Re: College community reacts to Dartmouth’s ‘C’ grade on ADL’s antisemitism report card
The Anti-Defamation League recently graded 85 U.S. colleges based on the prevalence of antisemitism on their campuses. Dartmouth got a “C” in the report. A recent article in The Dartmouth focused on the study’s methodology and the College’s performance.
That is okay. As with any study, it is valid to critically examine the ADL’s methods and findings. However, the article’s heavy focus on methodology detracts from the real and troubling experiences of Jewish students at Dartmouth and across the country.
For example, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology relocated their Hillel’s seder due to security concerns that pro-Palestinian protestors were camped out in front of Hillel, presumably to harass Jewish students. At Cooper Union, similar protests led staffers to barricade Jewish students in a campus library for safety. And, as recent as April 25, participants in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University shouted antisemitic vitriol at Jewish students like “Go back to Poland,” “Resistance is justified when people are occupied,” “Al-Qassam [the military wing of Hamas] you make us proud, kill another soldier now” and “from river to river, Palestine will be Arab” (translated). Across the country, what could have been meaningful activism has instead devolved into horrific antisemitism.
Compared to these universities, Dartmouth has excelled. The College’s Jewish students have not had to circumnavigate mobs of people waving offensive banners and calling for violence while on their way to class — for prospective Jewish ’28s, this is a “Dartmouth Difference” you should consider.
However, where hate is concerned, we must not let “better” mean “good enough.”
Even at Dartmouth, pro-Palestinian protestors have chanted “from the river to the sea,” a slogan that has been used by terrorist groups to call for the complete and violent elimination of Israel — a phrase that the U.S. House of Representatives has condemned as hateful.
Dartmouth protestors have called for “divestment” from Israel, citing alleged human rights violations. However, they overlook blatant human rights abuses in many other countries. According to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, such selective criticism is antisemitic because it holds Israel to standards not expected of any other country.
Other antisemitic incidents on campus have been more explicit. Just this winter, several campus organizations, including Hillel, received an email that included threats — later determined to be hoaxes — to bomb and shoot Jewish community members. Other instances include a vandalized menorah in 2020 and a swastika graffitied on the Green in 2023.
Students have also written antisemitic posts on the campus-wide social media platform, Fizz, such as “I support Hamas” and “calling a zionist a ‘zionist pig’ is so fine” — which disturbingly mirror antisemitic Judensau images. Historically, Judensau — literally “Jew pig” in German — refers to medieval depictions of Jews in obscene contact with swine, used to dehumanize and humiliate Jews. These posts not only spread hate but also evoke some of the darkest elements of antisemitic iconography.
Perhaps most shockingly, some Fizz users downplayed Hamas’s barbaric terrorist attack on Oct. 7. Killing approximately 1,200 people and taking another 240 hostage cannot be justified by claims of “Israel’s oppression”, and calling for the “eradication” of Israel — and, implicitly, its Jewish population — is antisemitic. It’s no wonder that an armed police officer had to be stationed outside of Chabad during my Passover Seder on Monday night.
Getting a bad grade hurts. But whether Dartmouth deserves a “C” or a “B” is not relevant — anything short of an “A” is not good enough. And like with any important assignment, a “C” just means we have to work harder.
Oren Poleshuck-Kinel is a member of the Class of 2026. Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
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