A Year of Campus Conflict and Growth: An Over-Time Study of the Impact of the Israel-Hamas War on U.S. College Students

– by Eitan Hersh, PhD

September 3rd, 2024

A new report from Dr. Eitan Hersh and College Pulse provides an unprecedented look spanning three years of the experiences and views of Jewish and non-Jewish students on college campuses both before and after October 7th, 2023. This research is unique because it includes and compares survey responses and interviews from Jewish college students who participated in the study in April 2022, in November and December of 2023, and in March and April of 2024. The study also includes detailed analyses of focus groups from a wide range of students who talked through their feelings on the conflict on campus and the conflict in the Middle East.

This study, conducted over three years, reveals extraordinary detail about the experience of American college students during an historic period of tensions on campus. Our focus groups give voice to students from wildly different backgrounds about what they think of Jewish students, Israel, and the protest movements at their schools. The survey analysis shows how differently Jewish and non-Jewish students experienced the last year on campus and hints at what can be expected in the future.
– Dr. Eitan Hersh, professor of Political Science at Tufts University.

Timeline of the Study
Eighteen months before October 7th, 2023, the Jim Joseph Foundation commissioned a study of college students using surveys and focus groups. That study, published in 2022, came on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and examined the preferences, attitudes, and behaviors of Jewish American college students. The study was not particularly focused on attitudes about Israel, antisemitism, or campus social tensions, though it asked several questions on these topics. Rather, the study aimed to understand who Jewish students are, what motivates them, and the degree to which they engage in Jewish activities on campus.

After October 7, 2023, the Jim Joseph Foundation re-engaged this work. Many of the students surveyed in the spring of 2022 were still in college in the 2023-2024 school year. The 2022 survey provided an opportunity to learn how attitudes and behaviors changed over time in reaction to events in the world and on campus.

Researchers embarked on an ambitious effort during the 2023-2024 school year to assess attitudes about Israel, antisemitism, and campus unrest. They surveyed Jewish and non-Jewish students in November and December of 2023, soon after the start of the war. Then, in April of 2024, they conducted a dozen focus groups with Jewish and non-Jewish students to dig deeper into their perceptions and experiences. Finally, they conducted a third survey from late April through June of 2024. The surveys included panel designs that enabled us to measure the change in attitudes of students who were surveyed multiple times across years.

The final report was co-authored by Dr. Hersh and Dahlia Lyss, the project’s lead research assistant.

About the Researcher:
Eitan Hersh is a professor of political science at Tufts University. His research focuses on US elections and civic participation. Hersh is the author of Politics is for Power (Scribner, 2020), Hacking the Electorate (Cambridge UP 2015), as well as many scholarly articles. Hersh earned his PhD from Harvard in 2011 and served as assistant professor of political science at Yale University from 2011-2017. His public writings have appeared in venues such as the New York Times, USA Today, The Atlantic, POLITICO, and the Boston Globe. Hersh regularly testifies in voting rights court cases and has testified to the US Senate Committee on the Judiciary about the role of data analytics in political campaigns. In addition to work on elections and civic engagement, Hersh has written on topics ranging from antisemitism and the political consequences of terrorist attacks to politicization in health care delivery and the opioid crisis. His next book is about the civic role of business leaders.