October 7th, 2023's impact on Jewish and Israeli university members' experiences of fear and hate

• In Event: Hate and Stigma Associated Victimization

Abstract

On October 7th (2023) nearly 1,200 persons were killed in Israel by Hamas. In the following months, there was an increased antisemitism and hate against Jewish individuals around the world, irrespective of their involvement with the ensuing conflict. In Winter 2023, We conducted a survey experiment (N=202) among members of universities in the US, Canada and Europe who identified as Jewish or Israeli. Respondents were asked about their personal exposure to antisemitism, hate or antagonistic speech, and about their comfort level conducting everyday activities. In addition, we randomly assigned whether each respondent was asked about the weeks before October 7th, the weeks after that day, or about recent weeks. We found extraordinarily high levels of exposure to hate and antagonism toward Jewish and Israeli individuals in the period prior to October 7, which was exacerbated significantly afterwards. In addition, a significant proportion of respondents no longer enjoy the same level of comfort expressing their culture or conducting simple daily activities (e.g., leaving their homes) as they did prior to October 7. According to respondents, institutions of higher education have been ineffective in addressing their safety concerns on campus.

Authors

• Dikla Yogev, University of Toronto

• Mateus Renno Santos, University of South Florida