‘A whole-of-society challenge’
"By the time Israel went into Gaza [in late October], the whole energy of the classroom shifted," says Dr Sharon Nazarian.
Before her guest speaker appearance at the 2024 JCA gala event at the Sydney Opera House last Sunday, former Anti-Defamation League (ADL) senior vice-president in international affairs and global antisemitism expert Dr Sharon Nazarian told The AJN that she developed and ran a course titled the Globalisation of Antisemitism, through UCLA’s Global Studies department, that coincidentally commenced three days prior to October 7.
She recalled, “By the time Israel went into Gaza [in late October], the whole energy of the classroom shifted,” with about half the cohort steadily resembling a microcosm of a broader wave of identity politics-based, anti-Israel sentiment occurring outside.
Among her conclusions were how many students didn’t know anything about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, its history, nor the facts on the ground, posing a significant knowledge gap in the ability to understand and identify antisemitism, that needs to be addressed.
She also noticed “a binary way of thinking that we’re seeing a lot of on university campuses, and increasingly in parts of society, where they see Israel as only an oppressor”.
“The idea that you could have an allegiance and feeling for the Palestinian civilians, but that you could also feel for the Israeli civilians, was something that they couldn’t do – it was either/or,” she said. “And there’s now so many faculties across universities around the globe whose educators see their role as activists.
“Today it feels like university campuses have been captured places, and that reverberates into other realms, like the arts … to the point where being antisemitic is beginning to have no cost to it.”
She noted that with the weekly disruptive, aggressive and often violent anti-Israel street demonstrations since October 7, and the skyrocketing of reported antisemitic incidents, it is important that “these trends are understood to be an actual attack on the very fabric of our liberal, democratic societies”.
“It needs to be seen as not only a problem impacting Jewish people, but as a whole-of-society challenge, that all other communities see as a threat.”
She said solutions include a focus on education – adding she hopes to return to the classroom – and other means such as effective law enforcement, and for the Jewish community to remain pragmatic and utilise the strength of unity.
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