Leaders meet for summit to combat antisemitism on college campuses

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO) — According to the Anti-Defamation League, instances of antisemitism on college campuses have spiked by over 300% since the attacks by Hamas on Israel last October.

Monday morning, local leaders attended a summit aimed at combatting the rise of hateful rhetoric in higher education.

Hosted by the University of South Carolina and the group “Combat Antisemitism Movement,” the forum’s goal was to shine light on experiences lived by Jewish students, and how universities and faculty can help protect them.

“At the University of South Carolina, we have a history of addressing antisemitism by educating students and the public about the holocaust in a comprehensive manner that recognizes the role of the Jewish community as helpers, resistors, and upstanders, not simply victims as others present it,” says President Michael Amiridis.

Speakers also included Governor Henry McMaster, and Attorney General Alan Wilson.

“And you see the things that are being said, from the river to the sea, you know those types of chants, and most college kids couldn’t tell you what river or what sea it refers to or what it actually means,” says Wilson.

ABC Columbia’s Lee Williams spoke with the Consul General of Israel to the Southeastern United States, Anat Sultan-Dadon.

“We are seeing all around us, here in the United States we are seeing what’s going on on college and university campuses. We are seeing antisemitism become rampant. We are seeing Jewish and Israeli students and faculty attacked, bullied, harassed. This must be addressed, and so I think it’s of tremendous importance that this conference is hosted at a university and commend the University of South Carolina for hosting this important conference,” Sultan-Dadon says.

Sultan-Dadon finds antisemitism to be an age old hatred, fed by ignorance.

“I think that many of the demonstrators and many of those who are exhibiting antisemitism, if they were to learn more about what it is that they think they are standing for, I think we would see a lot of this issue resolved. And that is why the challenge of better educating all of those around us is on all of us,” says Sultan-Dadon.

An upcoming student group event at USC’s Russell House, listed as a comedy roast of Vice President Kamala Harris, continues to spark backlash — with one of the speakers being Gavin McInnes, the founder of the Proud Boys.

According to Newsweek, McInnes created a video titled “Ten things I hate about Jews” in 2017, in which he defended Holocaust deniers and perpetuated racist stereotypes.

Governor McMaster responded to the controversial event set to take place on September 18th by saying while the first amendment protects free speech, people that are insulting others should not be invited to come to the university in the first place.

“If you have a group that wants to come in and make speeches and insult people, and criticize, well criticize could be a lot of different things. I think the question is who is being invited and why are they being invited, but I’ve been to a lot of, in my time at university, speeches that I just thought were goofy and useless. And I don’t know why anybody would invite somebody to take up people’s time doing that,” he said in part.

President Amiridis agreeing, saying in a previous statement, that while the university condemns the vile and juvenile rhetoric used to promote the event, “We remain steadfast in safeguarding the first amendment rights of our students, even when we may be offended by their choices and statements.”

According to the Anti-Defamation League there were over 8,000 anti-Semitic incidents across America in 2023.