New book examines campus protests and Jewish life after October 7

A new collection of scholarly essays and firsthand accounts examines anti-Israel activism and antisemitism at American and European universities following the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Edited by Indiana University Jewish studies professor Alvin Rosenfeld, the book also considers how Jewish students have maintained communal life amid campus tensions.

The volume, “Toward the Last Encampment: Campus Culture and the Jews Before and After October 7,” explores the political, cultural and ideological forces behind hostility toward Jews on campuses. Rosenfeld, who directs Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism, told The Times of Israel that the collection documents developments across universities in the United States and abroad.

Rosenfeld described visiting the protest encampment at his university in 2024 and questioning a student chanting about the Intifada. According to Rosenfeld, the student knew nothing about the Second Intifada or the approximately 1,000 Israeli civilians killed in attacks between 2000 and 2005. For Rosenfeld, the encounter reflected activism shaped more by intense emotion than informed understanding. “We’re not in a fight about facts,” he said.

Contributors examine both students’ experiences and institutional responses. Rabbi David Wolpe recounts events at Harvard University, where he was a visiting scholar when the October 7 attack occurred. Israeli scholar Eliyahu Sapir, who teaches in the Netherlands, argues that university administrators there responded to Jewish students’ and faculty members’ complaints with broad, abstract statements that avoided direct responsibility and failed to produce meaningful remedies.

Protest encampments appeared at more than 100 American universities in spring 2024. At Indiana University, which has approximately 45,000 students, Rosenfeld estimated that only 200 to 300 students led the anti-Israel activity. Although no violence was reported there, he described hostage posters being torn down, mezuzahs removed from Jewish students’ doorposts and visiting parents being harassed. He said a relatively small but organized group could alter the atmosphere across campus.

Rosenfeld said university leaders initially struggled to respond. He identified the December 2023 congressional hearings involving the presidents of Harvard, MIT and the University of Pennsylvania as a turning point that prompted administrators to reconsider campus order and the distinction between free expression and harassment. Some universities subsequently strengthened enforcement of existing rules, while others acted only after intervention by the Trump administration, he said.

His assessment of that intervention was mixed. Rosenfeld criticized the administration’s use of funding cuts, including reductions affecting scientific and medical research, while arguing that federal pressure likely helped drive changes universities otherwise would not have made. He said underlying problems remained and expressed concern that political agendas in some humanities disciplines were displacing teaching.

Alongside those concerns, Rosenfeld described a strengthening of Jewish identity at Indiana University, where he estimated that 4,500 students are Jewish. He cited active participation in Chabad, Hillel, Jewish fraternities and sororities, as well as more students wearing kippahs and Star of David necklaces. The university’s Jewish Studies Program offers about 40 courses each year, with Holocaust and Nazi Germany classes consistently reaching capacity. Israeli speakers and cultural events have continued despite tensions, developments that underpin his belief that Jewish campus life can flourish.