The Israel on Campus Coalition’s 2025 National Leadership Summit at the end of July in Washington, D.C., made Jewish student leaders feel “inspired,” “excited” and “reinvigorated.”

Marina Chernin, a rising junior at Georgetown University and summit attendee, told Washington Jewish Week, “I was incredibly inspired to see so many students who had chosen to spend a weekend of their summer really asking hard questions and talking about what it means to advocate for Israel in today’s insane geopolitical climate.”

As students prepare to return to campus, the summit aimed to provide a safe space for Jewish leaders to discuss combating antisemitism and navigating difficult discourse both in and outside the classroom.

Jewish student leaders from over 190 colleges and universities across the U.S. gathered over the weekend to listen to guest speakers such as Naftali Bennett, former prime minister of Israel, and Leo Terrell, chair of the U.S. Department of Justice task force to combat antisemitism.

Three pro-Israel Jewish students who attended the summit reflected on how antisemitism has affected their college experience.

“I’ve made a point not to put myself in an environment where it’s likely that the professor will conduct his or her class in that way [with bias],” said Chernin, reflecting on the climate at Georgetown.

Chernin described the antisemitism on Georgetown University’s campus as a “quiet dismantling of trust or of integrity of academic work.”

“At Georgetown we had, for example, the Gaza lecture series hosted by our Center for Contemporary Arab Studies in which the baseline assumption [during the lecture] is that Israel’s committing genocide,” said Chenin. “Or, we had Noura Erakat and [Erakat] actively denied The New York Times report of all the sexual assault that took place on Oct. 7, [2023].”

The experience of the students who attended the conference all ranged from subtle exclusion to microaggressions to promoting and participating in violence.

Chernin recounted an incident from the start of the previous school year in which a pro-Palestinian protest marched through campus, blocking the dining hall. An incoming freshman messaged Chernin, “genuinely scared” of what the rest of the year on campus would look like.

Chernin decided to write a letter to the administration detailing the freshman’s sentiment and had sent it to Jewish groups and students to add their signatures; however, because the document was open access, other students got ahold of the link and defaced the document, according to Chernin.

“[They replaced] a lot of stuff with the word ‘poop’ but also wrote that I should kill myself,” explained Chernin. “The more scary part was that a bunch of people who had signed, they found identifying information about them and wrote it next to their names on the letter.”

Another student who attended the ICC Leadership Summit, Stephanie Parnes, a rising sophomore at American University and daughter to two Israeli immigrants, also shared with Washington Jewish Week her experiences with antisemitism on campus, not just as a publicly pro-Israel student, but as a Jewish student, as well.

“There have been a couple of different incidents where people have heard me speaking Hebrew, or I would be speaking Hebrew on the phone with my mom, and they would kind of mock the language in my face,” said Parnes. “I was messing in a classroom with my Star of David, just messing with my necklace, and someone looked at me. I didn’t know who the student was, I never saw them again, and they called me a kike.”

Parnes mentioned an overall feeling of nervousness when engaging in outreach to those with opposing views, along with her experiences with antisemitism, and caused a feeling of isolation.

“There was this instance in my English class where there was a girl who, on her backpack, on her computer, on her water bottle, everywhere it was saying ‘from the river to the sea’ and it was all sorts of stuff about the intifada,” continued Parnes. “I remember [talking] after class one day and I asked her ‘what does intifada mean?’ and she [said], ‘raising violence’ and I kind of just took a step back. I didn’t really want to continue that conversation.”

Klara Walny, a rising junior at George Washington University, recounted similar feelings of isolation.

“Sometimes there’s just a vibe or you’ll say that you’re Jewish and the air will get cold which is upsetting and hard,” she said.

Walny’s experience with antisemitism at George Washington University differs from those of Chernin and Parnes. Walny said she hasn’t personally experienced any antisemitism toward her on campus, despite there being a “very strong anti-Israel presence.”

“I also know that there are many students that dislike who I am fundamentally as a human being because of some of the values I hold and I find that to be a really hard truth,” Walny added.

While these students have experienced isolation, all three of the summit attendees said they were able to find safe spaces on campus through their campus’ Hillels or at their Chabads. Additionally, Walny was able to help create a safer feeling on campus when she had the opportunity to travel to Israel with 20 non-Jewish students as a part of a program at George Washington University’s Hillel.

“Taking them to Israel, having them just meet all the different walks of life there and having those tough conversations about a geopolitical region,” said Walny. “I found that to be really inspiring, but also every single person walked away from that trip understanding the pro-Israel or Jewish perspective on our campus more.”

Walny added that having conversations with other non-Jewish students “creates a safer space on campus.”

Parnes echoed the value of meaningful conversations. Growing up in Texas, she was the only Jewish kid in school. At the beginning of her first year at American University, she was able to become friends with a Black man who grew up in a predominately white area because they bonded over the similarities of their differences.

“This was probably one of my best conversations I’ve had on campus because we turned our differences into something that now we can both go to each other and ask about. That’s something very, very powerful,” said Parnes.

“We got to hear from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett who spoke to us a lot about how important it is that we continue what we’re doing on campus because of how great it translates over to Israel,” Parnes said. “[The speakers] reminded us just how important it is to keep going because they were released and we need to continue doing everything we can on campus until all of the hostages are released.”

“I don’t expect anyone to be walking around campus all day every day with an Israeli flag because they’re pro-Israel or to be dressed in blue and white every day, but that’s also not something you should hide,” said Walny. “I think seeking support, finding friends in the community that will support you and accept you for who you are, is crucial for your mental health, for sanity, to ensure you have a good college experience.”

mresnicow@midatlanticmedia.com