Jewish students say they have come across 'Heil Hitler' salutes, antisemitic graffiti on Canadian university campuses

Jewish university students in Canada have spoken about experiencing antisemitic graffiti, “Heil Hitler” salutes, and dismissals of their concerns about safety on campus at a news conference at Parliament Hill, in Ottawa, on Thursday.

Kate Blumberg, an undergraduate at McMaster University, said she found herself as a representative of the Student Representative Assembly (SRA) “consistently fielding concerns” from her fellow Jewish students about “being singled out in their tutorials, about being excluded from groups, and about not knowing where to turn when campus spaces no longer felt welcoming.”

Livia Mamane, a student at Université du Québec à Montréal, said she has seen stall doors in washrooms with “Death to Zionists” and “Israel should burn” graffitied on them. “How would you feel if you had to submissively sit in classes while being surrounded by students who wanted to burn your own homeland?” she asked.

The students were joined by Jay Solomon, CEO at Jewish student organization Hillel Ontario, Liberal MP Anthony Housefather, Conservative MP Adam Chambers and Noah Shack, CEO at the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), at the conference, where they shared their firsthand experiences of antisemitism on campus and called for action to ensure the safety of Jewish students at Canadian universities.

Blumberg also described how she and a fellow Jewish student wrote a motion addressing the antisemitism students had been experiencing on campus. “When brought to the (SRA) agenda, there were more votes of abstention and decline than of willingness for the motion to be discussed,” she said. “While the eventual passing of the motion was a monumental step for the Jewish community on campus, the sheer pushback and minimization of experience in chambers was baffling.”

She added: “When our highest student governing body treats the safety and inclusion of Jewish students as an open political question rather than an enforceable right, it signals to the entire university that our safety and inclusion are negotiable.”

Last month, the Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences (CASE) report found that more than nine in 10 Jewish students have experienced or seen antisemitism on campus over the past year.

Elsewhere, the report found that 71 per cent of Jewish students had seen antisemitic graffiti on campus, more than one in five had witnessed physical violence targeting Jews, and students also reported targeted incidents like mezuzahs being torn from the doors of Jewish dorm rooms in residence halls.

Another of the report’s key insights was that Jewish students also face antisemitism from professors and other university employees, with faculty cited in 18 per cent of antisemitic incidents reported in the survey. A further 14 per cent of incidents involved either teaching assistants or non-teaching staff.

This finding was echoed in Mamane’s testimony. “I have walked through the cafeteria and seen professors I truly respected associate themselves with causes that made me question whether I was welcome in class, or even whether my grades could be jeopardized,” she said.