Hostility towards Jewish students has been “normalized” at Canadian colleges according to a new study.By World Israel News StaffAntisemitism has become a persistent and, at some Canadian postsecondary institutions, normalized feature of campus life, according to a federal government-commissioned study that found nearly all Jewish students surveyed had experienced or witnessed at least one antisemitic incident during the previous year.The Campus Antisemitism and Student Experiences report, released Wednesday, found that 95.7% of approximately 900 Jewish respondents reported at least one such experience, while 84% described antisemitism as a serious problem at their institution.Seventy percent said their university did not take antisemitism seriously, and 68% said their campus was not a safe and inclusive place for Jewish students. The report concluded that the problem could no longer be treated as a collection of isolated incidents, saying antisemitism was “persistent and proliferating” and had developed systemic characteristics in some campus environments.The study was commissioned by the former Office of the Special Envoy on Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism and produced by the Association for Canadian Studies and the Metropolis Institute. It was conducted between Nov. 17 and Dec. 19, 2025. Researchers received 1,038 responses and retained 900 after eligibility screening and data-quality checks.One respondent described a visibly Jewish student being chased from a campus building after other students shouted, “There’s a Jew…let’s get him.”Other accounts detailed physical intimidation, exclusion from student organizations, pressure to disclose views about Israel and hostility from classmates and faculty members.One student said the atmosphere ultimately forced them to leave school.“I dropped out. My anxiety level was too high and no one at school seemed to care.”The survey found that 72% of respondents limited what they said in class about being Jewish, while 57% avoided wearing or displaying Jewish symbols because of safety concerns.More than 41% said they avoided certain classes or campus events, and roughly one-quarter had considered leaving their university because of antisemitism.The impact extended beyond students’ participation in campus life. More than 72% said antisemitism had negatively affected their mental health, nearly 40% reported an effect on their academic performance and 32.5% had considered dropping a course or leaving a program because of conduct by professors or other students.The findings also raised concerns about conduct inside classrooms and by university employees.Eighteen percent of the incidents described by respondents involved faculty members, while another 7% involved teaching assistants and 7% involved administrators or staff.Thirty-six percent said they had encountered course material or classroom discussion portraying Jews, Judaism, Israel or Zionism in a manner they considered antisemitic or biased. Thirty-four percent said professors had introduced those subjects when they were unrelated to the course, while 36% reported feeling pressured to conform to a professor’s views about Israel.Nearly half said they had been pressured by other students to disclose their opinions about Israel, and one in five reported pressure to participate in an anti-Israel demonstration.The report also found that 54% had often or occasionally experienced or witnessed intimidation or threats directed at Jews, while 22% reported physical violence. Eighty-one percent reported frequent or occasional discriminatory treatment of Zionists, and 71% reported antisemitic vandalism on campus.Only 33% of respondents reported the particular incident they described in the survey. Among those who complained, 63% were dissatisfied with the response. More than half of those who remained silent said they did not believe reporting the incident would help, while 16% cited fear of retaliation.The Network of Engaged Canadian Academics issued a separate 10-point set of recommendations alongside the study, calling on universities and colleges to “rebuild trust with Jewish students.”The organization urged institutions to enforce existing harassment and discrimination rules when Jewish students are targeted over their religion, ethnicity or Zionism. It defined Zionism in this context as support for Jewish self-determination in the Jewish people’s ancestral homeland.The recommendations urged universities to strengthen their understanding of academic freedom while recognizing that “academic freedom must be accompanied by academic responsibility and integrity.” NECA also called on institutions to denounce academic boycotts of Israeli universities and scholars.Other proposals included revising inclusion policies to explicitly address antisemitism; requiring training for administrators, faculty, staff and students; protecting researchers working on Judaism, Israel, Zionism and antisemitism from discrimination in grant and scholarship decisions; and ensuring that curricula do not promote hateful ideologies.NECA recommended annual campus-climate assessments, a centralized and transparent system for reporting incidents and the appointment of a special adviser on antisemitism at every campus who would report directly to the president or provost.It also called on institutions to use the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition of antisemitism and the Canadian government’s accompanying handbook when evaluating possible incidents.Jewish advocacy groups said the findings confirmed complaints that universities had previously dismissed as isolated or exaggerated.“Universities should be places of learning, not where students feel pressured to hide their identity,” StandWithUs Canada Executive Director Michelle Dor said, calling the reported campus environment unacceptable.The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs, B’nai Brith Canada and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a joint statement calling on university leaders and all levels of government to study the findings and implement concrete protections.“The time to act is now,” the organizations said, arguing that antisemitism had taken root not only in public spaces but inside Canadian institutions.Jack Jedwab, president of the Association for Canadian Studies and Metropolis Institute, called for stronger action from governments and university administrators as he presented the results in Ottawa.“Ninety-five per cent of the students reported experiencing or witnessing at least one form of antisemitism,” Jedwab said.The report was released amid a broader surge in anti-Jewish hate crimes in Canada. Jewish Canadians account for approximately 1% of the population but were the targets of 68% of religiously motivated hate crimes and 18.8% of all police-reported hate crimes in 2024, according to federal figures cited by the study.The post 96% of Jewish college students in Canada have experienced antisemitism on campus appeared first on World Israel News.