Lorne Zeiler: Parents have a responsibility to help end the hate on university campuses (2024)

At the end of April, I typically reconnect with friends and colleagues who are parents of young people attending university or college, to see how the experience was and what their plans are for the summer. Unfortunately, this year, my conversations have been starkly different with parents who are Jewish and those who are not.

There has been much discussion over the past few months about rallies, freedom of speech, hate speech, encampments and whether the rallies are peaceful. I am not here to debate those issues. I just want parents to realize that their Jewish friends, both parents and their children, are hurting. We feel abandoned by a country and communities that we have supported and helped build.

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This year has seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism. Hate speech has flourished and most of it has deliberately targeted Jews. University clubs that Jewish kids were once a part of are bringing forward boycott, divestment and sanctions motions against Israel — and much worse. Jewish youth are being ghosted by their friends on social media, blocked from discussion groups and called out by former friends simply for being Jewish or supporting Israel’s right to exist and defend itself.

Shouts of “Go back to Europe” directed at Jewish students, swastikas, shouts of “intefadeh” (violent civil unrest typically targeted at Israel), praise for Hamas and the October 7 massacre and the chant, “from the river to the sea,” which calls for the destruction of Israel, are far too rampant on university campuses.

My two daughters are currently in university. One, luckily, is in a co-op this year. They both have stories of Jewish kids being spat on, called names, yelled at, threatened, blocked from certain areas, losing friends and feeling ostracized and isolated. It is amazing that universities constantly preach about inclusion, the rights of the individual and fostering a caring community, but throw all this rhetoric out the window when Jewish students are being attacked and demonized. This year, Jewish students have had to choose between getting an education and their personal safety.

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Like most parents, my greatest joys tend to be experienced through my kids. I love being a firsthand observer of their development and growth, sharing in their stories and taking pride in their accomplishments. This year, I have far too often had to empathize with what is happening to them on campus, provide them with comfort and care, and educate them about the horrible history of antisemitism.

Both of my daughters are fun, smart, caring, diligent, compassionate, independent, empathetic and inquisitive people. While they are still all of those things, this year, most students on campus only see them as Jewish. The same people who a year ago would burst into laughter with my eldest daughter, ask for her help on assignments, advocate together for equal opportunities for all, go to parties and even discuss current events, have now blocked her from their social media, posted horrible comments about her and made her feel uncomfortable, unloved and in some cases unsafe.

Interestingly, one of the groups that she really identified with was EngiQueers, which recently supported a BDS motion against Israel. Yet this group has no similar motion against any other country in the world. How about the dozens of countries that practice gender apartheid, make hom*osexual love a crime or forbid gay marriage?

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My family’s history in Canada is similar to many other Jewish families. My grandparent and great-grandparents emigrated to Canada in the early 1900s. They came with no money, little education and without part of their family, because they could not afford to buy tickets for everyone. The community helped each other out. They endured discrimination and hate to offer a better life for their kids.

My parents followed the advice of their parents to work harder, study more, be smarter, but also to be more empathetic and to work to better themselves and their communities. My father graduated law school near the top of his class at the University of Toronto, but he got no interviews with downtown law firms because they did not hire Jews in 1967. So he started his own firm, embracing the entrepreneurial spirit that has seen Canadian Jews build some of the best-known companies in this country. But he also endured being denigrated and bullied because of his religion.

My mother became one of the leading voices in diabetes education in Canada. She is the most charitable person I know. Both my parents taught at universities in their spare time and mentored young people. I benefited from their drive and the life that they and their community had built for all Jews in Canada.

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When I attended McGill University, there was some discussion about Israel and its Arab neighbours, but most people did not let that interfere with their lives or have any impact on their friendships. I was even able to take a course on the Arab-Israeli conflict, whose students included Jews, Muslims and anyone else who was interested. Our current minister of justice was my classmate. It is sad that my kids are not able to feel the same inclusion, support and caring that I felt.

When I hear people complain about this generation of kids, I remind them that these kids all have parents and that parents can make a difference. I implore those parents to now speak with their kids. Engage in conversation with them to understand why they have taken such a harsh stance on this one issue; why injustices all over the world, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the horrible famine currently in the Sudan, do not conjure up similar compassion; and why their view has to include hatred towards Jewish students.

Do they understand all the words that they are chanting? Are they truly well versed in what is happening in the Middle East? Did they read the Hamas charter before determining whether they should support an organization that believes “there is no solution for the Palestinian problem except by jihad,” and that Muslims must “fight Jews and kill them”? There is a reason why virtually all western democracies consider Hamas to be a terrorist organization. Supporting Hamas is not supporting peace.

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I understand that some parents support the encampments, saying that they echo the protests of the past, such as 1968. They are only partly right, however. These protests are reminiscent of ones from the past, but the year was 1938, and it was when German professors and students spread lies to dehumanize Jews, remove their academic freedom and locked arms to bar Jews from campus. Unfortunately, we know how that story ended.

I appreciate that there are some Jews who are part of these rallies, but I can assure you that they are a tiny minority of the community and that these rallies have led to the vast majority of Jewish students embracing their heritage and deepening their support for the State of Israel.

Lastly, I realize that there are certain parents and students who will say that this article comes from a place of entitlement. They are right. Just like their kids, mine are entitled to an education, to not be harassed and to be judged primarily on the quality of their character, their work and their minds. Like my grandparents said, we should all be better people. A lot of that must start with the parents.

National Post

Lorne Zeiler is the proud father of two amazing daughters attending Ontario universities.

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