Hotspots of Antisemitism and Anti-Israel Sentiment on US Campuses | страница 34

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finding reported here that those with
inmarried parents and those who had gone on
a Birthright Israel trip were more likely to
perceive a hostile environment toward Jews
and Israel at their school.
The positive relationship between perceptions
of hostility and connection to Israel could
mean that individuals who are more connected
are more likely to be the target of antisemitic
hostility. It could also mean that individuals
who are more connected are more sensitive to
anti-Israel or antisemitic hostility, or even that
anti-Israel harassment actually leads to
increased feelings of solidarity with Israel. In
fact, all of these dynamics could be at work
simultaneously, but the current study is unable
to untangle the causal contribution of these
three phenomena.
Comfort expressing opinions about Israel.
Although the perception of a hostile
environment does not appear to lower Jewish
students’ levels of connection to Israel,
students’ comfort level in engaging in
discourse about Israel might be affected. As
discussed above, some respondents felt
uncomfortable voicing their opinions about
the situation in Israel because they felt they
did not know enough, whereas others felt
uncomfortable because they perceived the
debate to be overly hostile. Multilevel
statistical models suggest that it is primarily
features of the schools that respondents
attend that drive a lack of comfort due to a
hostile discourse. In contrast, it is

characteristics of the respondents themselves,
not the schools they attend, that are most
associated with their feeling uncomfortable
due to a lack of knowledge.8
In particular, factors associated with
discomfort related to the hostility of the
discourse included the presence of an active
SJP group on campus and the location of the
campus outside the Southeastern United
States. In contrast, the respondents’ individual
characteristics—whether they participated in
Birthright Israel, had taken a Jewish studies
course, or had in- or intermarried parents—
had no association with feeling uncomfortable
because of a hostile discourse.
At the same time, discomfort due to lack of
knowledge was less of an issue for those
respondents who had participated in a
Birthright Israel trip, who had inmarried
parents, or who had taken an Israel studies
course. In contrast to these individual-level
characteristics, neither the presence of an SJP
group on campus, the campus’ geographic
location, nor the number of Birthright Israel
applicants on campus had any impact on
whether respondents at a given school felt less
comfortable because they felt they did not
know enough.