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Crisp: Antisemitism comes to Texas

By John M. Crisp

Published: April 17, 2025, 6:01am

I’m not Jewish, but my wife is, and, thus, a recent Monday evening found us in the audience for a screening of “Blind Spot” at Southwestern University, our local, 1,500-student liberal arts institution in Georgetown, Texas.

Georgetown is home to more Jews than one might expect, and many showed up for the movie. “Blind Spot” documents the surge in antisemitism at American colleges and universities in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel. Interviews with dozens of Jewish students at Yale, Harvard, Columbia and other institutions attest to the threats and harassment to which many of them have been subjected by pro-Palestinian demonstrators. A Q&A followed.

One audience member conceded that the film preaches to the choir, and, indeed, “Blind Spot” makes no pretense of impartiality: The viewer learns that antisemitism is rampant and that the Oct. 7 attack was a savage atrocity. There’s no mention of the 50,000 Palestinians who have died in Israel’s attacks on Gaza.

Another asked if antisemitism is a problem at Southwestern U. The film’s faculty sponsor said, Yes, it’s a “serious” problem. Others said that SWU faculty members had signed on to antisemitic statements and asserted that they would not allow Zionists to sit in their classes.

Why weren’t more Jewish students in the audience for the film? Someone said that they were afraid to venture out of their dorm rooms for fear of being harassed and attacked for being Jews.

In short, our local university is a hotbed of antisemitism, just like Harvard, Yale and Columbia.

But is it really?

Have Jewish students at SWU been threatened on social media or with anonymous notes? Has antisemitic graffiti been spray-painted on campus? Have Jewish students been harassed by pro-Palestinian protesters?

Antisemitism can be subtle and insidious, but accusations of antisemitism require evidence. I spent several days last week searching for evidence at SWU and found none. On the contrary.

The problem is that the first casualty of a controversial conflict is always nuance: Accusations of antisemitism often ignore the differences among antisemitism, which is a hatred of Jews simply because they’re Jews; anti-Zionism, which argues that the imposed establishment of a country based on religion in the Middle East wasn’t the best idea to begin with; and anti-Netanyahuism, which is a word I made up to describe disapproval of Israel’s current attacks in Gaza, which are arguably immoral, illegal, ineffective and, probably, counterproductive.

Many Jews are anti-Netanyahuists. And recently I met a self-professed anti-Zionist Jew. It’s complicated.

But there’s another wrinkle: On Apr. 2, the New York Times reported on Rabbi Sharon Brous, who expresses an emerging skepticism among Jews about the Trump administration’s Taskforce to Combat Antisemitism. In a sermon entitled “I Am Not Your Pawn,” she argues that Jews should be uncomfortable whenever government suppresses free speech or arrests protesters without due process. She says, “What may feel today like a welcomed embrace is actually putting us at even greater danger.”

Rabbi Jeremy Kalmanofsky says, “My community is very, very skeptical of the administration’s antisemitism rhetoric.”

On Apr. 7, Michael Roth, Jewish president of Wesleyan University in Connecticut, expressed similar skepticism in the Times. When governments repress speech, abduct protesters without due process and create lists of suspects, he says, “Jews have been here before, many times, and it does not end well for us.”

The resurgence of antisemitism is real — “Jews will not replace us!” — and must be resisted. But it’s counterproductive to imagine antisemitism where there’s no evidence of it.

Remember: Trump’s relations with Jews are usually transactional: He wants them to vote for him. He wants us to believe that antisemitism is rampant on college campuses and that he cares about eradicating it.

Listen to Rabbi Kalmanofsky: Be skeptical. Happy Passover.

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