A report was released on 4 Oct. 2011 with findings from the 2011 National Jewish Student Survey, conducted by Institute for Jewish Policy Research (JPR) and providing a comprehensive picture of Jewish student views and concerns in the UK.
The report was written by David Graham, Jonathan Boyd and titled: Home and away: Jewish journeys towards independence. The survey was commissioned by the Union of Jewish Students in partnership with Pears Foundation.
The survey included 925 Jewish students from multiple backgrounds and studying a wide range of courses at 95 different universities across the country. The study examined a wide range of issues including what and where Jewish students are studying and the nature of their Jewish beliefs and behaviors at university, in contrast to home.
Jewish students are comfortable being openly Jewish at British universities, despite having concerns about attitudes to Israel on campus. Their commitment to Israel and the Jewish People is robust, but their appreciation of their personal social responsibility lacks muscle.
Few were concerned about anti-Israel sentiment (30%) or anti-Semitism (21%) on campus. Only 4% said they were “very worried” about anti-Semitism at university.
Despite this, more than two in five (42%) respondents reported having experienced or witnessed an anti-Semitic incident since the beginning of the academic year.
These anti-Semitic incidents were most likely to come from individual students and experienced in clubs and the student union. Few incidents were found to occur in the more formal settings in a university, the classroom or the administrative system.
There is an interesting discrepancy between the experience of anti-Semitism and concern about it. Apparently most students don’t take anti-Semitic incidents as something serious. At least they don’t see it as an actual threat to themselves. We can assume that they believe that real violence against Jews relates to others and not something to intrude on their own lives. One can only speculate on whether this is realistic or not?
The report is 67 pages long and gives a through picture of the experience of Jewish university students in Britain today.
