders in campus organizations—report feeling unwelcome, harassed, or even threatened as the Middle East conflict dominates campus discourse. The war’s toll has been staggering: since October 7, more than 60,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza, according to the health ministry there. Protests, encampments, and activism have swept universities nationwide. At least six Illinois campuses witnessed pro-Palestinian encampments, with students demanding divestment from Israel.
Jake Rymer, a first-year at the University of Chicago and head of Maroons for Israel, described a climate of surveillance and suspicion. After walking past a Gaza solidarity encampment in May 2024, Rymer was confronted in his dorm by a student who showed him a photo of himself and friends—recognizable as Jewish by their attire—taken without their knowledge. Rymer also recounted memorials to Israeli hostages being defaced and a tent on the quad painted with what he called "antisemitic caricatures of Jewish individuals … large noses, blood coming out of their eyes, things along those lines." According to WBEZ, such imagery evokes the centuries-old blood libel against Jews. When questioned, the local chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine dismissed concerns about "Jewish feelings" in light of the ongoing violence in Gaza.
Other students described similar encounters. Waxler reported hearing jeers like "Go back to Poland!" at DePaul encampments and seeing anti-Israel rhetoric paired with Holocaust references. Some Jewish students, wary of classroom hostility, relied on whisper networks to avoid professors or teaching assistants perceived as unsympathetic. Rymer noted that some faculty posted slogans like "Glory to the resistance" after the October 7 attack, and in March 2025, a UChicago professor was investigated for displaying "Deport Israelis" in their office window. Even routine campus activities became fraught: at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Samantha Levy, president of Illini Hillel, said a screening of the documentary Saturday October 7 was disrupted by masked students making noise and playing TikToks, forcing organizers to intervene.
The line between criticism of Israel and antisemitism remains fiercely contested. Many Jewish students participate in pro-Palestinian protests and insist that most activism is peaceful and not antisemitic. Yet, as Levy told WBEZ, the relentless focus on Israel and the hostility toward pro-Israel students "adds up to anti-Jewish hate." The "Three Ds" test, developed by former political prisoner Natan Sharansky, is often cited: demonization, delegitimization, or double standards against Israel may signal antisemitism. Hillel International reports that antisemitic incidents on campuses have increased nearly tenfold in the two years since October 7. A Brandeis University study found that while antisemitism is not widespread, a minority of students contribute to a hostile environment.
Incidents range from the theft of Jewish objects from dorm rooms to sidewalk chalkings reading "Zionists get off our campus." Some students needed special accommodations to take exams, unable to concentrate due to anti-Israel chants from nearby protests. Dr. Miri Bar-Halpern, a Harvard Medical School lecturer who studies traumatic invalidation, published research in May 2025 on the psychological toll of having one’s experiences dismissed. "[Traumatic invalidation] can cause a lot of things, all the way to PTSD symptoms," Bar-Halpern told WBEZ. Many Jewish students reported feeling they had to "deny part of my identity in order to be accepted," as one participant put it.
Amid this turmoil, the federal government has stepped in forcefully. President Donald Trump’s administration has frozen billions in federal funding at universities—including Northwestern—and threatened pro-Palestinian activists with detention and deportation. In one high-profile case, an immigration judge ordered Columbia University student Mahmoud Khalil, a prominent pro-Palestinian activist, to be deported to Algeria or Syria. Khalil had spent months in detention before a federal judge ordered his release in June 2025.
These moves have sparked backlash from across the Jewish community. On September 18, 2025, more than 100 Jewish leaders—including a university president, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and anti-Zionist group executives—signed an open letter titled "American Jews Opposing Deportations." As reported by JTA, the letter condemned what it called "disingenuous claims of antisemitism to attack colleges and deport students." The signatories, representing a spectrum of Jewish perspectives, wrote, "We write, specifically, as Jewish Americans who condemn the charge of antisemitism being leveled against student activists – many of whom are Jewish – for their legitimate criticisms of Israel’s violence in Gaza and their universities’ connections to the Israeli occupation." The letter warned that these accusations were being used "as a pretext to abrogate students’ rights to free speech, and to deport non-citizen students," and cautioned against an administration "comfortable using antisemitic tropes while using purported anti-antisemitism as a cudgel to attack free speech."
A recent Ipsos poll highlighted by JTA found that 72% of American Jews believe Trump is using antisemitism as an "excuse" to punish universities, while 58% do not support Israel’s war in Gaza. The letter’s signatories ranged from university administrators like Michael Roth of Wesleyan University to activists, academics, and journalists—including Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s, and prominent anti-Zionist rabbis and scholars.
Amid all the noise, some students and faculty are still managing to foster real dialogue. Tamar Chavel, an Israeli American student at UChicago, recounted a spring 2024 class where the professor offered cookies and tea before a discussion on Gaza, saying, "food is community, and I want this conversation to be about community and understanding and listening and learning." For Chavel, it was a rare moment of connection—a reminder that, even in divided times, some are still willing to listen and learn.
As the new academic year unfolds, students are cautiously optimistic that tensions may ease. But the struggle over how to address antisemitism, free speech, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on campus is far from settled. For many, the hope is that universities themselves—not politicians—will find a way to build understanding and ensure that all students feel safe and heard.
