When anti-Israel activists at Columbia University disrupted an event last Thursday at the school’s Kraft Center for Jewish Student Life featuring Axios reporter Barak Ravid — calling out the Hillel’s Jewish benefactor Robert Kraft, for whom the building is named, by name and referring to Ravid, who is Israeli, as a “henchman of genocide” — the personal nature of the attacks caught the attention of antisemitism watchers.

“We are continuing to see more of Hillel — and even sometimes Chabad on Campus and big Jewish donors — being cited by name,” Shira Goodman, vice president of advocacy and national affairs at the Anti-Defamation League, told Jewish Insider. 

Goodman noted that calls for universities to defund or disassociate from Hillel intensified in the spring amid the anti-Israel encampment movement on campuses nationwide. “They try to hide it behind Israel, or the ‘Zionist entity,’ but they really are targeting the center of Jewish life on campus; places where students go to eat, pray and be with other students, not necessarily to engage in activities related to Israel.”

“So it does seem, to us,” Goodman continued, “to be blatantly antisemitic.” 

Despite crackdowns by universities around the country against anti-Israel protests, the incident at the Kraft Center for Jewish Life at Columbia was particularly egregious. 

Dozens of protesters gathered outside the center on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, holding signs that read “Abolish Birthright Land Back” and “Robert Kraft, Your Hands are Red.” Columbia University Apartheid Divest, a coalition of student groups, promoted the protest in an Instagram post calling for Columbia to “sever all ties with Hillel.” A flyer handed out at the protest reportedly read, “Don’t get us started on the Kraft Center.” 

In the Instagram post ahead of the demonstration, CUAD wrote that “[C]olumbia has invited yet another henchman of genocide to speak on our campus,” referring to Axios journalist Ravid, and encouraged supporters to “wear a mask and keffiyeh, come with friends and noisemakers, and bring the pressure!!” 

The post also called for an academic boycott of the dual-degree program with Tel Aviv University and “all study abroad programs, fellowships, and research collaborations” with universities in Israel.

“It is a shame that instead of attending the event, listening to what I had to say, asking questions and having a dialogue the students chose to walk outside in the rain and chant false and stupid accusations against me,” Ravid tweeted.

Jewish leaders and a House committee all argue that targeting Hillel is an unequivocally antisemitic tactic. 

“Targeting and threatening Hillel is inherently antisemitic and a signal of the increasingly extreme antisemitic actions and rhetoric from a small number of anti-Israel activists,” Adam Lehman, president and CEO of Hillel International, told JI in a statement. “Attacks on Hillels are attacks on Jewish life on campus.” 

Lehman emphasised that Hillel International is “in regular contact with university officials at the schools we serve to ensure that Jewish spaces on campus have ample security.”

While anti-Israel protests on campuses overall are down by more than two-thirds so far this academic year, Hillel International, the largest Jewish campus organization, which serves 180,000 students annually, has become one of the most frequent targets of anti-Israel activists and other antisemites in recent months. 

The ADL Center for Extremism has recorded more than 100 incidents targeting campus Hillels nationwide since Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel. 

In the weeks after Oct. 7, armed guards became a new normal at some Hillels and other campus Jewish centers around the country. Hillel employees have also frequently received threatening notes via email, phone and social media since the attacks in Israel, often referencing antisemitic slogans. Incidents tracked by the ADL include a July post on social media from Students for Justice in Palestine and affiliated groups at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee that declared “ANY organization or entity that supports Israel is not welcome at UWM,” calling out Hillel and the local Jewish Federation by name. The post went on to state that these organizations “will be treated accordingly as extremist criminals. Stay tuned.” 

At the start of this academic year, the Hunter College Hillel was targeted with a poster reading “It is right to rebel. Hillel go to hell.”

In statements on Friday, both Columbia University and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce echoed that the protests were antisemitic.

“We appreciate the many contributions the Kraft Center and Hillel make to supporting our Jewish community and building our University community. Any efforts to intimidate the Kraft Center, Hillel and our Jewish community and all forms of antisemitism are unacceptable and inimical to what we stand for as a University,” the Columbia statement said. 

Asked whether more money will be given to protect the space, a university spokesperson told JI that “Columbia provides public safety services and support to the home of the Columbia and Barnard Hillel, the Kraft Center for Jewish Life, through the University’s Department of Public Safety. We work closely with the Kraft Center’s leadership and the NYPD on enhanced security measures whenever necessary, as we did during last week’s protest.”    

“Columbia should be ashamed,” the House committee, chaired by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), wrote on X. “Last night, the pro-Hamas mob targeted @Columbia’s Hillel, one of the largest Jewish campus orgs in the country, demanding the school shut it down.Targeting spaces for Jewish students is not a form of legitimate protest, it’s vile antisemitism.”