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

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.

Key Findings Include the Following

Jewish Organizations and Community

  • There was a temporary spike in attitudes or behaviors in the immediate aftermath of the Israel-Hamas War, but then a reversion back to pre-October 7 levels by the end of the year.
    • The percentage of students who said they feel very close to a Jewish community increased in fall 2023 but then fell back to 2022 levels by spring of 2024.
    • The percentage of students saying they attended Jewish events on campus rose and then fell.
    • Jewish students also self-assessed their mental health much lower in the immediate aftermath of the war, but their assessment reverted to a healthier state by the end of the school year.
    • Most Jewish students did not attend any programs directly related to the Israel-Hamas war during the 23/24 school year.
    • Jewish students who attended Jewish programming on campus primarily participated in Shabbat/holiday or social events.
  • Between 2022 and 2023, there were elevated rates of Jewish students saying they need to hide some of their opinions to fit in at Jewish activities on campus.
    • Students with less robust Jewish backgrounds were most likely to feel they needed to hide their opinions in Jewish spaces.

How Social Dynamics Have Changed from 2022-2024

  • In the 2023-2024 school year, 1 in 4 Jewish students said they felt the need to hide their Jewish identity to fit in on campus, 1 in 3 students said they were judged negatively for participating in Jewish activities, and more than half said that Jewish students pay a social penalty for supporting the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. These were all increases from 2022.
  • One in five non-Jewish students deliberately aim to socially ostracize Jewish peers who support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. They see students who support Israel as endorsing a hateful position, and they do not want to be friends with people who have bad values. Jewish students recognize this social isolation and largely blame a toxic culture of social media and polarization.
  • Between the fall and spring of the 2023-2024 school year, there was a large increase from 22% to 32% of non-Jewish students saying it would be very hard for pro-Israel and pro-Palestine students to be friends.
    • A third of Jewish students said they personally lost friends because of conflicting views on the war. A third of Muslim students also reported having lost friends, compared to only 9% of all other students.
    • Almost half (45%) of Jewish students on elite campuses said they lost friends.
  • In 2024, one in five non-Jewish students say they wouldn’t want to be friends with someone who supports the existence of Israel as a Jewish state. Forty-five percent said they were not sure.
    • One in 12 students said they avoid socializing with Jews because of Jewish students’ views on Israel. Agreement with these statements is highest among students who identify as very liberal, students of color, Muslim students, and LGBT students.
  • From 2022 to 2023 to 2024, a significant increase in students reported they had been directly exposed to antisemitic slurs in classrooms and said they feared antisemitism; over that same period the percentage (half) of Jewish students who said their Jewish identity is very important to them also increased significantly.

Political Views, Campus Climate, News Consumption

  • Jewish students blame Hamas for the war more than they blame Israel. Conversely, non-Jewish students blame Israel for the war more than Hamas.
    • Very liberal non-Jewish students overwhelmingly blame Israel. Very liberal Jewish students blame Israel more than Hamas, but not at the same rate as non-Jewish students.
    • Across several measures, very liberal Jewish students have views somewhere between the views of other Jewish students and the views of very liberal non-Jewish students.
  • Fifty-five percent Jewish students who said they had no opinion on Israel’s existence in 2022 formed an opinion in support of a Jewish state in 2023 and 2024.
    • Over all three years, 10-15% of Jewish students said they believe there should not be a Jewish state in Israel-Palestine.
    • Twenty-seven percent of Jewish students aren’t sure whether Israel as a Jewish state should continue to exist.
  • While Jewish students are equally likely to follow news about the war, regardless of whether they support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state, this is not the case for non-Jewish students.
    • Non-Jewish students who oppose Israel’s existence as a Jewish state are much more engaged in the topic—following the news, attending a Pro-Palestine event—than non-Jewish students who support a Jewish state.
    • Many Jewish students utilize social media for news (Instagram is the most popular platform). Even still, they often express frustration with social media due to its potential for spreading misinformation and its toll on mental health.
  • Non-Jewish students overwhelmingly sympathize with Palestinians rather than with Israelis in the current war. While Jewish students mainly sympathize with Israelis, most Jewish students who had an opinion rated Netanyahu poorly.
    • Students from more engaged Jewish backgrounds rate Netanyahu significantly worse than students who are from less engaged backgrounds, even though these students are mostly likely to support the existence of a Jewish state.
    • Jewish and non-Jewish students alike believe that their campus community is far more sympathetic to Palestinians. The views are particularly lopsided on elite campuses, such as Ivy League schools.
  • There is a profound difference between Jewish and non-Jewish students in how they perceive the political orientation of their schools.
    • The Jewish students see the schools as overwhelmingly aligned against Israel, evidenced by the opinions expressed by faculty, staff, and students.
    • The non-Jewish students tend to see the schools as overwhelmingly aligned with Israel, as evidenced by opinions expressed by their schools’ senior leadership.

Demographics

  • Several demographic characteristics correlate with Jewish students’ views on Israel, including their political ideology, their sexuality, and their family’s Jewish background.
    • Student’s socioeconomic class also is a major predictor – students from wealthier families are much more supportive of a Jewish state. This pattern is especially strong among students without robust Jewish backgrounds.
    • The same relationship is visible in non-Jewish students too. Jewish and non-Jewish students from upper class homes are twice as likely to believe a Jewish state should exist in general and twice as likely to blame Hamas rather than Israel for the current war, compared to students from lower- or working-class homes.
  • Of “activists” who attended campus advocacy events, Jewish activists who oppose a Jewish state and attended pro-Palestine events during the school year have different backgrounds and demographics than Jewish activists who support a Jewish state and attended pro-Israel events during the school year.
    • The former group mostly grew up with less robust Jewish backgrounds. The majority identify as LGBT and as very liberal. They are also mostly lower/working and middle class.
    • Conversely, the latter group of activists overwhelmingly come from families affiliated with denominations and had many Jewish experiences growing up. They are mostly heterosexual, upper-middle or upper class, and do not identify as very liberal.

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.