Jay Solomon: Targeting Jewish students because you dislike Israel is antisemitism 

The terms “Zionism” and “Zionist” are now commonly used as antisemitic slurs when referring to Jews.

Published Sep 08, 2024  •  Last updated 0 minutes ago  •  2 minute read

A sign is held by a demonstrator during a protest held outside the White House in Washington, D.C., in 2018. Photo by ALEX EDELMAN/AFP

Late August, as campus activities resumed at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), students from all walks of life and backgrounds came out to celebrate the start of a new school year at the Orientation Week Clubs and Service Fair.  

Jewish students from TMU Hillel had set up a booth designed to welcome students back and distribute giveaways to the entire community. This was a celebration — an opportunity for TMU’s Jewish students to be like every other member of the campus community and take part in frosh week activities. 

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As Jewish students gathered at the Fair, proudly proclaiming their cultural and religious pride, they were singled out and accosted by a group of angry protestors chanting hateful slogans with a megaphone and holding up signs reading “Zionism off our campus.” The terms “Zionism” and “Zionist” are now commonly used as antisemitic slurs when referring to Jews. 

Let me be clear: targeting Jewish students on campus in Canada because of your hatred for the State of Israel is antisemitism, and substituting “Zionists” for “Jews” does not make antisemitic slogans any more acceptable or less bigoted.  

Protesters could have easily chosen to picket in front of the Israeli Consulate several blocks away from TMU. But they didn’t. They chose to come to a campus program, to stake out space directly across from a Hillel gathering, to try to drown out expressions of Jewish pride and to harass and intimidate Jewish students (and those who support and socialize with them).  

This is untenable, and the TMU administration – and university administrations across the province – must take immediate steps to ensure that Jewish students do not face another year like the last one. 

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As the school year begins, our asks are simple but important. We are calling on university leaders to: 

• Issue a statement akin to that issued by the administration at UC Berkeley which clearly references recent protests, expresses that there is no tolerance for harassment, lays out the boundaries of appropriate conduct, and commits to holding violators of university policies accountable; 

• Recognize and incorporate into university policies the reality that “Zionist” is being deployed as a substitute word for “Jew” and will be treated as such, similar to NYU’s recent actions; 

• Ensure that antisemitism is included in the university’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion framework; and; 

• Clearly articulate how the university will prevent the targeting of Jewish students individually and as a group, and follow through on those plans if transgressions should occur. 

Make no mistake: when protestors target Jewish campus programs, as they did at the TMU Clubs and Services Fair last week, calling for the blacklisting of Zionists (i.e., Jews), they are occupying a position far outside the bounds of acceptable Canadian campus discourse and values.  

We must — and will — call it out for what it is: Jew hatred. 

Jay Solomon is the Chief Advancement Officer for Hillel Ontario. 

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