For the first six months after Hamas attacked Israeli civilians on Oct. 7, 2023, senior speech pathology and audiology major Sarah Scheck hid her Star of David.

“I used to wear a Jewish star, and I took it off for a while because I just didn’t really know, and I didn’t want to take any risks,” Scheck said.

Scheck was reacting to an increase in discrimination against Jews following one of the worst massacres of Jews since the Holocaust: Oct. 7, and Israel’s lethal retaliation.

On college campuses, Jewish students lost contact with long-time friends because of their ethnicity. Jewish students carefully watched their mezuzahs, scrolls attached to doorposts that encase Hebrew verses to bless the home, in case they were ripped from their doorposts like many others.

A new law in Ohio has been established to help protect students like Scheck and require universities to address discrimination like antisemitism.

In a study led by the Anti-Defamation League, 73% of respondents had experienced some form of antisemitism on college campuses since the start of the 2023-2024 school year — a stark increase from years prior. 

These incidents are what prompted the bipartisan CAMPUS Act to be pushed and signed into law in July.

The CAMPUS Act

The Ohio Capital Journal states that the CAMPUS Act requires, “public and private colleges and universities to adopt and enforce a policy regarding racial, religious and ethnic harassment and intimidation.”

Reps. Dontavius Jarrells and Justin Pizzulli proposed the bipartisan bill in response to the 700% increase in antisemitic incidents on college campuses since Oct. 7.

While many people in Ohio worry this act will put unconstitutional restrictions on college campus protests, or raise concerns about how it differs from existing legislation, some Jewish staff and faculty see this act as a step in the right direction.

Johanna Solomon, an assistant professor in the School of Peace & Conflict Studies, said, “I’m not entirely sure of what it does that is significantly more than Title VI. That’s a critique of the act in many ways.”

Along with legislation like the CAMPUS Act and responses to pro-Palestine protests around the country, concerns about free speech have emerged from students and faculty.

Universities have been put into a precarious position – they must allow free speech while also protecting their Jewish students and faculty.

However, peaceful protests for Palestine are much different than protests that bar Jewish students from accessing parts of campus because of their faith and identity. This forces them to either renounce their identity or not be able to traverse the campus they pay to be on, as seen at UCLA.

Peaceful protests do not physically assault Israeli-Americans, as they did at Harvard. But, finding the right policies and programming to minimize these antisemitic incidents, while still allowing free speech with peaceful pro-Palestine protests, is complicated.

“I was very happy that antisemitism was specifically named in there because it was like, ‘Well, yeah, somebody’s awake.,’” Jeff Rockland, associate professor in the School of Theatre and Dance and treasurer for the Jewish Faculty, Staff and Friends Association, said.

Rachel Felber, executive director of Kent State University’s Hillel chapter, said the component of funding Jewish institutions and universities to keep people safe, along with providing programming, stood out the most to her.

Felber also said that it is important to make sure Jewish communities on campus have the protections they need. She wants the same for other communities that feel vulnerable.

The CAMPUS Act does not only serve the Jewish community, despite the increase in hate crimes that propelled the act forward. It responds to racial, religious, and ethnic harassment and general discrimination. While Judaism is both a religion and ethnicity, and it encompasses all races, there are many other racial, religious and ethnic minorities in Ohio that fall under the protection of this act.

Some of these antisemitic incidents are not related to protests at all. Recently, at the University of Michigan, a 19-year-old Jewish student was physically assaulted when he affirmed he was Jewish to a group of males walking behind him.

There is a difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, but time and time again, it has been shown that it is nearly impossible not to conflate the two. There is a difference between anti-Zionism and criticizing Israel’s government and political policies, as well.

Antisemitism vs. Anti-Zionism

The Anti-Defamation League states, “Anti-Zionism is distinct from criticism of the policies or actions of the government of Israel, or critiques of specific policies of the pre-state Zionist movement, in that it attacks the foundational legitimacy of Jewish statehood.”

The Anti-Defamation League also explains the reason why anti-Zionism is antisemitism.

“Saying that Anti-Zionism is antisemitic, in intent or effect, as it invokes anti-Jewish tropes, is used to disenfranchise, demonize, disparage, or punish all Jews. and/or those who feel a connection to Israel, equates Zionism with Nazism and other genocidal regimes, and renders Jews less worthy of sovereignty and nationhood than other peoples and states.”

This equating of Zionism with Nazism has been seen recently, specifically in Raleigh, North Carolina, where a counter-protestor at a rally calling for the release of Hamas hostages held up a sign depicting a swastika.

According to a Pew Research Center study conducted in 2020, in America, “eight-in-ten Jews say caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them.” Eight in 10 American Jews care about Israel’s existence, meaning eight in 10 American Jews are Zionist.

However, this does not mean these Jews support Israel’s actions or government. They want the right to self-determination, not to be persecuted and to be equal to other people, which history has constantly proven otherwise.

“Antisemitism is the oldest of the ‘isms’ out there,” Rockland said.

Even though the statistics show most American Jews are Zionist, the statistics of the rise of antisemitic incidents affect all American Jews on college campuses, regardless of their stance on Zionism or Israel’s government.

In the same Anti-Defamation League study, it was shown that since the start of the 2023-2024 school year, the average monthly rate of antisemitic incidents witnessed by Jewish students has increased by twenty-two times., the monthly rate of observing antisemitic vandalism for Jewish students increased by roughly twenty-one times and the rate of experiencing antisemitic incidents increased 16.25 times, all from the prior academic year.

While some Ohio campuses like Case Western Reserve University and Ohio State University have caused state-wide commotion, Kent State University has been relatively quiet with antisemitic incidents.

The biggest protest, which occurred during the annual May 4 Commemoration, remained peaceful while students demanded Kent State divest from weapons manufacturers. But, the University of Michigan incident showed the nation that antisemitic attacks can happen at any time and validates Jewish students and faculty’s constant fear of safety.

“Many [average people] have been raised to be antisemitic at some point in their life or had some relative who was, so it’s hard to be us,” Rockland said.

Now, coming up on a year since the massacre, Scheck wears it proudly.

“I am who I am, and I’m not going to hide that from other people, and I’m proud of who I am.”